Capsule Networks improve autonomous navigation in sparse environments.
problem Challenges in reinforcement learning for sparse reward environments.
method Caps-EM pairs CapsNets with Advantage Actor Critic, using fewer parameters.
result Caps-EM achieves significant time improvements and fewer parameters compared to competing methods.
Proposes a method to boost deep reinforcement learning with sparse rewards.
problem Challenges in learning complex behaviors with long horizons and sparse rewards.
method Predictive coding for reward shaping.
result Achieves better learning by providing reward signals that understand environment dynamics and emphasize useful features.
Paper tackles imitation learning with sparse rewards and heterogeneous actions.
problem Challenges of imitation learning with sparse rewards and different actions.
method Proposes a method that balances imitation and reinforcement learning objectives.
result Agent efficiently leverages sparse rewards and learns from different actions.
GENE tackles sparse reward in RL by generating states to explore and exploit.
problem Sparse reward in reinforcement learning.
method Generative Exploration and Exploitation (GENE) method.
result GENE significantly outperforms existing methods in tasks with binary rewards.
Project explores reinforcement learning solutions for sparse reward environments.
problem Difficulty in navigating environments with infrequent rewards.
method Contrast and investigate existing reinforcement learning solutions in various video games.
result Introduces a novel reinforcement learning solution combining curiosity and auxiliary tasks.
PlanGAN uses GANs to plan efficient trajectories for multi-goal tasks in sparse reward environments.
problem Learning with sparse rewards in multi-goal environments.
method PlanGAN combines GANs to generate trajectories leading to specified goals, then combines these into a planning algorithm.
result PlanGAN achieves comparable performance to model-free RL but is 4-8 times more sample efficient.
Learning in sparse reward settings remains a challenge in Reinforcement Learning, which is often addressed by using intrinsic rewards. One promising strategy is inspired by human curiosity, requiring the agent to learn to predict the future. In this paper a curiosity-driven agent is extended to use these predictions di…
MADE improves exploration in RL by maximizing deviation from explored regions.
problem Efficient exploration in high-dimensional RL tasks with sparse rewards.
method Proposes a new exploration approach via maximizing the deviation of the occupancy of the next policy from explored regions, adding it as an adaptive regularizer to the RL objective.
result Significantly improves sample efficiency in navigation and locomotion tasks.
Faster algorithms for solving multichain MDPs under average-reward criterion.
problem Navigating towards the best connected component in multichain MDPs.
method Developed algorithms to better solve the navigational subproblem, achieving faster convergence rates.
result Improved rates of convergence and sharper complexity measures for multichain MDPs.
Building agents that can explore their environments intelligently is a challenging open problem. In this paper, we make a step towards understanding how a hierarchical design of the agent's policy can affect its exploration capabilities. First, we design EscapeRoom environments, where the agent must figure out how to n…
This research introduces an autonomous robot navigation method using reinforcement learning.
problem Improving robot navigation in complex environments.
method Deep Q Network (DQN) and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) models for path planning and decision-making.
result The models enhance robot navigation ability and adaptive learning in unknown environments.
We present a method for Temporal Difference (TD) learning that addresses several challenges faced by robots learning to navigate in a marine environment. For improved data efficiency, our method reduces TD updates to Gaussian Process regression. To make predictions amenable to online settings, we introduce a sparse app…
Rewards are sparse in the real world and most of today's reinforcement learning algorithms struggle with such sparsity. One solution to this problem is to allow the agent to create rewards for itself - thus making rewards dense and more suitable for learning. In particular, inspired by curious behaviour in animals, obs…
SAVED safely learns robot tasks with sparse rewards.
problem Challenges in reinforcement learning for robotics, especially sparse rewards and complex constraints.
method SAVED uses supervision to constrain exploration and learn efficiently, handling complex constraints.
result SAVED outperforms state-of-the-art methods in success rate, constraint satisfaction, and sample efficiency.
Mobile robot navigation in complex and dynamic environments is a challenging but important problem. Reinforcement learning approaches fail to solve these tasks efficiently due to reward sparsities, temporal complexities and high-dimensionality of sensorimotor spaces which are inherent in such problems. We present a nov…
New algorithm learns optimal policies without explicit rewards.
problem Learning optimal policies without explicit rewards.
method Developed a computationally tractable algorithm for reward-free navigation using linear value iteration.
result PAC guarantees on learning near optimal value functions and policies.
New RL method uses distance between states instead of rewards for sparse reward environments.
problem Sparse rewards or non-reward environments in reinforcement learning.
method Uses goal-distance gradient and bridge point planning for policy improvement.
result Significantly better performance on sparse reward and local optimal problems in complex environments.
Develops HMRL for sparse reward RL problems, improving meta policy efficiency and transferability.
problem Difficulty in learning meta policies for sparse reward RL problems.
method Hyper-Meta RL framework with cross-environment meta state embedding and shaped meta reward.
result Improves meta policy generalization and efficiency for sparse reward RL problems.
Action guidance helps agents learn true objectives in games with sparse rewards.
problem Training agents in games with sparse rewards requires significant exploration.
method Action guidance, a novel technique that combines exploration with reward shaping.
result Action guidance enables agents to optimize true objectives efficiently.
New method combines curiosity and hindsight for stacking blocks.
problem Sparse rewards in reinforcement learning.
method Curiosity-driven exploration combined with hindsight and curriculum learning.
result First to stack more than two blocks using only sparse reward.
OtoWorld helps agents learn to navigate by listening in interactive environments.
problem Training agents to navigate using auditory information.
method Interactive environment with agents learning to listen and navigate.
result Agents can win at OtoWorld, a navigation game with sound sources.
Recent developments in deep reinforcement learning have enabled the creation of agents for solving a large variety of games given a visual input. These methods have been proven successful for 2D games, like the Atari games, or for simple tasks, like navigating in mazes. It is still an open question, how to address more…
The paper tackles reward-relevance in offline RL with sparse decision dynamics.
problem Offline reinforcement learning with sparse decision dynamics and estimation sparsity.
method Reward-filtered least-squares policy evaluation using thresholded lasso.
result The method provides theoretical guarantees with sample complexity dependent on sparse component size.
Transforming sparse outcomes into dense process rewards for efficient reinforcement learning.
problem Training RL policies to maximize sparse outcomes.
method Incentivizing policy matching state-action visitations of successful episodes.
result Significantly faster RL finetuning performance.
New approach uses unlabeled prior data to accelerate exploration in sparse reward tasks.
problem Sparse reward tasks in reinforcement learning.
method Learn reward model from online experience, label prior data, and use concurrently.
result Rapid exploration in challenging sparse-reward domains.
New meta-RL method avoids exploration-exploitation trade-off.
problem Learning to explore and exploit simultaneously in meta-RL.
method Developed new objectives for exploration and exploitation.
result DREAM outperforms existing methods on complex tasks.
Paper proposes RRD to learn proxy rewards for sparse delayed rewards in episodic reinforcement learning.
problem Learning from sparse and delayed rewards in reinforcement learning.
method Randomized Return Decomposition (RRD) algorithm to redistribute rewards.
result Substantial improvement over baseline algorithms in experiments.
SGM combines deep learning and planning for robust long-horizon tasks.
problem Combining deep learning and planning for robust long-horizon tasks.
method Sparse Graphical Memory (SGM) that stores states and feasible transitions in a sparse memory, aggregating states according to a two-way consistency objective.
result SGM significantly outperforms current state of the art methods on long horizon, sparse-reward visual navigation tasks.
VASE uses Bayesian neural networks to improve exploration in sparse reward environments.
problem Exploration in environments with continuous control and sparse rewards.
method VASE uses a Bayesian neural network model of the environment dynamics and variational inference to alternately update the model's accuracy and policy.
result VASE outperforms other surprise-based exploration techniques in continuous control sparse reward environments.
Self-supervised reward prediction improves RL in sparse reward settings.
problem Data efficiency and sparse reward signals in reinforcement learning.
method Learning a state representation for reward prediction and using it to shape rewards.
result Self-supervised reward prediction enhances RL algorithms in single-goal environments.
HTRPO tackles sparse rewards in RL with improved stability and performance.
problem Sparse rewards in reinforcement learning.
method HTRPO extends TRPO with hindsight and QKL for better policy update stability.
result HTRPO consistently outperforms TRPO and HPG in various sparse reward tasks.
A new approach for deep exploration in sparse reward reinforcement learning.
problem Slow or no learning in reinforcement learning with rare rewards.
method Long-term visitation count planning and decoupling exploration and exploitation.
result Significantly outperforms existing methods in sparse reward environments.
Curiosity enhanced by audio-visual associations improves learning efficiency.
problem Challenges in reinforcement learning, especially predicting the future.
method Exploits multiple modalities (audio and vision) to predict novel associations.
result Improves exploration and learning efficiency in various environments.
ETGL-DDPG improves DDPG for sparse reward control with new exploration and replay techniques.
problem Sparse reward continuous control in reinforcement learning.
method Introduces εt-greedy search and GDRB framework for efficient exploration and reward use. result ETGL-DDPG outperforms DDPG and other methods on sparse-reward continuous benchmarks.
Sparse rewards with different magnitudes speed up learning in model-based reinforcement learning.
problem Speeding up learning in model-based reinforcement learning methods.
method Add uniformly sampled reward values to sparse binary rewards during training.
result Training can be more efficient and faster with less variability.
Reverse Experience Replay improves Deep Q-learning for sparse rewards.
problem Sparse rewards and reward-maximizing tasks in Deep Q-learning.
method Sampling transitions in reverse order for training.
result Significantly increased performance in tasks with limited experience and memory capacity.
DQN with model-based exploration improves learning in sparse reward environments.
problem Poor sample efficiency in sparse reward environments.
method Combines model-free and model-based approaches for better exploration.
result Improves performance in environments with sparse rewards.
The paper introduces a method for multi-agent reinforcement learning to coordinate exploration.
problem Sparse rewards in multi-agent settings lead to independent exploration.
method Designing intrinsic rewards that encourage coordination and developing a hierarchical policy.
result The approach accelerates and improves exploration in cooperative multi-agent settings.
MERL uses evolutionary and gradient-based methods to optimize sparse team-based and dense agent-specific rewards in multiagent coordination.
problem Training multiagent reinforcement learning policies on sparse team-based rewards is difficult and relying solely on agent-specific rewards is sub-optimal.
method MERL employs a split-level training platform with an evolutionary algorithm and a gradient-based optimizer, transferring skills between the two processes.
result MERL significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on coordination benchmarks.
A new EM framework for goal-conditioned RL improves performance on sparse reward tasks.
problem Handling sparse rewards in goal-conditioned reinforcement learning.
method A graphical model framework with an EM algorithm that includes a learning-in-hindsight E-step and a supervised M-step.
result hEM significantly outperforms model-free baselines on goal-conditioned benchmarks with sparse rewards.
We present NAVREN-RL, an approach to NAVigate an unmanned aerial vehicle in an indoor Real ENvironment via end-to-end reinforcement learning RL. A suitable reward function is designed keeping in mind the cost and weight constraints for micro drone with minimum number of sensing modalities. Collection of small number of…
Paper improves reinforcement learning in multi-scene tasks.
problem Reducing sample variance in multi-scene reinforcement learning.
method Sparse dynamic value estimation using Gaussian mixture models.
result Significant improvements in reward scores and navigation efficiency.
PixL2R maps natural language to pixel-based rewards for RL, improving sample efficiency.
problem Sparse reward settings in RL limit applicability to complex problems.
method Directly maps natural language descriptions to pixel-based rewards for guiding RL.
result Language-based rewards significantly improve sample efficiency in policy learning.
A new reward shaping method balances learning efficiency and effectiveness for robot manipulation.
problem Efficient and effective learning in robot manipulations with system uncertainty.
method Dense2Sparse reward shaping method combining dense and sparse rewards.
result Dense2Sparse method achieves higher expected reward and better system uncertainty tolerance.
Algorithm finds novel policies for tasks using novelty reward.
problem Finding distinct policies for a given task.
method Creates a second reward function for novelty, updates policies to balance task and novelty rewards.
result Collection of distinct policies for a task.
SAIL learns from sub-optimal demonstrations to improve sample efficiency in sparse reward tasks.
problem Reducing sample complexity in sparse-rewarded tasks.
method Self-Adaptive Imitation Learning (SAIL) that exploits sub-optimal demonstrations and efficient exploration.
result Significantly improved sample efficiency and better final performance across various tasks.
Eikonal-Constrained QRL improves goal-reaching in reinforcement learning.
problem Reward design and out-of-distribution generalization in reinforcement learning.
method Eikonal-Constrained Quasimetric Reinforcement Learning (Eik-QRL) using the Eikonal PDE.
result Eik-QRL achieves state-of-the-art performance in offline goal-conditioned navigation and manipulation tasks.
New RL agent learns sparse rewards efficiently.
problem Sparse-reward environments and computational expense.
method Active inference with novel free energy minimization.
result High sample efficiency and online operation.