This paper merges deterministic policy gradient estimations to improve deep reinforcement learning performance.
problem The bias-variance tradeoff in estimating and using policy gradients for deep reinforcement learning.
method Introduces elite policy gradients and a two-step merging method to balance bias-variance tradeoffs.
result Two-step merging outperforms interpolation merging and state-of-the-art algorithms on benchmark control tasks.
MAP-Elites generates diverse trading strategies for improved execution performance.
problem Optimizing trading execution schedules in volatile market conditions.
method Quality-diversity algorithm (MAP-Elites) generating a portfolio of specialized strategies.
result Diverse strategies achieve 8-10% performance improvements, validating quality-diversity methods.
CMA-ME combines CMA-ES and MAP-Elites for better quality and diversity in continuous domains.
problem Finding a diverse set of high-quality solutions in complex continuous domains.
method Combines CMA-ES self-adaptation with MAP-Elites archiving and mapping.
result CMA-ME outperforms MAP-Elites in both quality and diversity of solutions.
BOP-Elites uses Bayesian Optimisation for QD search, improving efficiency and insight.
problem Finding diverse high-performing points from an objective function.
method Bayesian Optimisation and Gaussian Processes to model quality and diversity.
result Significantly more sample efficient and better at identifying niche solutions.
We prove that Pareto theory of circulation of elites results from our wealth evolution model, Kelly criterion for optimal betting and Keynes' observation of "animal spirits" that drive the economy and cause that human financial decisions are prone to excess risk-taking.
Paper proposes a new method for designing materials using deep learning.
problem Designing high-performance material distributions from given distributions.
method Iterative process of selecting, generating, and merging material distributions using a deep generative model.
result The method improves material performance through iterative refinement.
EDSVM uses elite observations to guide SVM classification.
problem Classical SVMs lack ways to encode trusted models or preferences.
method EDSVM augments SVMs by guiding slack variables for elite observations.
result EDSVM models closely track reference SVMs while achieving competitive performance.
The MAP-Elites algorithm produces a set of high-performing solutions that vary according to features defined by the user. This technique has the potential to be a powerful tool for design space exploration, but is limited by the need for numerous evaluations. The Surrogate-Assisted Illumination algorithm (SAIL), introd…
The study examines dataset usage patterns in machine learning research.
problem Lack of attention to dataset dynamics in machine learning research.
method Analysis of dataset usage patterns across machine learning subcommunities and time periods (2015-2020).
result Increasing concentration on fewer and fewer datasets, significant adoption from other tasks, and concentration across the field on datasets introduced by elite institutions.
Elite ONNs learn better with synaptic plasticity, improving performance over CNNs.
problem Limited heterogeneity in ONNs due to fixed operator sets.
method Synaptic plasticity-based search for optimal operator sets.
result Elite ONNs achieve superior learning performance compared to conventional methods.
A new method finds diverse near-optimal portfolios using quality-diversity.
problem Optimizing financial portfolios with robustness to input parameter uncertainties.
method Quality-Diversity (QD) optimization using CVT-MAP-Elites algorithm.
result Diverse set of near-optimal portfolios identified.
Off-policy stochastic actor-critic methods rely on approximating the stochastic policy gradient in order to derive an optimal policy. One may also derive the optimal policy by approximating the action-value gradient. The use of action-value gradients is desirable as policy improvement occurs along the direction of stee…
The goal of policy gradient approaches is to find a policy in a given class of policies which maximizes the expected return. Given a differentiable model of the policy, we want to apply a gradient-ascent technique to reach a local optimum. We mainly use gradient ascent, because it is theoretically well researched. The …
Design optimization techniques are often used at the beginning of the design process to explore the space of possible designs. In these domains illumination algorithms, such as MAP-Elites, are promising alternatives to classic optimization algorithms because they produce diverse, high-quality solutions in a single run,…
Faster policy learning via continuous-time gradients.
problem Efficiently estimating policy gradients for continuous-time systems.
method Approximating continuous-time gradients directly, using adaptive discretization.
result More efficient policy gradient estimator leads to faster learning.
STORM-PG uses momentum for faster policy gradient updates.
problem Improving policy gradient methods for reinforcement learning.
method Introduces STORM-PG, a SARAH-based algorithm with exponential moving average.
result Achieves O(1/ε3) sample complexity, matching best-known rate. Optimizes Thompson sampling policies using policy gradient methods.
problem Improving Thompson sampling in bandit problems.
method Applies policy gradient algorithms to optimize Thompson sampling policies.
result Direct policy search on Thompson sampling improves performance.
Paper tackles efficient policy gradient estimation from off-policy data.
problem Estimating policy gradients from off-policy data is challenging and inefficient.
method Derives asymptotic lower bounds, proposes a meta-algorithm with 3-way robustness, and establishes convergence guarantees.
result Meta-algorithm achieves the lower bound on mean-squared error without parametric assumptions.
Policy gradient methods achieve linear convergence in simple MDPs.
problem Analyzing convergence rates of policy gradient methods in finite MDPs.
method Connections with policy iteration to show linear convergence with large step-sizes.
result Policy gradient methods succeed with large step-sizes and achieve linear rate of convergence.
DBQPG improves policy gradient estimation with fewer samples.
problem Accurate policy gradient estimation with limited samples.
method Deep Bayesian Quadrature Policy Gradient (DBQPG).
result DBQPG provides more accurate and less variable gradient estimates.
New k-step policy gradient method avoids local optima in restricted policy classes.
problem Suboptimal local optima in policy gradient methods for restricted policy classes.
method Proposes a k-step policy gradient method to escape myopic local optima. result The method converges to near optimal solutions exponentially close to the optimal deterministic policy.
Due to the high variance of policy gradients, on-policy optimization algorithms are plagued with low sample efficiency. In this work, we propose Augment-Reinforce-Merge (ARM) policy gradient estimator as an unbiased low-variance alternative to previous baseline estimators on tasks with binary action space, inspired by …
Policy gradient methods are widely used for control in reinforcement learning, particularly for the continuous action setting. There have been a host of theoretically sound algorithms proposed for the on-policy setting, due to the existence of the policy gradient theorem which provides a simplified form for the gradien…
The paper interprets policy-gradient algorithms using continuation theory.
problem Optimizing nonconvex functions in reinforcement learning.
method Formulates policy optimization as optimization by continuation, interprets policy-gradient algorithms as implicitly optimizing deterministic policies.
result Exploration in policy-gradient algorithms is seen as computing a continuation of the return of the policy.
Large deviations theory applied to policy gradient methods.
problem Understanding convergence of policy gradient methods in reinforcement learning.
method Large deviation rate function and contraction principle from large deviations theory.
result Convergence properties of policy gradient methods can be extended to various policy parametrizations.
Master-slave architecture tackles combinatorial multi-armed bandits with diversity constraints.
problem Solving top-K combinatorial multi-armed bandits with non-linear feedback and diversity constraints. method Master-slave architecture with six slave models, teacher learning, and policy co-training.
result Significantly outperforms existing algorithms in synthetic and real datasets.
We propose expected policy gradients (EPG), which unify stochastic policy gradients (SPG) and deterministic policy gradients (DPG) for reinforcement learning. Inspired by expected sarsa, EPG integrates across the action when estimating the gradient, instead of relying only on the action in the sampled trajectory. We es…
Proposes CoPO, a new policy optimization method for competitive games.
problem Designing efficient optimization methods for competitive Markov decision processes.
method Competitive policy optimization (CoPO) approach that exploits game-theoretic nature of competitive games.
result Stable optimization, convergence to sophisticated strategies, and higher scores compared to baseline methods.
We propose expected policy gradients (EPG), which unify stochastic policy gradients (SPG) and deterministic policy gradients (DPG) for reinforcement learning. Inspired by expected sarsa, EPG integrates (or sums) across actions when estimating the gradient, instead of relying only on the action in the sampled trajectory…
Develops DPG methods for continuous-time RL with deterministic policies.
problem High variance and slow convergence in stochastic policy RL methods.
method Derives continuous-time policy gradient formula and proposes CT-DDPG algorithm.
result CT-DDPG achieves superior stability and faster convergence in continuous-time RL.
Recent advances in policy gradient methods and deep learning have demonstrated their applicability for complex reinforcement learning problems. However, the variance of the performance gradient estimates obtained from the simulation is often excessive, leading to poor sample efficiency. In this paper, we apply the stoc…
The policy gradient approach is a flexible and powerful reinforcement learning method particularly for problems with continuous actions such as robot control. A common challenge in this scenario is how to reduce the variance of policy gradient estimates for reliable policy updates. In this paper, we combine the followi…
DSPI connects natural policy gradient to policy iteration, proving global convergence.
problem Optimizing policies in reinforcement learning.
method DSPI framework, combining smoothed policy iteration and natural policy gradient.
result DSPI achieves geometric convergence and optimal complexity for policy optimization.
Paper proposes a policy gradient method for confounded POMDPs.
problem Estimating policy gradients for confounded POMDPs with continuous state and observation spaces.
method Developed a novel identification result to estimate policy gradients using offline data, solved conditional moment restrictions, and applied min-max learning with function approximation.
result Showed global convergence of the proposed algorithm in finding the optimal policy.
Proposes log density gradient to improve reinforcement learning sample complexity.
problem Residual error in gradient estimation in policy gradient methods.
method Log density gradient method to correct residual error, using state-action discounted distributional formulation.
result Min-max optimization method to approximate log density gradient with on-policy samples, achieving sample complexity of m−1/2. New methods estimate policy value and gradients for deterministic policies from off-policy data.
problem Estimating policy value and gradients for deterministic policies from off-policy data.
method Proposed new doubly robust estimators based on kernelization approaches.
result Demonstrated a rate independent of horizon length for policy value and gradient estimation.
Policy gradient methods with aggregated states can achieve better performance than approximate policy iteration.
problem Approximation errors in policy and value function approximations.
method State-aggregated representations and policy gradient methods.
result Policy gradient methods can achieve a per-period regret bounded by ε, while approximate policy iteration and value iteration have a higher regret.
We study the problem of off-policy policy optimization in Markov decision processes, and develop a novel off-policy policy gradient method. Prior off-policy policy gradient approaches have generally ignored the mismatch between the distribution of states visited under the behavior policy used to collect data, and what …
Softmax policy gradient achieves global optimality in wide neural networks with entropy regularization.
problem Optimizing softmax policies with neural networks in the mean-field regime.
method Modeling neural networks as Wasserstein gradient flows and proving global optimality of fixed points.
result Global optimality of softmax policy gradient in wide single hidden layer neural networks with entropy regularization.
Paper analyzes convergence of dynamic policy gradient for MDPs, improving performance in finite-time problems.
problem Optimal policies in finite-time MDPs are not stationary and require epoch-specific training.
method Introduces dynamic policy gradient combining dynamic programming and policy gradient, analyzes convergence for softmax parametrisation.
result Dynamic policy gradient training exploits finite-time structure, leading to better convergence bounds.
Policy gradient is an efficient technique for improving a policy in a reinforcement learning setting. However, vanilla online variants are on-policy only and not able to take advantage of off-policy data. In this paper we describe a new technique that combines policy gradient with off-policy Q-learning, drawing experie…
We propose a new objective, the counterfactual objective, unifying existing objectives for off-policy policy gradient algorithms in the continuing reinforcement learning (RL) setting. Compared to the commonly used excursion objective, which can be misleading about the performance of the target policy when deployed, our…
MAGE optimizes policies using action gradients from model-based learning.
problem Lack of direct gradient information from critics in actor-critic methods.
method Model-based actor-critic algorithm that learns action-value gradient.
result MAGE outperforms model-free and model-based baselines on continuous control tasks.
We address the challenge of effective exploration while maintaining good performance in policy gradient methods. As a solution, we propose diverse exploration (DE) via conjugate policies. DE learns and deploys a set of conjugate policies which can be conveniently generated as a byproduct of conjugate gradient descent. …
New GFlowNet training framework using policy gradients for combinatorial object generation.
problem Training efficiency and robustness in GFlowNet models.
method Policy-dependent rewards and coupled training strategy for forward and backward policies.
result Advanced RL perspectives for robust gradient estimation improve GFlowNet performance.
New method speeds up lifelong learning of complex tasks.
problem Catastrophic forgetting in lifelong learning.
method Directly trains lifelong function approximators via policy gradients.
result Faster convergence and better policies achieved.
Softmax policy gradient methods converge at O(1/t) rate with constants depending on problem and initialization.
problem Understanding convergence rates of softmax policy gradient methods in tabular settings.
method Analysis of softmax policy gradient and entropy regularized policy gradient methods, using Łojasiewicz inequality and lower bounds.
result Entropy regularization improves convergence rate from O(1/t) to O(e−c⋅t). The paper reinterprets policy gradient methods using operator theory.
problem Understanding and improving policy gradient methods.
method Introducing operator-based versions of policy gradient methods and deriving a new lower bound.
result A new perspective on policy gradient methods bridges the gap between policy and value-based approaches.