Research
On-device research index

arXiv research

A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.

168,742 papers · 148 categories

Trend · papers per month

53105158210 · Jun 202019922001200920172026
48 results for safe policy

Revel tackles safe exploration in RL with verified symbolic policies.

problem Computational infeasibility of verifying neural networks in RL learning loops.
method Two policy classes: neurosymbolic with approximate gradients and symbolic policies for efficient verification. Mirror descent over policies to safely update and project policies.
result Revel discovers policies that outperform prior approaches to verified exploration.

Previous work has shown the unreliability of existing algorithms in the batch Reinforcement Learning setting, and proposed the theoretically-grounded Safe Policy Improvement with Baseline Bootstrapping (SPIBB) fix: reproduce the baseline policy in the uncertain state-action pairs, in order to control the variance on th…

2019-09-11abs ↗pdf ↗

Improves policies with high certainty, even in small samples.

problem Ensuring new policies are better than the baseline with high probability.
method Leverages powerful safety tests and multiple testing for threshold policies.
result Controls the rate of adopting a worse policy to pre-specified error level.

Safe reinforcement learning with logical constraints for optimal policy synthesis.

problem Ensuring safety during reinforcement learning while maximizing goal satisfaction.
method Adaptive safe padding that synthesizes optimal control policies satisfying temporal logic formulas.
result The proposed method handles the trade-off between exploration and safety with theoretical guarantees.

This paper addresses the question of how a previously available control policy πsπ_s can be used as a supervisor to more quickly and safely train a new learned control policy πLπ_L for a robot. A weighted average of the supervisor and learned policies is used during trials, with a heavier weight initially on the superv…

2019-01-19abs ↗pdf ↗

Algorithm safely learns from sub-optimal baseline policies while satisfying constraints.

problem Safe reinforcement learning with constraints when baseline policy is sub-optimal.
method Iterative policy optimization alternating between return maximization, baseline distance minimization, and constraint projection.
result Consistently outperforms baselines, achieving 10x fewer constraint violations and 40% higher reward.

We propose a method to optimise the parameters of a policy which will be used to safely perform a given task in a data-efficient manner. We train a Gaussian process model to capture the system dynamics, based on the PILCO framework. Our model has useful analytic properties, which allow closed form computation of error …

2017-12-15abs ↗pdf ↗

Safe-M3^3-UCRL learns safe policies for multi-agent systems with global constraints.

problem Global constraints in mean-field reinforcement learning for multi-agent systems.
method Safe-M3^3-UCRL uses epistemic uncertainty and log-barrier approach to ensure constraints satisfaction.
result Safe-M3^3-UCRL learns safe policies for multi-agent systems with global constraints.

Batch Reinforcement Learning (Batch RL) consists in training a policy using trajectories collected with another policy, called the behavioural policy. Safe policy improvement (SPI) provides guarantees with high probability that the trained policy performs better than the behavioural policy, also called baseline in this…

2019-07-11abs ↗pdf ↗

CoCoRL learns safe constraints from demonstrations with unknown rewards.

problem Learning safe constraints from demonstrations with different unknown rewards.
method Convex Constraint Learning for Reinforcement Learning (CoCoRL) constructs a convex safe set based on demonstrations.
result CoCoRL learns constraints that lead to safe driving behavior and can safely transfer to different tasks and environments.

A new algorithm trains experts to safely guide agents in partially observed environments.

problem Existing imitation learning methods for POMDPs can lead to sub-optimal or unsafe policies.
method Derive an objective to encourage the expert to maximize the agent's reward, then use it to train both expert and agent.
result The algorithm produces an expert policy that the agent can safely imitate, outperforming fixed expert policies.

An important problem in sequential decision-making under uncertainty is to use limited data to compute a safe policy, i.e., a policy that is guaranteed to perform at least as well as a given baseline strategy. In this paper, we develop and analyze a new model-based approach to compute a safe policy when we have access …

2016-07-13abs ↗pdf ↗

A novel approach for safe offline RL using latent safety constraints.

problem Balancing safety constraints and reward maximization in offline RL.
method Conditional Variational Autoencoders for latent safety modeling, Constrained Reward-Return Maximization.
result Our approach maintains safety compliance while optimizing rewards, outperforming existing methods.

Safe RL for autonomous vehicles using PCPO with trust regions and parallel learners.

problem Unexplainable behaviours and lack of safety guarantees in RL for real vehicles.
method PCPO framework with trust regions and parallel learners.
result Safe learning confirmed for autonomous vehicles with fast convergence.

Reinforcement learning is a powerful paradigm for learning optimal policies from experimental data. However, to find optimal policies, most reinforcement learning algorithms explore all possible actions, which may be harmful for real-world systems. As a consequence, learning algorithms are rarely applied on safety-crit…

2017-05-23abs ↗pdf ↗

Safe autonomous decisions made with machine learning predictions using Conformal Decision Theory.

problem Safe decisions from imperfect machine learning predictions.
method Conformal Decision Theory framework for producing safe decisions.
result Safe decisions with provable statistical guarantees of low risk.

The paper provides a non-asymptotic error bound for linear system identification under nonlinear policies.

problem System identification for linear systems with nonlinear and/or time-varying policies under i.i.d. random excitation noises.
method Least square estimation with non-asymptotic error bound for bounded state and action trajectories.
result The error bound is consistent with linear policies and generalizes existing guarantees.

Algorithm finds safe zones in policy Markov Decision Processes to limit trajectory escape.

problem Finding safe zones in policy Markov Decision Processes to limit trajectory escape.
method Bi-criteria approximation learning algorithm with polynomial sample complexity.
result Achieves almost 2 approximation for both escape probability and safe zone size.

We study continuous action reinforcement learning problems in which it is crucial that the agent interacts with the environment only through safe policies, i.e.,~policies that do not take the agent to undesirable situations. We formulate these problems as constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) and present safe p…

2019-01-28abs ↗pdf ↗

Safe imitation learning with a safety layer for flexible training.

problem Flexible yet safe imitation learning for complex tasks.
method Theory and modular method with a safety layer for continuous policy, adversarial training, and worst-case safety guarantees.
result Robustness advantage of safety layer during training compared to test time.

The paper tackles safe reinforcement learning with convex regularization.

problem Safe reinforcement learning in complex, high-dimensional settings with safety constraints.
method Doubly-regularized RL framework combining reward and parameter regularization, formulated as a convex regularized objective with parametrized policies on an infinite-dimensional statistical manifold.
result Exponential convergence guarantees under sufficient regularization, robust theoretical insights and guarantees for safe RL.

We propose a framework for ensuring safe behavior of a reinforcement learning agent when the reward function may be difficult to specify. In order to do this, we rely on the existence of demonstrations from expert policies, and we provide a theoretical framework for the agent to optimize in the space of rewards consist…

2018-05-21abs ↗pdf ↗

We study the safe reinforcement learning problem with nonlinear function approximation, where policy optimization is formulated as a constrained optimization problem with both the objective and the constraint being nonconvex functions. For such a problem, we construct a sequence of surrogate convex constrained optimiza…

2019-10-26abs ↗pdf ↗

The paper tackles safe exploration in RL by a conservative safety critic.

problem Safe exploration in reinforcement learning (RL) when partially trained policies are deployed.
method Learning a conservative safety estimate through a critic, provably bounding catastrophic failures.
result The approach provably converges to competitive task performance with significantly lower catastrophic failure rates.

SNPL learns safe policies for multi-objective interventions with high confidence.

problem Designing effective digital interventions balancing multiple objectives with noisy data.
method Leverages algorithmic stability to learn policies with high-confidence guarantees.
result Offers dramatic improvements in safety and policy gains with smaller sample sizes.

New algorithm optimizes reward while ensuring safety in complex decision-making problems.

problem Maximizing reward while adhering to safety constraints in complex decision-making problems.
method Optimistic Primal-Dual Proximal Policy Optimization (OPDOP) algorithm combining least-squares policy evaluation and a bonus term for safe exploration.
result Achieves ildeO(dH2.5T) ilde{O}(d H^{2.5}\sqrt{T}) regret and ildeO(dH2.5T) ilde{O}(d H^{2.5}\sqrt{T}) constraint violation.

Safe exploration in RF-RL doesn't increase sample complexity.

problem Achieving optimal policies with safety constraints in reward-free RL.
method Proposed SWEET framework for tabular and low-rank MDP settings, leveraging truncated value functions.
result Sample complexities match or outperform constraint-free counterparts, proving safety constraints have little impact.

In this work, we take a fresh look at some old and new algorithms for off-policy, return-based reinforcement learning. Expressing these in a common form, we derive a novel algorithm, Retrace(λλ), with three desired properties: (1) it has low variance; (2) it safely uses samples collected from any behaviour policy, wha…

2016-06-08abs ↗pdf ↗

SafeMIL learns safer policies by avoiding risky behavior from non-preferred trajectories.

problem Learning safe imitation policies from non-preferred trajectories in risky environments.
method SafeMIL uses Multiple Instance Learning to learn a cost function from non-preferred trajectories.
result SafeMIL learns a safer policy that avoids non-preferred behaviors without sacrificing reward performance.

We show that when a third party, the adversary, steps into the two-party setting (agent and operator) of safely interruptible reinforcement learning, a trade-off has to be made between the probability of following the optimal policy in the limit, and the probability of escaping a dangerous situation created by the adve…

2018-05-29abs ↗pdf ↗

A new policy learning method allows policies to abstain when uncertain, improving safety and applicability.

problem Risk of making decisions without full confidence in uncertain predictions.
method Policy learning with abstention, identifying near-optimal policies and constructing an abstention rule.
result Improved safety and applicability in policy learning, with theoretical guarantees.

ESRL uses uncertainty quantification to learn safe, optimal policies in offline RL.

problem Challenges in interpreting and measuring uncertainty of learned policies in offline RL.
method Expert-Supervised Reinforcement Learning (ESRL) framework that uses hypothesis testing and posterior distributions.
result The framework can learn safe and optimal policies with theoretical guarantees and independent sample efficiency.

Practical reinforcement learning problems are often formulated as constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) problems, in which the agent has to maximize the expected return while satisfying a set of prescribed safety constraints. In this study, we propose a novel simulator-based method to approximately solve a CMDP pr…

2019-09-20abs ↗pdf ↗

In this work we seek for an approach to integrate safety in the learning process that relies on a partly known state-space model of the system and regards the unknown dynamics as an additive bounded disturbance. We introduce a framework for safely learning a control strategy for a given system with an additive disturba…

2018-11-09abs ↗pdf ↗

This paper proposes a method to safely adjust exploration in RL to satisfy constraints.

problem Unsafe exploration in reinforcement learning violates constraints on controlled object states.
method Automatic adjustment of exploration inputs and variance-covariance matrix for safety.
result The method guarantees satisfaction of joint chance constraints with specified probability.

Proposes Constrained Q-learning for reinforcement learning with constraints.

problem Optimizing multiple objectives while adhering to constraints in reinforcement learning.
method Directly restricts the action space in Q-update to learn optimal Q-function for constrained MDP.
result Improves safety and optimality in high-level decision making for autonomous driving.