Soft Actor-Critic is a state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithm for continuous action settings that is not applicable to discrete action settings. Many important settings involve discrete actions, however, and so here we derive an alternative version of the Soft Actor-Critic algorithm that is applicable to dis…
New PAC-Bayesian approach stabilizes actor-critic learning.
problem Training instability in actor-critic algorithms.
method Employing PAC-Bayesian bound as the critic training objective.
result Significant improvement in online learning performance.
DSAC improves robustness of imitation learning.
problem Learning from few expert data and distribution shift.
method DSAC uses adversarial reward function.
result DSAC performs well on PyBullet environments.
We describe a novel extension of soft actor-critics for hierarchical Deep Q-Networks (HDQN) architectures using mutual information metric. The proposed extension provides a suitable framework for encouraging explorations in such hierarchical networks. A natural utilization of this framework is an adversarial setting, w…
LC-SAC tackles non-stationary dynamics in reinforcement learning.
problem Degradation of deep RL methods in non-stationary environments.
method LC-SAC uses latent context encoders and contrastive loss for dynamic information capture.
result LC-SAC outperforms SAC on environments with drastic dynamics changes.
Robust Reinforcement Learning aims to derive optimal behavior that accounts for model uncertainty in dynamical systems. However, previous studies have shown that by considering the worst case scenario, robust policies can be overly conservative. Our soft-robust framework is an attempt to overcome this issue. In this pa…
Meta-SAC automatically tunes SAC's entropy temperature for better exploration.
problem Exploration-exploitation dilemma in reinforcement learning.
method Meta-SAC uses metagradient and a novel meta objective to automatically adjust SAC's entropy temperature.
result Meta-SAC outperforms SAC-v2 by 10% on the humanoid-v2 task.
TT-DAC-PS: A deterministic actor-critic approach for optimal trade execution
problem Optimal execution of large stock sell programs
method Twin-Target Deterministic Actor-Critic with Policy Smoothing
result Reduces mean implementation shortfall percentage
Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms for continuous action spaces are known to be brittle toward hyperparameters as well as \cut{being}sample inefficient. Soft Actor Critic (SAC) proposes an off-policy deep actor critic algorithm within the maximum entropy RL framework which offers greater stability and empiric…
Band-limited SAC improves learning efficiency and stability in simulated environments.
problem Improving sample efficiency and stability in SAC algorithms.
method Artificially bandlimiting the target critic's spatial resolution using a convolutional filter.
result Bandlimited SAC outperforms classic twin-critic SAC in various Gym environments and is more stable.
We propose a new policy iteration theory as an important extension of soft policy iteration and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC), one of the most efficient model free algorithms for deep reinforcement learning. Supported by the new theory, arbitrary entropy measures that generalize Shannon entropy, such as Tsallis entropy and R…
Deep RL agent secures 2nd place in CityLearn Challenge for district demand management.
problem Optimizing electrical demand of diverse buildings in a district.
method Centralised 'Soft Actor Critic' deep reinforcement learning agent.
result Achieved an averaged score of 0.967 on challenge dataset.
ESAC combines genetic methods with RL to improve scalability and efficiency.
problem Combining genetic scalability with RL's data efficiency and optimal control.
method Combines Evolution Strategies (ES) with Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) to enable skill transfer and reduce hyperparameter sensitivity.
result Demonstrates improved performance and sample efficiency in challenging tasks.
New method combines value function decomposition and policy gradients for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning.
problem Challenges in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning, especially credit assignment and large action spaces.
method Decomposed Soft Actor-Critic (mSAC) method with Q network architecture, discrete probabilistic policy, and counterfactual advantage function.
result Significantly outperforms policy-based approach COMA and achieves competitive results with SOTA value-based approach Qmix.
MODULE solves LfO problem with high sample efficiency and stability.
problem Sample inefficiency and instability in LfO.
method Modified DSAC with MODULE algorithm.
result Superior performance in MuJoCo environments.
New RL framework improves real-time control performance.
problem Real-time RL systems assume static states, leading to suboptimal outcomes.
method Introduces a new real-time RL framework where states and actions evolve simultaneously.
result RTAC algorithm outperforms existing state-of-the-art algorithms in real-time and non-real-time settings.
Model-free deep reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have been demonstrated on a range of challenging decision making and control tasks. However, these methods typically suffer from two major challenges: very high sample complexity and brittle convergence properties, which necessitate meticulous hyperparameter tuning…
Improves RL generalization by minimizing adversarial risk.
problem Overfitting to training environments and poor generalization to unseen scenarios.
method Introduces minimax formulation and distributional framework to RL.
result Trained policy shows improved generalization to different environments.
New reinforcement learning bound improves generalization for sequential data.
problem Challenges in obtaining generalization guarantees for reinforcement learning due to sequential data.
method PAC-Bayesian reinforcement learning with consideration of Markov dependencies and mixing time.
result Demonstrated practical utility through PB-SAC, providing meaningful confidence certificates.
Many policy gradient methods are variants of Actor-Critic (AC), where a value function (critic) is learned to facilitate updating the parameterized policy (actor). The update to the actor involves a log-likelihood update weighted by the action-values, with the addition of entropy regularization for soft variants. In th…
Maximum entropy deep reinforcement learning (RL) methods have been demonstrated on a range of challenging continuous tasks. However, existing methods either suffer from severe instability when training on large off-policy data or cannot scale to tasks with very high state and action dimensionality such as 3D humanoid l…
Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) is an off-policy actor-critic deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm based on maximum entropy reinforcement learning. By combining off-policy updates with an actor-critic formulation, SAC achieves state-of-the-art performance on a range of continuous-action benchmark tasks, outperforming pr…
Recent successful deep reinforcement learning algorithms, such as Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) or Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), are fundamentally variations of conservative policy iteration (CPI). These algorithms iterate policy evaluation followed by a softened policy improvement step. As so, they are…
CSAC enables cooperative reinforcement learning for multi-stage tasks.
problem Coordinating consecutive reinforcement learning agents for long-term multi-stage tasks.
method CSAC modifies each agent's policy to maximize both current and next agent's critic.
result CSAC outperforms uncooperative policies and single-agent training in multi-room maze domain.
SLM Lab is a framework for reproducible RL research with modular algorithms.
problem Reproducibility in deep reinforcement learning.
method Modular software framework for RL algorithms, synchronous/asynchronous execution, hyperparameter search, result analysis.
result Comprehensive benchmark and novel RL algorithms (e.g., discrete-AC variant, hybrid training method).
Paper uses RL to optimize multi-asset portfolios in fluctuating markets.
problem Optimizing multi-asset portfolios in time-varying financial markets.
method Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm for policy learning, policy iteration process.
result SAC algorithm outperforms in various criteria in simulated and real financial markets.
AR-DAE approximates entropy gradient for machine learning models.
problem Intractable computation of entropy gradient for continuous distributions.
method Amortized residual denoising autoencoder (AR-DAE) to approximate entropy gradient.
result AR-DAE provides an unbiased gradient approximation for entropy.
Hybrid SAC improves RL for video games with discrete, continuous actions.
problem Improving RL performance in video games with practical constraints.
method Extension of Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) for handling discrete, continuous, and parameterized actions.
result Hybrid SAC successfully solves a high-speed driving task and is competitive on parameterized actions benchmarks.
Improved SAC with AWMP for better control tasks.
problem Discontinuous and non-smooth optimal policies in reinforcement learning.
method Advantage Weighted Mixture Policy (AWMP) for SAC, learning state-specific weights.
result SAC with AWMP outperforms SAC in four control tasks.
Paper uses SAC RL to optimize market-making strategies.
problem Optimizing market-making strategies with risk management.
method Applying SAC reinforcement learning to automate market-making decisions.
result Agent learns to optimize spreads and hedge trades.
Model-free deep reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have been successfully applied to a range of challenging sequential decision making and control tasks. However, these methods typically suffer from two major challenges: high sample complexity and brittleness to hyperparameters. Both of these challenges limit the a…
Paper uses SAC and DDPG to optimize cryptocurrency portfolios.
problem Adapting to volatile and nonlinear cryptocurrency markets.
method Reinforcement learning with SAC and DDPG algorithms.
result SAC and DDPG outperform traditional strategies in cryptocurrency markets.
Pretraining reinforcement learning methods with demonstrations has been an important concept in the study of reinforcement learning since a large amount of computing power is spent on online simulations with existing reinforcement learning algorithms. Pretraining reinforcement learning remains a significant challenge i…
Improved model-based reinforcement learning for interactive dialogue tasks reduces sample needs and improves performance.
problem Limited data and high sample cost in interactive dialogue systems.
method Model-based actor-critic approach with an environment model and planner.
result 70 times fewer samples required compared to baseline model-free algorithm, with 2x better asymptotic performance.
PI-SAC agents learn predictive information to improve RL efficiency.
problem Improving sample efficiency in reinforcement learning.
method PI-SAC agents use a contrastive version of Conditional Entropy Bottleneck to learn predictive information from past and future states.
result PI-SAC agents significantly improve sample efficiency on challenging continuous control tasks.
USAC balances pessimism and optimism in actor-critic training for better exploration and performance.
problem Excessive pessimism limits exploration, while excessive optimism leads to high-risk behaviors.
method Utility Soft Actor-Critic (USAC) dynamically adapts exploration based on critic uncertainty.
result USAC consistently outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in continuous control tasks.
Optimistic Actor-Critic improves exploration efficiency in reinforcement learning.
problem Poor sample efficiency in existing actor-critic methods.
method Introduces Optimistic Actor-Critic, approximating upper and lower bounds on state-action value function.
result Achieves state-of-the-art sample efficiency in challenging continuous control tasks.
Cumulative entropy regularization introduces a regulatory signal to the reinforcement learning (RL) problem that encourages policies with high-entropy actions, which is equivalent to enforcing small deviations from a uniform reference marginal policy. This has been shown to improve exploration and robustness, and it ta…
Paper improves AIRL by enhancing policy imitation and addressing reward recovery issues.
problem Inadequate policy imitation and limited transferable reward recovery in AIRL.
method Substituted built-in algorithm with SAC for policy updating and proposed PPO-AIRL + SAC hybrid framework.
result SAC improves policy imitation but hinders reward recovery; PPO-AIRL + SAC achieves satisfactory transfer effect.
This paper analyzes how periodic and soft target updates stabilize linear Q-learning.
problem Theoretical explanation of stabilization mechanisms for linear Q-learning.
method Exact analysis using switched linear system dynamics and the joint spectral radius.
result Periodic and soft target updates can guarantee convergence to the exact projected Q-Bellman solution under specific conditions.
New reinforcement learning algorithms improve policy optimization with entropy regularization.
problem Improving policy optimization in reinforcement learning.
method Soft policy gradient theorem (SPGT) and new policy optimization algorithms.
result New algorithms outperform prior works on various benchmark tasks.
Continuous control tasks in reinforcement learning are important because they provide an important framework for learning in high-dimensional state spaces with deceptive rewards, where the agent can easily become trapped into suboptimal solutions. One way to avoid local optima is to use a population of agents to ensure…
Paper proposes methods to use observational data for reinforcement learning, addressing confounding issues.
problem Using observational data for reinforcement learning can lead to misleading outcomes due to unobserved confounders.
method The paper introduces two deconfounding methods in deep reinforcement learning to adjust for confounders.
result The proposed deconfounding methods improve the accuracy of reinforcement learning models using observational data.
Applying probabilistic models to reinforcement learning (RL) enables the application of powerful optimisation tools such as variational inference to RL. However, existing inference frameworks and their algorithms pose significant challenges for learning optimal policies, e.g., the absence of mode capturing behaviour in…
Develops RL for optimal market-making in non-Markov processes.
problem Optimal market-making in non-Markov price processes.
method Deep reinforcement learning with Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm.
result Optimal strategy for market-making in semi-Markov and Hawkes Jump-Diffusion dynamics.
Paper introduces RCaI, a risk-sensitive control method using Rényi divergence.
problem Risk-sensitive control in reinforcement learning.
method RCaI extends CaI using Rényi divergence variational inference.
result Risk-sensitive optimal policy can be obtained by solving a soft Bellman equation.
A new update rule for deep reinforcement learning reduces learning variance and variance in reference signals.
problem Learning variance and incorrect reference signals in deep reinforcement learning.
method t-soft update method inspired by student-t distribution, which reduces extreme updates and accelerates similar updates.
result The t-soft update method outperforms conventional methods in terms of return and variance in PyBullet robotics simulations.
We establish a new connection between value and policy based reinforcement learning (RL) based on a relationship between softmax temporal value consistency and policy optimality under entropy regularization. Specifically, we show that softmax consistent action values correspond to optimal entropy regularized policy pro…