AutoRL automates reward tuning for RL, improving performance on complex tasks.
problem Suboptimal policies when using direct rewards in RL.
method Evolutionary search over RL agents to find optimal rewards.
result Improves RL performance on complex tasks.
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.
Align-RUDDER improves reinforcement learning with few demonstrations by redistributing rewards.
problem Learning complex tasks with sparse and delayed rewards using few demonstrations.
method Align-RUDDER uses a profile model for reward redistribution based on multiple sequence alignment of demonstrations.
result Align-RUDDER outperforms competitors on complex tasks with few demonstrations.
New reward function improves GAIL performance in task-based environments.
problem Reward bias in adversarial imitation learning.
method Proposed a new reward function to overcome existing biases.
result New reward function outperforms existing methods in task-based environments.
Method distills reward and strategies from diverse demonstrators.
problem Reward ambiguity and heterogeneity in human demonstrations.
method Reward network distillation to infer task goal and strategies.
result Better recovery of task and strategy rewards.
Reward tweaking optimizes behavior for long-term goals by adjusting the reward function.
problem Optimizing behavior for long-term goals in reinforcement learning with unstable long planning horizons.
method Reward tweaking learns a surrogate reward function that induces optimal behavior for the original task.
result Reward tweaking guides agents towards better long-term returns while planning for short horizons.
A language for specifying complex reinforcement learning tasks.
problem Challenges in specifying and shaping reward functions for complex reinforcement learning tasks.
method Proposes a new language and algorithm for automatically generating and shaping reward functions.
result SPECTRL tool outperforms state-of-the-art baselines.
A model learns rewards from diverse demonstrations for structurally similar tasks.
problem Difficulty in learning reward functions from demonstrations in real-world applications.
method Deep latent variable model that infers rewards from heterogeneous demonstrations of related tasks.
result Model can infer rewards for new tasks from a single demonstration.
New method uses reward prediction error for efficient exploration.
problem Efficient exploration in reinforcement learning, especially in complex environments.
method Reward prediction error (RPE) as an intrinsic motivation for exploration, combined with a deep reinforcement learning method (QXplore).
result QXplore outperforms state-novelty methods in diverse tasks, especially when state novelty is not correlated with improved reward.
This paper introduces a new reward shaping method for average-reward reinforcement learning.
problem Speeding up convergence to an optimal policy in average-reward reinforcement learning tasks.
method Developed a temporal logic-based approach to automatically generate reward shaping functions.
result The optimal policy can be recovered using the proposed reward shaping framework.
This work characterizes reward function partial identifiability and its impact on policy optimization.
problem Reward function partial identifiability in complex tasks.
method Formal characterisation of partial identifiability using various reward learning data sources.
result Unified framework for comparing data sources and downstream tasks by their invariances.
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.
HyperX uses reward bonuses to enable efficient exploration in meta-learning.
problem Catastrophic failure of meta-learning with sparse rewards.
method HyperX uses novel reward bonuses to explore in approximate hyper-state space.
result HyperX meta-learns better task-exploration and adapts more successfully to new tasks.
New algorithms improve multi-task bandit performance by transferring reward samples.
problem Sequential multi-task bandit problems with adjacent similar tasks.
method Two UCB-based algorithms that transfer reward samples between tasks.
result Transfer of reward samples reduces overall regret compared to no transfer.
Reward shaping is one of the most effective methods to tackle the crucial yet challenging problem of credit assignment in Reinforcement Learning (RL). However, designing shaping functions usually requires much expert knowledge and hand-engineering, and the difficulties are further exacerbated given multiple similar tas…
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.
TRAIL improves robot imitation learning by focusing on task-relevant features.
problem Discriminator networks learn spurious associations, providing poor reward signals.
method Constrained discriminator optimization to learn task-relevant rewards.
result TRAIL outperforms GAIL and behaviour cloning in robotic manipulation tasks.
The paper fine-tunes language models using human preferences for natural language tasks.
problem Applying reinforcement learning to natural language tasks with human-defined rewards.
method Fine-tuning language models using reward learning techniques, leveraging generative pretraining.
result The approach achieves good results in natural language tasks like text continuation and summarization.
We propose RUDDER, a novel reinforcement learning approach for delayed rewards in finite Markov decision processes (MDPs). In MDPs the Q-values are equal to the expected immediate reward plus the expected future rewards. The latter are related to bias problems in temporal difference (TD) learning and to high variance p…
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.
PoDiRe learns long-term rewards in multi-task recommendations.
problem Long-term rewards in multiple recommendation tasks.
method Policy Distilled Reinforcement Learning (PoDiRe) combining deep reinforcement learning and knowledge distillation.
result PoDiRe outperforms state-of-the-art methods in real-world data.
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.
Deep learning has achieved remarkable successes in solving challenging reinforcement learning (RL) problems when dense reward function is provided. However, in sparse reward environment it still often suffers from the need to carefully shape reward function to guide policy optimization. This limits the applicability of…
Study on optimizing task allocation for agents receiving proposals sequentially.
problem Optimizing task allocation for agents receiving proposals sequentially.
method An agent receives task proposals sequentially and can either accept or reject a proposal. The study considers two scenarios: known reward function but unknown task duration distribution, and unknown reward function.
result Regret incurred by the agent in both scenarios.
Improved text generation using transferable rewards from related tasks.
problem Non-differentiable task-specific scores limit the use of policy gradient methods in text generation.
method Transferable Reward Learner that uses model-based rewards for sentence-level and phrase-level similarity.
result Improved performance on semantic evaluation measures in image captioning tasks.
New method uses simple sensor intentions to learn complex tasks.
problem Defining reward schemes for exploration in robotic systems.
method Introduce simple sensor intentions (SSIs) to define auxiliary tasks.
result Learning system can solve complex robotic tasks using only raw sensor streams.
Task-agnostic RL tackles exploration in MDPs with multiple tasks.
problem Challenges in reinforcement learning with multiple tasks or conflicting objectives.
method Task-agnostic RL framework, UCBZero algorithm.
result UCBZero finds near-optimal policies for multiple tasks efficiently.
New method learns multiple reward functions for complex tasks.
problem Learning reward functions for tasks with multiple ways of solving.
method Combines maximum entropy approach with Dirichlet process clustering.
result Method accurately learns reward functions for complex tasks.
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.
Enhances reward specification in RL with a novel language-based approach.
problem Reward specification in RL can lead to unintended, potentially harmful behaviours.
method Developed a novel class of language-based Reward Machines using RML's built-in memory.
result Can specify non-regular, non-Markovian reward functions for complex tasks.
A novel RL approach learns robotic manipulation without human demonstrations.
problem Learning robotic manipulation policies efficiently and effectively.
method Introducing simulated locomotion demonstration rewards (SLDRs) to enable RL learning.
result The approach achieves higher success rates and faster learning compared to alternatives.
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.
New method learns time-invariant rewards from demonstrations.
problem Learning robust rewards for tasks with varying execution times.
method Model-based inverse reinforcement learning with time-invariant costs.
result Approach enables learning from misaligned demonstrations and generalizes spatially.
Current reinforcement learning (RL) methods can successfully learn single tasks but often generalize poorly to modest perturbations in task domain or training procedure. In this work, we present a decoupled learning strategy for RL that creates a shared representation space where knowledge can be robustly transferred. …
AutoDIME automates design of multi-agent environments for RL.
problem Designing multi-agent environments for reinforcement learning is challenging.
method Developed intrinsic teacher rewards for multi-agent settings and evaluated them in various tasks.
result Value disagreement was found to be most consistent and effective across tasks.
WDAIL uses Wasserstein distance for more effective reward shaping in IL.
problem Fixed reward functions in GAIL limit performance on complex tasks.
method Introduces Wasserstein distance and PPO for improved reward shaping and stability.
result Significant performance improvement in complex MuJoCo tasks.
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.
Recent reinforcement learning (RL) approaches have shown strong performance in complex domains such as Atari games, but are often highly sample inefficient. A common approach to reduce interaction time with the environment is to use reward shaping, which involves carefully designing reward functions that provide the ag…
OP-GFNs sample candidates in order-preserving proportion to a learned reward function.
problem Sampling diverse candidates with varying rewards in multi-objective optimization.
method Order-Preserving GFlowNets (OP-GFNs) use a learned reward function consistent with a provided order on candidates.
result Training OP-GFNs sparsifies the reward landscape, focusing on higher-ranked candidates.
Improves imitation learning in RL by learning reward function efficiently.
problem Lack of effective reward function approximation in AIRL for imitation tasks.
method Proposes Off-Policy AIRL that combines adversarial learning with efficient reward function approximation.
result Shows superior imitation performance and efficiency compared to state-of-the-art AIL algorithms.
A significant challenge for the practical application of reinforcement learning in the real world is the need to specify an oracle reward function that correctly defines a task. Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) seeks to avoid this challenge by instead inferring a reward function from expert behavior. While appealin…
Modeling decision-making dynamics in MDD patients using RL-HMM.
problem Characterize reward learning strategies in MDD patients.
method Proposed RL-HMM framework to analyze reward-based decision-making.
result MDD patients show reduced engagement in RL compared to healthy controls.
MaMiC proposes a dual curriculum for robot manipulation tasks with sparse rewards.
problem Overcoming exploratory constraints in robot manipulation tasks with sparse rewards.
method Includes a macro curriculum scheme and a micro curriculum scheme to guide learning.
result Combining macro and micro curriculum strategies improves performance in robot manipulation tasks.
In many sequential decision making tasks, it is challenging to design reward functions that help an RL agent efficiently learn behavior that is considered good by the agent designer. A number of different formulations of the reward-design problem, or close variants thereof, have been proposed in the literature. In this…
Rewriting history improves RL algorithms for solving multiple tasks.
problem Improving sample efficiency in multi-task reinforcement learning.
method Introducing hindsight relabeling as inverse RL to generalize goal-relabeling techniques.
result Relabeling data using inverse RL accelerates learning in multi-task settings.
Novelty search in low-dimensional space improves sample efficiency in exploration tasks.
problem Efficient exploration in complex environments with sparse rewards.
method Combines model-based and model-free objectives to learn a low-dimensional representation. Uses intrinsic novelty rewards based on nearest neighbor distances in this space.
result Our approach achieves more sample-efficient exploration compared to strong baselines on various tasks.
Paper proposes operator deep Q-learning for quick reward adaptation.
problem Standard RL can only handle one reward function and struggles with unseen rewards.
method Develops operator neural networks to map reward functions to value functions.
result Operator deep Q-learning can quickly adapt to new reward functions.