English

Deep Exploration via Bootstrapped DQN

Machine Learning 2016-07-05 v3 Artificial Intelligence Systems and Control Machine Learning

Abstract

Efficient exploration in complex environments remains a major challenge for reinforcement learning. We propose bootstrapped DQN, a simple algorithm that explores in a computationally and statistically efficient manner through use of randomized value functions. Unlike dithering strategies such as epsilon-greedy exploration, bootstrapped DQN carries out temporally-extended (or deep) exploration; this can lead to exponentially faster learning. We demonstrate these benefits in complex stochastic MDPs and in the large-scale Arcade Learning Environment. Bootstrapped DQN substantially improves learning times and performance across most Atari games.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1602.04621,
  title  = {Deep Exploration via Bootstrapped DQN},
  author = {Ian Osband and Charles Blundell and Alexander Pritzel and Benjamin Van Roy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.04621},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:50:15.632Z