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Value functions are a central component of deep reinforcement learning (RL). These functions, parameterized by neural networks, are trained using a mean squared error regression objective to match bootstrapped target values. However,…

We consider off-policy policy evaluation with function approximation (FA) in average-reward MDPs, where the goal is to estimate both the reward rate and the differential value function. For this problem, bootstrapping is necessary and,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-19 Shangtong Zhang , Yi Wan , Richard S. Sutton , Shimon Whiteson

Recently, reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) has been widely used for enhancing the reasoning abilities of large language models (LLMs). A core challenge in RLVR involves managing the exchange between entropy and…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-08-05 Jia Deng , Jie Chen , Zhipeng Chen , Wayne Xin Zhao , Ji-Rong Wen

The Value Iteration (VI) algorithm is an iterative procedure to compute the value function of a Markov decision process, and is the basis of many reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms as well. As the error convergence rate of VI as a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-12 Jongmin Lee , Amin Rakhsha , Ernest K. Ryu , Amir-massoud Farahmand

With the increasing presence of robots in our every-day environments, improving their social skills is of utmost importance. Nonetheless, social robotics still faces many challenges. One bottleneck is that robotic behaviors need to be often…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-08-08 Anand Ballou , Xavier Alameda-Pineda , Chris Reinke

In this work, we present Transitive Reinforcement Learning (TRL), a new value learning algorithm based on a divide-and-conquer paradigm. TRL is designed for offline goal-conditioned reinforcement learning (GCRL) problems, where the aim is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-24 Seohong Park , Aditya Oberai , Pranav Atreya , Sergey Levine

We consider the problem of imitation learning from a finite set of expert trajectories, without access to reinforcement signals. The classical approach of extracting the expert's reward function via inverse reinforcement learning, followed…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-06-10 Ruohan Wang , Carlo Ciliberto , Pierluigi Amadori , Yiannis Demiris

Recent advancements in deep reinforcement learning (RL) have demonstrated notable progress in sample efficiency, spanning both model-based and model-free paradigms. Despite the identification and mitigation of specific bottlenecks in prior…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-02 Yibo Wang , Jiang Zhao

Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) provides a way to learn a transition model of the environment, which can then be used to plan personalized policies for different patient cohorts and to understand the dynamics involved in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-22 Abhishek Sharma , Sonali Parbhoo , Omer Gottesman , Finale Doshi-Velez

In recommender systems, reinforcement learning solutions have shown promising results in optimizing the interaction sequence between users and the system over the long-term performance. For practical reasons, the policy's actions are…

Information Retrieval · Computer Science 2024-06-19 Xiaobei Wang , Shuchang Liu , Xueliang Wang , Qingpeng Cai , Lantao Hu , Han Li , Peng Jiang , Kun Gai , Guangming Xie

Many real-world reinforcement learning (RL) problems necessitate learning complex, temporally extended behavior that may only receive reward signal when the behavior is completed. If the reward-worthy behavior is known, it can be specified…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-10 Phillip J. K. Christoffersen , Andrew C. Li , Rodrigo Toro Icarte , Sheila A. McIlraith

Value decomposition has long been a fundamental technique in multi-agent dynamic programming and reinforcement learning (RL). Specifically, the value function of a global state $(s_1,s_2,\ldots,s_N)$ is often approximated as the sum of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-14 Shuze Chen , Tianyi Peng

We study reinforcement learning (RL) problems in which agents observe the reward or transition realizations at their current state before deciding which action to take. Such observations are available in many applications, including…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-22 Nadav Merlis

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) learns effective policies from pre-collected datasets, offering a practical solution for applications where online interactions are risky or costly. Model-based approaches are particularly advantageous…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-14 Xuyang Chen , Keyu Yan , Guojian Wang , Lin Zhao

Reliable value estimation serves as the cornerstone of reinforcement learning (RL) by evaluating long-term returns and guiding policy improvement, significantly influencing the convergence speed and final performance. Existing works improve…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Shan Zhong , Shutong Ding , He Diao , Xiangyu Wang , Kah Chan Teh , Bei Peng

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) is a variant of RL where the policy is learned from a previously collected dataset of trajectories and rewards. In our work, we propose a practical approach to offline RL with large language models…

General value functions (GVFs) in the reinforcement learning (RL) literature are long-term predictive summaries of the outcomes of agents following specific policies in the environment. Affordances as perceived action possibilities with…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-05-11 Daniel Graves , Johannes Günther , Jun Luo

Solving complex, long-horizon robotic manipulation tasks requires a deep understanding of physical interactions, reasoning about their long-term consequences, and precise high-level planning. Vision-Language Models (VLMs) offer a general…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-02-24 Yanting Yang , Shenyuan Gao , Qingwen Bu , Li Chen , Dimitris N. Metaxas

Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) aims to explicitly infer an underlying reward function based on collected expert demonstrations. Considering that obtaining expert demonstrations can be costly, the focus of current IRL techniques is on…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-16 Lu Li , Yuxin Pan , Ruobing Chen , Jie Liu , Zilin Wang , Yu Liu , Zhiheng Li

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a general framework concerned with an agent that seeks to maximize rewards in an environment. The learning typically happens through trial and error using explorative methods, such as epsilon-greedy. There are…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-06 Per-Arne Andersen , Morten Goodwin , Ole-Christoffer Granmo