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We present a map-less path planning algorithm based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for mobile robots navigating in unknown environment that only relies on 40-dimensional raw laser data and odometry information. The planner is trained…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-02-12 Nicolò Botteghi , Beril Sirmacek , Khaled A. A. Mustafa , Mannes Poel , Stefano Stramigioli

Training agents using Reinforcement Learning in games with sparse rewards is a challenging problem, since large amounts of exploration are required to retrieve even the first reward. To tackle this problem, a common approach is to use…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-09 Shengyi Huang , Santiago Ontañón

In (\cite{zhang2014nonlinear,zhang2014nonlinear2}), we have viewed machine learning as a coding and dimensionality reduction problem, and further proposed a simple unsupervised dimensionality reduction method, entitled deep distributed…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-01-29 Xiao-Lei Zhang

Large Language Models (LLMs) empowered with Tool-Integrated Reasoning (TIR) can iteratively plan, call external tools, and integrate returned information to solve complex, long-horizon reasoning tasks. Agentic Reinforcement Learning…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-01-21 Jianghao Su , Xia Zeng , Luhui Liu , Chao Luo , Ye Chen , Zhuoran Zhuang

The main challenge in developing effective reinforcement learning (RL) pipelines is often the design and tuning the reward functions. Well-designed shaping reward can lead to significantly faster learning. Naively formulated rewards,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-07-20 Se Hwan Jeon , Steve Heim , Charles Khazoom , Sangbae Kim

Sparse-reward domains are challenging for reinforcement learning algorithms since significant exploration is needed before encountering reward for the first time. Hierarchical reinforcement learning can facilitate exploration by reducing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-13 Lorenzo Steccanella , Simone Totaro , Damien Allonsius , Anders Jonsson

We propose a Reinforcement Learning framework for sparse indirect control of large-scale multi-agent systems, where few controlled agents shape the collective behavior of many uncontrolled agents. The approach addresses this multi-scale…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-27 Luigi Catello , Italo Napolitano , Davide Salzano , Mario di Bernardo

We consider a distributed learning setup where a sparse signal is estimated over a network. Our main interest is to save communication resource for information exchange over the network and reduce processing time. Each node of the network…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-04-03 Ahmed Zaki , Saikat Chatterjee , Partha P. Mitra , Lars K. Rasmussen

Reinforcement learning has been successful in training autonomous agents to accomplish goals in complex environments. Although this has been adapted to multiple settings, including robotics and computer games, human players often find it…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-01-22 Baicen Xiao , Qifan Lu , Bhaskar Ramasubramanian , Andrew Clark , Linda Bushnell , Radha Poovendran

To convey desired behavior to a Reinforcement Learning (RL) agent, a designer must choose a reward function for the environment, arguably the most important knob designers have in interacting with RL agents. Although many reward functions…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-01 Henry Sowerby , Zhiyuan Zhou , Michael L. Littman

In reinforcement learning, agents collect state information and rewards through environmental interactions, essential for policy refinement. This process is notably time-consuming, especially in complex robotic simulations and real-world…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-10-18 Ke Duan , Kai Yang , Houde Liu , Xueqian Wang

Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) have shown remarkable capabilities in solving complex problems through reinforcement learning (RL), particularly by generating long reasoning traces. However, these extended outputs often exhibit substantial…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-05-22 Wei Liu , Ruochen Zhou , Yiyun Deng , Yuzhen Huang , Junteng Liu , Yuntian Deng , Yizhe Zhang , Junxian He

Synchronizing expectations and knowledge about the state of the world is an essential capability for effective collaboration. For robots to effectively collaborate with humans and other autonomous agents, it is critical that they be able to…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-01-07 Aaquib Tabrez , Ryan Leonard , Bradley Hayes

Offline policy improvement faces an inherent conflict between maximizing value and fitting the data distribution. While in-sample weighted regression is stable, it suffers from over-conservatism that suppresses high-value actions in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-28 Jiaxin Zhao , Weihang Pan , Xun Liang , Binbin Lin

One of the fundamental challenges in reinforcement learning (RL) is the one of data efficiency: modern algorithms require a very large number of training samples, especially compared to humans, for solving environments with high-dimensional…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-05-10 Hlynur Davíð Hlynsson , Laurenz Wiskott

Teaching agents to follow complex written instructions has been an important yet elusive goal. One technique for enhancing learning efficiency is language reward shaping (LRS). Within a reinforcement learning (RL) framework, LRS involves…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-08-21 Sukai Huang , Nir Lipovetzky , Trevor Cohn

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is known to be often unsuccessful in environments with sparse extrinsic rewards. A possible countermeasure is to endow RL agents with an intrinsic reward function, or 'intrinsic motivation', which rewards the…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-07-16 Francesco Massari , Martin Biehl , Lisa Meeden , Ryota Kanai

We consider the problem of learning from sparse and underspecified rewards, where an agent receives a complex input, such as a natural language instruction, and needs to generate a complex response, such as an action sequence, while only…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-23 Rishabh Agarwal , Chen Liang , Dale Schuurmans , Mohammad Norouzi

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a well-established framework for sequential decision-making in complex environments. However, state-of-the-art Deep RL (DRL) algorithms typically require large training datasets and often struggle to…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-04-13 Celeste Veronese , Alessandro Farinelli , Daniele Meli

Reward shaping has been applied widely to accelerate Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents' training. However, a principled way of designing effective reward shaping functions, especially for complex continuous control problems, remains…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-12 Mateo Juliani , Mingxuan Li , Elias Bareinboim