Related papers: Controlling an Inverted Pendulum with Policy Gradi…
One less addressed issue of deep reinforcement learning is the lack of generalization capability based on new state and new target, for complex tasks, it is necessary to give the correct strategy and evaluate all possible actions for…
Policy optimization (PO), an essential approach of reinforcement learning for a broad range of system classes, requires significantly more system data than indirect (identification-followed-by-control) methods or behavioral-based direct…
Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) has been proposed as a promising alternative to Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) based Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF). However, empirical evaluations consistently reveal suboptimal…
We study the roots of algorithmic progress in deep policy gradient algorithms through a case study on two popular algorithms: Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) and Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO). Specifically, we investigate the…
Policy gradient methods have become a standard for training reinforcement learning agents in a scalable and efficient manner. However, they do not account for transition uncertainty, whereas learning robust policies can be computationally…
We cast policy gradient methods as the repeated application of two operators: a policy improvement operator $\mathcal{I}$, which maps any policy $\pi$ to a better one $\mathcal{I}\pi$, and a projection operator $\mathcal{P}$, which finds…
We present a Pontryagin-Guided Direct Policy Optimization (PG-DPO) framework for Merton's portfolio problem, unifying modern neural-network-based policy parameterization with the adjoint viewpoint from Pontryagin's maximum principle (PMP).…
This paper presents a comparison between two well-known deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms: Deep Q-Learning (DQN) and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) in a simulated production system. We utilize a Petri Net (PN)-based simulation…
In many scientific and engineering problems, noise and nonlinearity are unavoidable, which could induce interesting mathematical problem such as transition phenomena. This paper focuses on efficiently discovering the most probable…
Direct optimization is an appealing framework that replaces integration with optimization of a random objective for approximating gradients in models with discrete random variables. A$^\star$ sampling is a framework for optimizing such…
Control of batch processes is a difficult task due to their complex nonlinear dynamics and unsteady-state operating conditions within batch and batch-to-batch. It is expected that some of these challenges can be addressed by developing…
Many currently deployed Reinforcement Learning agents work in an environment shared with humans, be them co-workers, users or clients. It is desirable that these agents adjust to people's preferences, learn faster thanks to their help, and…
Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is among the most widely used deep reinforcement learning algorithms, yet its theoretical foundations remain incomplete. Most importantly, convergence and understanding of fundamental PPO advantages remain…
Continuous control of non-stationary environments is a major challenge for deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The time-dependency of the state transition dynamics aggravates the notorious stability problems of model-free deep…
Current model-based reinforcement learning approaches use the model simply as a learned black-box simulator to augment the data for policy optimization or value function learning. In this paper, we show how to make more effective use of the…
Policy gradient methods are powerful reinforcement learning algorithms and have been demonstrated to solve many complex tasks. However, these methods are also data-inefficient, afflicted with high variance gradient estimates, and frequently…
We propose policy gradient algorithms for robust infinite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDPs) with non-rectangular uncertainty sets, thereby addressing an open challenge in the robust MDP literature. Indeed, uncertainty sets that…
Since the objective functions of reinforcement learning problems are typically highly nonconvex, it is desirable that policy gradient, the most popular algorithm, escapes saddle points and arrives at second-order stationary points. Existing…
Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms have been demonstrated to be effective in a wide range of challenging decision making and control tasks. However, these methods typically suffer from severe action oscillations in particular in…
This paper describes an approach for attractor selection (or multi-stability control) in nonlinear dynamical systems with constrained actuation. Attractor selection is obtained using two different deep reinforcement learning methods: 1) the…