Related papers: An Elementary Proof that Q-learning Converges Almo…
In this paper, we present a framework to understand the convergence of commonly used Q-learning reinforcement learning algorithms in practice. Two salient features of such algorithms are: (i)~the Q-table is recursively updated using an…
A key task in Artificial Intelligence is learning effective policies for controlling agents in unknown environments to optimize performance measures. Off-policy learning methods, like Q-learning, allow learners to make optimal decisions…
Successful teaching requires an assumption of how the learner learns - how the learner uses experiences from the world to update their internal states. We investigate what expectations people have about a learner when they teach them in an…
Deep Reinforcement Learning has yielded proficient controllers for complex tasks. However, these controllers have limited memory and rely on being able to perceive the complete game screen at each decision point. To address these…
In complex environments with large discrete action spaces, effective decision-making is critical in reinforcement learning (RL). Despite the widespread use of value-based RL approaches like Q-learning, they come with a computational burden,…
Reinforcement learning (RL) for exponential-utility optimization in discounted Markov decision processes (MDPs) lacks principled value-based algorithms. We address this gap in the fixed risk-aversion setting. Building on the Bellman-type…
In spite of the large literature on reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms for partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs), a complete theoretical understanding is still lacking. In a partially observable setting, the history of…
We propose a new reinforcement learning algorithm derived from a regularized linear-programming formulation of optimal control in MDPs. The method is closely related to the classic Relative Entropy Policy Search (REPS) algorithm of Peters…
This work presents the first finite-time analysis for the last-iterate convergence of average-reward $Q$-learning with an asynchronous implementation. A key feature of the algorithm we study is the use of adaptive stepsizes, which serve as…
Reinforcement Learning (RL) consists of designing agents that make intelligent decisions without human supervision. When used alongside function approximators such as Neural Networks (NNs), RL is capable of solving extremely complex…
Reinforcement learning is a model-free optimal control method that optimizes a control policy through direct interaction with the environment. For reaching tasks that end in regulation, popular discrete-action methods are not well suited…
Q-learning suffers from overestimation bias, because it approximates the maximum action value using the maximum estimated action value. Algorithms have been proposed to reduce overestimation bias, but we lack an understanding of how bias…
Deep reinforcement learning techniques have demonstrated superior performance in a wide variety of environments. As improvements in training algorithms continue at a brisk pace, theoretical or empirical studies on understanding what these…
Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning promises, among other benefits, to efficiently capture and utilize the temporal structure of a decision-making problem and to enhance continual learning capabilities, but theoretical guarantees lag behind…
The deep reinforcement learning method usually requires a large number of training images and executing actions to obtain sufficient results. When it is extended a real-task in the real environment with an actual robot, the method will be…
We propose Deep Q-Networks (DQN) with model-based exploration, an algorithm combining both model-free and model-based approaches that explores better and learns environments with sparse rewards more efficiently. DQN is a general-purpose,…
This paper studies accelerated algorithms for Q-learning. We propose an acceleration scheme by incorporating the historical iterates of the Q-function. The idea is conceptually inspired by the momentum-based acceleration methods in the…
Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) recently emerged as one of the most competitive approaches for learning in sequential decision making problems with fully observable environments, e.g., computer Go. However, very little work has been done…
Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) recently emerged as one of the most competitive approaches for learning in sequential decision making problems with fully observable environments, e.g., computer Go. However, very little work has been done…
Optimal trade execution is an important problem faced by essentially all traders. Much research into optimal execution uses stringent model assumptions and applies continuous time stochastic control to solve them. Here, we instead take a…