Related papers: Random Actions vs Random Policies: Bootstrapping M…
Training robotic policies in simulation suffers from the sim-to-real gap, as simulated dynamics can be different from real-world dynamics. Past works tackled this problem through domain randomization and online system-identification. The…
Contextual policy search allows adapting robotic movement primitives to different situations. For instance, a locomotion primitive might be adapted to different terrain inclinations or desired walking speeds. Such an adaptation is often…
Designing effective model-based reinforcement learning algorithms is difficult because the ease of data generation must be weighed against the bias of model-generated data. In this paper, we study the role of model usage in policy…
In decision making problems for continuous state and action spaces, linear dynamical models are widely employed. Specifically, policies for stochastic linear systems subject to quadratic cost functions capture a large number of applications…
Researchers have demonstrated that Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is a powerful tool for finding policies that perform well on complex robotic systems. However, these policies are often unpredictable and can induce highly variable…
Model-based Reinforcement Learning approaches have the promise of being sample efficient. Much of the progress in learning dynamics models in RL has been made by learning models via supervised learning. But traditional model-based…
We present an algorithm for model-based reinforcement learning that combines Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) with random roll-outs and stochastic optimization for policy learning. The BNNs are trained by minimizing $\alpha$-divergences,…
Typical models of learning assume incremental estimation of continuously-varying decision variables like expected rewards. However, this class of models fails to capture more idiosyncratic, discrete heuristics and strategies that people and…
Model-Based Reinforcement Learning involves learning a \textit{dynamics model} from data, and then using this model to optimise behaviour, most often with an online \textit{planner}. Much of the recent research along these lines presents a…
For an autonomous agent, executing a poor policy may be costly or even dangerous. For such agents, it is desirable to determine confidence interval lower bounds on the performance of any given policy without executing said policy. Current…
A model among many may only be best under certain states of the world. Switching from a model to another can also be costly. Finding a procedure to dynamically choose a model in these circumstances requires to solve a complex estimation…
Most policy search algorithms require thousands of training episodes to find an effective policy, which is often infeasible with a physical robot. This survey article focuses on the extreme other end of the spectrum: how can a robot adapt…
Learning-based approaches for solving large sequential decision making problems have become popular in recent years. The resulting agents perform differently and their characteristics depend on those of the underlying learning approach.…
In this paper, we conduct a literature review of laws of motion based on stochastic search strategies which are mainly focused on exploring highly dynamic environments. In this regard, stochastic search strategies represent an interesting…
Reinforcement learning has received high research interest for developing planning approaches in automated driving. Most prior works consider the end-to-end planning task that yields direct control commands and rarely deploy their algorithm…
Efficient and robust policy transfer remains a key challenge for reinforcement learning to become viable for real-wold robotics. Policy transfer through warm initialization, imitation, or interacting over a large set of agents with…
Continuous action policy search is currently the focus of intensive research, driven both by the recent success of deep reinforcement learning algorithms and the emergence of competitors based on evolutionary algorithms. In this paper, we…
Adapting an agent's behaviour to new environments has been one of the primary focus areas of physics based reinforcement learning. Although recent approaches such as universal policy networks partially address this issue by enabling the…
Autonomous racing with scaled race cars has gained increasing attention as an effective approach for developing perception, planning and control algorithms for safe autonomous driving at the limits of the vehicle's handling. To train agile…
Many potential applications of reinforcement learning (RL) are stymied by the large numbers of samples required to learn an effective policy. This is especially true when applying RL to real-world control tasks, e.g. in the sciences or…