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Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) is sample-efficient but struggles in sparse reward settings. A critical bottleneck arises from the lack of informative gradients in sparse settings, where standard reward models often yield flat…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Yao-Hui Li , Zeyu Wang , Xin Li , Wei Pang , Yingfang Yuan , Zhengkun Chen , Boya Zhang , Riashat Islam , Alex Lamb , Yonggang Zhang

In online reinforcement learning (RL), efficient exploration remains particularly challenging in high-dimensional environments with sparse rewards. In low-dimensional environments, where tabular parameterization is possible, count-based…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-06-21 Tianjun Zhang , Paria Rashidinejad , Jiantao Jiao , Yuandong Tian , Joseph Gonzalez , Stuart Russell

We discuss the relative merits of optimistic and randomized approaches to exploration in reinforcement learning. Optimistic approaches presented in the literature apply an optimistic boost to the value estimate at each state-action pair and…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-06-15 Ian Osband , Benjamin Van Roy

Optimism about the poorly understood states and actions is the main driving force of exploration for many provably-efficient reinforcement learning algorithms. We propose optimism in the face of sensible value functions (OFVF)- a novel…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-04-19 Reazul H. Russel , Tianyi Gu , Marek Petrik

Deploying learned control policies in real-world environments poses a fundamental challenge. When system dynamics change unexpectedly, performance degrades until models are retrained on new data. We introduce Reflexive World Models (RWM), a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-22 Carlos Stein Brito , Daniel McNamee

Balancing exploration and exploitation remains a key challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). State-of-the-art RL algorithms suffer from high sample complexity, particularly in the sparse reward case, where they can do no better than to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-01-22 Philippe Morere , Gilad Francis , Tom Blau , Fabio Ramos

High sample complexity remains a barrier to the application of reinforcement learning (RL), particularly in multi-agent systems. A large body of work has demonstrated that exploration mechanisms based on the principle of optimism under…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-08-02 Robert Loftin , Aadirupa Saha , Sam Devlin , Katja Hofmann

We introduce Diffusion World Model (DWM), a conditional diffusion model capable of predicting multistep future states and rewards concurrently. As opposed to traditional one-step dynamics models, DWM offers long-horizon predictions in a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-17 Zihan Ding , Amy Zhang , Yuandong Tian , Qinqing Zheng

In robot manipulation, Reinforcement Learning (RL) often suffers from low sample efficiency and uncertain convergence, especially in large observation and action spaces. Foundation Models (FMs) offer an alternative, demonstrating promise in…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-04-18 Runyu Ma , Jelle Luijkx , Zlatan Ajanovic , Jens Kober

The Centralized Training with Decentralized Execution (CTDE) paradigm is widely used in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning. However, conventional methods based on CTDE can suffer from value underestimation and converge to…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2026-05-05 Ruoning Zhang , Siying Wang , Wenyu Chen , Yang Zhou , Zhitong Zhao , Zixuan Zhang , Ruijie Zhang , Stefano V. Albrecht

The multi-agent setting is intricate and unpredictable since the behaviors of multiple agents influence one another. To address this environmental uncertainty, distributional reinforcement learning algorithms that incorporate uncertainty…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-06 Jihwan Oh , Joonkee Kim , Minchan Jeong , Se-Young Yun

Reinforcement learning algorithms commonly seek to optimize policies for solving one particular task. How should we explore an unknown dynamical system such that the estimated model globally approximates the dynamics and allows us to solve…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-31 Bhavya Sukhija , Lenart Treven , Cansu Sancaktar , Sebastian Blaes , Stelian Coros , Andreas Krause

Model-based Reinforcement Learning (MBRL) has been widely adapted due to its sample efficiency. However, existing worst-case regret analysis typically requires optimistic planning, which is not realistic in general. In contrast, motivated…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-01-10 Lingxiao Wang , Ping Li

Reward models (RMs) have become essential for aligning large language models (LLMs), serving as scalable proxies for human evaluation in both training and inference. However, existing RMs struggle on knowledge-intensive and long-form tasks,…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-10-30 Ziyou Hu , Zhengliang Shi , Minghang Zhu , Haitao Li , Teng Sun , Pengjie Ren , Suzan Verberne , Zhaochun Ren

Learning robust and generalizable world models is crucial for enabling efficient and scalable robotic control in real-world environments. In this work, we introduce a novel framework for learning world models that accurately capture…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-12-16 Chenhao Li , Andreas Krause , Marco Hutter

Reinforcement Learning (RL) applications in real-world scenarios must prioritize safety and reliability, which impose strict constraints on agent behavior. Model-based RL leverages predictive world models for action planning and policy…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-06-06 Artem Latyshev , Gregory Gorbov , Aleksandr I. Panov

Large Language Models (LLMs) can serve as world models to enhance agent decision-making in digital environments by simulating future states and predicting action outcomes, potentially eliminating costly trial-and-error exploration. However,…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Kai Mei , Jiang Guo , Shuaichen Chang , Mingwen Dong , Dongkyu Lee , Xing Niu , Jiarong Jiang

We present a new model-based algorithm for reinforcement learning (RL) which consists of explicit exploration and exploitation phases, and is applicable in large or infinite state spaces. The algorithm maintains a set of dynamics models…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-03 Mikael Henaff

Safe reinforcement learning is extremely challenging--not only must the agent explore an unknown environment, it must do so while ensuring no safety constraint violations. We formulate this safe reinforcement learning (RL) problem using the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-19 Archana Bura , Aria HasanzadeZonuzy , Dileep Kalathil , Srinivas Shakkottai , Jean-Francois Chamberland

This paper addresses a new interpretation of the traditional optimization method in reinforcement learning (RL) as optimization problems using reverse Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, and derives a new optimization method using forward KL…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-04-25 Taisuke Kobayashi