A Generalized Projected Bellman Error for Off-policy Value Estimation in Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Patterson, Andrew, White, Adam, White, Martha
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2021
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author Patterson, Andrew
White, Adam
White, Martha
author_facet Patterson, Andrew
White, Adam
White, Martha
contents Many reinforcement learning algorithms rely on value estimation, however, the most widely used algorithms -- namely temporal difference algorithms -- can diverge under both off-policy sampling and nonlinear function approximation. Many algorithms have been developed for off-policy value estimation based on the linear mean squared projected Bellman error (MSPBE) and are sound under linear function approximation. Extending these methods to the nonlinear case has been largely unsuccessful. Recently, several methods have been introduced that approximate a different objective -- the mean-squared Bellman error (MSBE) -- which naturally facilitate nonlinear approximation. In this work, we build on these insights and introduce a new generalized MSPBE that extends the linear MSPBE to the nonlinear setting. We show how this generalized objective unifies previous work and obtain new bounds for the value error of the solutions of the generalized objective. We derive an easy-to-use, but sound, algorithm to minimize the generalized objective, and show that it is more stable across runs, is less sensitive to hyperparameters, and performs favorably across four control domains with neural network function approximation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2104_13844
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Generalized Projected Bellman Error for Off-policy Value Estimation in Reinforcement Learning
Patterson, Andrew
White, Adam
White, Martha
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Many reinforcement learning algorithms rely on value estimation, however, the most widely used algorithms -- namely temporal difference algorithms -- can diverge under both off-policy sampling and nonlinear function approximation. Many algorithms have been developed for off-policy value estimation based on the linear mean squared projected Bellman error (MSPBE) and are sound under linear function approximation. Extending these methods to the nonlinear case has been largely unsuccessful. Recently, several methods have been introduced that approximate a different objective -- the mean-squared Bellman error (MSBE) -- which naturally facilitate nonlinear approximation. In this work, we build on these insights and introduce a new generalized MSPBE that extends the linear MSPBE to the nonlinear setting. We show how this generalized objective unifies previous work and obtain new bounds for the value error of the solutions of the generalized objective. We derive an easy-to-use, but sound, algorithm to minimize the generalized objective, and show that it is more stable across runs, is less sensitive to hyperparameters, and performs favorably across four control domains with neural network function approximation.
title A Generalized Projected Bellman Error for Off-policy Value Estimation in Reinforcement Learning
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.13844