n-Step Temporal Difference Learning with Optimal n

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Mandal, Lakshmi, Bhatnagar, Shalabh
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Mandal, Lakshmi
Bhatnagar, Shalabh
author_facet Mandal, Lakshmi
Bhatnagar, Shalabh
contents We consider the problem of finding the optimal value of n in the n-step temporal difference (TD) learning algorithm. Our objective function for the optimization problem is the average root mean squared error (RMSE). We find the optimal n by resorting to a model-free optimization technique involving a one-simulation simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) based procedure. Whereas SPSA is a zeroth-order continuous optimization procedure, we adapt it to the discrete optimization setting by using a random projection operator. We prove the asymptotic convergence of the recursion by showing that the sequence of n-updates obtained using zeroth-order stochastic gradient search converges almost surely to an internally chain transitive invariant set of an associated differential inclusion. This results in convergence of the discrete parameter sequence to the optimal n in n-step TD. Through experiments, we show that the optimal value of n is achieved with our SDPSA algorithm for arbitrary initial values. We further show using numerical evaluations that SDPSA outperforms the state-of-the-art discrete parameter stochastic optimization algorithm Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) on benchmark RL tasks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2303_07068
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle n-Step Temporal Difference Learning with Optimal n
Mandal, Lakshmi
Bhatnagar, Shalabh
Machine Learning
We consider the problem of finding the optimal value of n in the n-step temporal difference (TD) learning algorithm. Our objective function for the optimization problem is the average root mean squared error (RMSE). We find the optimal n by resorting to a model-free optimization technique involving a one-simulation simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) based procedure. Whereas SPSA is a zeroth-order continuous optimization procedure, we adapt it to the discrete optimization setting by using a random projection operator. We prove the asymptotic convergence of the recursion by showing that the sequence of n-updates obtained using zeroth-order stochastic gradient search converges almost surely to an internally chain transitive invariant set of an associated differential inclusion. This results in convergence of the discrete parameter sequence to the optimal n in n-step TD. Through experiments, we show that the optimal value of n is achieved with our SDPSA algorithm for arbitrary initial values. We further show using numerical evaluations that SDPSA outperforms the state-of-the-art discrete parameter stochastic optimization algorithm Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) on benchmark RL tasks.
title n-Step Temporal Difference Learning with Optimal n
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.07068