Reinforcement Learning Design for Quickest Change Detection

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cooper, Austin, Meyn, Sean
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Cooper, Austin
Meyn, Sean
author_facet Cooper, Austin
Meyn, Sean
contents The field of quickest change detection (QCD) concerns design and analysis of algorithms to estimate in real time the time at which an important event takes place, and identify properties of the post-change behavior. It is shown in this paper that approaches based on reinforcement learning (RL) can be adapted based on any "surrogate information state" that is adapted to the observations. Hence we are left to choose both the surrogate information state process and the algorithm. For the former, it is argued that there are many choices available, based on a rich theory of asymptotic statistics for QCD. Two approaches to RL design are considered: (i) Stochastic gradient descent based on an actor-critic formulation. Theory is largely complete for this approach: the algorithm is unbiased, and will converge to a local minimum. However, it is shown that variance of stochastic gradients can be very large, necessitating the need for commensurately long run times; (ii) Q-learning algorithms based on a version of the projected Bellman equation. It is shown that the algorithm is stable, in the sense of bounded sample paths, and that a solution to the projected Bellman equation exists under mild conditions. Numerical experiments illustrate these findings, and provide a roadmap for algorithm design in more general settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_14109
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reinforcement Learning Design for Quickest Change Detection
Cooper, Austin
Meyn, Sean
Optimization and Control
Information Theory
The field of quickest change detection (QCD) concerns design and analysis of algorithms to estimate in real time the time at which an important event takes place, and identify properties of the post-change behavior. It is shown in this paper that approaches based on reinforcement learning (RL) can be adapted based on any "surrogate information state" that is adapted to the observations. Hence we are left to choose both the surrogate information state process and the algorithm. For the former, it is argued that there are many choices available, based on a rich theory of asymptotic statistics for QCD. Two approaches to RL design are considered: (i) Stochastic gradient descent based on an actor-critic formulation. Theory is largely complete for this approach: the algorithm is unbiased, and will converge to a local minimum. However, it is shown that variance of stochastic gradients can be very large, necessitating the need for commensurately long run times; (ii) Q-learning algorithms based on a version of the projected Bellman equation. It is shown that the algorithm is stable, in the sense of bounded sample paths, and that a solution to the projected Bellman equation exists under mild conditions. Numerical experiments illustrate these findings, and provide a roadmap for algorithm design in more general settings.
title Reinforcement Learning Design for Quickest Change Detection
topic Optimization and Control
Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14109