RICE: Breaking Through the Training Bottlenecks of Reinforcement Learning with Explanation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cheng, Zelei, Wu, Xian, Yu, Jiahao, Yang, Sabrina, Wang, Gang, Xing, Xinyu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Cheng, Zelei
Wu, Xian
Yu, Jiahao
Yang, Sabrina
Wang, Gang
Xing, Xinyu
author_facet Cheng, Zelei
Wu, Xian
Yu, Jiahao
Yang, Sabrina
Wang, Gang
Xing, Xinyu
contents Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is playing an increasingly important role in real-world applications. However, obtaining an optimally performing DRL agent for complex tasks, especially with sparse rewards, remains a significant challenge. The training of a DRL agent can be often trapped in a bottleneck without further progress. In this paper, we propose RICE, an innovative refining scheme for reinforcement learning that incorporates explanation methods to break through the training bottlenecks. The high-level idea of RICE is to construct a new initial state distribution that combines both the default initial states and critical states identified through explanation methods, thereby encouraging the agent to explore from the mixed initial states. Through careful design, we can theoretically guarantee that our refining scheme has a tighter sub-optimality bound. We evaluate RICE in various popular RL environments and real-world applications. The results demonstrate that RICE significantly outperforms existing refining schemes in enhancing agent performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_03064
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle RICE: Breaking Through the Training Bottlenecks of Reinforcement Learning with Explanation
Cheng, Zelei
Wu, Xian
Yu, Jiahao
Yang, Sabrina
Wang, Gang
Xing, Xinyu
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is playing an increasingly important role in real-world applications. However, obtaining an optimally performing DRL agent for complex tasks, especially with sparse rewards, remains a significant challenge. The training of a DRL agent can be often trapped in a bottleneck without further progress. In this paper, we propose RICE, an innovative refining scheme for reinforcement learning that incorporates explanation methods to break through the training bottlenecks. The high-level idea of RICE is to construct a new initial state distribution that combines both the default initial states and critical states identified through explanation methods, thereby encouraging the agent to explore from the mixed initial states. Through careful design, we can theoretically guarantee that our refining scheme has a tighter sub-optimality bound. We evaluate RICE in various popular RL environments and real-world applications. The results demonstrate that RICE significantly outperforms existing refining schemes in enhancing agent performance.
title RICE: Breaking Through the Training Bottlenecks of Reinforcement Learning with Explanation
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03064