Achieving Tractable Minimax Optimal Regret in Average Reward MDPs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Boone, Victor, Zhang, Zihan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Boone, Victor
Zhang, Zihan
author_facet Boone, Victor
Zhang, Zihan
contents In recent years, significant attention has been directed towards learning average-reward Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). However, existing algorithms either suffer from sub-optimal regret guarantees or computational inefficiencies. In this paper, we present the first tractable algorithm with minimax optimal regret of $\widetilde{\mathrm{O}}(\sqrt{\mathrm{sp}(h^*) S A T})$, where $\mathrm{sp}(h^*)$ is the span of the optimal bias function $h^*$, $S \times A$ is the size of the state-action space and $T$ the number of learning steps. Remarkably, our algorithm does not require prior information on $\mathrm{sp}(h^*)$. Our algorithm relies on a novel subroutine, Projected Mitigated Extended Value Iteration (PMEVI), to compute bias-constrained optimal policies efficiently. This subroutine can be applied to various previous algorithms to improve regret bounds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_01234
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Achieving Tractable Minimax Optimal Regret in Average Reward MDPs
Boone, Victor
Zhang, Zihan
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
In recent years, significant attention has been directed towards learning average-reward Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). However, existing algorithms either suffer from sub-optimal regret guarantees or computational inefficiencies. In this paper, we present the first tractable algorithm with minimax optimal regret of $\widetilde{\mathrm{O}}(\sqrt{\mathrm{sp}(h^*) S A T})$, where $\mathrm{sp}(h^*)$ is the span of the optimal bias function $h^*$, $S \times A$ is the size of the state-action space and $T$ the number of learning steps. Remarkably, our algorithm does not require prior information on $\mathrm{sp}(h^*)$. Our algorithm relies on a novel subroutine, Projected Mitigated Extended Value Iteration (PMEVI), to compute bias-constrained optimal policies efficiently. This subroutine can be applied to various previous algorithms to improve regret bounds.
title Achieving Tractable Minimax Optimal Regret in Average Reward MDPs
topic Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.01234