A Provably Efficient Option-Based Algorithm for both High-Level and Low-Level Learning
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866929697850392576 |
|---|---|
| author | Drappo, Gianluca Metelli, Alberto Maria Restelli, Marcello |
| author_facet | Drappo, Gianluca Metelli, Alberto Maria Restelli, Marcello |
| contents | Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) approaches have shown successful results in solving a large variety of complex, structured, long-horizon problems. Nevertheless, a full theoretical understanding of this empirical evidence is currently missing. In the context of the \emph{option} framework, prior research has devised efficient algorithms for scenarios where options are fixed, and the high-level policy selecting among options only has to be learned. However, the fully realistic scenario in which both the high-level and the low-level policies are learned is surprisingly disregarded from a theoretical perspective. This work makes a step towards the understanding of this latter scenario. Focusing on the finite-horizon problem, we present a meta-algorithm alternating between regret minimization algorithms instanced at different (high and low) temporal abstractions. At the higher level, we treat the problem as a Semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP), with fixed low-level policies, while at a lower level, inner option policies are learned with a fixed high-level policy. The bounds derived are compared with the lower bound for non-hierarchical finite-horizon problems, allowing to characterize when a hierarchical approach is provably preferable, even without pre-trained options. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_15124 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A Provably Efficient Option-Based Algorithm for both High-Level and Low-Level Learning Drappo, Gianluca Metelli, Alberto Maria Restelli, Marcello Machine Learning Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) approaches have shown successful results in solving a large variety of complex, structured, long-horizon problems. Nevertheless, a full theoretical understanding of this empirical evidence is currently missing. In the context of the \emph{option} framework, prior research has devised efficient algorithms for scenarios where options are fixed, and the high-level policy selecting among options only has to be learned. However, the fully realistic scenario in which both the high-level and the low-level policies are learned is surprisingly disregarded from a theoretical perspective. This work makes a step towards the understanding of this latter scenario. Focusing on the finite-horizon problem, we present a meta-algorithm alternating between regret minimization algorithms instanced at different (high and low) temporal abstractions. At the higher level, we treat the problem as a Semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP), with fixed low-level policies, while at a lower level, inner option policies are learned with a fixed high-level policy. The bounds derived are compared with the lower bound for non-hierarchical finite-horizon problems, allowing to characterize when a hierarchical approach is provably preferable, even without pre-trained options. |
| title | A Provably Efficient Option-Based Algorithm for both High-Level and Low-Level Learning |
| topic | Machine Learning |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15124 |