Active Inference in Contextual Multi-Armed Bandits for Autonomous Robotic Exploration

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wakayama, Shohei, Candela, Alberto, Hayne, Paul, Ahmed, Nisar
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908396963233792
author Wakayama, Shohei
Candela, Alberto
Hayne, Paul
Ahmed, Nisar
author_facet Wakayama, Shohei
Candela, Alberto
Hayne, Paul
Ahmed, Nisar
contents Autonomous selection of optimal options for data collection from multiple alternatives is challenging in uncertain environments. When secondary information about options is accessible, such problems can be framed as contextual multi-armed bandits (CMABs). Neuro-inspired active inference has gained interest for its ability to balance exploration and exploitation using the expected free energy objective function. Unlike previous studies that showed the effectiveness of active inference based strategy for CMABs using synthetic data, this study aims to apply active inference to realistic scenarios, using a simulated mineralogical survey site selection problem. Hyperspectral data from AVIRIS-NG at Cuprite, Nevada, serves as contextual information for predicting outcome probabilities, while geologists' mineral labels represent outcomes. Monte Carlo simulations assess the robustness of active inference against changing expert preferences. Results show that active inference requires fewer iterations than standard bandit approaches with real-world noisy and biased data, and performs better when outcome preferences vary online by adapting the selection strategy to align with expert shifts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_04119
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Active Inference in Contextual Multi-Armed Bandits for Autonomous Robotic Exploration
Wakayama, Shohei
Candela, Alberto
Hayne, Paul
Ahmed, Nisar
Robotics
Autonomous selection of optimal options for data collection from multiple alternatives is challenging in uncertain environments. When secondary information about options is accessible, such problems can be framed as contextual multi-armed bandits (CMABs). Neuro-inspired active inference has gained interest for its ability to balance exploration and exploitation using the expected free energy objective function. Unlike previous studies that showed the effectiveness of active inference based strategy for CMABs using synthetic data, this study aims to apply active inference to realistic scenarios, using a simulated mineralogical survey site selection problem. Hyperspectral data from AVIRIS-NG at Cuprite, Nevada, serves as contextual information for predicting outcome probabilities, while geologists' mineral labels represent outcomes. Monte Carlo simulations assess the robustness of active inference against changing expert preferences. Results show that active inference requires fewer iterations than standard bandit approaches with real-world noisy and biased data, and performs better when outcome preferences vary online by adapting the selection strategy to align with expert shifts.
title Active Inference in Contextual Multi-Armed Bandits for Autonomous Robotic Exploration
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.04119