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Auteurs principaux: Santos, Pedro P., Sardinha, Alberto, Melo, Francisco S.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.15128
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author Santos, Pedro P.
Sardinha, Alberto
Melo, Francisco S.
author_facet Santos, Pedro P.
Sardinha, Alberto
Melo, Francisco S.
contents The general-utility Markov decision processes (GUMDPs) framework generalizes the MDPs framework by considering objective functions that depend on the frequency of visitation of state-action pairs induced by a given policy. In this work, we contribute with the first analysis on the impact of the number of trials, i.e., the number of randomly sampled trajectories, in infinite-horizon GUMDPs. We show that, as opposed to standard MDPs, the number of trials plays a key-role in infinite-horizon GUMDPs and the expected performance of a given policy depends, in general, on the number of trials. We consider both discounted and average GUMDPs, where the objective function depends, respectively, on discounted and average frequencies of visitation of state-action pairs. First, we study policy evaluation under discounted GUMDPs, proving lower and upper bounds on the mismatch between the finite and infinite trials formulations for GUMDPs. Second, we address average GUMDPs, studying how different classes of GUMDPs impact the mismatch between the finite and infinite trials formulations. Third, we provide a set of empirical results to support our claims, highlighting how the number of trajectories and the structure of the underlying GUMDP influence policy evaluation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_15128
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Number of Trials Matters in Infinite-Horizon General-Utility Markov Decision Processes
Santos, Pedro P.
Sardinha, Alberto
Melo, Francisco S.
Machine Learning
The general-utility Markov decision processes (GUMDPs) framework generalizes the MDPs framework by considering objective functions that depend on the frequency of visitation of state-action pairs induced by a given policy. In this work, we contribute with the first analysis on the impact of the number of trials, i.e., the number of randomly sampled trajectories, in infinite-horizon GUMDPs. We show that, as opposed to standard MDPs, the number of trials plays a key-role in infinite-horizon GUMDPs and the expected performance of a given policy depends, in general, on the number of trials. We consider both discounted and average GUMDPs, where the objective function depends, respectively, on discounted and average frequencies of visitation of state-action pairs. First, we study policy evaluation under discounted GUMDPs, proving lower and upper bounds on the mismatch between the finite and infinite trials formulations for GUMDPs. Second, we address average GUMDPs, studying how different classes of GUMDPs impact the mismatch between the finite and infinite trials formulations. Third, we provide a set of empirical results to support our claims, highlighting how the number of trajectories and the structure of the underlying GUMDP influence policy evaluation.
title The Number of Trials Matters in Infinite-Horizon General-Utility Markov Decision Processes
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.15128