Toward Debugging Deep Reinforcement Learning Programs with RLExplorer

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Bouchoucha, Rached, Yahmed, Ahmed Haj, Patil, Darshan, Rajendran, Janarthanan, Nikanjam, Amin, Chandar, Sarath, Khomh, Foutse
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866914965788557312
author Bouchoucha, Rached
Yahmed, Ahmed Haj
Patil, Darshan
Rajendran, Janarthanan
Nikanjam, Amin
Chandar, Sarath
Khomh, Foutse
author_facet Bouchoucha, Rached
Yahmed, Ahmed Haj
Patil, Darshan
Rajendran, Janarthanan
Nikanjam, Amin
Chandar, Sarath
Khomh, Foutse
contents Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has shown success in diverse domains such as robotics, computer games, and recommendation systems. However, like any other software system, DRL-based software systems are susceptible to faults that pose unique challenges for debugging and diagnosing. These faults often result in unexpected behavior without explicit failures and error messages, making debugging difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, automating the monitoring and diagnosis of DRL systems is crucial to alleviate the burden on developers. In this paper, we propose RLExplorer, the first fault diagnosis approach for DRL-based software systems. RLExplorer automatically monitors training traces and runs diagnosis routines based on properties of the DRL learning dynamics to detect the occurrence of DRL-specific faults. It then logs the results of these diagnoses as warnings that cover theoretical concepts, recommended practices, and potential solutions to the identified faults. We conducted two sets of evaluations to assess RLExplorer. Our first evaluation of faulty DRL samples from Stack Overflow revealed that our approach can effectively diagnose real faults in 83% of the cases. Our second evaluation of RLExplorer with 15 DRL experts/developers showed that (1) RLExplorer could identify 3.6 times more defects than manual debugging and (2) RLExplorer is easily integrated into DRL applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_04322
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Toward Debugging Deep Reinforcement Learning Programs with RLExplorer
Bouchoucha, Rached
Yahmed, Ahmed Haj
Patil, Darshan
Rajendran, Janarthanan
Nikanjam, Amin
Chandar, Sarath
Khomh, Foutse
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has shown success in diverse domains such as robotics, computer games, and recommendation systems. However, like any other software system, DRL-based software systems are susceptible to faults that pose unique challenges for debugging and diagnosing. These faults often result in unexpected behavior without explicit failures and error messages, making debugging difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, automating the monitoring and diagnosis of DRL systems is crucial to alleviate the burden on developers. In this paper, we propose RLExplorer, the first fault diagnosis approach for DRL-based software systems. RLExplorer automatically monitors training traces and runs diagnosis routines based on properties of the DRL learning dynamics to detect the occurrence of DRL-specific faults. It then logs the results of these diagnoses as warnings that cover theoretical concepts, recommended practices, and potential solutions to the identified faults. We conducted two sets of evaluations to assess RLExplorer. Our first evaluation of faulty DRL samples from Stack Overflow revealed that our approach can effectively diagnose real faults in 83% of the cases. Our second evaluation of RLExplorer with 15 DRL experts/developers showed that (1) RLExplorer could identify 3.6 times more defects than manual debugging and (2) RLExplorer is easily integrated into DRL applications.
title Toward Debugging Deep Reinforcement Learning Programs with RLExplorer
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04322