Q-learning for Quantile MDPs: A Decomposition, Performance, and Convergence Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hau, Jia Lin, Delage, Erick, Derman, Esther, Ghavamzadeh, Mohammad, Petrik, Marek
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Hau, Jia Lin
Delage, Erick
Derman, Esther
Ghavamzadeh, Mohammad
Petrik, Marek
author_facet Hau, Jia Lin
Delage, Erick
Derman, Esther
Ghavamzadeh, Mohammad
Petrik, Marek
contents In Markov decision processes (MDPs), quantile risk measures such as Value-at-Risk are a standard metric for modeling RL agents' preferences for certain outcomes. This paper proposes a new Q-learning algorithm for quantile optimization in MDPs with strong convergence and performance guarantees. The algorithm leverages a new, simple dynamic program (DP) decomposition for quantile MDPs. Compared with prior work, our DP decomposition requires neither known transition probabilities nor solving complex saddle point equations and serves as a suitable foundation for other model-free RL algorithms. Our numerical results in tabular domains show that our Q-learning algorithm converges to its DP variant and outperforms earlier algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_24128
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Q-learning for Quantile MDPs: A Decomposition, Performance, and Convergence Analysis
Hau, Jia Lin
Delage, Erick
Derman, Esther
Ghavamzadeh, Mohammad
Petrik, Marek
Machine Learning
In Markov decision processes (MDPs), quantile risk measures such as Value-at-Risk are a standard metric for modeling RL agents' preferences for certain outcomes. This paper proposes a new Q-learning algorithm for quantile optimization in MDPs with strong convergence and performance guarantees. The algorithm leverages a new, simple dynamic program (DP) decomposition for quantile MDPs. Compared with prior work, our DP decomposition requires neither known transition probabilities nor solving complex saddle point equations and serves as a suitable foundation for other model-free RL algorithms. Our numerical results in tabular domains show that our Q-learning algorithm converges to its DP variant and outperforms earlier algorithms.
title Q-learning for Quantile MDPs: A Decomposition, Performance, and Convergence Analysis
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.24128