Safe Reinforcement Learning using Finite-Horizon Gradient-based Estimation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dai, Juntao, Yang, Yaodong, Zheng, Qian, Pan, Gang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Dai, Juntao
Yang, Yaodong
Zheng, Qian
Pan, Gang
author_facet Dai, Juntao
Yang, Yaodong
Zheng, Qian
Pan, Gang
contents A key aspect of Safe Reinforcement Learning (Safe RL) involves estimating the constraint condition for the next policy, which is crucial for guiding the optimization of safe policy updates. However, the existing Advantage-based Estimation (ABE) method relies on the infinite-horizon discounted advantage function. This dependence leads to catastrophic errors in finite-horizon scenarios with non-discounted constraints, resulting in safety-violation updates. In response, we propose the first estimation method for finite-horizon non-discounted constraints in deep Safe RL, termed Gradient-based Estimation (GBE), which relies on the analytic gradient derived along trajectories. Our theoretical and empirical analyses demonstrate that GBE can effectively estimate constraint changes over a finite horizon. Constructing a surrogate optimization problem with GBE, we developed a novel Safe RL algorithm called Constrained Gradient-based Policy Optimization (CGPO). CGPO identifies feasible optimal policies by iteratively resolving sub-problems within trust regions. Our empirical results reveal that CGPO, unlike baseline algorithms, successfully estimates the constraint functions of subsequent policies, thereby ensuring the efficiency and feasibility of each update.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_11138
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Safe Reinforcement Learning using Finite-Horizon Gradient-based Estimation
Dai, Juntao
Yang, Yaodong
Zheng, Qian
Pan, Gang
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
A key aspect of Safe Reinforcement Learning (Safe RL) involves estimating the constraint condition for the next policy, which is crucial for guiding the optimization of safe policy updates. However, the existing Advantage-based Estimation (ABE) method relies on the infinite-horizon discounted advantage function. This dependence leads to catastrophic errors in finite-horizon scenarios with non-discounted constraints, resulting in safety-violation updates. In response, we propose the first estimation method for finite-horizon non-discounted constraints in deep Safe RL, termed Gradient-based Estimation (GBE), which relies on the analytic gradient derived along trajectories. Our theoretical and empirical analyses demonstrate that GBE can effectively estimate constraint changes over a finite horizon. Constructing a surrogate optimization problem with GBE, we developed a novel Safe RL algorithm called Constrained Gradient-based Policy Optimization (CGPO). CGPO identifies feasible optimal policies by iteratively resolving sub-problems within trust regions. Our empirical results reveal that CGPO, unlike baseline algorithms, successfully estimates the constraint functions of subsequent policies, thereby ensuring the efficiency and feasibility of each update.
title Safe Reinforcement Learning using Finite-Horizon Gradient-based Estimation
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.11138