NS-Gym: Open-Source Simulation Environments and Benchmarks for Non-Stationary Markov Decision Processes

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Keplinger, Nathaniel S., Luo, Baiting, Bektas, Iliyas, Zhang, Yunuo, Wray, Kyle Hollins, Laszka, Aron, Dubey, Abhishek, Mukhopadhyay, Ayan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Keplinger, Nathaniel S.
Luo, Baiting
Bektas, Iliyas
Zhang, Yunuo
Wray, Kyle Hollins
Laszka, Aron
Dubey, Abhishek
Mukhopadhyay, Ayan
author_facet Keplinger, Nathaniel S.
Luo, Baiting
Bektas, Iliyas
Zhang, Yunuo
Wray, Kyle Hollins
Laszka, Aron
Dubey, Abhishek
Mukhopadhyay, Ayan
contents In many real-world applications, agents must make sequential decisions in environments where conditions are subject to change due to various exogenous factors. These non-stationary environments pose significant challenges to traditional decision-making models, which typically assume stationary dynamics. Non-stationary Markov decision processes (NS-MDPs) offer a framework to model and solve decision problems under such changing conditions. However, the lack of standardized benchmarks and simulation tools has hindered systematic evaluation and advance in this field. We present NS-Gym, the first simulation toolkit designed explicitly for NS-MDPs, integrated within the popular Gymnasium framework. In NS-Gym, we segregate the evolution of the environmental parameters that characterize non-stationarity from the agent's decision-making module, allowing for modular and flexible adaptations to dynamic environments. We review prior work in this domain and present a toolkit encapsulating key problem characteristics and types in NS-MDPs. This toolkit is the first effort to develop a set of standardized interfaces and benchmark problems to enable consistent and reproducible evaluation of algorithms under non-stationary conditions. We also benchmark six algorithmic approaches from prior work on NS-MDPs using NS-Gym. Our vision is that NS-Gym will enable researchers to assess the adaptability and robustness of their decision-making algorithms to non-stationary conditions.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_09646
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle NS-Gym: Open-Source Simulation Environments and Benchmarks for Non-Stationary Markov Decision Processes
Keplinger, Nathaniel S.
Luo, Baiting
Bektas, Iliyas
Zhang, Yunuo
Wray, Kyle Hollins
Laszka, Aron
Dubey, Abhishek
Mukhopadhyay, Ayan
Artificial Intelligence
In many real-world applications, agents must make sequential decisions in environments where conditions are subject to change due to various exogenous factors. These non-stationary environments pose significant challenges to traditional decision-making models, which typically assume stationary dynamics. Non-stationary Markov decision processes (NS-MDPs) offer a framework to model and solve decision problems under such changing conditions. However, the lack of standardized benchmarks and simulation tools has hindered systematic evaluation and advance in this field. We present NS-Gym, the first simulation toolkit designed explicitly for NS-MDPs, integrated within the popular Gymnasium framework. In NS-Gym, we segregate the evolution of the environmental parameters that characterize non-stationarity from the agent's decision-making module, allowing for modular and flexible adaptations to dynamic environments. We review prior work in this domain and present a toolkit encapsulating key problem characteristics and types in NS-MDPs. This toolkit is the first effort to develop a set of standardized interfaces and benchmark problems to enable consistent and reproducible evaluation of algorithms under non-stationary conditions. We also benchmark six algorithmic approaches from prior work on NS-MDPs using NS-Gym. Our vision is that NS-Gym will enable researchers to assess the adaptability and robustness of their decision-making algorithms to non-stationary conditions.
title NS-Gym: Open-Source Simulation Environments and Benchmarks for Non-Stationary Markov Decision Processes
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09646