Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wang, Likun, Zhang, Xiangteng, Wang, Yinuo, Zhan, Guojian, Wang, Wenxuan, Gao, Haoyu, Duan, Jingliang, Li, Shengbo Eben
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25529
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908619109302272
author Wang, Likun
Zhang, Xiangteng
Wang, Yinuo
Zhan, Guojian
Wang, Wenxuan
Gao, Haoyu
Duan, Jingliang
Li, Shengbo Eben
author_facet Wang, Likun
Zhang, Xiangteng
Wang, Yinuo
Zhan, Guojian
Wang, Wenxuan
Gao, Haoyu
Duan, Jingliang
Li, Shengbo Eben
contents Exploration is fundamental to reinforcement learning (RL), as it determines how effectively an agent discovers and exploits the underlying structure of its environment to achieve optimal performance. Existing exploration methods generally fall into two categories: active exploration and passive exploration. The former introduces stochasticity into the policy but struggles in high-dimensional environments, while the latter adaptively prioritizes transitions in the replay buffer to enhance exploration, yet remains constrained by limited sample diversity. To address the limitation in passive exploration, we propose Modelic Generative Exploration (MoGE), which augments exploration through the generation of under-explored critical states and synthesis of dynamics-consistent experiences through transition models. MoGE is composed of two components: (1) a diffusion-based generator that synthesizes critical states under the guidance of a utility function evaluating each state's potential influence on policy exploration, and (2) a one-step imagination world model for constructing critical transitions based on the critical states for agent learning. Our method adopts a modular formulation that aligns with the principles of off-policy learning, allowing seamless integration with existing algorithms to improve exploration without altering their core structures. Empirical results on OpenAI Gym and DeepMind Control Suite reveal that MoGE effectively bridges exploration and policy learning, leading to remarkable gains in both sample efficiency and performance across complex control tasks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_25529
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Off-policy Reinforcement Learning with Model-based Exploration Augmentation
Wang, Likun
Zhang, Xiangteng
Wang, Yinuo
Zhan, Guojian
Wang, Wenxuan
Gao, Haoyu
Duan, Jingliang
Li, Shengbo Eben
Artificial Intelligence
Exploration is fundamental to reinforcement learning (RL), as it determines how effectively an agent discovers and exploits the underlying structure of its environment to achieve optimal performance. Existing exploration methods generally fall into two categories: active exploration and passive exploration. The former introduces stochasticity into the policy but struggles in high-dimensional environments, while the latter adaptively prioritizes transitions in the replay buffer to enhance exploration, yet remains constrained by limited sample diversity. To address the limitation in passive exploration, we propose Modelic Generative Exploration (MoGE), which augments exploration through the generation of under-explored critical states and synthesis of dynamics-consistent experiences through transition models. MoGE is composed of two components: (1) a diffusion-based generator that synthesizes critical states under the guidance of a utility function evaluating each state's potential influence on policy exploration, and (2) a one-step imagination world model for constructing critical transitions based on the critical states for agent learning. Our method adopts a modular formulation that aligns with the principles of off-policy learning, allowing seamless integration with existing algorithms to improve exploration without altering their core structures. Empirical results on OpenAI Gym and DeepMind Control Suite reveal that MoGE effectively bridges exploration and policy learning, leading to remarkable gains in both sample efficiency and performance across complex control tasks.
title Off-policy Reinforcement Learning with Model-based Exploration Augmentation
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25529