Investigating Action Encodings in Recurrent Neural Networks in Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Schlegel, Matthew, Tkachuk, Volodymyr, White, Adam, White, Martha
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Schlegel, Matthew
Tkachuk, Volodymyr
White, Adam
White, Martha
author_facet Schlegel, Matthew
Tkachuk, Volodymyr
White, Adam
White, Martha
contents Building and maintaining state to learn policies and value functions is critical for deploying reinforcement learning (RL) agents in the real world. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have become a key point of interest for the state-building problem, and several large-scale reinforcement learning agents incorporate recurrent networks. While RNNs have become a mainstay in many RL applications, many key design choices and implementation details responsible for performance improvements are often not reported. In this work, we discuss one axis on which RNN architectures can be (and have been) modified for use in RL. Specifically, we look at how action information can be incorporated into the state update function of a recurrent cell. We discuss several choices in using action information and empirically evaluate the resulting architectures on a set of illustrative domains. Finally, we discuss future work in developing recurrent cells and discuss challenges specific to the RL setting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_16318
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Investigating Action Encodings in Recurrent Neural Networks in Reinforcement Learning
Schlegel, Matthew
Tkachuk, Volodymyr
White, Adam
White, Martha
Machine Learning
Building and maintaining state to learn policies and value functions is critical for deploying reinforcement learning (RL) agents in the real world. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have become a key point of interest for the state-building problem, and several large-scale reinforcement learning agents incorporate recurrent networks. While RNNs have become a mainstay in many RL applications, many key design choices and implementation details responsible for performance improvements are often not reported. In this work, we discuss one axis on which RNN architectures can be (and have been) modified for use in RL. Specifically, we look at how action information can be incorporated into the state update function of a recurrent cell. We discuss several choices in using action information and empirically evaluate the resulting architectures on a set of illustrative domains. Finally, we discuss future work in developing recurrent cells and discuss challenges specific to the RL setting.
title Investigating Action Encodings in Recurrent Neural Networks in Reinforcement Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16318