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Reinforcement Learning I: Introduction
, 1998
"... In which we try to give a basic intuitive sense of what reinforcement learning is and how it differs and relates to other fields, e.g., supervised learning and neural networks, genetic algorithms and artificial life, control theory. Intuitively, RL is trial and error (variation and selection, search ..."
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Cited by 5614 (118 self)
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In which we try to give a basic intuitive sense of what reinforcement learning is and how it differs and relates to other fields, e.g., supervised learning and neural networks, genetic algorithms and artificial life, control theory. Intuitively, RL is trial and error (variation and selection, search) plus learning (association, memory). We argue that RL is the only field that seriously addresses the special features of the problem of learning from interaction to achieve long-term goals.
Reinforcement learning: a survey
- Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
, 1996
"... This paper surveys the field of reinforcement learning from a computer-science perspective. It is written to be accessible to researchers familiar with machine learning. Both the historical basis of the field and a broad selection of current work are summarized. Reinforcement learning is the problem ..."
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Cited by 1714 (25 self)
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This paper surveys the field of reinforcement learning from a computer-science perspective. It is written to be accessible to researchers familiar with machine learning. Both the historical basis of the field and a broad selection of current work are summarized. Reinforcement learning is the problem faced by an agent that learns behavior through trial-and-error interactions with a dynamic environment. The work described here has a resemblance to work in psychology, but differs considerably in the details and in the use of the word "reinforcement." The paper discusses central issues of reinforcement learning, including trading off exploration and exploitation, establishing the foundations of the field via Markov decision theory, learning from delayed reinforcement, constructing empirical models to accelerate learning, making use of generalization and hierarchy, and coping with hidden state. It concludes with a survey of some implemented systems and an assessment of the practical utility of current methods for reinforcement learning.
Between MDPs and Semi-MDPs: A Framework for Temporal Abstraction in Reinforcement Learning
, 1999
"... Learning, planning, and representing knowledge at multiple levels of temporal abstraction are key, longstanding challenges for AI. In this paper we consider how these challenges can be addressed within the mathematical framework of reinforcement learning and Markov decision processes (MDPs). We exte ..."
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Cited by 569 (38 self)
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Learning, planning, and representing knowledge at multiple levels of temporal abstraction are key, longstanding challenges for AI. In this paper we consider how these challenges can be addressed within the mathematical framework of reinforcement learning and Markov decision processes (MDPs). We extend the usual notion of action in this framework to include options|closed-loop policies for taking action over a period of time. Examples of options include picking up an object, going to lunch, and traveling to a distant city, as well as primitive actions such as muscle twitches and joint knowledge and action to be included in the reinforcement learning framework in a natural and general way. In particular, we show that options may be used interchangeably with primitive actions in planning methods such as dynamic programming and in learning methods such as Q-learning. Formally, a set of options defined
Decision-Theoretic Planning: Structural Assumptions and Computational Leverage
- JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH
, 1999
"... Planning under uncertainty is a central problem in the study of automated sequential decision making, and has been addressed by researchers in many different fields, including AI planning, decision analysis, operations research, control theory and economics. While the assumptions and perspectives ..."
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Cited by 515 (4 self)
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Planning under uncertainty is a central problem in the study of automated sequential decision making, and has been addressed by researchers in many different fields, including AI planning, decision analysis, operations research, control theory and economics. While the assumptions and perspectives adopted in these areas often differ in substantial ways, many planning problems of interest to researchers in these fields can be modeled as Markov decision processes (MDPs) and analyzed using the techniques of decision theory. This paper presents an overview and synthesis of MDP-related methods, showing how they provide a unifying framework for modeling many classes of planning problems studied in AI. It also describes structural properties of MDPs that, when exhibited by particular classes of problems, can be exploited in the construction of optimal or approximately optimal policies or plans. Planning problems commonly possess structure in the reward and value functions used to de...
Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning with the MAXQ Value Function Decomposition
- Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
, 2000
"... This paper presents a new approach to hierarchical reinforcement learning based on decomposing the target Markov decision process (MDP) into a hierarchy of smaller MDPs and decomposing the value function of the target MDP into an additive combination of the value functions of the smaller MDPs. Th ..."
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Cited by 443 (6 self)
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This paper presents a new approach to hierarchical reinforcement learning based on decomposing the target Markov decision process (MDP) into a hierarchy of smaller MDPs and decomposing the value function of the target MDP into an additive combination of the value functions of the smaller MDPs. The decomposition, known as the MAXQ decomposition, has both a procedural semantics---as a subroutine hierarchy---and a declarative semantics---as a representation of the value function of a hierarchical policy. MAXQ unifies and extends previous work on hierarchical reinforcement learning by Singh, Kaelbling, and Dayan and Hinton. It is based on the assumption that the programmer can identify useful subgoals and define subtasks that achieve these subgoals. By defining such subgoals, the programmer constrains the set of policies that need to be considered during reinforcement learning. The MAXQ value function decomposition can represent the value function of any policy that is consisten...
Convergence of Stochastic Iterative Dynamic Programming Algorithms
- Neural Computation
, 1994
"... Increasing attention has recently been paid to algorithms based on dynamic programming (DP) due to the suitability of DP for learning problems involving control. In stochastic environments where the system being controlled is only incompletely known, however, a unifying theoretical account of th ..."
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Cited by 255 (8 self)
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Increasing attention has recently been paid to algorithms based on dynamic programming (DP) due to the suitability of DP for learning problems involving control. In stochastic environments where the system being controlled is only incompletely known, however, a unifying theoretical account of the behavior of these methods has been missing. In this paper we relate DP-based learning algorithms to powerful techniques of stochastic approximation via a new convergence theorem, enabling us to establish a class of convergent algorithms to which both TD() and Q-learning belong. 1
A sparse sampling algorithm for near-optimal planning in large Markov decision processes
- Machine Learning
, 1999
"... An issue that is critical for the application of Markov decision processes (MDPs) to realistic problems is how the complexity of planning scales with the size of the MDP. In stochastic environments with very large or even in-nite state spaces, traditional planning and reinforcement learning algorith ..."
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Cited by 239 (7 self)
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An issue that is critical for the application of Markov decision processes (MDPs) to realistic problems is how the complexity of planning scales with the size of the MDP. In stochastic environments with very large or even in-nite state spaces, traditional planning and reinforcement learning algorithms are often inapplicable, since their running time typically scales linearly with the state space size in the worst case. In this paper we present a new algorithm that, given only a generative model (simulator) for an arbitrary MDP, performs near-optimal planning with a running time that has no dependence on the number of states. Although the running time is exponential in the horizon time (which depends only on the discount factor and the desired degree of approximation to the optimal policy), our results establish for the rst time that there are no theoretical barriers to computing near-optimal policies in arbitrarily large, unstructured MDPs. 1
Recent advances in hierarchical reinforcement learning
, 2003
"... A preliminary unedited version of this paper was incorrectly published as part of Volume ..."
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Cited by 229 (24 self)
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A preliminary unedited version of this paper was incorrectly published as part of Volume
Planning with Incomplete Information as Heuristic Search in Belief Space
, 2000
"... The formulation of planning as heuristic search with heuristics derived from problem representations has turned out to be a fruitful approach for classical planning. In this paper, we pursue a similar idea in the context planning with incomplete information. Planning with incomplete information ..."
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Cited by 225 (34 self)
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The formulation of planning as heuristic search with heuristics derived from problem representations has turned out to be a fruitful approach for classical planning. In this paper, we pursue a similar idea in the context planning with incomplete information. Planning with incomplete information can be formulated as a problem of search in belief space, where belief states can be either sets of states or more generally probability distribution over states. While the formulation (as the formulation of classical planning as heuristic search) is not particularly novel, the contribution of this paper is to make it explicit, to test it over a number of domains, and to extend it to tasks like planning with sensing where the standard search algorithms do not apply. The resulting planner appears to be competitive with the most recent conformant and contingent planners (e.g., cgp, sgp, and cmbp) while at the same time is more general as it can handle probabilistic actions and se...
Algorithms for Sequential Decision Making
, 1996
"... Sequential decision making is a fundamental task faced by any intelligent agent in an extended interaction with its environment; it is the act of answering the question "What should I do now?" In this thesis, I show how to answer this question when "now" is one of a finite set of ..."
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Cited by 213 (8 self)
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Sequential decision making is a fundamental task faced by any intelligent agent in an extended interaction with its environment; it is the act of answering the question "What should I do now?" In this thesis, I show how to answer this question when "now" is one of a finite set of states, "do" is one of a finite set of actions, "should" is maximize a long-run measure of reward, and "I" is an automated planning or learning system (agent). In particular,
