Abstract
For over a decade, model-based reinforcement learning has been seen as a way to leverage control-based domain knowledge to improve the sample-efficiency of reinforcement learning agents. While model-based agents are conceptually appealing, their policies tend to lag behind those of model-free agents in terms of final reward, especially in non-trivial environments. In response, researchers have proposed model-based agents with increasingly complex components, from ensembles of probabilistic dynamics models, to heuristics for mitigating model error. In a reversal of this trend, we show that simple model-based agents can be derived from existing ideas that not only match, but outperform state-of-the-art model-free agents in terms of both sample-efficiency and final reward. We find that a model-free soft value estimate for policy evaluation and a model-based stochastic value gradient for policy improvement is an effective combination, achieving state-of-the-art results on a high-dimensional humanoid control task, which most model-based agents are unable to solve. Our findings suggest that model-based policy evaluation deserves closer attention.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 6-20 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Proceedings of Machine Learning Research |
Volume | 144 |
State | Published - 2021 |
Event | 3rd Annual Conference on Learning for Dynamics and Control, L4DC 2021 - Virtual, Online, Switzerland Duration: Jun 7 2021 → Jun 8 2021 |
Keywords
- model-based control
- Reinforcement learning
- value gradient
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Artificial Intelligence
- Software
- Control and Systems Engineering
- Statistics and Probability