首次实现稳定流式深度强化学习,突破长期存在的学习不稳定性难题。
Streaming Deep Reinforcement Learning Finally Works
- 提出 stream-x 系列算法,无需存储历史数据,实时处理经验流。
- 在 DM Control 狗类任务中达到当前最优无模型性能,媲美批处理方法。
- 一套通用技术适配多种算法,适合资源受限与隐私敏感场景。
自然智能以连续流的方式感知、行动与学习。经典强化学习(如 Q-learning、TD)通过仅使用最新样本的流式学习方式,模拟这种实时过程,适用于资源受限、通信受限和隐私敏感的应用。然而,在深度强化学习中,几乎所有算法依赖批量更新和回放缓冲区,导致计算开销大且不支持流式学习。尽管批处理方法被认为更高效,但真正阻碍流式深度强化学习发展的核心原因是其频繁出现的不稳定与学习失败,我们称之为“流屏障”。本文提出 stream-x 算法系列,首次克服流屏障,实现预测与控制任务的稳定学习,并达到与批处理方法相当的样本效率。在 Mujoco Gym、DM Control Suite 与 Atari 游戏中的实验表明,现有算法存在明显流屏障,而我们的 stream Q、stream AC 与 stream TD 能稳定训练,尤其在 DM Control Dog 环境中取得最佳模型无关性能。一组通用技术支撑所有 stream-x 算法,仅用一组超参数即可成功部署,并可轻松扩展至其他算法,重新激活流式强化学习的研究价值。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Natural intelligence processes experience as a continuous stream, sensing, acting, and learning moment-by-moment in real time. Streaming learning, the modus operandi of classic reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms like Q-learning and TD, mimics natural learning by using the most recent sample without storing it. This approach is also ideal for resource-constrained, communication-limited, and privacy-sensitive applications. However, in deep RL, learners almost always use batch updates and replay buffers, making them computationally expensive and incompatible with streaming learning. Although the prevalence of batch deep RL is often attributed to its sample efficiency, a more critical reason for the absence of streaming deep RL is its frequent instability and failure to learn, which we refer to as stream barrier. This paper introduces the stream-x algorithms, the first class of deep RL algorithms to overcome stream barrier for both prediction and control and match sample efficiency of batch RL. Through experiments in Mujoco Gym, DM Control Suite, and Atari Games, we demonstrate stream barrier in existing algorithms and successful stable learning with our stream-x algorithms: stream Q, stream AC, and stream TD, achieving the best model-free performance in DM Control Dog environments. A set of common techniques underlies the stream-x algorithms, enabling their success with a single set of hyperparameters and allowing for easy extension to other algorithms, thereby reviving streaming RL.
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