提出新方法检测强化学习中状态依赖失效问题,助力提升真实场景鲁棒性。
Quantifying First-Order Markov Violations in Noisy Reinforcement Learning: A Causal Discovery Approach
- 用因果发现+相关性检验识别多步依赖,定位非马尔可夫性
- 实验显示删减关键状态变量会大幅降低收益并提高违规分数
- 适合关注真实环境鲁棒性与表征学习的研究者
强化学习常假设观测完全反映环境状态,保证一步转移的马尔可夫性。现实中部分可观测或传感器/执行器噪声常破坏该假设。本文提出系统性方法,结合基于偏相关性的因果发现(PCMCI)与新型马尔可夫违规评分(MVS),量化噪声或状态信息缺失导致的多步依赖。经典控制任务(CartPole、Pendulum、Acrobot)用于演示目标噪声和维度删减对强化学习性能与马尔可夫一致性的影响。意外发现:即使高噪声,某些领域(如Acrobot)仍不产生强多时滞依赖;而移除关键状态变量(如CartPole和Pendulum中的角速度)显著降低回报并提升MVS,其他维度删除影响较小。结果强调需识别并保护最因果关键维度以维持有效单步学习。通过整合偏相关性测试与强化学习表现,该框架精准定位马尔可夫假设失效时刻与位置,为构建鲁棒策略、指导表示学习、应对真实世界部分可观测性提供原理性机制。所有代码与实验日志公开可复现(https://github.com/ucsb/markovianess)。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reinforcement learning (RL) methods frequently assume that each new observation completely reflects the environment's state, thereby guaranteeing Markovian (one-step) transitions. In practice, partial observability or sensor/actuator noise often invalidates this assumption. This paper proposes a systematic methodology for detecting such violations, combining a partial correlation-based causal discovery process (PCMCI) with a novel Markov Violation score (MVS). The MVS measures multi-step dependencies that emerge when noise or incomplete state information disrupts the Markov property. Classic control tasks (CartPole, Pendulum, Acrobot) serve as examples to illustrate how targeted noise and dimension omissions affect both RL performance and measured Markov consistency. Surprisingly, even substantial observation noise sometimes fails to induce strong multi-lag dependencies in certain domains (e.g., Acrobot). In contrast, dimension-dropping investigations show that excluding some state variables (e.g., angular velocities in CartPole and Pendulum) significantly reduces returns and increases MVS, while removing other dimensions has minimal impact. These findings emphasize the importance of locating and safeguarding the most causally essential dimensions in order to preserve effective single-step learning. By integrating partial correlation tests with RL performance outcomes, the proposed approach precisely identifies when and where the Markov assumption is violated. This framework offers a principled mechanism for developing robust policies, informing representation learning, and addressing partial observability in real-world RL scenarios. All code and experimental logs are accessible for reproducibility (https://github.com/ucsb/markovianess).
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