arXiv:2505.08988cs.AI2025-05被引 1

让智能体在奖励不可见时也能学习,通过建模奖励实现泛化。

Generalization in Monitored Markov Decision Processes (Mon-MDPs)

  • 用函数逼近和学习奖励模型,让智能体从可见奖励泛化到不可见状态。
  • 在理论上不可解的环境中,仍能接近最优策略。
  • 提出谨慎优化方法,缓解因过度泛化导致的错误行为。

强化学习通常将智能体与环境的交互建模为马尔可夫决策过程(MDP),其中奖励始终可观测。然而,在许多现实场景中,奖励并非总是可观测,这可建模为受监控的马尔可夫决策过程(Mon-MDP)。以往关于Mon-MDP的研究局限于简单的表格型情形,限制了其在真实问题中的应用。本文首次在函数逼近(FA)框架下研究Mon-MDP,探索其挑战。结果表明,结合函数逼近与学习的奖励模型,使智能体能够从具有可观测奖励的监控状态泛化到无观测奖励的非监控状态。因此,在形式上不可解的环境中,该方法仍可实现近似最优策略。但我们也发现,函数逼近存在关键局限:由于过度泛化,智能体可能错误外推奖励,导致不良行为。为此,我们提出一种基于奖励不确定性的谨慎警察优化方法,以缓解过拟合问题。本工作为弥合Mon-MDP理论与现实应用之间的差距迈出重要一步。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Reinforcement learning (RL) typically models the interaction between the agent and environment as a Markov decision process (MDP), where the rewards that guide the agent's behavior are always observable. However, in many real-world scenarios, rewards are not always observable, which can be modeled as a monitored Markov decision process (Mon-MDP). Prior work on Mon-MDPs have been limited to simple, tabular cases, restricting their applicability to real-world problems. This work explores Mon-MDPs using function approximation (FA) and investigates the challenges involved. We show that combining function approximation with a learned reward model enables agents to generalize from monitored states with observable rewards, to unmonitored environment states with unobservable rewards. Therefore, we demonstrate that such generalization with a reward model achieves near-optimal policies in environments formally defined as unsolvable. However, we identify a critical limitation of such function approximation, where agents incorrectly extrapolate rewards due to overgeneralization, resulting in undesirable behaviors. To mitigate overgeneralization, we propose a cautious police optimization method leveraging reward uncertainty. This work serves as a step towards bridging this gap between Mon-MDP theory and real-world applications.

强化学习奖励建模泛化能力

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