在线学习比离线学习更优,因离线数据易遇分布外状态导致性能下降。
Offline vs. Online Learning in Model-based RL: Lessons for Data Collection Strategies
- 对比在线与离线数据收集策略在31个环境中的表现
- 离线模型因状态覆盖不足,在测试时遭遇分布外状态导致性能下降
- 建议收集数据时加入探索数据,提升模型泛化能力
在基于模型的强化学习中,数据收集对构建鲁棒世界模型至关重要。主流策略包括在线训练中主动与环境交互,或使用离线数据集进行训练。尽管世界模型的任务无关性使其适合离线训练,但在线与离线数据对世界模型及任务性能的影响尚未充分研究。本文在31个不同环境中对比两种范式,发现在线代理显著优于离线代理。关键问题是离线代理在测试时遭遇分布外状态,因其缺乏在线代理的自我校正机制,离线数据状态覆盖有限导致模型想象与真实轨迹不匹配,影响策略训练。通过引入固定或自适应的额外在线交互,可有效缓解此问题,使有限交互下的性能恢复至在线水平。同时,加入探索数据有助于减轻离线代理性能下降。因此建议在大规模数据收集中融入探索数据,而非仅依赖专家数据。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Data collection is crucial for learning robust world models in model-based reinforcement learning. The most prevalent strategies are to actively collect trajectories by interacting with the environment during online training or training on offline datasets. At first glance, the nature of learning task-agnostic environment dynamics makes world models a good candidate for effective offline training. However, the effects of online vs. offline data on world models and thus on the resulting task performance have not been thoroughly studied in the literature. In this work, we investigate both paradigms in model-based settings, conducting experiments on 31 different environments. First, we showcase that online agents outperform their offline counterparts. We identify a key challenge behind performance degradation of offline agents: encountering Out-Of-Distribution states at test time. This issue arises because, without the self-correction mechanism in online agents, offline datasets with limited state space coverage induce a mismatch between the agent's imagination and real rollouts, compromising policy training. We demonstrate that this issue can be mitigated by allowing for additional online interactions in a fixed or adaptive schedule, restoring the performance of online training with limited interaction data. We also showcase that incorporating exploration data helps mitigate the performance degradation of offline agents. Based on our insights, we recommend adding exploration data when collecting large datasets, as current efforts predominantly focus on expert data alone.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。