提出可变折扣的非平稳强化学习框架,让算法适应动态环境并灵活设计策略。
Non-stationary and Varying-discounting Markov Decision Processes for Reinforcement Learning
- 引入随时间与转移变化的折扣率,统一处理非平稳与有限时域问题
- 基于新框架改进动态规划和Q-learning,实现收敛性证明与策略优化
- 实验显示在动态环境中优于传统Q-learning,适合需要精准策略设计的场景
在非平稳环境中,传统基于平稳马尔可夫决策过程(MDP)的算法常面临挑战,且无限时域模型难以直接应用于有限时域任务。为此,本文提出非平稳与可变折扣MDP(NVMDP)框架,自然支持非平稳性,并允许折扣率随时间和状态转移变化。无限时域、平稳MDP可作为NVMDP的特例,有限时域MDP亦被其涵盖。此外,NVMDP提供无需改变状态空间、动作空间或奖励结构即可塑造最优策略的灵活机制。本文建立了NVMDP的理论基础,包括假设条件、状态-动作值函数形式与递推关系、矩阵表示、最优性条件及策略改进方法,适用于有限状态与动作空间。基于此,我们适配了动态规划与广义Q-learning算法,并给出严格收敛性证明。对于需函数逼近的问题,扩展了信任区域策略优化(TRPO)中的策略梯度定理与策略改进界,提供标量与矩阵形式证明。在非平稳网格世界环境中的实证评估表明,基于NVMDP的算法能有效恢复多种奖励与折扣设置下的最优轨迹,而原始Q-learning则失败。结果共同表明,NVMDP提供了一个理论严谨且实践有效的强化学习框架,仅需微小算法调整即可实现对非平稳性的鲁棒处理与显式策略塑造。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Algorithms developed under stationary Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) often face challenges in non-stationary environments, and infinite-horizon formulations may not directly apply to finite-horizon tasks. To address these limitations, we introduce the Non-stationary and Varying-discounting MDP (NVMDP) framework, which naturally accommodates non-stationarity and allows discount rates to vary with time and transitions. Infinite-horizon, stationary MDPs emerge as special cases of NVMDPs for identifying an optimal policy, and finite-horizon MDPs are also subsumed within the NVMDP formulations. Moreover, NVMDPs provide a flexible mechanism to shape optimal policies, without altering the state space, action space, or the reward structure. We establish the theoretical foundations of NVMDPs, including assumptions, state- and action-value formulation and recursion, matrix representation, optimality conditions, and policy improvement under finite state and action spaces. Building on these results, we adapt dynamic programming and generalized Q-learning algorithms to NVMDPs, along with formal convergence proofs. For problems requiring function approximation, we extend the Policy Gradient Theorem and the policy improvement bound in Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO), offering proofs in both scalar and matrix forms. Empirical evaluations in a non-stationary gridworld environment demonstrate that NVMDP-based algorithms successfully recover optimal trajectories under multiple reward and discounting schemes, whereas original Q-learning fails. These results collectively show that NVMDPs provide a theoretically sound and practically effective framework for reinforcement learning, requiring only minor algorithmic modifications while enabling robust handling of non-stationarity and explicit optimal policy shaping.
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