用多智能体强化学习实现高效可扩展的特征交叉,提升结构化数据建模效果。
Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Attention for Cooperative and Scalable Feature Transformation
- 设计三类异构智能体,通过注意力机制动态选择关键特征与操作。
- 在多个数据集上显著提升下游任务性能,最高准确率提升12.3%。
- 适合需要高可解释性特征工程的工业级结构化数据场景。
特征变换通过数学交叉生成信息丰富的特征,可显著提升下游任务表现。尽管深度学习发展迅速,但在结构化数据上,深度模型仍难以捕捉复杂特征交互,特征变换依然至关重要。现有自动化特征变换方法多依赖启发式或穷举搜索,效率低下。近期研究采用强化学习(RL)以更高效的试错方式改进传统方法,但仍存在两大问题:一是变换过程中特征空间动态扩展导致学习不稳定、复杂度升高;二是智能体间协作与通信不足,造成特征交叉效果不佳。为此,本文提出一种新型异构多智能体强化学习框架,实现协同且可扩展的特征变换。框架包含两类共三个异构智能体,分别负责特征与操作的选择。通过共享评判者机制促进智能体间信息交换,并引入基于多头注意力的特征智能体以应对动态特征空间。此外,优化过程中采用状态编码技术,稳定学习过程,提升策略鲁棒性。实验验证了该模型在有效性、效率、鲁棒性和可解释性上的优越表现。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Feature transformation enhances downstream task performance by generating informative features through mathematical feature crossing. Despite the advancements in deep learning, feature transformation remains essential for structured data, where deep models often struggle to capture complex feature interactions. Prior literature on automated feature transformation has achieved success but often relies on heuristics or exhaustive searches, leading to inefficient and time-consuming processes. Recent works employ reinforcement learning (RL) to enhance traditional approaches through a more effective trial-and-error way. However, two limitations remain: 1) Dynamic feature expansion during the transformation process, which causes instability and increases the learning complexity for RL agents; 2) Insufficient cooperation and communication between agents, which results in suboptimal feature crossing operations and degraded model performance. To address them, we propose a novel heterogeneous multi-agent RL framework to enable cooperative and scalable feature transformation. The framework comprises three heterogeneous agents, grouped into two types, each designed to select essential features and operations for feature crossing. To enhance communication among these agents, we implement a shared critic mechanism that facilitates information exchange during feature transformation. To handle the dynamically expanding feature space, we tailor multi-head attention-based feature agents to select suitable features for feature crossing. Additionally, we introduce a state encoding technique during the optimization process to stabilize and enhance the learning dynamics of the RL agents, resulting in more robust and reliable transformation policies. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments to validate the effectiveness, efficiency, robustness, and interpretability of our model.
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