In this paper we consider the problem of how a reinforcement learning agent that is tasked with solving a sequence of reinforcement learning problems (a sequence of Markov decision processes) can use knowledge acquired early in its lifetime to improve its ability to solve new problems. We argue that previous experience with similar problems can provide an agent with information about how it should explore when facing a new but related problem. We show that the search for an optimal exploration strategy can be formulated as a reinforcement learning problem itself and demonstrate that such strategy can leverage patterns found in the structure of related problems. We conclude with experiments that show the benefits of optimizing an exploration strategy using our proposed approach.
In the context of RL, a similar idea can be applied by defining a meta-MDP, i.e., considering the agent as part of the environment in a larger MDP. In multi-agent systems, @cite_30 considered other agents as part of the environment from the perspective of each individual agent. @cite_9 proposed the conjugate MDP framework, in which agents solving meta-MDPs (called CoMDPs) can search for the state representation, action representation, or options that maximize the expected return when used by an RL agent solving a single MDP. Despite existing meta-MDP approaches, to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first to use the meta-MDP approach to specifically optimize exploration for a set of related tasks.
@cite_30 @cite_9
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Following work on designing optimal rewards for single agents, we define a multiagent optimal rewards problem (ORP) in common-payoff (or team) settings. This new problem solves for individual agent reward functions that guide agents to better overall team performance relative to teams in which all agents guide their behavior with the same given team-reward function. We present a multiagent architecture in which each agent learns good reward functions from experience using a gradient-based algorithm in addition to performing the usual task of planning good policies (except in this case with respect to the learned rather than the given reward function). Multiagency introduces the challenge of nonstationarity: because the agents learn simultaneously, each agent's learning problem is nonstationary and interdependent on the other agents. We demonstrate on two simple domains that the proposed architecture outperforms the conventional approach in which all the agents use the same given team-reward function (even when accounting for the resource overhead of the reward learning); that the learning algorithm performs stably despite the nonstationarity; and that learning individual reward functions can lead to better specialization of roles than is possible with shared reward, whether learned or given. Many open problems involve the search for a mapping that is used by an algorithm solving an MDP. Useful mappings are often from the state set to some other set. Examples include representation discovery (a mapping to a feature space) and skill discovery (a mapping to skill termination probabilities). Different mappings result in algorithms achieving varying expected returns. In this paper we present a novel approach to the search for any mapping used by any algorithm attempting to solve an MDP, for that which results in maximum expected return.