Training agents with reinforcement learning based techniques requires thousands of steps, which translates to long training periods when applied to robots. By training the policy in a simulated environment we avoid such limitation. Typically, the action spaces in a simulation and real robot are kept as similar as possible, but if we want to use a generic simulation environment, this strategy will not work. Video games, such as Doom (1993), offer a crude but multi-purpose environments that can used for learning various tasks. However, original Doom has four discrete actions for movement and the robot in our case has two continuous actions. In this work, we study the transfer between these two different action spaces. We begin with experiments in a simulated environment, after which we validate the results with experiments on a real robot. Results show that fine-tuning initially learned network parameters leads to unreliable results, but by keeping most of the neural network frozen we obtain above @math success rate in simulation and real robot experiments.
In this article we introduce the Arcade Learning Environment (ALE): both a challenge problem and a platform and methodology for evaluating the development of general, domain-independent AI technology. ALE provides an interface to hundreds of Atari 2600 game environments, each one different, interesting, and designed to be a challenge for human players. ALE presents significant research challenges for reinforcement learning, model learning, model-based planning, imitation learning, transfer learning, and intrinsic motivation. Most importantly, it provides a rigorous testbed for evaluating and comparing approaches to these problems. We illustrate the promise of ALE by developing and benchmarking domain-independent agents designed using well-established AI techniques for both reinforcement learning and planning. In doing so, we also propose an evaluation methodology made possible by ALE, reporting empirical results on over 55 different games. All of the software, including the benchmark agents, is publicly available. The recent advances in deep neural networks have led to effective vision-based reinforcement learning methods that have been employed to obtain human-level controllers in Atari 2600 games from pixel data. Atari 2600 games, however, do not resemble real-world tasks since they involve non-realistic 2D environments and the third-person perspective. Here, we propose a novel test-bed platform for reinforcement learning research from raw visual information which employs the first-person perspective in a semi-realistic 3D world. The software, called ViZDoom, is based on the classical first-person shooter video game, Doom. It allows developing bots that play the game using the screen buffer. ViZDoom is lightweight, fast, and highly customizable via a convenient mechanism of user scenarios. In the experimental part, we test the environment by trying to learn bots for two scenarios: a basic move-and-shoot task and a more complex maze-navigation problem. Using convolutional deep neural networks with Q-learning and experience replay, for both scenarios, we were able to train competent bots, which exhibit human-like behaviors. The results confirm the utility of ViZDoom as an AI research platform and imply that visual reinforcement learning in 3D realistic first-person perspective environments is feasible. We present TorchCraft, a library that enables deep learning research on Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games such as StarCraft: Brood War, by making it easier to control these games from a machine learning framework, here Torch [9]. This white paper argues for using RTS games as a benchmark for AI research, and describes the design and components of TorchCraft. We present Toribash Learning Environment (ToriLLE), a learning environment for machine learning agents based on the video game Toribash. Toribash is a MuJoCo-like environment of two humanoid character fighting each other hand-to-hand, controlled by changing actuation modes of the joints. Competitive nature of Toribash as well its focused domain provide a platform for evaluating self-play methods, and evaluating machine learning agents against human players. In this paper we describe the environment with ToriLLE's capabilities and limitations, and experimentally show its applicability as a learning environment. The source code of the environment and conducted experiments can be found at this https URL.