Continuous
Prioritized Sweeping
with
Gaussian Processes

  • Sample-efficiency!
  • Learning with fewer interactions.

GOAL

  • Data is in tuple form: <s,a,s',r>

GOAL

  • Data is in tuple form: <s,a,s',r>

GOAL

MODEL FREE

  • Prioritize experience replay based on past
    TD errors
  • Experience replay
    (randomly feed collected data to learning algorithm)
  • Data is in tuple form: <s,a,s',r>

GOAL

MODEL FREE

  • Prioritize experience replay based on past
    TD errors
  • Experience replay
    (randomly feed collected data to learning algorithm)

MODEL BASED

  • Use model to generate new data/backup the value function
  • Prioritize based on past
    TD errors AND learned dynamics

PRIORITIZED SWEEPING

Q(s,a) \mathrel{+}= \alpha\left [ R(s,a) + \gamma\max_{a'}Q(s',a') - Q(s,a) \right ]

PRIORITIZED SWEEPING

Q(s,a) \mathrel{+}= \alpha\left [ R(s,a) + \gamma\max_{a'}Q(s',a') - Q(s,a) \right ]

PRIORITIZED SWEEPING

Q(s,a) \mathrel{+}= \alpha\left [ R(s,a) + \gamma\max_{a'}Q(s',a') - Q(s,a) \right ]

PRIORITIZED SWEEPING

Q(s,a) \mathrel{+}= \alpha\left [ R(s,a) + \gamma\max_{a'}Q(s',a') - Q(s,a) \right ]

PRIORITIZED SWEEPING

p_{s,a} = \left | \Delta_{s'} \right |\ \ \cdot \ \ T(s' | s, a)
  • Update V(s'), which gives
  • Iterate all  s,a  pairs
  • Compute all priorities
  • Pick highest and repeat

How to prioritize?

\Delta_{s'}

Model

TD error

CONTINUOUS SETTING

  • Learn continuous T
  • Iterate  s,a  pairs to update priority

PROBLEMS

CONTINUOUS SETTING

  • Learn continuous T
  • Iterate  s,a  pairs to update priority

PROBLEMS

Gaussian Process!

SOLUTION

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

  • Infinite dimensional multivariate Gaussian
  • Sample-efficient & Bayesian function approximator

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

GAUSSIAN PROCESS

  • It's a DISTRIBUTION over functions!
  • It can be learned easily and sample-efficiently (there are some gotchas)
  • It keeps track of uncertainty!

CONTINUOUS PS

p_{s,a} = \left | \Delta_{s'} \right |\ \ \cdot \ \ T(s' | s, a)

Model

TD error

This is what we need:

CONTINUOUS PS

T(s' | s, a)

with a GP

s

a

s'

CONTINUOUS PS

Plot shows deterministic mean, but GP handles stochastic transitions!

s

a

s'

CONTINUOUS PS

Iterating over parents equals slicing GP at a given height

matplotlib screws the projection of
overlapping surfaces, sorry!

CONTINUOUS PS

Taking into account uncertainty, it'd look like this

CONTINUOUS PS

  • Now we only need to go over all parents, and we can compute the priorities
  • But wait.. this is still a continuous function!
  • Approximate using sampling!

CONTINUOUS PS

  • Sample arbitrary s,a
  • Some ways to optimize this:
    • Latin Hypercube sampling
    • Gradient descent (depending on GP kernel)
  • Compute PDF using GP, and add the resulting priority to a queue

CONTINUOUS PS

EXPERIMENTAL SETTING

  • Test DQN as:
    • vanilla
    • experience replay
    • prioritized experience replay
    • use GP to prioritize experience replay
    • use GP to fully sample new experience

Multiagent Extension

  • Already works for discrete settings (under domain knowledge assumptions)
  • Main idea is that priorities are factored as sum of smaller functions
  • Each function only depends on some state features and agents

Multiagent Extension

  • Important being able to represent priorities as functions 
  • Since we are already there, use mixtures of Gaussians!

Multiagent Extension

  • Cluster samples using variational Expectation Maximization (weighted)

Multiagent Extension

  • Now we can represent priorities as actual functions, and can do fancy things with them!
  • Enhanced buzzword level
  • As long as everything works...

Questions?

Continuous PS with GPs

By svalorzen

Continuous PS with GPs

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