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# CSE510 Deep Reinforcement Learning (Lecture 17)
## Why Model-Based RL?
- Sample efficiency
- Generalization and transferability
- Support efficient exploration in large-scale RL problems
- Explainability
- Super-human performance in practice
- Video games, Go, Algorithm discovery, etc.
> [!NOTE]
>
> Model is anything the agent can use to predict how the environment will respond to its actions, concretely, the state transition $T(s'| s, a)$ and reward $R(s, a)$.
For ADP-based (model-based) RL
1. Start with initial model
2. Solve for optimal policy given current model
- (using value or policy iteration)
3. Take action according to an exploration/exploitation policy
- Explores more early on and gradually uses policy from 2
4. Update estimated model based on observed transition
5. Goto 2
### Problems in Large Scale Model-Based RL
- New planning methods for given a model
- Model is large and not perfect
- Model learning
- Requiring generalization
- Exploration/exploitation strategy
- Requiring generalization and attention
### Large Scale Model-Based RL
- New optimal planning methods (Today)
- Model is large and not perfect
- Model learning (Next Lecture)
- Requiring generalization
- Exploration/exploitation strategy (Next week)
- Requiring generalization and attention
## Model-based RL
### Deterministic Environment: Cross-Entropy Method
#### Stochastic Optimization
abstract away optimal control/planning:
$$
a_1,\ldots, a_T =\argmax_{a_1,\ldots, a_T} J(a_1,\ldots, a_T)
$$
$$
A=\argmax_{A} J(A)
$$
Simplest method: guess and check: "random shooting method"
- pick $A_1, A_2, ..., A_n$ from some distribution (e.g. uniform)
- Choose $A_i$ based on $\argmax_i J(A_i)$
#### Cross-Entropy Method (CEM) with continuous-valued inputs
Cross-entropy method with continuous-valued inputs:s
1. Sample $A_1, A_2, ..., A_n$ from some distribution $p(A)$
2. Evaluate $J(A_1), J(A_2), ..., J(A_n)$
3. Pick the _elites_ $A_1, A_2, ..., A_m$ with the highest $J(A_i)$, where $m<n$
4. Update the distribution $p(A)$ to be more likely to choose the elites
Pros:
- Very fast to run if parallelized
- Extremely simple to implement
Cons:
- Very harsh dimensionality limit
- Only open-loop planning
- Suboptimal in stochastic environments
### Discrete Case: Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)
Discrete planning as a search problem
Close-loop planning:
- At each state, iteratively build a search tree to evaluate actions, select the best-first action, and the move the next state.
Use model as simulator to evaluate actions.
#### MCTS Algorithm Overview
1. Selection: Select the best-first action from the search tree
2. Expansion: Add a new node to the search tree
3. Simulation: Simulate the next state from the selected action
4. Backpropagation: Update the values of the nodes in the search tree
#### Policies in MCTS
Tree policy:
- Select/create leaf node
- Selection and Expansion
- Bandit problem!
Default policy/rollout policy
- Play the game till end
- Simulation
Decision policy
- Selecting the final action
#### Upper Confidence Bound on Trees (UCT)
Selecting Child Node - Multi-Arm Bandit Problem
UCB1 applied for each child selection
$$
UCT=\overline{X_j}+2C_p\sqrt{\frac{2\ln n_j}{n_j}}
$$
- where $\overline{X_j}$ is the mean reward of selecting this position
- $[0,1]$
- $n$ is the number of times current(parent) node has been visited
- $n_j$ is the number of times child node $j$ has been visited
- Guaranteed we explore each child node at least once
- $C_p$ is some constant $>0$
Each child has non-zero probability of being selected
We can adjust $C_p$ to change exploration vs. exploitation trade-off
#### Decision Policy: Final Action Selection
Selecting the best child
- Max (highest weight)
- Robust (most visits)
- Max-Robust (max of the two)
#### Advantages and disadvantages of MCTS
Advantages:
- Proved MCTS converges to minimax solution
- Domain-independent
- Anytime algorithm
- Achieving better with a large branch factor
Disadvantages:
- Basic version converges very slowly
- Leading to small-probability failures
### Example usage of MCTS
AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol, Game 4
- White 78 (Lee): unexpected move (even other professional players didn't see coming) - needle in the haystack
- AlphaGo failed to explore this in MCTS
Imitation learning from MCTS:
#### Continuous Case: Trajectory Optimization
#### Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
#### Non-linear iterative LQR (iLQR)/ Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP)