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Accelerating Reinforcement Learning through the Discovery of Useful Subgoals
Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series
  • Amy McGovern, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • Andrew G. Barto, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Publication Date
2001
Abstract

An ability to adjust to changing environments and unforeseen circumstances is likely to be an important component of a successful autonomous space robot. This paper shows how to augment reinforcement learning algorithms with a method for automatically discovering certain types of subgoals online. By creating useful new subgoals while learning, the agent is able to accelerate learning on a current task and to transfer its expertise to related tasks through the reuse of its ability to attain subgoals. Subgoals are created based on commonalities across multiple paths to a solution. We cast the task of finding these commonalities as a multiple-instance learning problem and use the concept of diverse density to find solutions. We introduced this approach in [10] and here we present additional results for a simulated mobile robot task.

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Citation Information
Amy McGovern and Andrew G. Barto. "Accelerating Reinforcement Learning through the Discovery of Useful Subgoals" (2001)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrew_barto/8/