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Reinforcement Learning Algorithms with Python

You're reading from   Reinforcement Learning Algorithms with Python Learn, understand, and develop smart algorithms for addressing AI challenges

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Product type Paperback
Published in Oct 2019
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781789131116
Length 366 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
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Author (1):
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Andrea Lonza Andrea Lonza
Author Profile Icon Andrea Lonza
Andrea Lonza
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Table of Contents (19) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1: Algorithms and Environments
2. The Landscape of Reinforcement Learning FREE CHAPTER 3. Implementing RL Cycle and OpenAI Gym 4. Solving Problems with Dynamic Programming 5. Section 2: Model-Free RL Algorithms
6. Q-Learning and SARSA Applications 7. Deep Q-Network 8. Learning Stochastic and PG Optimization 9. TRPO and PPO Implementation 10. DDPG and TD3 Applications 11. Section 3: Beyond Model-Free Algorithms and Improvements
12. Model-Based RL 13. Imitation Learning with the DAgger Algorithm 14. Understanding Black-Box Optimization Algorithms 15. Developing the ESBAS Algorithm 16. Practical Implementation for Resolving RL Challenges 17. Assessments
18. Other Books You May Enjoy

REINFORCE with baseline

REINFORCE has the nice property of being unbiased, due to the MC return, which provides the true return of a full trajectory. However, the unbiased estimate is to the detriment of the variance, which increases with the length of the trajectory. Why? This effect is due to the stochasticity of the policy. By executing a full trajectory, you would know its true reward. However, the value that is assigned to each state-action pair may not be correct, since the policy is stochastic, and executing it another time may lead to a new state, and consequently, a different reward. Moreover, you can see that the higher the number of actions in a trajectory, the more stochasticity you will have introduced into the system, therefore, ending up with higher variance.

Luckily, it is possible to introduce a baseline, , in the estimation of the return, therefore decreasing...

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