A new natural policy gradient by stationary distribution metric

Tetsuro Morimura, Eiji Uchibe, Junichiro Yoshimoto, Kenji Doya

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The parameter space of a statistical learning machine has a Riemannian metric structure in terms of its objective function. [1] Amari proposed the concept of "natural gradient" that takes the Riemannian metric of the parameter space into account. Kakade [2] applied it to policy gradient reinforcement learning, called a natural policy gradient (NPG). Although NPGs evidently depend on the underlying Riemannian metrics, careful attention was not paid to the alternative choice of the metric in previous studies. In this paper, we propose a Riemannian metric for the joint distribution of the state-action, which is directly linked with the average reward, and derive a new NPG named "Natural State-action Gradient" (NSG). Then, we prove that NSG can be computed by fitting a certain linear model into the immediate reward function. In numerical experiments, we verify that the NSG learning can handle MDPs with a large number of states, for which the performances of the existing (N)PG methods degrade.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMachine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases - European Conference, ECML PKDD 2008, Proceedings
Pages82-97
Number of pages16
EditionPART 2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
EventEuropean Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2008 - Antwerp, Belgium
Duration: 15-09-200819-09-2008

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
NumberPART 2
Volume5212 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

ConferenceEuropean Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2008
Country/TerritoryBelgium
CityAntwerp
Period15-09-0819-09-08

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A new natural policy gradient by stationary distribution metric'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this