RL Function Approximation

These algorithms are good for scaling state spaces, but not actions spaces. The Gradient Idea Recall Temporal difference learning and Q-Learning, two model free policy evaluation techniques explored in Tabular Reinforcement Learning. A simple parametrization 🟩 The idea here is to parametrize the value estimation function so that similar inputs gets similar values akin to Parametric Modeling estimation we have done in the other courses. In this manner, we don’t need to explicitly explore every single state in the state space. ...

14 min · Xuanqiang 'Angelo' Huang

Tabular Reinforcement Learning

This note extends the content Markov Processes in this specific context. Standard notions Explore-exploit dilemma 🟩 We have seen something similar also in Active Learning when we tried to model if we wanted to look elsewhere or go for the maximum value we have found. The dilemma under analysis is the explore-exploit dilemma: whether if we should just go for the best solution we have found at the moment, or look for a better one. This also has implications in many other fields, also in normal human life there are a lot of balances in these terms. ...

12 min · Xuanqiang 'Angelo' Huang

Variational Inference

$$ p(\theta \mid x_{1:n}, y_{1:n}) = \frac{1}{z} p(y_{1:n} \mid \theta, x_{1:n}) p(\theta \mid x_{1:n}) \approx q(\theta \mid \lambda) $$For Bayesian Linear Regression we had high dimensional Gaussians which made the inference closed form, in general this is not true, so we need some kinds of approximation. Laplace approximation Introduction to the Idea 🟩 $$ \psi(\theta) \approx \hat{\psi}(\theta) = \psi(\hat{\theta}) + (\theta-\hat{\theta} ) ^{T} \nabla \psi(\hat{\theta}) + \frac{1}{2} (\theta-\hat{\theta} ) ^{T} H_{\psi}(\hat{\theta})(\theta-\hat{\theta} ) = \psi(\hat{\theta}) + \frac{1}{2} (\theta-\hat{\theta} ) ^{T} H_{\psi}(\hat{\theta})(\theta-\hat{\theta} ) $$ We simplified the term on the first order because we are considering the mode, so the gradient should be zero for the stationary point. ...

9 min · Xuanqiang 'Angelo' Huang