Improving coordination in small-scale multi-agent deep reinforcement learning through memory-driven communication

Machine Learning - Deep reinforcement learning algorithms have recently been used to train multiple interacting agents in a centralised manner whilst keeping their execution decentralised. When the...     

一种基于梯度的多智能体元深度强化学习算法

多智能体系统在自动驾驶、智能物流、医疗协同等多个领域中广泛应用,然而由于技术进步和系统需求的增加,这些系统面临着规模庞大、复杂度高等挑战,常出现训练效率低和适应能力差等问题。为了解决这些问题,将基于梯度的元学习方法扩展到多智能体深度强化学习中,提出一种名为多智能体一阶元近端策略优化（MAMPPO）方法,用于学习多智能体系统的初始模型参数,从而为提高多智能体深度强化学习的性能提供新的视角。该方法充分利用多智能体强化学习过程中的经验数据,通过反复适应找到在梯度下降方向上最敏感的参数并学习初始参数,使模型训练从最佳起点开始,有效提高了联合策略的决策效率,显著加快了策略变化的速度,面对新情况的适应速度显著加快。在星际争霸II上的实验结果表明,MAMPPO方法显著提高了训练速度和适应能力,为后续提高多智能强化学习的训练效率和适应能力提供了一种新的解决方法。     

Joint UAV trajectory and communication design with heterogeneous multi-agent reinforcement learning

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) are recognized as effective means for delivering emergency communication services when terrestrial infrastructures are unavailable. This paper investigates a multiUAV-assisted communication system, where we jointly optimize UAVs’ trajectories, user association, and ground users(GUs)’ transmit power to maximize a defined fairness-weighted throughput metric. Owing to the dynamic nature of UAVs, this problem has to be solved in real time. However, the problem’s non-co...     

Optimizing task scheduling in human-robot collaboration with deep multi-agent reinforcement learning

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) presents an opportunity to improve the efficiency of manufacturing processes. However, the existing task planning approaches for HRC are still limited in many ways, e.g., co-robot encoding must rely on experts’ knowledge and the real-time task scheduling is applicable within small state-action spaces or simplified problem settings. In this paper, the HRC assembly working process is formatted into a novel chessboard setting, in which the selection of chess piece move is used to analogize to the decision making by both humans and robots in the HRC assembly working process. To optimize the completion time, a Markov game model is considered, which takes the task structure and the agent status as the state input and the overall completion time as the reward. Without experts’ knowledge, this game model is capable of seeking for correlated equilibrium policy among agents with convergency in making real-time decisions facing a dynamic environment. To improve the efficiency in finding an optimal policy of the task scheduling, a deep-Q-network (DQN) based multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) method is applied and compared with the Nash-Q learning, dynamic programming and the DQN-based single-agent reinforcement learning method. A height-adjustable desk assembly is used as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with different number of tasks and agents.     

Hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning

In this paper, we investigate the use of hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) to speed up the acquisition of cooperative multi-agent tasks. We introduce a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) framework, and propose a hierarchical multi-agent RL algorithm called Cooperative HRL. In this framework, agents are cooperative and homogeneous (use the same task decomposition). Learning is decentralized, with each agent learning three interrelated skills: how to perform each individual subtask, the order in which to carry them out, and how to coordinate with other agents. We define cooperative subtasks to be those subtasks in which coordination among agents significantly improves the performance of the overall task. Those levels of the hierarchy which include cooperative subtasks are called cooperation levels. A fundamental property of the proposed approach is that it allows agents to learn coordination faster by sharing information at the level of cooperative subtasks, rather than attempting to learn coordination at the level of primitive actions. We study the empirical performance of the Cooperative HRL algorithm using two testbeds: a simulated two-robot trash collection task, and a larger four-agent automated guided vehicle (AGV) scheduling problem. We compare the performance and speed of Cooperative HRL with other learning algorithms, as well as several well-known industrial AGV heuristics. We also address the issue of rational communication behavior among autonomous agents in this paper. The goal is for agents to learn both action and communication policies that together optimize the task given a communication cost. We extend the multi-agent HRL framework to include communication decisions and propose a cooperative multi-agent HRL algorithm called COM-Cooperative HRL. In this algorithm, we add a communication level to the hierarchical decomposition of the problem below each cooperation level. Before an agent makes a decision at a cooperative subtask, it decides if it is worthwhile to perform a communication action. A communication action has a certain cost and provides the agent with the actions selected by the other agents at a cooperation level. We demonstrate the efficiency of the COM-Cooperative HRL algorithm as well as the relation between the communication cost and the learned communication policy using a multi-agent taxi problem.     

多智能体深度强化学习及其可扩展性与可迁移性研究综述

得益于深度学习强大的特征表达能力和强化学习有效的策略学习能力,深度强化学习在一系列复杂序贯决策问题中取得了令人瞩目的成就.伴随着深度强化学习在诸多单智能体任务中的成功应用,其在多智能体系统中的研究方兴未艾.近年来,多智能体深度强化学习在人工智能领域备受关注,可扩展与可迁移性已成为其中的核心研究点之一.鉴于此,首先阐释深度强化学习的发展脉络和典型算法,介绍多智能体深度强化学习的3种学习范式,分析两类多智能体强化学习的典型算法,即分解值函数方法和中心化值函数方法;然后归纳注意力机制、图神经网络等6类具有可扩展性的多智能体深度强化学习模型,梳理迁移学习和课程学习在多智能体深度强化学习可迁移性方向的研究进展;最后讨论多智能体深度强化学习的应用前景与研究方向,为未来多智能体深度强化学习的进一步发展提供可借鉴的参考.     

引入通信与探索的多智能体强化学习QMIX算法

非平稳性问题是多智能体环境中深度学习面临的主要挑战之一,它打破了大多数单智能体强化学习算法都遵循的马尔可夫假设,使每个智能体在学习过程中都有可能会陷入由其他智能体所创建的环境而导致无终止的循环。为解决上述问题,研究了中心式训练分布式执行（CTDE）架构在强化学习中的实现方法,并分别从智能体间通信和智能体探索这两个角度入手,采用通过方差控制的强化学习算法（VBC）并引入好奇心机制来改进QMIX算法。通过星际争霸Ⅱ学习环境（SC2LE）中的微操场景对所提算法加以验证。实验结果表明,与QMIX算法相比,所提算法的性能有所提升,并且能够得到收敛速度更快的训练模型。     

基于多智能体深度强化学习的船舶协同避碰策略

船舶避碰是智能航行中首要解决的问题,多船会遇局面下,只有相互协作,共同规划避碰策略,才能有效降低碰撞风险.为使船舶智能避碰策略具有协同性、安全性和实用性,提出一种基于多智能体深度强化学习的船舶协同避碰决策方法.首先,研究船舶会遇局面辨识方法,设计满足《国际海上避碰规则》的多船避碰策略.其次,研究多船舶智能体合作方式,构建多船舶智能体协同避碰决策模型:利用注意力推理方法提取有助于避碰决策的关键数据;设计记忆驱动的经验学习方法,有效积累交互经验;引入噪音网络和多头注意力机制,增强船舶智能体决策探索能力.最后,分别在实验地图与真实海图上,对多船会遇场景进行仿真实验.结果表明,在协同性和安全性方面,相较于多个对比方法,所提出的避碰策略均能获得具有竞争力的结果,且满足实用性要求,从而为提高船舶智能航行水平和保障航行安全提供一种新的解决方案.     

Shaping multi-agent systems with gradient reinforcement learning

An original reinforcement learning (RL) methodology is proposed for the design of multi-agent systems. In the realistic setting of situated agents with local perception, the task of automatically building a coordinated system is of crucial importance. To that end, we design simple reactive agents in a decentralized way as independent learners. But to cope with the difficulties inherent to RL used in that framework, we have developed an incremental learning algorithm where agents face a sequence of progressively more complex tasks. We illustrate this general framework by computer experiments where agents have to coordinate to reach a global goal. This work has been conducted in part in NICTA’s Canberra laboratory.     

A survey on deep learning and deep reinforcement learning in robotics with a tutorial on deep reinforcement learning

This article is about deep learning (DL) and deep reinforcement learning (DRL) works applied to robotics. Both tools have been shown to be successful in delivering data-driven solutions for robotics tasks, as well as providing a natural way to develop an end-to-end pipeline from the robot’s sensing to its actuation, passing through the generation of a policy to perform the given task. These frameworks have been proven to be able to deal with real-world complications such as noise in sensing, imprecise actuation, variability in the scenarios where the robot is being deployed, among others. Following that vein, and given the growing interest in DL and DRL, the present work starts by providing a brief tutorial on deep reinforcement learning, where the goal is to understand the main concepts and approaches followed in the field. Later, the article describes the main, recent, and most promising approaches of DL and DRL in robotics, with sufficient technical detail to understand the core of the works and to motivate interested readers to initiate their own research in the area. Then, to provide a comparative analysis, we present several taxonomies in which the references can be classified, according to high-level features, the task that the work addresses, the type of system, and the learning techniques used in the work. We conclude by presenting promising research directions in both DL and DRL.

     

多智能体分层强化学习综述

作为机器学习和人工智能领域的一个重要分支,多智能体分层强化学习以一种通用的形式将多智能体的协作能力与强化学习的决策能力相结合,并通过将复杂的强化学习问题分解成若干个子问题并分别解决,可以有效解决空间维数灾难问题。这也使得多智能体分层强化学习成为解决大规模复杂背景下智能决策问题的一种潜在途径。首先对多智能体分层强化学习中涉及的主要技术进行阐述,包括强化学习、半马尔可夫决策过程和多智能体强化学习;然后基于分层的角度,对基于选项、基于分层抽象机、基于值函数分解和基于端到端等4种多智能体分层强化学习方法的算法原理和研究现状进行了综述;最后介绍了多智能体分层强化学习在机器人控制、博弈决策以及任务规划等领域的应用现状。     

Cooperative reinforcement learning in topology-based multi-agent systems

Topology-based multi-agent systems (TMAS), wherein agents interact with one another according to their spatial relationship in a network, are well suited for problems with topological constraints. In a TMAS system, however, each agent may have a different state space, which can be rather large. Consequently, traditional approaches to multi-agent cooperative learning may not be able to scale up with the complexity of the network topology. In this paper, we propose a cooperative learning strategy, under which autonomous agents are assembled in a binary tree formation (BTF). By constraining the interaction between agents, we effectively unify the state space of individual agents and enable policy sharing across agents. Our complexity analysis indicates that multi-agent systems with the BTF have a much smaller state space and a higher level of flexibility, compared with the general form of n-ary (n > 2) tree formation. We have applied the proposed cooperative learning strategy to a class of reinforcement learning agents known as temporal difference-fusion architecture for learning and cognition (TD-FALCON). Comparative experiments based on a generic network routing problem, which is a typical TMAS domain, show that the TD-FALCON BTF teams outperform alternative methods, including TD-FALCON teams in single agent and n-ary tree formation, a Q-learning method based on the table lookup mechanism, as well as a classical linear programming algorithm. Our study further shows that TD-FALCON BTF can adapt and function well under various scales of network complexity and traffic volume in TMAS domains.     

事件驱动的强化学习多智能体编队控制

针对经典强化学习的多智能体编队存在通信和计算资源消耗大的问题,本文引入事件驱动控制机制,智能体的动作决策无须按固定周期进行,而依赖于事件驱动条件更新智能体动作。在设计事件驱动条件时,不仅考虑智能体的累积奖赏值,还引入智能体与邻居奖赏值的偏差,智能体间通过交互来寻求最优联合策略实现编队。数值仿真结果表明,基于事件驱动的强化学习多智能体编队控制算法,在保证系统性能的情况下,能有效降低多智能体的动作决策频率和资源消耗。     

双Q网络学习的迁移强化学习算法

深度强化学习在训练过程中会探索大量环境样本,造成算法收敛时间过长,而重用或传输来自先前任务(源任务)学习的知识,对算法在新任务(目标任务)的学习具有提高算法收敛速度的潜力.为了提高算法学习效率,提出一种双Q网络学习的迁移强化学习算法,其基于actor-critic框架迁移源任务最优值函数的知识,使目标任务中值函数网络对策略作出更准确的评价,引导策略快速向最优策略方向更新.将该算法用于Open AI Gym以及在三维空间机械臂到达目标物位置的实验中,相比于常规深度强化学习算法取得了更好的效果,实验证明提出的双Q网络学习的迁移强化学习算法具有较快的收敛速度,并且在训练过程中算法探索更加稳定.     

A survey on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning: from the perspective of challenges and applications

Artificial Intelligence Review - Deep reinforcement learning has proved to be a fruitful method in various tasks in the field of artificial intelligence during the last several years. Recent works...     

基于多智能体深度强化学习的车联网可信任务卸载策略

针对车联网中边缘节点的可信性无法保证的问题,提出了一种基于声誉的车联网可信任务卸载模型,用记录在区块链上的边缘节点声誉来评估其可信度,从而帮助终端设备选取可靠的边缘节点进行任务卸载。同时,将卸载策略建模为声誉约束下的时延和能耗最小化问题,采用多智能体深度确定性策略梯度算法来求解该NP-hard问题的近似最优解,边缘服务器依据任务卸载的完成情况获得奖励,然后据此更新记录在区块链上的声誉。仿真实验表明,与基准测试方案相比,该算法在时延和能耗方面降低了25.58%~27.44%。     

基于量子计算的多Agent协作学习算法

针对多Agent协作强化学习中存在的行为和状态维数灾问题,以及行为选择上存在多个均衡解,为了收敛到最佳均衡解需要搜索策略空间和协调策略选择问题,提出了一种新颖的基于量子理论的多Agent协作学习算法。新算法借签了量子计算理论,将多Agent的行为和状态空间通过量子叠加态表示,利用量子纠缠态来协调策略选择,利用概率振幅表示行为选择概率,并用量子搜索算法来加速多Agent的学习。相应的仿真实验结果显示新算法的有效性。     

Rationality of reward sharing in multi-agent reinforcement learning

In multi-agent reinforcement learning systems, it is important to share a reward among all agents. We focus on theRationality Theorem of Profit Sharing ⁵⁾ and analyze how to share a reward among all profit sharing agents. When an agent gets adirect reward R (R>0), anindirect reward μR (μ≥0) is given to the other agents. We have derived the necessary and sufficient condition to preserve the rationality as follows;

A two-layered multi-agent reinforcement learning model and algorithm

Multi-agent reinforcement learning technologies are mainly investigated from two perspectives of the concurrence and the game theory. The former chiefly applies to cooperative multi-agent systems, while the latter usually applies to coordinated multi-agent systems. However, there exist such problems as the credit assignment and the multiple Nash equilibriums for agents with them. In this paper, we propose a new multi-agent reinforcement learning model and algorithm LMRL from a layer perspective. LMRL model is composed of an off-line training layer that employs a single agent reinforcement learning technology to acquire stationary strategy knowledge and an online interaction layer that employs a multi-agent reinforcement learning technology and the strategy knowledge that can be revised dynamically to interact with the environment. An agent with LMRL can improve its generalization capability, adaptability and coordination ability. Experiments show that the performance of LMRL can be better than those of a single agent reinforcement learning and Nash-Q.     

A multi-agent reinforcement learning approach to robot soccer

In this paper, a multi-agent reinforcement learning method based on action prediction of other agent is proposed. In a multi-agent system, action selection of the learning agent is unavoidably impacted by other agents’ actions. Therefore, joint-state and joint-action are involved in the multi-agent reinforcement learning system. A novel agent action prediction method based on the probabilistic neural network (PNN) is proposed. PNN is used to predict the actions of other agents. Furthermore, the sharing policy mechanism is used to exchange the learning policy of multiple agents, the aim of which is to speed up the learning. Finally, the application of presented method to robot soccer is studied. Through learning, robot players can master the mapping policy from the state information to the action space. Moreover, multiple robots coordination and cooperation are well realized.