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150 nips-2008-Near-optimal Regret Bounds for Reinforcement Learning


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Author: Peter Auer, Thomas Jaksch, Ronald Ortner

Abstract: For undiscounted reinforcement learning in Markov decision processes (MDPs) we consider the total regret of a learning algorithm with respect to an optimal policy. In order to describe the transition structure of an MDP we propose a new parameter: An MDP has diameter D if for any pair of states s, s there is a policy which moves from s to s in at most D steps (on average). We present a rein√ ˜ forcement learning algorithm with total regret O(DS AT ) after T steps for any unknown MDP with S states, A actions per state, and diameter D. This bound holds with high probability. We also present a corresponding lower bound of √ Ω( DSAT ) on the total regret of any learning algorithm. 1


reference text

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