scholarly journals Bi-Level Actor-Critic for Multi-Agent Coordination

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (05) ◽  
pp. 7325-7332
Author(s):  
Haifeng Zhang ◽  
Weizhe Chen ◽  
Zeren Huang ◽  
Minne Li ◽  
Yaodong Yang ◽  
...  

Coordination is one of the essential problems in multi-agent systems. Typically multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) methods treat agents equally and the goal is to solve the Markov game to an arbitrary Nash equilibrium (NE) when multiple equilibra exist, thus lacking a solution for NE selection. In this paper, we treat agents unequally and consider Stackelberg equilibrium as a potentially better convergence point than Nash equilibrium in terms of Pareto superiority, especially in cooperative environments. Under Markov games, we formally define the bi-level reinforcement learning problem in finding Stackelberg equilibrium. We propose a novel bi-level actor-critic learning method that allows agents to have different knowledge base (thus intelligent), while their actions still can be executed simultaneously and distributedly. The convergence proof is given, while the resulting learning algorithm is tested against the state of the arts. We found that the proposed bi-level actor-critic algorithm successfully converged to the Stackelberg equilibria in matrix games and find a asymmetric solution in a highway merge environment.

2012 ◽  
Vol 566 ◽  
pp. 572-579
Author(s):  
Abdolkarim Niazi ◽  
Norizah Redzuan ◽  
Raja Ishak Raja Hamzah ◽  
Sara Esfandiari

In this paper, a new algorithm based on case base reasoning and reinforcement learning (RL) is proposed to increase the convergence rate of the reinforcement learning algorithms. RL algorithms are very useful for solving wide variety decision problems when their models are not available and they must make decision correctly in every state of system, such as multi agent systems, artificial control systems, robotic, tool condition monitoring and etc. In the propose method, we investigate how making improved action selection in reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm. In the proposed method, the new combined model using case base reasoning systems and a new optimized function is proposed to select the action, which led to an increase in algorithms based on Q-learning. The algorithm mentioned was used for solving the problem of cooperative Markov’s games as one of the models of Markov based multi-agent systems. The results of experiments Indicated that the proposed algorithms perform better than the existing algorithms in terms of speed and accuracy of reaching the optimal policy.


Respuestas ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
David Luviano Cruz ◽  
Francesco José García Luna ◽  
Luis Asunción Pérez Domínguez

This paper presents a hybrid control proposal for multi-agent systems, where the advantages of the reinforcement learning and nonparametric functions are exploited. A modified version of the Q-learning algorithm is used which will provide data training for a Kernel, this approach will provide a sub optimal set of actions to be used by the agents. The proposed algorithm is experimentally tested in a path generation task in an unknown environment for mobile robots.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zikai Feng ◽  
Yuanyuan Wu ◽  
Mengxing Huang ◽  
Di Wu

Abstract In order to avoid the malicious jamming of the intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to ground users in the downlink communications, a new anti-UAV jamming strategy based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning is studied in this paper. In this method, ground users aim to learn the best mobile strategies to avoid the jamming of UAV. The problem is modeled as a Stackelberg game to describe the competitive interaction between the UAV jammer (leader) and ground users (followers). To reduce the computational cost of equilibrium solution for the complex game with large state space, a hierarchical multi-agent proximal policy optimization (HMAPPO) algorithm is proposed to decouple the hybrid game into several sub-Markov games, which updates the actor and critic network of the UAV jammer and ground users at different time scales. Simulation results suggest that the hierarchical multi-agent proximal policy optimization -based anti-jamming strategy achieves comparable performance with lower time complexity than the benchmark strategies. The well-trained HMAPPO has the ability to obtain the optimal jamming strategy and the optimal anti-jamming strategies, which can approximate the Stackelberg equilibrium (SE).


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia Matignon ◽  
Guillaume J. Laurent ◽  
Nadine Le Fort-Piat

AbstractIn the framework of fully cooperative multi-agent systems, independent (non-communicative) agents that learn by reinforcement must overcome several difficulties to manage to coordinate. This paper identifies several challenges responsible for the non-coordination of independent agents: Pareto-selection, non-stationarity, stochasticity, alter-exploration and shadowed equilibria. A selection of multi-agent domains is classified according to those challenges: matrix games, Boutilier's coordination game, predators pursuit domains and a special multi-state game. Moreover, the performance of a range of algorithms for independent reinforcement learners is evaluated empirically. Those algorithms are Q-learning variants: decentralized Q-learning, distributed Q-learning, hysteretic Q-learning, recursive frequency maximum Q-value and win-or-learn fast policy hill climbing. An overview of the learning algorithms’ strengths and weaknesses against each challenge concludes the paper and can serve as a basis for choosing the appropriate algorithm for a new domain. Furthermore, the distilled challenges may assist in the design of new learning algorithms that overcome these problems and achieve higher performance in multi-agent applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 925-951
Author(s):  
Justin Fu ◽  
Andrea Tacchetti ◽  
Julien Perolat ◽  
Yoram Bachrach

A core question in multi-agent systems is understanding the motivations for an agent's actions based on their behavior. Inverse reinforcement learning provides a framework for extracting utility functions from observed agent behavior, casting the problem as finding domain parameters which induce such a behavior from rational decision makers.  We show how to efficiently and scalably extend inverse reinforcement learning to multi-agent settings, by reducing the multi-agent problem to N single-agent problems while still satisfying rationality conditions such as strong rationality. However, we observe that rewards learned naively tend to lack insightful structure, which causes them to produce undesirable behavior when optimized in games with different players from those encountered during training. We further investigate conditions under which rewards or utility functions can be precisely identified, on problem domains such as normal-form and Markov games, as well as auctions, where we show we can learn reward functions that properly generalize to new settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Julian Gutierrez ◽  
Paul Harrenstein ◽  
Giuseppe Perelli ◽  
Michael Wooldridge

We define and investigate a novel notion of expressiveness for temporal logics that is based on game theoretic equilibria of multi-agent systems. We use iterated Boolean games as our abstract model of multi-agent systems [Gutierrez et al. 2013, 2015a]. In such a game, each agent  has a goal  , represented using (a fragment of) Linear Temporal Logic ( ) . The goal  captures agent  ’s preferences, in the sense that the models of  represent system behaviours that would satisfy  . Each player controls a subset of Boolean variables , and at each round in the game, player is at liberty to choose values for variables in any way that she sees fit. Play continues for an infinite sequence of rounds, and so as players act they collectively trace out a model for , which for every player will either satisfy or fail to satisfy their goal. Players are assumed to act strategically, taking into account the goals of other players, in an attempt to bring about computations satisfying their goal. In this setting, we apply the standard game-theoretic concept of (pure) Nash equilibria. The (possibly empty) set of Nash equilibria of an iterated Boolean game can be understood as inducing a set of computations, each computation representing one way the system could evolve if players chose strategies that together constitute a Nash equilibrium. Such a set of equilibrium computations expresses a temporal property—which may or may not be expressible within a particular fragment. The new notion of expressiveness that we formally define and investigate is then as follows: What temporal properties are characterised by the Nash equilibria of games in which agent goals are expressed in specific fragments of  ? We formally define and investigate this notion of expressiveness for a range of fragments. For example, a very natural question is the following: Suppose we have an iterated Boolean game in which every goal is represented using a particular fragment of : is it then always the case that the equilibria of the game can be characterised within ? We show that this is not true in general.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3654
Author(s):  
Nastaran Gholizadeh ◽  
Petr Musilek

In recent years, machine learning methods have found numerous applications in power systems for load forecasting, voltage control, power quality monitoring, anomaly detection, etc. Distributed learning is a subfield of machine learning and a descendant of the multi-agent systems field. Distributed learning is a collaboratively decentralized machine learning algorithm designed to handle large data sizes, solve complex learning problems, and increase privacy. Moreover, it can reduce the risk of a single point of failure compared to fully centralized approaches and lower the bandwidth and central storage requirements. This paper introduces three existing distributed learning frameworks and reviews the applications that have been proposed for them in power systems so far. It summarizes the methods, benefits, and challenges of distributed learning frameworks in power systems and identifies the gaps in the literature for future studies.


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