Book Image

Python Reinforcement Learning

By : Sudharsan Ravichandiran, Sean Saito, Rajalingappaa Shanmugamani, Yang Wenzhuo
Book Image

Python Reinforcement Learning

By: Sudharsan Ravichandiran, Sean Saito, Rajalingappaa Shanmugamani, Yang Wenzhuo

Overview of this book

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the trending and most promising branch of artificial intelligence. This Learning Path will help you master not only the basic reinforcement learning algorithms but also the advanced deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The Learning Path starts with an introduction to RL followed by OpenAI Gym, and TensorFlow. You will then explore various RL algorithms, such as Markov Decision Process, Monte Carlo methods, and dynamic programming, including value and policy iteration. You'll also work on various datasets including image, text, and video. This example-rich guide will introduce you to deep RL algorithms, such as Dueling DQN, DRQN, A3C, PPO, and TRPO. You will gain experience in several domains, including gaming, image processing, and physical simulations. You'll explore TensorFlow and OpenAI Gym to implement algorithms that also predict stock prices, generate natural language, and even build other neural networks. You will also learn about imagination-augmented agents, learning from human preference, DQfD, HER, and many of the recent advancements in RL. By the end of the Learning Path, you will have all the knowledge and experience needed to implement RL and deep RL in your projects, and you enter the world of artificial intelligence to solve various real-life problems. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: • Hands-On Reinforcement Learning with Python by Sudharsan Ravichandiran • Python Reinforcement Learning Projects by Sean Saito, Yang Wenzhuo, and Rajalingappaa Shanmugamani
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
Title Page
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
Index

Summary


In this chapter, we learned about how the Monte Carlo method works and how can we use it to solve MDP when we don't know the model of the environment. We have looked at two different methods: one is Monte Carlo prediction, which is used for estimating the value function, and the other is Monte Carlo control, which is used for optimizing the value function.

We looked at two different methods in Monte Carlo prediction: first visit Monte Carlo prediction, where we average the return only the first time the state is visited in an episode, and the every visit Monte Carlo method, where we average the return every time the state is visited in an episode. 

In terms of Monte Carlo control, we looked at different algorithms. We first encountered MC-ES control, which is used to cover all state-action pairs. We looked at on-policy MC control, which uses the epsilon-greedy policy, and off-policy MC control, which uses two policies at a time.

In the Chapter 5, Temporal Difference Learning we will...