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

Introduction to Atari games


Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. In 1976, Bushnell developed the Atari video computer system, or Atari VCS (later renamed Atari 2600). Atari VCS was a flexible console that was capable of playing the existing Atari games, which included a console, two joysticks, a pair of paddles, and the combat game cartridge. The following screenshot depicts an Atari console:

Atari 2600 has more than 500 games that were published by Atari, Sears, and some third parties. Some famous games are Breakout, Pac-Man, Pitfall!, Atlantis, Seaquest, and Space Invaders.

As a direct result of the North American video game crash of 1983, Atari, Inc. was closed and its properties were split in 1984. The home computing and game console divisions of Atari were sold to Jack Tramiel under the name Atari corporation in July 1984.

For readers who are interested in playing Atari games, here are several online...