Intermediate Reinforcement Learning Techniques
Chapter 1: Revisiting Reinforcement Learning Fundamentals
The Reinforcement Learning Problem Setup
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) Recap
Value Functions and Bellman Equations
Tabular Solution Methods: Q-Learning and SARSA
Limitations of Tabular Methods
Quiz for Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Deep Q-Networks (DQN)
Introduction to Function Approximation
Using Neural Networks for Q-Value Approximation
The DQN Algorithm Architecture
Experience Replay Mechanism
Fixed Q-Targets (Target Networks)
Loss Function for DQN Training
Hands-on Practical: Implementing DQN for CartPole
Quiz for Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Improvements and Variants of DQN
The Overestimation Problem in Q-Learning
Double DQN (DDQN)
Dueling Network Architectures
Combining DQN Improvements
Prioritized Experience Replay (Brief Overview)
Practice: Implementing Double DQN
Quiz for Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Policy Gradient Methods
Limitations of Value-Based Methods
Direct Policy Parameterization
The Policy Gradient Theorem
REINFORCE Algorithm
Understanding Variance in Policy Gradients
Baselines for Variance Reduction
Hands-on Practical: Implementing REINFORCE
Quiz for Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Actor-Critic Methods
Combining Policy and Value Estimation
Actor-Critic Architecture Overview
Advantage Actor-Critic (A2C)
Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C)
Implementation Considerations for Actor-Critic
Comparison: REINFORCE vs A2C/A3C
Practice: Developing an A2C Implementation
Quiz for Chapter 5
Loss Function for DQN Training
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- Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning, Volodymyr Mnih, Koray Kavukcuoglu, David Silver, Alex Graves, Ioannis Antonoglou, Daan Wierstra, Martin A. Riedmiller, 2015 Nature, Vol. 518 DOI: 10.1038/nature14236 - This foundational paper introduces the Deep Q-Network (DQN) architecture, including the use of experience replay and target networks, and defines the training objective with the Q-learning loss function.
- Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction, Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto, 2018 (MIT Press) - This widely used textbook covers the fundamental concepts of reinforcement learning, including Q-learning, Bellman equations, and provides a clear explanation of how these principles apply to deep Q-networks.
- Spinning Up in Deep RL, Josh Achiam, 2018 - This online resource offers a practical introduction to deep reinforcement learning, providing detailed explanations and examples of the DQN algorithm, its loss function, and training methodology.