# Peter Stone's Selected Publications

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## Evolutionary Function Approximation for Reinforcement Learning

Shimon Whiteson and Peter Stone. Evolutionary Function Approximation for Reinforcement Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 7:877–917, May 2006.
Available from journal's web page.

### Abstract

Temporal difference methods are theoretically grounded and empirically effective methods for addressing reinforcement learning problems. In most real-world reinforcement learning tasks, TD methods require a function approximator to represent the value function. However, using function approximators requires manually making crucial representational decisions. This paper investigates evolutionary function approximation, a novel approach to automatically selecting function approximator representations that enable efficient individual learning. This method evolves individuals that are better able to learn. We present a fully implemented instantiation of evolutionary function approximation which combines NEAT, a neuroevolutionary optimization technique, with Q-learning, a popular TD method. The resulting NEAT+Q algorithm automatically discovers effective representations for neural network function approximators. This paper also presents on-line evolutionary computation, which improves the on-line performance of evolutionary computation by borrowing selection mechanisms used in TD methods to choose individual actions and using them in evolutionary computation to select policies for evaluation. We evaluate these contributions with extended empirical studies in two domains: 1) the mountain car task, a standard reinforcement learning benchmark on which neural network function approximators have previously performed poorly and 2) server job scheduling, a large probabilistic domain drawn from the field of autonomic computing. The results demonstrate that evolutionary function approximation can significantly improve the performance of TD methods and on-line evolutionary computation can significantly improve evolutionary methods. This paper also presents additional tests that offer insight into what factors can make neural network function approximation difficult in practice.

### BibTeX Entry

@Article{JMLR06,
Author="Shimon Whiteson and Peter Stone",
title="Evolutionary Function Approximation for Reinforcement Learning",
journal="Journal of Machine Learning Research",
year="2006",
pages="877--917",
volume="7",month="May",
abstract={
Temporal difference methods are theoretically
grounded and empirically effective methods for
addressing reinforcement learning problems.  In most
real-world reinforcement learning tasks, TD methods
require a function approximator to represent the
value function.  However, using function
approximators requires manually making crucial
representational decisions.  This paper investigates
\emph{evolutionary function approximation}, a novel
approach to automatically selecting function
approximator representations that enable efficient
individual learning.  This method \emph{evolves}
individuals that are better able to \emph{learn}.
We present a fully implemented instantiation of
evolutionary function approximation which combines
NEAT, a neuroevolutionary optimization technique,
with Q-learning, a popular TD method.  The resulting
NEAT+Q algorithm automatically discovers effective
representations for neural network function
approximators.  This paper also presents
\emph{on-line evolutionary computation}, which
improves the on-line performance of evolutionary
computation by borrowing selection mechanisms used
in TD methods to choose individual actions and using
them in evolutionary computation to select policies
for evaluation.  We evaluate these contributions
with extended empirical studies in two domains: 1)
the mountain car task, a standard reinforcement
learning benchmark on which neural network function
approximators have previously performed poorly and
2) server job scheduling, a large probabilistic
domain drawn from the field of autonomic computing.
The results demonstrate that evolutionary function
approximation can significantly improve the
performance of TD methods and on-line evolutionary
computation can significantly improve evolutionary
methods.  This paper also presents additional tests
that offer insight into what factors can make neural
network function approximation difficult in
practice.},
wwwnote = {Available from <a href="http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/papers/v7/whiteson06a.html">journal's web page</a>.},
}


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