Reinforcement Learning tutorial

Posted November 14 by Rokas Balsys

Introduction to Prieritized Experience Replay

So in our previous tutorial we implemented dueling DQN network model, and we saw that this way our agent improoved slightly. Now it's time to implement Prioritized Experience Replay (PER) which was introduced in 2015 by Tom Schaul. Paper idea is that some experiences may be more important than others for our training, but might occur less frequently.

Because we sample the batch uniformly (selecting the experiences randomly) these rich experiences that occur rarely have practically no chance to be selected.

That’s why, with PER, we will try to change the sampling distribution by using a criterion to define the priority of each tuple of experience.

So, we want to take in priority experience where there is a big difference between our prediction and the TD target, since it means that we have a lot to learn about it.

We'll use the absolute value of the magnitude of our TD error:

$$p_t = |\delta_t| + e$$ Here:
$|\delta_t|$ - Magnitude of our TD error
e - constant assures that no experience has 0 probability to be taken

Then we'll put that priority in the experience of each replay buffer:

But we can’t do greedy prioritization, because it will lead to always training the same experiences (that have big priority), and then we'll be over-fitting our agen. So we will use stochastic prioritization, which generates the probability of being chosen for a replay: $$P(i) = \frac{p_i^a}{\sum_k p_k^a}$$ Here:
$p_i$ - Priority value
$\sum_k p_k^a$ - Normalized by all prority values in Replay Buffer
$a$ - Hyperparameter used to reintroduce some randomness in the experience selection for the rpelay buffer (if a=0 pure randomness, if a=1 only selects the experience with the highest priorities)

As consequence, during each time step, we will get a batch of samples with this probability distribution and train our network on it. But, we still have a problem here. With normal Experience Replay (deque), we use a stochastic update rule. As a consequence, the way we sample the experiences must match the underlying distribution they came from.

When we have normal(deque) experience, we select our experiences in a normal distribution — simply put, we select our experiences randomly. There is no bias, because each experience has the same chance to be taken, so we can update our weights normally. But, because we use priority sampling, purely random sampling is abandoned. As a consequence, we introduce bias toward high-priority samples (more chances to be selected).

Ff we update our weights normally, we have a risk of over-fitting our agent. Samples that have high priority are likely to be used for training many times in comparison with low priority experiences (= bias). As a consequence, we’ll update our weights with only a small portion of experiences that we consider to be really interesting.

To correct this bias, we'll use importance sampling weights (IS) that will adjust the updating by reducing the weights of the often seen samples: $$(\frac{1}{N} \times \frac{1}{P(i)})^b$$ Here:
$N$ - Replay Buffer Size
$P(i)$ - Sampling probability

The weights corresponding to high-priority samples have very little adjustment (because the network will see these experiences many times), whereas those corresponding to low-priority samples will have a full update.

The role of b is to control how much these importance sampling weights affect learning. In practice, the b parameter is annealed up to 1 over the duration of training, because these weights are more important in the end of learning when our q values begin to converge. The unbiased nature of updates is most important near convergence.

Implementatation

This time, the implementation will be a little bit fancier.

First of all, we can’t just implement PER by sorting all the Experience Replay Buffers according to their priorities. This will not be efficient at all due to O(nlogn) for insertion and O(n) for sampling.

As explained in this article we need to use another data structure instead of sorting an array — an unsorted sumtree. A sumtree is a Binary Tree, that is a tree with only a maximum of two children for each node. The leaves (deepest nodes) contain the priority values, and a data array that points to leaves contains the experiences:

Then, we create a memory object that will contain our sumtree and data.

Next, to sample a minibatch of size k, the range [0, total_priority] will be divided into k ranges. A value is uniformly sampled from each range.

Finally, the transitions (experiences) that correspond to each of these sampled values are retrieved from the sumtree.

I will use Morvan Zhou SumTree code from this link. So, first we create a SumTree object class:

class SumTree(object):
data_pointer = 0

# Here we initialize the tree with all nodes = 0, and initialize the data with all values = 0
def __init__(self, capacity):
# Number of leaf nodes (final nodes) that contains experiences
self.capacity = capacity

# Generate the tree with all nodes values = 0
# To understand this calculation (2 * capacity - 1) look at the schema below
# Remember we are in a binary node (each node has max 2 children) so 2x size of leaf (capacity) - 1 (root node)
# Parent nodes = capacity - 1
# Leaf nodes = capacity
self.tree = np.zeros(2 * capacity - 1)

# Contains the experiences (so the size of data is capacity)
self.data = np.zeros(capacity, dtype=object)


First we want to build a tree with all nodes = 0, and initialize the data with all values = 0. So, we defice number of leaf nodes (final nodes) that contains experiences. Next, with self.tree = np.zeros(2 * capacity - 1) line we generate the tree with all nodes values = 0. To understand this calculation (2 * capacity - 1) look at the schema bellow:

    0
/ \
0   0
/ \ / \
0  0 0  0


Here we are in a binary node (each node has max 2 children) so 2x size of leaf (capacity) - 1 (root node). So to calculate all nodes: Parent nodes = capacity - 1 and Leaf nodes = capacity. Finally we define our data that contains the experiences (so the size of data is capacity).

Second, we define add function that will add our priority score in the sumtree leaf and add the experience in data:

def add(self, priority, data):
# Look at what index we want to put the experience
tree_index = self.data_pointer + self.capacity - 1

""" tree:
0
/ \
0   0
/ \ / \
tree_index  0 0  0  We fill the leaves from left to right
"""

# Update data frame
self.data[self.data_pointer] = data

# Update the leaf
self.update (tree_index, priority)

self.data_pointer += 1

if self.data_pointer >= self.capacity:  # If we're above the capacity, we go back to first index (we overwrite)
self.data_pointer = 0


While putting new data to our tree we fill the leaves from left to right, so first what we do is we look at what index we want to put the experience:
tree_index = self.data_pointer + self.capacity - 1

this is how our tree will look like, while we start filling it:

            0
/ \
0   0
/ \ / \
tree_index  0 0  0


so while adding new information to our tree we are doing 3 steps:

• Update data frame self.data[self.data_pointer] = data
• We update the leaf self.update (tree_index, priority) - this function will be created later
• And we shift our pointer to right by one self.data_pointer += 1.

If we reach the capacity limit, we go back to first index (we overwrite) again.

As I said, next we create function to update the leaf priority score and propagate the change through tree:

def update(self, tree_index, priority):
# Change = new priority score - former priority score
change = priority - self.tree[tree_index]
self.tree[tree_index] = priority

# then propagate the change through tree
# this method is faster than the recursive loop
while tree_index != 0:
tree_index = (tree_index - 1) // 2
self.tree[tree_index] += change


In update function, first what we do is, we calculate priority change, from our new priority we substract our previous priority score, and we overwrite our previous priority with new priority. After that, we propagate the change through the tree in a while loop.

Here is how our tree looks with 6 leafs:

    0
/ \
1   2
/ \ / \
3  4 5  [6]


The numbers in this tree are the indexes not the priority values, so here we want to access the line above the leafs. So for example: If we are in leaf at index 6, we updated the priority score, we need then to update index 2 node:
tree_index = (tree_index - 1) // 2
tree_index = (6-1)//2
tree_index = 2 # (because of // we round the result)

last step is to update our tree leaf with calculated change:
self.tree[2] += change

Next, we must build a function to get a leaf from our tree. So we'll build a function to get the leaf_index, priority value of that leaf and experience associated with that leaf index:

def get_leaf(self, v):
parent_index = 0

while True:
left_child_index = 2 * parent_index + 1
right_child_index = left_child_index + 1

# If we reach bottom, end the search
if left_child_index >= len(self.tree):
leaf_index = parent_index
break
else: # downward search, always search for a higher priority node
if v <= self.tree[left_child_index]:
parent_index = left_child_index
else:
v -= self.tree[left_child_index]
parent_index = right_child_index

data_index = leaf_index - self.capacity + 1

return leaf_index, self.tree[leaf_index], self.data[data_index]

@property
def total_priority(self):
return self.tree[0] # Returns the root node


To understand what we are doing, lets look at our tree from index perpective:
Tree structure and array storage:
Tree index:

     0      -> storing priority sum
/ \
1     2
/ \   / \
3   4 5   6 -> storing priority for experiences


Here we are looping our code in a while loop. First thing we do, we find our left and right child indexes. We keep repeating the action to find our leaf until we find it. When we know our parent leaf index, we calculate our data index, and finally we we return our leaf index, our leaf priority and data stored acording leaf index. At the I also wrote total_priority function, this function will be used to return the root node. Now we finished constructing our SumTree object, next we'll build a memory object. Writing this tutorial I relied on code from this link. So same as before we'll create Memory object:

class Memory(object):  # stored as ( state, action, reward, next_state ) in SumTree
PER_e = 0.01  # Hyperparameter that we use to avoid some experiences to have 0 probability of being taken
PER_a = 0.6  # Hyperparameter that we use to make a tradeoff between taking only exp with high priority and sampling randomly
PER_b = 0.4  # importance-sampling, from initial value increasing to 1

PER_b_increment_per_sampling = 0.001

absolute_error_upper = 1.  # clipped abs error

def __init__(self, capacity):
# Making the tree
self.tree = SumTree(capacity)


Here we defined 3 hyperparameters:

• PER_e, hyperparameter that we use to avoid some experiences to have 0 probability of being taken
• PER_a, hyperparameter that we use to make a tradeoff between taking only experience with high priority and sampling randomly
• PER_b, importance-sampling, from initial value increasing to 1

Before we created a tree function which is composed of a sum tree that contains the priority scores at his leaf and data in array. Now, differently from our previous tutorials, we won't use deque() because at each timestep in changes our experiences index by one. We prefer to use a simple array and to overwrite it when our memory is full.

Next, we define a function to store a new experience in our tree. Each new experience will have a score of max_prority (it will be then improved when we use this exp to train our DDQN). Experience, f. e. in cartpole game would be (state, action, reward, next_state, done). So we are defining our store function:

def store(self, experience):
# Find the max priority
max_priority = np.max(self.tree.tree[-self.tree.capacity:])

# If the max priority = 0 we can't put priority = 0 since this experience will never have a chance to be selected
# So we use a minimum priority
if max_priority == 0:
max_priority = self.absolute_error_upper

self.tree.add(max_priority, experience)   # set the max priority for new priority


So here we search for max priority in our leaf nodes that contains experiences, if we can't find any priority in our tree, we set a max priroity as absolute_error_upper, in our case 1. Then we store this priroty and experience to our memory tree. Else wise we store our experience with maximum priority we found.

Next we are creating sample function, which will be used to pick batch from our tree memory, which will be used to train our model. First, we sample a minibatch of n size, the range [0, priority_total] into priority ranges. Then a value is uniformly sampled from each range. Then we search in the sumtree, for the experience where priority score correspond to sample values are retrieved from.

def sample(self, n):
# Create a minibatch array that will contains the minibatch
minibatch = []

b_idx = np.empty((n,), dtype=np.int32)

# Calculate the priority segment
# Here, as explained in the paper, we divide the Range[0, ptotal] into n ranges
priority_segment = self.tree.total_priority / n       # priority segment

for i in range(n):
# A value is uniformly sample from each range
a, b = priority_segment * i, priority_segment * (i + 1)
value = np.random.uniform(a, b)

# Experience that correspond to each value is retrieved
index, priority, data = self.tree.get_leaf(value)

b_idx[i]= index

minibatch.append([data[0],data[1],data[2],data[3],data[4]])

return b_idx, minibatch


And finally we create a function, to update the priorities on the tree:

def batch_update(self, tree_idx, abs_errors):
abs_errors += self.PER_e  # convert to abs and avoid 0
clipped_errors = np.minimum(abs_errors, self.absolute_error_upper)
ps = np.power(clipped_errors, self.PER_a)

for ti, p in zip(tree_idx, ps):
self.tree.update(ti, p)


Now we finished our Memory and SumTree classes, don't worry, everything will be uploaded to github, so you could download this code! For now code for self.tree[2] += changePER.py

is bellow. Now we can continue on our main agent code, we'll modify it that we could use deque() and prioritized memory replay with simple boolean function, this will help us to check difference in results.

import numpy as np

class SumTree(object):
data_pointer = 0

# Here we initialize the tree with all nodes = 0, and initialize the data with all values = 0
def __init__(self, capacity):
# Number of leaf nodes (final nodes) that contains experiences
self.capacity = capacity

# Generate the tree with all nodes values = 0
# To understand this calculation (2 * capacity - 1) look at the schema below
# Remember we are in a binary node (each node has max 2 children) so 2x size of leaf (capacity) - 1 (root node)
# Parent nodes = capacity - 1
# Leaf nodes = capacity
self.tree = np.zeros(2 * capacity - 1)

# Contains the experiences (so the size of data is capacity)
self.data = np.zeros(capacity, dtype=object)

# Here we define function that will add our priority score in the sumtree leaf and add the experience in data:
# Look at what index we want to put the experience
tree_index = self.data_pointer + self.capacity - 1

# Update data frame
self.data[self.data_pointer] = data

# Update the leaf
self.update (tree_index, priority)

self.data_pointer += 1

if self.data_pointer >= self.capacity:  # If we're above the capacity, we go back to first index (we overwrite)
self.data_pointer = 0

# Update the leaf priority score and propagate the change through tree
def update(self, tree_index, priority):
# Change = new priority score - former priority score
change = priority - self.tree[tree_index]
self.tree[tree_index] = priority

# then propagate the change through tree
# this method is faster than the recursive loop in the reference code
while tree_index != 0:
tree_index = (tree_index - 1) // 2
self.tree[tree_index] += change

# Here build a function to get a leaf from our tree. So we'll build a function to get the leaf_index, priority value of that leaf and experience associated with that leaf index:
def get_leaf(self, v):
parent_index = 0

# the while loop is faster than the method in the reference code
while True:
left_child_index = 2 * parent_index + 1
right_child_index = left_child_index + 1

# If we reach bottom, end the search
if left_child_index >= len(self.tree):
leaf_index = parent_index
break
else: # downward search, always search for a higher priority node
if v <= self.tree[left_child_index]:
parent_index = left_child_index
else:
v -= self.tree[left_child_index]
parent_index = right_child_index

data_index = leaf_index - self.capacity + 1

return leaf_index, self.tree[leaf_index], self.data[data_index]

@property
def total_priority(self):
return self.tree[0] # Returns the root node

# Now we finished constructing our SumTree object, next we'll build a memory object.
class Memory(object):  # stored as ( state, action, reward, next_state ) in SumTree
PER_e = 0.01  # Hyperparameter that we use to avoid some experiences to have 0 probability of being taken
PER_a = 0.6  # Hyperparameter that we use to make a tradeoff between taking only exp with high priority and sampling randomly
PER_b = 0.4  # importance-sampling, from initial value increasing to 1

PER_b_increment_per_sampling = 0.001

absolute_error_upper = 1.  # clipped abs error

def __init__(self, capacity):
# Making the tree
self.tree = SumTree(capacity)

# Next, we define a function to store a new experience in our tree.
# Each new experience will have a score of max_prority (it will be then improved when we use this exp to train our DDQN).
def store(self, experience):
# Find the max priority
max_priority = np.max(self.tree.tree[-self.tree.capacity:])

# If the max priority = 0 we can't put priority = 0 since this experience will never have a chance to be selected
# So we use a minimum priority
if max_priority == 0:
max_priority = self.absolute_error_upper

self.tree.add(max_priority, experience)   # set the max priority for new priority

# Now we create sample function, which will be used to pick batch from our tree memory, which will be used to train our model.
# - First, we sample a minibatch of n size, the range [0, priority_total] into priority ranges.
# - Then a value is uniformly sampled from each range.
# - Then we search in the sumtree, for the experience where priority score correspond to sample values are retrieved from.
def sample(self, n):
# Create a minibatch array that will contains the minibatch
minibatch = []

b_idx = np.empty((n,), dtype=np.int32)

# Calculate the priority segment
# Here, as explained in the paper, we divide the Range[0, ptotal] into n ranges
priority_segment = self.tree.total_priority / n       # priority segment

for i in range(n):
# A value is uniformly sample from each range
a, b = priority_segment * i, priority_segment * (i + 1)
value = np.random.uniform(a, b)

# Experience that correspond to each value is retrieved
index, priority, data = self.tree.get_leaf(value)

b_idx[i]= index

minibatch.append([data[0],data[1],data[2],data[3],data[4]])

return b_idx, minibatch

# Update the priorities on the tree
def batch_update(self, tree_idx, abs_errors):
abs_errors += self.PER_e  # convert to abs and avoid 0
clipped_errors = np.minimum(abs_errors, self.absolute_error_upper)
ps = np.power(clipped_errors, self.PER_a)

for ti, p in zip(tree_idx, ps):
self.tree.update(ti, p)


Agent with Prioritized Experience Replay

Before we were talking how we create PER memory, so we store our created SumTree and Memory object classes to PER.py script. We'll import it with following new line: from PER import *. In our DQNAgent initialization we create an object self.MEMORY = Memory(memory_size) with memory_size = 200000. So while we will be using PER memory istead of self.memory = deque(maxlen=2000) we'll use self.MEMORY. And to easilly control if we want to use PER or not to use it, we'll insert self.USE_PER = True # use priority experienced replay Boolean command. So, while implementing PER almost all the functions stay the same as before, only few of them changes a little. For example, now remember function looks like this:

def remember(self, state, action, reward, next_state, done):
experience = state, action, reward, next_state, done
if self.USE_PER:
self.MEMORY.store(experience)
else:
self.memory.append((experience))


As I already said, here with Boolean operation, we choose what memory type our agent will use.

More changes our replay function, changes a way we sample our minibaches, we take them from PER memory or from deq list. And if we take our minibatches from PER, we must recalculate absolute_errors and update our memory with it.

def replay(self):
if self.USE_PER:
# Sample minibatch from the PER memory
tree_idx, minibatch  = self.MEMORY.sample(self.batch_size)
else:
# Randomly sample minibatch from the deque memory
minibatch = random.sample(self.memory, min(len(self.memory), self.batch_size))

'''
everything stay the same here as before
'''
if self.USE_PER:
absolute_errors = np.abs(target_old[i]-target[i])
# Update priority
self.MEMORY.batch_update(tree_idx, absolute_errors)

# Train the Neural Network with batches
self.model.fit(state, target, batch_size=self.batch_size, verbose=0)


Our run function doesn't change. So for now I will post full code here, but later I will upload everything to github, because now code takes too many space on my page.

import os
os.environ['CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES'] = '-1'
import random
import gym
import numpy as np
from collections import deque
from keras.layers import Input, Dense, Dropout, Lambda, Add
import pylab
from keras import backend as k

class SumTree(object):
data_pointer = 0

# Here we initialize the tree with all nodes = 0, and initialize the data with all values = 0
def __init__(self, capacity):
# Number of leaf nodes (final nodes) that contains experiences
self.capacity = capacity

# Generate the tree with all nodes values = 0
# To understand this calculation (2 * capacity - 1) look at the schema below
# Remember we are in a binary node (each node has max 2 children) so 2x size of leaf (capacity) - 1 (root node)
# Parent nodes = capacity - 1
# Leaf nodes = capacity
self.tree = np.zeros(2 * capacity - 1)

# Contains the experiences (so the size of data is capacity)
self.data = np.zeros(capacity, dtype=object)

# Here we define function that will add our priority score in the sumtree leaf and add the experience in data:
# Look at what index we want to put the experience
tree_index = self.data_pointer + self.capacity - 1

# Update data frame
self.data[self.data_pointer] = data

# Update the leaf
self.update (tree_index, priority)

self.data_pointer += 1

if self.data_pointer >= self.capacity:  # If we're above the capacity, we go back to first index (we overwrite)
self.data_pointer = 0

# Update the leaf priority score and propagate the change through tree
def update(self, tree_index, priority):
# Change = new priority score - former priority score
change = priority - self.tree[tree_index]
self.tree[tree_index] = priority

# then propagate the change through tree
# this method is faster than the recursive loop
while tree_index != 0:
tree_index = (tree_index - 1) // 2
self.tree[tree_index] += change

# Here build a function to get a leaf from our tree. So we'll build a function to get the leaf_index, priority value of that leaf and experience associated with that leaf index:
def get_leaf(self, v):
parent_index = 0

while True:
left_child_index = 2 * parent_index + 1
right_child_index = left_child_index + 1

# If we reach bottom, end the search
if left_child_index >= len(self.tree):
leaf_index = parent_index
break
else: # downward search, always search for a higher priority node
if v <= self.tree[left_child_index]:
parent_index = left_child_index
else:
v -= self.tree[left_child_index]
parent_index = right_child_index

data_index = leaf_index - self.capacity + 1

return leaf_index, self.tree[leaf_index], self.data[data_index]

@property
def total_priority(self):
return self.tree[0] # Returns the root node

# Now we finished constructing our SumTree object, next we'll build a memory object.
class Memory(object):  # stored as ( state, action, reward, next_state ) in SumTree
PER_e = 0.01  # Hyperparameter that we use to avoid some experiences to have 0 probability of being taken
PER_a = 0.6  # Hyperparameter that we use to make a tradeoff between taking only exp with high priority and sampling randomly
PER_b = 0.4  # importance-sampling, from initial value increasing to 1

PER_b_increment_per_sampling = 0.001

absolute_error_upper = 1.  # clipped abs error

def __init__(self, capacity):
# Making the tree
self.tree = SumTree(capacity)

# Next, we define a function to store a new experience in our tree.
# Each new experience will have a score of max_prority (it will be then improved when we use this exp to train our DDQN).
def store(self, experience):
# Find the max priority
max_priority = np.max(self.tree.tree[-self.tree.capacity:])

# If the max priority = 0 we can't put priority = 0 since this experience will never have a chance to be selected
# So we use a minimum priority
if max_priority == 0:
max_priority = self.absolute_error_upper

self.tree.add(max_priority, experience)   # set the max priority for new priority

# Now we create sample function, which will be used to pick batch from our tree memory, which will be used to train our model.
# - First, we sample a minibatch of n size, the range [0, priority_total] into priority ranges.
# - Then a value is uniformly sampled from each range.
# - Then we search in the sumtree, for the experience where priority score correspond to sample values are retrieved from.
def sample(self, n):
# Create a minibatch array that will contains the minibatch
minibatch = []

b_idx = np.empty((n,), dtype=np.int32)

# Calculate the priority segment
# Here, as explained in the paper, we divide the Range[0, ptotal] into n ranges
priority_segment = self.tree.total_priority / n       # priority segment

for i in range(n):
# A value is uniformly sample from each range
a, b = priority_segment * i, priority_segment * (i + 1)
value = np.random.uniform(a, b)

# Experience that correspond to each value is retrieved
index, priority, data = self.tree.get_leaf(value)

b_idx[i]= index

minibatch.append([data[0],data[1],data[2],data[3],data[4]])

return b_idx, minibatch

# Update the priorities on the tree
def batch_update(self, tree_idx, abs_errors):
abs_errors += self.PER_e  # convert to abs and avoid 0
clipped_errors = np.minimum(abs_errors, self.absolute_error_upper)
ps = np.power(clipped_errors, self.PER_a)

for ti, p in zip(tree_idx, ps):
self.tree.update(ti, p)

def OurModel(input_shape, action_space, dueling):
X_input = Input(input_shape)
X = X_input

# 'Dense' is the basic form of a neural network layer
# Input Layer of state size(4) and Hidden Layer with 512 nodes
X = Dense(512, input_shape=input_shape, activation="relu", kernel_initializer='he_uniform')(X)

# Hidden layer with 256 nodes
X = Dense(256, activation="relu", kernel_initializer='he_uniform')(X)

# Hidden layer with 64 nodes
X = Dense(64, activation="relu", kernel_initializer='he_uniform')(X)

if dueling:
state_value = Dense(1, kernel_initializer='he_uniform')(X)
state_value = Lambda(lambda s: k.expand_dims(s[:, 0], -1), output_shape=(action_space,))(state_value)

else:
# Output Layer with # of actions: 2 nodes (left, right)
X = Dense(action_space, activation="linear", kernel_initializer='he_uniform')(X)

model = Model(inputs = X_input, outputs = X, name='CartPole DDDQN model')
model.compile(loss="mean_squared_error", optimizer=RMSprop(lr=0.00025, rho=0.95, epsilon=0.01), metrics=["accuracy"])

model.summary()
return model

class DQNAgent:
def __init__(self):
self.env = gym.make('CartPole-v1')
# by default, CartPole-v1 has max episode steps = 500
# we can use this to experiment beyond 500
self.env._max_episode_steps = 4000
self.state_size = self.env.observation_space.shape[0]
self.action_size = self.env.action_space.n
self.EPISODES = 500

# Instantiate memory
memory_size = 10000
self.MEMORY = Memory(memory_size)
self.memory = deque(maxlen=2000)

self.gamma = 0.95    # discount rate

# EXPLORATION HYPERPARAMETERS for epsilon and epsilon greedy strategy
self.epsilon = 1.0  # exploration probability at start
self.epsilon_min = 0.01  # minimum exploration probability
self.epsilon_decay = 0.0005  # exponential decay rate for exploration prob

self.batch_size = 32
self.train_start = 1000

# defining model parameters
self.ddqn = True # use doudle deep q network
self.Soft_Update = False # use soft parameter update
self.dueling = True # use dealing netowrk
self.epsilot_greedy = True # use epsilon greedy strategy
self.USE_PER = False # use priority experienced replay

self.TAU = 0.1 # target network soft update hyperparameter

self.Save_Path = 'Models'
self.Model_name = 'CartPole'
pylab.figure(figsize=(18, 9))
self.scores, self.episodes, self.average = [], [], []
self.i_records = 0

if self.ddqn:
print("----------Double DQN--------")
self.Model_name = self.Save_Path+"/"+"DDQN_"+self.Model_name+".h5"
else:
print("-------------DQN------------")
self.Model_name = self.Save_Path+"/"+"DQN_"+self.Model_name+".h5"

# create main model and target model
self.model = OurModel(input_shape=(self.state_size,), action_space = self.action_size, dueling = self.dueling)
self.target_model = OurModel(input_shape=(self.state_size,), action_space = self.action_size, dueling = self.dueling)

# after some time interval update the target model to be same with model
def update_target_model(self):
if not self.Soft_Update and self.ddqn:
self.target_model.set_weights(self.model.get_weights())
return
if self.Soft_Update and self.ddqn:
q_model_theta = self.model.get_weights()
target_model_theta = self.target_model.get_weights()
counter = 0
for q_weight, target_weight in zip(q_model_theta, target_model_theta):
target_weight = target_weight * (1-self.TAU) + q_weight * self.TAU
target_model_theta[counter] = target_weight
counter += 1
self.target_model.set_weights(target_model_theta)

def remember(self, state, action, reward, next_state, done):
experience = state, action, reward, next_state, done
if self.USE_PER:
self.MEMORY.store(experience)
else:
self.memory.append((experience))

def act_e_greedy(self, state, decay_step):
# EPSILON GREEDY STRATEGY
if self.epsilot_greedy:
# Here we'll use an improved version of our epsilon greedy strategy for Q-learning
explore_probability = self.epsilon_min + (self.epsilon - self.epsilon_min) * np.exp(-self.epsilon_decay * decay_step)
# OLD EPSILON STRATEGY
else:
if self.epsilon > self.epsilon_min:
self.epsilon *= (1-self.epsilon_decay)
explore_probability = self.epsilon

if explore_probability > np.random.rand():
# Make a random action (exploration)
return random.randrange(self.action_size), explore_probability
else:
# Get action from Q-network (exploitation)
# Estimate the Qs values state
# Take the biggest Q value (= the best action)
return np.argmax(self.model.predict(state)), explore_probability

def replay(self):
if self.USE_PER:
# Sample minibatch from the PER memory
tree_idx, minibatch  = self.MEMORY.sample(self.batch_size)
else:
# Randomly sample minibatch from the deque memory
minibatch = random.sample(self.memory, min(len(self.memory), self.batch_size))

state = np.zeros((self.batch_size, self.state_size))
next_state = np.zeros((self.batch_size, self.state_size))
action, reward, done = [], [], []

# do this before prediction
# for speedup, this could be done on the tensor level
# but easier to understand using a loop
for i in range(len(minibatch)):
state[i] = minibatch[i][0]
action.append(minibatch[i][1])
reward.append(minibatch[i][2])
next_state[i] = minibatch[i][3]
done.append(minibatch[i][4])

# do batch prediction to save speed
# predict Q-values for starting state using the main network
target = self.model.predict(state)
target_old = np.array(target)
# predict best action in ending state using the main network
target_next = self.model.predict(next_state)
# predict Q-values for ending state using the target network
target_val = self.target_model.predict(next_state)

for i in range(len(minibatch)):
# correction on the Q value for the action used
if done[i]:
target[i][action[i]] = reward[i]
else:
# the key point of Double DQN
# selection of action is from model
# update is from target model
if self.ddqn: # Double - DQN
# current Q Network selects the action
# a'_max = argmax_a' Q(s', a')
a = np.argmax(target_next[i])
# target Q Network evaluates the action
# Q_max = Q_target(s', a'_max)
target[i][action[i]] = reward[i] + self.gamma * (target_val[i][a])
else: # Standard - DQN
# DQN chooses the max Q value among next actions
# selection and evaluation of action is on the target Q Network
# Q_max = max_a' Q_target(s', a')
target[i][action[i]] = reward[i] + self.gamma * (np.amax(target_next[i]))

if self.USE_PER:
absolute_errors = np.abs(target_old[i]-target[i])
# Update priority
self.MEMORY.batch_update(tree_idx, absolute_errors)

# Train the Neural Network with batches
self.model.fit(state, target, batch_size=self.batch_size, verbose=0)

def save(self, name):
if self.ddqn:
self.model.save(name)
else:
self.model.save(name)

pylab.figure(figsize=(18, 9))
def PlotModel(self, score, episode):
self.scores.append(score)
self.episodes.append(episode)
self.average.append(sum(self.scores[-50:]) / len(self.scores[-50:]))
pylab.plot(self.episodes, self.average, 'r')
pylab.plot(self.episodes, self.scores, 'b')
dqn = 'DQN'
softupdate = ''
dueling = ''
PER = ''
if self.ddqn:
dqn = 'DDQN'
if self.Soft_Update:
softupdate = '_soft'
if self.dueling:
dueling = "_dueling"
if self.USE_PER:
PER = '_PER'
try:
pylab.savefig(dqn+"_cartpole"+softupdate+dueling+PER+".png")
except OSError:
pass

return str(self.average[-1])[:5]

def TrackScores(self, i):
# maybe better would be tracking mean of scores
if self.i_records <= i:
self.i_records = i
print("model save", i)
if not os.path.exists(self.Save_Path):
os.makedirs(self.Save_Path)
#self.save(self.Model_name)

def run(self):
decay_step = 0
for e in range(self.EPISODES):
state = self.env.reset()
state = np.reshape(state, [1, self.state_size])
done = False
i = 0
while not done:
decay_step += 1
#self.env.render()
action, explore_probability = self.act_e_greedy(state, decay_step)
next_state, reward, done, _ = self.env.step(action)
next_state = np.reshape(next_state, [1, self.state_size])
if not done or i == self.env._max_episode_steps-1:
reward = reward
else:
reward = -100
self.remember(state, action, reward, next_state, done)

state = next_state
i += 1
if done:
# save best model
self.TrackScores(i)

# every step update target model
self.update_target_model()

# every episode, plot the result
average = self.PlotModel(i, e)

print("episode: {}/{}, score: {}, e: {:.3}, average: {}".format(e, self.EPISODES, i, explore_probability, average))

self.replay()

def test(self):
for e in range(self.EPISODES):
state = self.env.reset()
state = np.reshape(state, [1, self.state_size])
done = False
i = 0
while not done:
self.env.render()
action = np.argmax(self.model.predict(state))
next_state, reward, done, _ = self.env.step(action)
state = np.reshape(next_state, [1, self.state_size])
i += 1
if done:
print("episode: {}/{}, score: {}".format(e, self.EPISODES, i))
break

if __name__ == "__main__":
agent = DQNAgent()
agent.run()
#agent.test()
`

Now, lets take a look at two examples on same CartPole balancing game, where I train our agent for 500 steps. I trained two examples:

• One with PER enabled
• Another with PER disabled

Both agents were trained with double dueling Deep Q Network, epsilon geedy update and soft update disabled.

Firstl lets look at our results, where we were training our agen without PER, results look very similar as they were in my previous tutorials:

There is nothing much to say, so lets look at our results while using PER:

Conclusion:

As we can see, difference is as day and night, our 50 steps moving average was close to 1500 points per game, while without PER our average score wasa a little more than 500. From these graphs, we can say that performance showed that PER really translates into faster learning and higher performance. What’s more, it’s complementary to DDQN. If we would train our agent for much longer and with larger prioritized memory buffer, maybe it would reach even better results, who knows.

So, up to this point, we were working with quite simple environment (only 4 state variables), and we were able to quite fast train our agent. Now lets try to take this agent to next level and train our agent with 3D image data. So if you want to see, how we'll do that, see you in a next tutorial.