Paper ID: 2307.00141

Risk-sensitive Actor-free Policy via Convex Optimization

Ruoqi Zhang, Jens Sjölund

Traditional reinforcement learning methods optimize agents without considering safety, potentially resulting in unintended consequences. In this paper, we propose an optimal actor-free policy that optimizes a risk-sensitive criterion based on the conditional value at risk. The risk-sensitive objective function is modeled using an input-convex neural network ensuring convexity with respect to the actions and enabling the identification of globally optimal actions through simple gradient-following methods. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in maintaining effective risk control.

Submitted: Jun 30, 2023