Reinforcement Learning

Also known as RL

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Overview

Reinforcement learning studies how an agent can choose actions over time to earn rewards, using experience to improve its decisions. Common approaches include value-based methods such as Q-learning, policy-gradient methods such as PPO, and model-based methods that learn or use a model of the environment; offline and hierarchical methods address learning from fixed data and long tasks. Applications range from Atari and MuJoCo benchmarks to robot control, traffic, games, and language-model agents that use tools or solve multi-step problems. A central challenge is making learning efficient and reliable when rewards are sparse or imperfect, environments change, and success in simulation or benchmarks may not transfer safely to deployment.

Latest papers

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1,742 papers237 papers in the last four weeks, up 46% on the four weeks before. 1.4% of all new papers.

  1. A Robust Model-Based Approach for Continuous-Time Policy Evaluation with Unknown Lévy Process Dynamics

    Apr 2, 2025Qihao Ye, Xiaochuan Tian, Yuhua ZhuReinforcement LearningValue Function Estimation

  2. CONTHER: Context-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Manipulation with Sparse Rewards

    Mar 20, 2025Maria Makarova, Qian Liu, Dzmitry TsetserukouReinforcement LearningExperience Replay

    Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory, Center for Digital Engineering, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), 121205 Moscow, Russia · Department of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, China

  3. 1000 Layer Networks for Self-Supervised RL: Scaling Depth Can Enable New Goal-Reaching Capabilities

    Mar 19, 2025Kevin Wang, Ishaan Javali, Michał Bortkiewicz +2Reinforcement LearningSelf-Supervised RL

    Princeton University · Warsaw University of Technology · Warsaw University of Technology, Tooploox, IDEAS Research Institute

  4. Supervised Reward Inference

    Feb 25, 2025Will Schwarzer, Jordan Schneider, Philip S. Thomas +1Reward ModelingReinforcement Learning

    University of Massachusetts · Anthropic · Work done while at the University of Texas.

  5. Safe Learning Under Irreversible Dynamics via Asking for Help

    Feb 19, 2025Benjamin Plaut, Juan Liévano-Karim, Hanlin Zhu +1Regret Minimization in RLReinforcement Learning

    Division of Computer Science University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-1776, USA

  6. Does Knowledge About Perceptual Uncertainty Help an Agent in Automated Driving?

    Feb 17, 2025Natalie Grabowsky, Annika Mütze, Joshua Wendland +2Autonomous Driving PlanningRL for Autonomous Driving

    Institute of Mathematics Technical University of Berlin Berlin, Germany · Department of Mathematics University of Wuppertal Wuppertal, Germany · Faculty of Computer Science Ruhr University Bochum Bochum, Germany

  7. Compositional Concept-Based Neuron-Level Interpretability for Deep Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 2, 2025Zeyu Jiang, Hai Huang, Xingquan ZuoReinforcement LearningConcept-Based Explanations

    School of Computer Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China

  8. Enabling Energy-Efficient Simultaneous Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning through Spiking Neural Networks with Active Dendrites for Bio-inspired Generalist Agents

    Dec 6, 2024Rachmad Vidya Wicaksana Putra, Avaneesh Devkota, Muhammad ShafiqueReinforcement LearningDeep Q-Learning

    eBRAIN Lab · New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi

  9. ELEMENT: Episodic and Lifelong Exploration via Maximum Entropy

    Dec 5, 2024Hongming Li, Zhao Yang, Xiaoxuan Liang +2Reward-Free RLReinforcement Learning

    Zhejiang Lab, Huangzhou, China · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands · Computational NeuroEngineering Laboratory at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

  10. Temporal difference learning adapts to incomplete coverage: an oracle inequality over subgraphs

    Nov 14, 2024Wenlong Mou, Jian QianTemporal-Difference LearningReinforcement Learning

    Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto · Department of EECS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  11. Reinforcement learning for Quantum Tiq-Taq-Toe

    Nov 10, 2024Catalin-Viorel Dinu, Thomas MoerlandReinforcement LearningGame-Playing Agents

    Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands

  12. RL-STaR: Theoretical Analysis of Reinforcement Learning Frameworks for Self-Taught Reasoner

    Oct 31, 2024Fu-Chieh Chang, Yu-Ting Lee, Hui-Ying Shih +2Reinforcement LearningRL for Language Model Reasoning

    MediaTek Research, Taipei, Taiwan · Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan · Department of Mathematical Sciences, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan +2

  13. Streaming Deep Reinforcement Learning Finally Works

    Oct 18, 2024Mohamed Elsayed, Elena Sorina Lupu, Gautham Vasan +1Reinforcement LearningActor-Critic Methods

    Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada · Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) · Canada CIFAR AI Chair

  14. Training on Irrelevant States Implies Data Augmentation: Generalization in Contextual MDPs

    Oct 4, 2024Max Weltevrede, Caroline Horsch, Matthijs T. J. Spaan +1Reinforcement LearningRL Exploration

    Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

  15. Deep Reinforcement Learning for Reach-Avoid-Stay Problems

    Oct 3, 2024Gabriel Chenevert, Jingqi Li, Achyuta kannan +2Robust ControlReinforcement Learning

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA · Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, at University of Texas, Austin, USA · Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA +1

  16. Exploiting Exogenous Structure for Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning

    Sep 22, 2024Jia Wan, Sean R. Sinclair, Devavrat Shah +1Regret Minimization in RLMarkov Decision Processes

    Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University

  17. Mitigating the Stability-Plasticity Dilemma in Adaptive Train Scheduling with Curriculum-Driven Continual DQN Expansion

    Aug 19, 2024Achref Jaziri, Etienne Künzel, Visvanathan RameshStability-Plasticity DilemmaNon-Stationary RL

    Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Goethe University · HessianAI, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  18. Training Verifiably Robust Agents Using Set-Based Reinforcement Learning

    Aug 17, 2024Manuel Wendl, Lukas Koller, Tobias Ladner +1RL ControlReinforcement Learning

    Technical University of Munich, Germany

  19. ProSpec RL: Plan Ahead, then Execute

    Jul 31, 2024Liangliang Liu, Yi Guan, BoRan Wang +5Reinforcement LearningRisk-Sensitive RL

    1The Faculty of Computing, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China · 2The Artificial Intelligence Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology, ShenZhen, China · 3The Artificial Intelligence Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

  20. Enhancing Hardware Fault Tolerance in Machines with Reinforcement Learning Policy Gradient Algorithms

    Jul 21, 2024Sheila Schoepp, Mehran Taghian, Shotaro Miwa +3RL ControlReinforcement Learning

    Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, 8900 114 St NW, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2S4, Canada · Advanced Technology R&D Center, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 8-1-1,Tsukaguchi-honmachi, Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo, 661-8661, Japan · Information Technology R&D Center, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 5-1-1, Ofuna, Kamakura-shi, Kanagawa, 247-8501, Japan +1

  21. Gradient Boosting Reinforcement Learning

    Jul 11, 2024Benjamin Fuhrer, Chen Tessler, Gal DalalReinforcement Learning

    NVIDIA, Tel-Aviv, Israel · NVIDIA Research, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

  22. Thompson Sampling for Infinite-Horizon Discounted Decision Processes

    May 14, 2024Daniel Adelman, Cagla Keceli, Alba V. Olivares-NadalThompson SamplingRegret Minimization in RL

    Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA · United Airlines, Chicago, IL 60605, USA · UNSW Business School, UNSW, Kensington NSW 2033, Australia

  23. TERC: A Transfer Entropy Redundancy Criterion for State Variable Selection in Reinforcement Learning

    Jan 21, 2024Charles Westphal, Stephen Hailes, Mirco MusolesiReinforcement LearningState Representation Learning

    UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence Department of Computer Science University College London Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom · Department of Computer Science University College London Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom · Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Bologna Viale Del Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy

  24. JaxMARL: Multi-Agent RL Environments and Algorithms in JAX

    Nov 16, 2023Alexander Rutherford, Benjamin Ellis, Matteo Gallici +18RL BenchmarksReinforcement Learning

    University of Oxford · Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · University College London +2

  25. Bridging the Gap between Newton-Raphson Method and Regularized Policy Iteration

    Oct 11, 2023Zeyang Li, Chuxiong Hu, Yunan Wang +4Markov Decision ProcessesReinforcement Learning

    Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China · College of Artificial Intelligence and the School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

  26. Robust Recurrent Reinforcement Learning under Evolving Hidden Disturbances with Application to Rover Wheel Slip

    Jul 29, 2023Saki Omi, Hyo-Sang Shin, Namhoon Cho +2RL for RoboticsReinforcement Learning

    Space Robotics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, University of Luxembourg · School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, U.K. · Department of Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

  27. ETHER: Aligning Emergent Communication for Hindsight Experience Replay

    Jul 28, 2023Kevin Yandoka Denamganaï, Daniel Hernandez, Ozan Vardal +2Reinforcement LearningExperience Replay

    Department of Computer Science University of York York, UK

  28. Reinforcement Learning with Temporal-Logic-Based Causal Diagrams

    Jun 23, 2023Yash Paliwal, Rajarshi Roy, Jean-Raphaël Gaglione +5Reinforcement LearningCausal RL

    Arizona State University, Arizona, USA · Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Kaiserslautern, Germany · University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA +3

  29. Topology-Guided Modular Actor-Critic Learning for Continuous Systems under Temporal Objectives

    Apr 20, 2023Lening Li, Zhentian Qian, Jianan Xia +7RL ControlReinforcement Learning

    Ningbo University, Ningbo, China · Robotics Engineering Program, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA · Ningbo Zhenhai Silver-Ball Bearing Co., Ltd., Ningbo, China

  30. Stackelberg POMDP: Learning to Lead via Reinforcement Learning

    Oct 7, 2022Matthias Gerstgrasser, Gianluca Brero, Alon Eden +6Game-Theoretic RLReinforcement Learning

    John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University · Data Science Initiative, Brown University · School of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University of Jerusalem +2