Iterative path integral stochastic optimal control: theory and applications to motor control

Abstract

Motivated by the limitations of current optimal control and reinforcement learning methods in terms of their efficiency and scalability, this thesis proposes an iterative stochastic optimal control approach based on the generalized path integral formalism. More precisely, we suggest the use of the framework of stochastic optimal control with path integrals to derive a novel approach to RL with parameterized policies. While solidly grounded in value function estimation and optimal control based on the stochastic Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equation, policy improvements can be transformed into an approximation problem of a path integral which has no open algorithmic parameters other than the exploration noise. The resulting algorithm can be conceived of as model-based, semi-model-based, or even model free, depending on how the learning problem is structured. The new algorithm, Policy Improvement with Path Integrals (PI2), demonstrates interesting similarities with previous RL research in the framework of probability matching and provides intuition why the slightly heuristically motivated probability matching approach can actually perform well. Applications to high dimensional robotic systems are presented for a variety of tasks that require optimal planning and gain scheduling.