arXiv Machine Learning

Exact Action Values Are Not Enough: Rollout-Verified Reinforcement Fine-Tuning of a Reasoning Model for Multi-Zone VAV Control

arXiv:2607. 27914v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Multi-zone variable-air-volume control must balance thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and electricity use across several continuous actuators.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 20

Comparative Field Deployment of Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control for Residential HVAC

arXiv:2510. 01475v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Model Predictive Control (MPC) has demonstrated significant performance improvements over today's control methods for residential Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), but deploying MPC often requires substantial engineering effort.

By Ozan Baris Mulayim, Elias N. Pergantis, Levi D. Reyes Premer, Bingqing Chen, Guannan Qu, Kevin J. Kircher, Mario Berg\'es
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Very Exciting: Zero-Shot Model Predictive Control of Buildings via Excitation-Based Generalized Transfer Learning Models

The paper presents a zero‑shot model predictive control (MPC) approach for buildings that uses excitation‑based generalized transfer learning models. By pretraining on purposefully probed operational data from multiple source buildings, the authors demonstrate that these models achieve superior control performance in 32 simulated target buildings, outperforming both an online linear MPC and a PI controller. This method eliminates the need for target‑specific data, reducing setup cost and facilitating broader deployment of energy‑efficient MPC in the building sector.

By Fabian Raisch, Felix Koch, Zack Xuereb Conti, Christoph Goebel, Benjamin Tischler
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 25

Certified Predictive Value-of-Advice Gating for Cost-Aware Language-Model Guidance in Reinforcement Learning

The paper proposes a method for selectively querying language‑model advice in reinforcement learning by predicting the value of potential responses and only querying when the expected benefit outweighs the cost. It introduces a certified, response‑contingent metareasoning framework that guarantees near‑optimal advice usage under certain assumptions, and demonstrates that a calibrated controller with Qwen2.5 advisors can improve task performance while drastically reducing the number of advice calls on the BabyAI benchmark.

By Ibne Farabi Shihab, Md Najmus Swaqeeb, Abu Sa-Adat Mohamed Moon-Im Al Ahsan
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 10

Generalizing HVAC Control With Domain Randomized Reinforcement Learning

The paper introduces NOMAD‑RL, a reinforcement learning controller for HVAC systems that learns to adapt across diverse thermal zones via a universal thermostat interface. It employs an adaptive domain randomization scheme using physics‑informed normalizing flows to generate realistic, multimodal training data, enabling the recurrent policy to handle partial observability. Experiments show NOMAD‑RL outperforms constant‑setpoint PID and non‑randomized RL, and rivals well‑tuned model predictive control, especially in multi‑zone scenarios.

By Pablo Boitel, Kun Zhang
arXiv AI
Sep 4

FlowBalance: Verifier-Grounded Self-Improvement from On-Policy Reasoning Experience

arXiv:2609. 03241v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: A reasoning model can improve from its own on-policy experience, but this inner loop is fragile: terminal verifiers provide reliable yet sparse supervision, while dense same-model guidance can reinforce false confidence or overconcentrate learning on a narrow solution mode.

By Zixun Huang, Kishan Panaganti, Haitao Mi, Leowei Liang
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 27

BVR Sim: An Open and High-Throughput Environment for Heterogeneous Air-Combat Reinforcement Learning

BVR Sim is an open‑source, Gymnasium‑style environment for heterogeneous air‑combat reinforcement learning, supporting multiple JSBSim aircraft models (F‑15, F‑16, F/A‑18, F‑22) with configurable weapons, sensors, and opponents. It offers a unified tactical action interface, interchangeable Python and accelerated C++ backends, entity‑oriented observations, compositional rewards, scripted opponents, replay and visualization, and adapters for multi‑agent learning frameworks. At a 0.4‑second decision interval, the C++ backend achieves 104 simulated seconds per wall‑clock second in 1‑vs‑1 and remains practical through 10‑vs‑10 scenarios, and a policy trained on the F‑16 transfers to four unseen aircraft with a 45.5% mean win rate after controller adaptation.

By Haocheng Sun (Beijing University of Posts,Telecommunications), Mulai Tan (Air Force Engineering University)
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 1

The Intervention Gap in Latent World Models

The paper introduces the concept of intervention fidelity in latent world models, measuring whether a model’s open‑loop transitions align with actual environment interventions. Experiments on TD‑MPC2, Cheetah, and DreamerV3 show that high reward fit does not guarantee fidelity, and that self‑supervised models can outperform task‑anchored ones in preserving intervention effects. The authors propose a capture‑gated audit to localize failures and argue that fidelity must be directly audited on the model’s native interface.

By Donna Vakalis