arXiv Machine Learning By John J. Vastola, Kanaka Rajan

Solvable models of learning to pursue a moving target

Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →

The paper introduces a continuous‑time linear‑quadratic model for agents learning to intercept a moving target, offering optimal control strategies that span reactive and predictive extremes. The model’s few interpretable parameters allow closed‑form solutions for optimal strategies, policy learning dynamics, and value learning dynamics. Analysis of the model’s eigenvalue spectra reveals a gap that explains why agents typically learn to reach the target before fully optimizing their movement.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at arXiv Machine Learning.

arXiv AI
Oct 26

Effectiveness of Curriculum Learning Depends on Reward Sparsity and Competing Optima

The paper investigates how curriculum learning affects reinforcement learning in a minimal policy learning model. It shows that when rewards are dense, curricula offer only marginal benefits, but when rewards are sparse, curricula become essential for learning to occur. The study also highlights that competing objectives—minimizing effort versus maximizing reward—create distinct optima that curricula can help navigate by reducing reward sparsity and reshaping the reward landscape.

By John J. Vastola, Ann Huang, Satpreet H. Singh, Samuel J. Gershman, Kanaka Rajan
arXiv AI
Jun 30

Exploration and Online Transfer with Behavioral Foundation Models

arXiv:2606. 29980v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Zero-shot Transfer in Reinforcement Learning (RL) aims to train an agent that can generate optimal policies for any reward function, without additional learning at transfer time, while training only on reward-free trajectories.

By Louis Bagot (SyCoSMA), Mathieu Lefort (LIRIS, SyCoSMA, IRISA, MALT, UR), La\"etitia Matignon (SyCoSMA)
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 17

AgilePE: Autonomous UAV Pursuit-Evasion via Self-Play Reinforcement Learning

arXiv:2608. 14135v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Autonomous pursuit-evasion is a fundamental challenge for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), requiring rapid decision-making under tightly coupled dynamics and continuously changing opponent behaviors.

By Wenhao Tang, Tianyang Chen, Zhejun Cui, Boyuan An, Jiayu Chen, Ruize Zhang, Huidong Liu, Tianyue Wu, Qingmin Liao, Fei Gao, Yu Wang, Chao Yu