Genetic state-grouping algorithm for deep reinforcement learning

Although Reinforcement learning has already been considered one of the most important and well-known techniques of machine learning, its applicability remains limited in the real-world problems due to its long initial learning time and unstable learning. Especially, the problem of an overwhelming number of the branching factors under real-time constraint still stays unconquered, demanding a new method for the next generation of reinforcement learning. In this paper, we propose Genetic State-Grouping Algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning. The core idea is to divide the entire set of states into a few state groups. Each group consists of states that are mutually similar, thus representing their common features. The state groups are then processed with the Genetic Optimizer, which finds outstanding actions. These steps help the Deep Q Network avoid excessive exploration, thereby contributing to the significant reduction of initial learning time. The experiment on the real-time fighting video game (FightingICE) shows the effectiveness of our proposed approach. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.