arXiv (Cornell University)
Risk-Sensitive Reinforcement Learning: A Constrained Optimization Viewpoint.
October 2018 • L. A. Prashanth, Michael C. Fu
The classic objective in a reinforcement learning (RL) problem is to find a policy that minimizes, in expectation, a long-run objective such as the infinite-horizon discounted or long-run average cost. In many practical applications, optimizing the expected value alone is not sufficient, and it may be necessary to include a risk measure in the optimization process, either as the objective or as a constraint. Various risk measures have been proposed in the literature, e.g., mean-variance tradeoff, exponential utili…