Nicholas Clavette

An Analytical Update Rule for General Policy Optimization

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We present an analytical policy update rule that is independent of parameterized function approximators. The update rule is suitable for general stochastic policies with monotonic improvement guarantee. The update rule is derived from a closed-form trust-region solution using calculus of variation, following a new theoretical result that tightens existing bounds for policy search using trust-region methods. An explanation building a connection between the policy update rule and value-function methods is provided. Based on a recursive form of the update rule, an off-policy algorithm is derived naturally, and the monotonic improvement guarantee remains. Furthermore, the update rule extends immediately to multi-agent systems when updates are performed by one agent at a time.

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