Analyzing Approximate Value Iteration Algorithms

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the stability and convergence of approximate value iteration algorithms that use neural network approximations of the Bellman operator, providing verifiable conditions and Lyapunov-based criteria for their reliable implementation.

Contribution

It introduces new verifiable Lyapunov function-based conditions for the stability and convergence of AVI with biased and noisy approximations, extending to set-valued stochastic cases.

Findings

Provided verifiable sufficient conditions for AVI stability.

Developed Lyapunov function construction recipe for AVI.

Extended stability analysis to set-valued stochastic approximations.

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the stochastic iterative counterpart of the value iteration scheme wherein only noisy and possibly biased approximations of the Bellman operator are available. We call this counterpart as the approximate value iteration (AVI) scheme. Neural networks are often used as function approximators, in order to counter Bellman's curse of dimensionality. In this paper, they are used to approximate the Bellman operator. Since neural networks are typically trained using sample data, errors and biases may be introduced. The design of AVI accounts for implementations with biased approximations of the Bellman operator and sampling errors. We present verifiable sufficient conditions under which AVI is stable (almost surely bounded) and converges to a fixed point of the approximate Bellman operator. To ensure the stability of AVI, we present three different yet related sets of sufficient conditions that are based on the existence of an appropriate Lyapunov function. These Lyapunov function based conditions are easily verifiable and new to the literature. The verifiability is enhanced by the fact that a recipe for the construction of the necessary Lyapunov function is also provided. We also show that the stability analysis of AVI can be readily extended to the general case of set-valued stochastic approximations. Finally, we show that AVI can also be used in more general circumstances, i.e., for finding fixed points of contractive set-valued maps.