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Autonomous System Learns Symbolic Representations from Evolving Experiences


מושגי ליבה
This work presents a new architecture that allows an autonomous agent to continuously update its set of low-level capabilities and their corresponding abstract symbolic representations, enabling it to plan sequences of actions to reach more complex goals.
תקציר

The key highlights and insights of this work are:

  1. The system integrates two forms of intrinsic motivation (IM) to drive the agent's exploration and learning:

    • IM-driven option discovery: The agent learns new options (temporally-extended actions) by combining primitive actions in a surprise-based manner.
    • IM-driven exploration: The agent is encouraged to explore less visited states, as it is more likely to discover new skills from the frontier of its knowledge.
  2. The low-level data collected during exploration is used to synthesize an abstract symbolic representation (PPDDL) of the agent's knowledge. This representation makes the causal correlations between options explicit, enabling high-level planning.

  3. The system iteratively executes a loop of option discovery, exploration, abstraction, and planning. This allows the agent to continuously expand its knowledge and capabilities in an open-ended manner, without being given specific goals.

  4. The abstraction process converts the low-level sensor data into a PPDDL domain representation, which can be used by off-the-shelf planners to find sequences of options to reach target states. The expressiveness of the PPDDL representation increases over time as the agent's knowledge grows.

  5. The system is evaluated in a Treasure Game environment of increasing complexity, demonstrating its ability to autonomously discover options, build an abstract symbolic model, and use planning to reach extrinsic goals and guide further exploration.

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סטטיסטיקה
"The agent executes d_eps = 1 episodes, composed by d_steps = 200 primitive actions." "600 data entries have been collected in the ID dataset and 6600 in the TD dataset."
ציטוטים
"This work presents a new architecture implementing an open-ended learning system able to synthesize from scratch its experience into a PPDDL representation and update it over time." "The main contribution of this study is to create a framework that, virtually starting from zero symbolic knowledge, produces an abstraction of the low-level data acquired from the agent's sensors, whose enhanced expressiveness can be exploited to plan sequences of actions that reach more and more complex goals."

תובנות מפתח מזוקקות מ:

by Gabriele Sar... ב- arxiv.org 09-19-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.11756.pdf
Synthesizing Evolving Symbolic Representations for Autonomous Systems

שאלות מעמיקות

How could the system's performance be further improved by incorporating more sophisticated option discovery and exploration strategies?

To enhance the system's performance, more sophisticated option discovery and exploration strategies could be integrated into the existing framework. One potential approach is to implement meta-learning techniques, which allow the agent to learn how to learn. By utilizing algorithms that adaptively adjust exploration strategies based on past experiences, the agent can become more efficient in discovering new options. For instance, employing Bayesian optimization could help the agent prioritize exploration in areas of the state space that are less understood, thereby increasing the likelihood of discovering novel options. Additionally, incorporating hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) could facilitate the decomposition of complex tasks into simpler sub-tasks, allowing the agent to learn options that are more contextually relevant. This would enable the agent to build a library of reusable options that can be applied across various scenarios, improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of exploration. Furthermore, integrating curiosity-driven exploration mechanisms, such as intrinsic motivation based on prediction error, could encourage the agent to seek out states that maximize learning opportunities. By focusing on states where the agent's predictions about the environment are most uncertain, the agent can enhance its learning process and discover more meaningful options.

What are the potential limitations of the PPDDL representation in capturing the full complexity of the agent's experiences, and how could this be addressed?

The Probabilistic Planning Domain Definition Language (PPDDL) representation, while useful for abstracting the agent's knowledge, has inherent limitations in capturing the full complexity of the agent's experiences. One significant limitation is its reliance on predefined symbols and actions, which may not encompass the dynamic and nuanced nature of real-world environments. As the agent encounters novel situations, the fixed set of symbols may restrict its ability to represent new experiences accurately. To address this limitation, a more flexible and adaptive symbolic representation could be developed. This could involve the use of online learning techniques to allow the agent to update its symbolic vocabulary continuously as it encounters new experiences. By integrating symbolic abstraction methods that can dynamically generate new symbols based on the agent's interactions, the representation could evolve alongside the agent's learning process. Additionally, incorporating multi-modal representations that combine symbolic and sub-symbolic information could enhance the expressiveness of the PPDDL framework. By integrating sensory data and contextual information with symbolic representations, the agent could achieve a more comprehensive understanding of its environment, leading to improved planning and decision-making capabilities.

What insights from human learning and cognition could be leveraged to further enhance the agent's ability to build meaningful symbolic representations from its interactions with the environment?

Insights from human learning and cognition can significantly inform the development of more effective symbolic representation strategies for autonomous agents. One key insight is the concept of constructivist learning, where individuals build new knowledge upon existing cognitive structures. This principle can be applied to the agent's learning process by enabling it to create new symbols based on previously acquired knowledge, fostering a cumulative learning experience. Moreover, the role of social learning in human cognition can be leveraged to enhance the agent's learning capabilities. By observing and mimicking the actions of other agents or humans, the agent can acquire new skills and symbolic representations more efficiently. Implementing mechanisms for observational learning could allow the agent to learn from demonstrations, thereby accelerating the option discovery process. Additionally, incorporating metacognitive strategies—the ability to reflect on one's own learning processes—could empower the agent to evaluate its knowledge and adjust its exploration strategies accordingly. By enabling the agent to assess its understanding of the environment and identify gaps in its knowledge, it can focus its exploration on areas that are most likely to yield new insights. Finally, insights from developmental psychology, particularly the stages of cognitive development, can guide the design of learning algorithms that mimic human-like progression in complexity. By structuring the learning process to gradually increase in difficulty and complexity, the agent can build a more robust and meaningful symbolic representation of its environment over time.
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