Consistent Dropout for Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning

Matthew Hausknecht; Nolan Wagener

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arXiv · 2202.11818

Consistent Dropout for Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning

Matthew Hausknecht·Nolan Wagener

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Abstract

Dropout has long been a staple of supervised learning, but is rarely used in reinforcement learning. We analyze why naive application of dropout is problematic for policy-gradient learning algorithms and introduce consistent dropout, a simple technique to address this instability. We demonstrate consistent dropout enables stable training with A2C and PPO in both continuous and discrete action environments across a wide range of dropout probabilities. Finally, we show that consistent dropout enables the online training of complex architectures such as GPT without needing to disable the model's native dropout.

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Matthew Hausknecht, Nolan Wagener. 2022-02-23. Consistent Dropout for Policy Gradient Reinforcement Learning. https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.11818

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