Regret-Free Reinforcement Learning for LTL Specifications

Rupak Majumdar; Mahmoud Salamati; Sadegh Soudjani

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arXiv · 2411.12019

Regret-Free Reinforcement Learning for LTL Specifications

Rupak Majumdar·Mahmoud Salamati·Sadegh Soudjani

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Abstract

Learning to control an unknown dynamical system with respect to high-level temporal specifications is an important problem in control theory. We present the first regret-free online algorithm for learning a controller for linear temporal logic (LTL) specifications for systems with unknown dynamics. We assume that the underlying (unknown) dynamics is modeled by a finite-state and action Markov decision process (MDP). Our core technical result is a regret-free learning algorithm for infinite-horizon reach-avoid problems on MDPs. For general LTL specifications, we show that the synthesis problem can be reduced to a reach-avoid problem once the graph structure is known. Additionally, we provide an algorithm for learning the graph structure, assuming knowledge of a minimum transition probability, which operates independently of the main regret-free algorithm. Our LTL controller synthesis algorithm provides sharp bounds on how close we are to achieving optimal behavior after a finite number of learning episodes. In contrast, previous algorithms for LTL synthesis only provide asymptotic guarantees, which give no insight into the transient performance during the learning phase.

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Rupak Majumdar, Mahmoud Salamati, Sadegh Soudjani. 2024-11-18. Regret-Free Reinforcement Learning for LTL Specifications. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12019

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