Acrobot with PPO¶
In this tutorial, we will be training and optimising the hyperparameters of a population of PPO agents to beat the Gymnasium acrobot environment. AgileRL is a deep reinforcement learning library, focussed on improving the RL training process through evolutionary hyperparameter optimisation (HPO), which has resulted in upto 10x faster HPO compared to other popular deep RL libraries. Check out the AgileRL github repository for more information about the library.
To complete the acrobot environment, the agent must learn to apply torques on the joint to swing the free end of the linear chain above the black line from an initial state of hanging stationary.
Figure 1: Completed Acrobot environment using an AgileRL PPO agent¶
PPO Overview¶
PPO (proximal policy optimisation) is an on-policy algorithm that uses policy gradient methods to directly optimise the policy function, which determines the agent’s actions based on the environment’s state. PPO strikes an effective balance between exploration and exploitation, making it robust in learning diverse tasks.
Dependencies¶
# Author: Michael Pratt
# License: MIT License
import os
import imageio
import numpy as np
import torch
from agilerl.algorithms.ppo import PPO
from agilerl.hpo.mutation import Mutations
from agilerl.hpo.tournament import TournamentSelection
from agilerl.training.train_on_policy import train_on_policy
from agilerl.utils.utils import (
calculate_vectorized_scores,
initialPopulation,
makeVectEnvs,
)
from tqdm import trange
import gymnasium as gym
Defining Hyperparameters¶
Before we commence training, it’s easiest to define all of our hyperparameters in one dictionary. Below is an example of such for the PPO algorithm. Additionally, we also define a mutations parameters dictionary, in which we determine what mutations we want to happen, to what extent we want these mutations to occur, and what RL hyperparameters we want to tune. Additionally, we also define our upper and lower limits for these hyperparameters to define search spaces.
# Initial hyperparameters
INIT_HP = {
"POP_SIZE": 4, # Population size
"DISCRETE_ACTIONS": True, # Discrete action space
"BATCH_SIZE": 128, # Batch size
"LR": 0.001, # Learning rate
"GAMMA": 0.99, # Discount factor
"GAE_LAMBDA": 0.95, # Lambda for general advantage estimation
"ACTION_STD_INIT": 0.6, # Initial action standard deviation
"CLIP_COEF": 0.2, # Surrogate clipping coefficient
"ENT_COEF": 0.01, # Entropy coefficient
"VF_COEF": 0.5, # Value function coefficient
"MAX_GRAD_NORM": 0.5, # Maximum norm for gradient clipping
"TARGET_KL": None, # Target KL divergence threshold
"UPDATE_EPOCHS": 4, # Number of policy update epochs
# Swap image channels dimension from last to first [H, W, C] -> [C, H, W]
"CHANNELS_LAST": False, # Use with RGB states
"EPISODES": 300, # Number of episodes to train for
"EVO_EPOCHS": 20, # Evolution frequency, i.e. evolve after every 20 episodes
"TARGET_SCORE": 200.0, # Target score that will beat the environment
"EVO_LOOP": 3, # Number of evaluation episodes
"MAX_STEPS": 500, # Maximum number of steps an agent takes in an environment
"TOURN_SIZE": 2, # Tournament size
"ELITISM": True, # Elitism in tournament selection
}
# Mutation parameters
MUT_P = {
# Mutation probabilities
"NO_MUT": 0.4, # No mutation
"ARCH_MUT": 0.2, # Architecture mutation
"NEW_LAYER": 0.2, # New layer mutation
"PARAMS_MUT": 0.2, # Network parameters mutation
"ACT_MUT": 0.2, # Activation layer mutation
"RL_HP_MUT": 0.2, # Learning HP mutation
"RL_HP_SELECTION": ["lr", "batch_size"], # Learning HPs to choose from
"MUT_SD": 0.1, # Mutation strength
"RAND_SEED": 42, # Random seed
# Define max and min limits for mutating RL hyperparams
"MIN_LR": 0.0001,
"MAX_LR": 0.01,
"MIN_BATCH_SIZE": 8,
"MAX_BATCH_SIZE": 1024,
}
Create the Environment¶
In this particular tutorial, we will be focussing on the acrobot environment as you can use PPO with
either discrete or continuous action spaces. The snippet below creates a vectorised environment and then assigns the
correct values for state_dim and one_hot, depending on whether the observation or action spaces are discrete
or continuous.
env = makeVectEnvs("Acrobot-v1", num_envs=8) # Create environment
try:
state_dim = env.single_observation_space.n # Discrete observation space
one_hot = True # Requires one-hot encoding
except Exception:
state_dim = env.single_observation_space.shape # Continuous observation space
one_hot = False # Does not require one-hot encoding
try:
action_dim = env.single_action_space.n # Discrete action space
except Exception:
action_dim = env.single_action_space.shape[0] # Continuous action space
if INIT_HP[
"CHANNELS_LAST"
]: # Adjusts dimensions to be in accordance with PyTorch API (C, H, W), used with envs with RGB image states
state_dim = (state_dim[2], state_dim[0], state_dim[1])
Create a Population of Agents¶
To perform evolutionary HPO, we require a population of agents. Since PPO is an on-policy algorithm, there is no experience replay and so members in the population will not share experiences like they do with off-policy algorithms. That being said, tournament selection and mutation still prove to be highly effective in determining the effacacy of certain hyperparameters. Individuals that learn best are more likely to survive until the next generation, and so their hyperparameters are more likely to remain present in the population. The sequence of evolution (tournament selection followed by mutations) is detailed further below.
# Set-up the device
device = "cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu"
# Define the network configuration of a simple mlp with two hidden layers, each with 64 nodes
net_config = {"arch": "mlp", "hidden_size": [64, 64]}
# Define a population
pop = initialPopulation(
algo="PPO", # Algorithm
state_dim=state_dim, # State dimension
action_dim=action_dim, # Action dimension
one_hot=one_hot, # One-hot encoding
net_config=net_config, # Network configuration
INIT_HP=INIT_HP, # Initial hyperparameter
population_size=INIT_HP["POP_SIZE"], # Population size
device=device,
)
Creating Mutations and Tournament objects¶
Tournament selection is used to select the agents from a population which will make up the next generation of agents. If elitism is used, the best agent from a population is automatically preserved and becomes a member of the next generation. Then, for each tournament, k individuals are randomly chosen, and the agent with the best evaluation fitness is preserved. This is repeated until the population for the next generation is full.
The class TournamentSelection() defines the functions required for tournament selection. TournamentSelection.select()
returns the best agent, and the new generation of agents.
tournament = TournamentSelection(
INIT_HP["TOURN_SIZE"],
INIT_HP["ELITISM"],
INIT_HP["POP_SIZE"],
INIT_HP["EVO_EPOCHS"],
)
Mutation is periodically used to explore the hyperparameter space, allowing different hyperparameter combinations to be trialled during training. If certain hyperparameters prove relatively beneficial to training, then that agent is more likely to be preserved in the next generation, and so those characteristics are more likely to remain in the population.
The Mutations() class is used to mutate agents with pre-set probabilities. The available mutations currently implemented are:
No mutation
Network architecture mutation - adding layers or nodes. Trained weights are reused and new weights are initialized randomly.
Network parameters mutation - mutating weights with Gaussian noise.
Network activation layer mutation - change of activation layer.
RL algorithm mutation - mutation of learning hyperparameter, such as learning rate or batch size.
Mutations.mutation() returns a mutated population.
Tournament selection and mutation should be applied sequentially to fully evolve a population between evaluation and learning cycles.
mutations = Mutations(
algo="PPO",
no_mutation=MUT_P["NO_MUT"],
architecture=MUT_P["ARCH_MUT"],
new_layer_prob=MUT_P["NEW_LAYER"],
parameters=MUT_P["PARAMS_MUT"],
activation=MUT_P["ACT_MUT"],
rl_hp=MUT_P["RL_HP_MUT"],
rl_hp_selection=MUT_P["RL_HP_SELECTION"],
mutation_sd=MUT_P["MUT_SD"],
arch=net_config["arch"],
rand_seed=MUT_P["RAND_SEED"],
device=device,
)
# Define a save path for our trained agent save_path = “PPO_trained_agent.pt”
Training and Saving an Agent¶
Using AgileRL train_on_policy function¶
The simplest way to train an AgileRL agent is to use one of the implemented AgileRL train functions.
Given that PPO is an on-policy algorithm, we can make use of the train_on_policy function. This
training function will orchestrate the training and hyperparameter optimisation process, removing the
the need to implement a training loop. It will return a trained population, as well as the associated
fitnesses (fitness is each agents test scores on the environment).
trained_pop, pop_fitnesses = train_on_policy(
env=env,
env_name="Acrobot-v1",
algo="PPO",
pop=pop,
INIT_HP=INIT_HP,
MUT_P=MUT_P,
swap_channels=INIT_HP["CHANNELS_LAST"],
n_episodes=INIT_HP["EPISODES"],
evo_epochs=INIT_HP["EVO_EPOCHS"],
evo_loop=INIT_HP["EVO_LOOP"],
target=INIT_HP["TARGET_SCORE"],
tournament=tournament,
mutation=mutations,
wb=False, # Boolean flag to record run with Weights & Biases
save_elite=True, # Boolean flag to save the elite agent in the population
elite_path=save_path,
)
Using a custom training loop¶
If we wanted to have more control over the training process, it is also possible to write our own custom
training loops to train our agents. The training loop below can be used alternatively to the above train_on_policy
function and is an example of how we might choose to make use of a population of AgileRL agents in our own training loop.
total_steps = 0
elite = pop[0] # elite variable placeholder
step = 0 # step variable placeholder
next_state = None # next_step variable placeholder
for episode in trange(INIT_HP["EPISODES"]):
for agent in pop: # Loop through population
state = env.reset()[0] # Reset environment at start of episode
score = 0
states = []
actions = []
log_probs = []
rewards = []
dones = []
values = []
for step in range(INIT_HP["MAX_STEPS"]):
if INIT_HP["CHANNELS_LAST"]:
state = np.moveaxis(state, [-1], [-3])
# Get next action from agent
action, log_prob, _, value = agent.getAction(state)
next_state, reward, done, trunc, _ = env.step(action) # Act in environment
states.append(state)
actions.append(action)
log_probs.append(log_prob)
rewards.append(reward)
dones.append(done)
values.append(value)
state = next_state
if INIT_HP["CHANNELS_LAST"]:
next_state = np.moveaxis(next_state, [-1], [-3])
scores = calculate_vectorized_scores(
np.array(rewards).transpose((1, 0)), np.array(dones).transpose((1, 0))
)
score = np.mean(scores)
agent.scores.append(score)
experiences = (
states,
actions,
log_probs,
rewards,
dones,
values,
next_state,
)
# Learn according to agent's RL algorithm
agent.learn(experiences)
agent.steps[-1] += step + 1
total_steps += step + 1
# Now evolve population if necessary
if (episode + 1) % INIT_HP["EVO_EPOCHS"] == 0:
# Evaluate population
fitnesses = [
agent.test(
env,
swap_channels=INIT_HP["CHANNELS_LAST"],
max_steps=INIT_HP["MAX_STEPS"],
loop=INIT_HP["EVO_LOOP"],
)
for agent in pop
]
fitness = ["%.2f" % fitness for fitness in fitnesses]
avg_fitness = ["%.2f" % np.mean(agent.fitness[-100:]) for agent in pop]
avg_score = ["%.2f" % np.mean(agent.scores[-100:]) for agent in pop]
agents = [agent.index for agent in pop]
num_steps = [agent.steps[-1] for agent in pop]
muts = [agent.mut for agent in pop]
print(
f"""
--- Epoch {episode + 1} ---
Fitness:\t\t{fitness}
100 fitness avgs:\t{avg_fitness}
100 score avgs:\t{avg_score}
Agents:\t\t{agents}
Steps:\t\t{num_steps}
Mutations:\t\t{muts}
""",
end="\r",
)
# Tournament selection and population mutation
elite, pop = tournament.select(pop)
pop = mutations.mutation(pop)
# Save the trained algorithm
elite.saveCheckpoint(save_path)
Loading an Agent for Inference and Rendering your Solved Environment¶
Once we have trained and saved an agent, we may want to then use our trained agent for inference. Below outlines how we would load a saved agent and how it can then be used in a testing loop.
Load agent¶
ppo = PPO.load(save_path, device=device)
Test loop for inference¶
test_env = gym.make("Acrobot-v1", render_mode="rgb_array")
rewards = []
frames = []
testing_eps = 7
with torch.no_grad():
for ep in range(testing_eps):
state = test_env.reset()[0] # Reset environment at start of episode
score = 0
for step in range(INIT_HP["MAX_STEPS"]):
# If your state is an RGB image
if INIT_HP["CHANNELS_LAST"]:
state = np.moveaxis(state, [-1], [-3])
# Get next action from agent
action, *_ = ppo.getAction(state)
action = action.squeeze()
# Save the frame for this step and append to frames list
frame = test_env.render()
frames.append(frame)
# Take the action in the environment
state, reward, terminated, truncated, _ = test_env.step(
action
) # Act in environment
# Collect the score
score += reward
# Break if environment 0 is done or truncated
if terminated or truncated:
break
# Collect and print episodic reward
rewards.append(score)
print("-" * 15, f"Episode: {ep}", "-" * 15)
print("Episodic Reward: ", rewards[-1])
test_env.close()
Save test episosdes as a gif¶
gif_path = "./videos/"
os.makedirs(gif_path, exist_ok=True)
imageio.mimwrite(os.path.join("./videos/", "ppo_acrobot.gif"), frames, loop=0)
mean_fitness = np.mean(rewards)