README.md

ARS-CNN

Augmented Random Search Algorithm Framework. Supports OpenAI gym and custom enviroments. Built around the work of Simple random search provides a competitive approach to reinforcement learning this framework allows for the use of CNN's for feature inputs to the ARS algorithm. It also extends use by allowing user to easily specify their own custom enviroment.

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine or on the cloud. Pytorch CPU is installed by default if you want to use CUDA please see Pytorch getting started for your enviroment. Also note that all gym enviroments are not installed by default. Please see respective installation guides.

Install Dependencies:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Training:

To train your model on an enviroment first configure parameters.py. If you want to use gym enviroments specify env_name. Run with --train flag. During training results are stored in the ./results directory keeping track of basic metrics such as avg reward evaluation, episode number, total steps, unix timestamp

class Hp:
    def __init__(self):
        self.nb_episodes = 10000
        self.episode_length = 10000
        self.learning_rate = 0.02
        self.nb_directions = 16
        self.nb_best_directions = 16
        assert self.nb_best_directions <= self.nb_directions
        self.noise = 0.03
        self.seed = 1
        self.env_name = 'CarRacing-v0'
        self.conv_input = True # uses convolutions to extract from images
        if self.conv_input:
            self.device = torch.device('cuda' if torch.cuda.is_available() else 'cpu') # use gpu or cup
            print('using CNN, device is: ',self.device)
        self.render_eval = True # renders during evaluation (gym env only)
        self.render_train = False # renders during training (gym env only)
        self.save_freq = 1 # episodes per save time
        self.train_from_previous_weights = False
        self.results_save_dir = os.path.join("results", f"results-{self.env_name}.npy")
        self.weights_save_dir = os.path.join("weights", f"weights-{self.env_name}.npy")
        self.normalizer_weights_save = os.path.join("weights", f"normalizer-{self.env_name}.npy")

python3 main.py --train

Observing:

To evaluate your model on an enviroment run with --evaluate n flag. This will run n episodes of your model.

Run 5 episodes

 python3 main.py --evaluate 5