Reinforcement learning¶

An interactive notebook training Keras to play Catch¶

This is an interactive version of Eder Santana's Keras plays catch, a single file Reinforcement Learning example. The first interactive version of the original code was written by cadurosar. I added comments and explanations, following the explanation laid out in Demystifying Deep Reinforcement Learning by Tambet Matiisen. Please visit all the aforementioned authors websites for more information and give them credit for doing all the heavy lifting. This code is realeased under an MIT license, but please be aware that Google has the patent for Q-Learning.

Catch is a very simple arcade game, which you might have played as a child. Fruits are falling from the top of the screen and the player has to catch them with a basket. For every fruit caught, the player gets a point. For every fruit lost, the player looses a point. Our goal here is to let the computer play Catch by itself.

When playing Catch, the player has to decide between 3 possible actions. The player can move the basket to the left, to the right, or stay put. The basis for this decision is the current state of the game, the position of the fruit and the position of the basket, which are both visible on the screen. Our goal is therefore to create a model, which, given the content of the game screen, chooses the action which leads to the highest score possible.

This task could be framed as a simple classification problem. We could collect training data by letting expert human players play lots of games and then train a model on choosing the 'correct' action that mirrors the expert players. This is not how humans learn however. Humans can learn a game like catch by themselves, without guidiance. This is very useful. Imagine you would have to hire a bunch of experts to perform a task thousands of times everytime you wanted to learn something as simple as Catch. It would be very expensive and very slow. Here, we are going to demonstrate a technique called reinforcement learning, where the model learns from experience, rather than labeled training data.

In [1]:
#First we import some libraries
import json
#matplotlib for rendering
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
#numpy for handeling matrix operations
import numpy as np
#time, to, well... keep track of time
import time
#Python image libarary for rendering
from PIL import Image
#iPython display for making sure we can render the frames
from IPython import display
#seaborn for rendering
import seaborn
#Keras is a deep learning libarary
from keras.models import model_from_json
from keras.models import Sequential
from keras.layers.core import Dense
from keras.optimizers import sgd

#Setup matplotlib so that it runs nicely in iPython
%matplotlib inline
#setting up seaborn
seaborn.set()

Using TensorFlow backend.

Couldn't import dot_parser, loading of dot files will not be possible.


Setting up the game¶

This is the code for the actual game we are training on. Catch is a simple game you might have played as a child. In the game, fruits, represented by white tiles, fall from the top. The goal is to catch the fruits with a basked (represented by white tiles, this is deep learning, not game design). If you catch a fruit, you get a point (your score goes up by one), if you miss a fruit, you loose one (your score goes down).

Don't worry all too much about the details of the implementation, the focus here should be on the AI, not on the game. Just make sure you run this cell so that it is defined.

In [2]:
class Catch(object):
"""
Class catch is the actual game.
In the game, fruits, represented by white tiles, fall from the top.
The goal is to catch the fruits with a basked (represented by white tiles, this is deep learning, not game design).
"""
def __init__(self, grid_size=10):
self.grid_size = grid_size
self.reset()

def _update_state(self, action):
"""
Input: action and states
Ouput: new states and reward
"""
state = self.state
if action == 0:  # left
action = -1
elif action == 1:  # stay
action = 0
else:
action = 1  # right
f0 += 1
out = out[np.newaxis]

assert len(out.shape) == 2
self.state = out

def _draw_state(self):
im_size = (self.grid_size,)*2
state = self.state[0]
canvas = np.zeros(im_size)
canvas[state[0], state[1]] = 1  # draw fruit
canvas[-1, state[2]-1:state[2] + 2] = 1  # draw basket
return canvas

def _get_reward(self):
if fruit_row == self.grid_size-1:
if abs(fruit_col - basket) <= 1:
return 1
else:
return -1
else:
return 0

def _is_over(self):
if self.state[0, 0] == self.grid_size-1:
return True
else:
return False

def observe(self):
canvas = self._draw_state()
return canvas.reshape((1, -1))

def act(self, action):
self._update_state(action)
reward = self._get_reward()
game_over = self._is_over()
return self.observe(), reward, game_over

def reset(self):
n = np.random.randint(0, self.grid_size-1, size=1)
m = np.random.randint(1, self.grid_size-2, size=1)
self.state = np.asarray([0, n, m])[np.newaxis]


In addition to defining the game we need to define some helper variables and functions. Run the cells below to define them, then we will get to the meat and the potatoes of this notebook.

In [3]:
"""
Here we define some variables used for the game and rendering later
"""
#last frame time keeps track of which frame we are at
last_frame_time = 0
#translate the actions to human readable words
translate_action = ["Left","Stay","Right","Create Ball","End Test"]
#size of the game field
grid_size = 10

In [4]:
def display_screen(action,points,input_t):
#Function used to render the game screen
#Get the last rendered frame
global last_frame_time
print("Action %s, Points: %d" % (translate_action[action],points))
#Only display the game screen if the game is not over
if("End" not in translate_action[action]):
#Render the game with matplotlib
plt.imshow(input_t.reshape((grid_size,)*2),
interpolation='none', cmap='gray')
#Clear whatever we rendered before
display.clear_output(wait=True)
#And display the rendering
display.display(plt.gcf())
#Update the last frame time
last_frame_time = set_max_fps(last_frame_time)

def set_max_fps(last_frame_time,FPS = 1):
current_milli_time = lambda: int(round(time.time() * 1000))
sleep_time = 1./FPS - (current_milli_time() - last_frame_time)
if sleep_time > 0:
time.sleep(sleep_time)
return current_milli_time()


Deep reinforcement learning¶

After the game is all setup, let's get to the exciting part.

For a deeper understanding of what is going on in the next couple of cells, definetly check out Demystifying Deep Reinforcement Learning and the links posted at the end of Tambet's post.

Q-learning intuition.¶

A good way to understand Q-learning is to compare playing Catch with playing chess. In both games you are given a state s (chess: positions of the figures on the board, Catch: location of the fruit and the basket), on which you have to take an action a (chess: move a figure, Catch: move the basket to the left, right, or stay where you are). As a result there will be some reward r and a new state s’. The problem with both Catch and and chess is that the rewards will not appear immediately after you have taken the action. In Catch, you only earn rewards when the fruits hit the basket or fall on the floor, and in chess you only earn a reward when you win or loose the game. Rewards are sparsely distributed, most of the time, r will be 0. When there is a reward, it is not always a result of the action taken immediately before. Some action taken long before might have cause the victory. Figuring out which action is responsible for the reward is often referred to as the credit assignment problem.

Because rewards are delayed, good chess players do not choose their plays only by the immediate reward, but by the expected future reward. They do not only think about whether they can eliminate an opponents figure in the next move, but how taking a certain action now will help them in the long run. In Q-learning, we choose our action based on the highest expected future reward. While in state s, we estimate the future reward for each possible action a. We assume that after we have taken action a and moved to the next state s’, everything works out perfectly. Like in finance, we discount future rewards, since they are uncertain. The expected future reward Q(s,a) given a state s and an action a is therefore the reward r that directly follows from a plus the expected future reward Q(s’,a’) if the optimal action a’ is taken in the following state s’, discounted by the discount factor gamma.

Q(s,a) = r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’)

Good chess players are very good at estimating future rewards in their head. In other words, their function Q(s,a) is very precise. Most chess practice revolves around developing a better Q function. Players peruse many old games to learn how specific moves played out in the past, and how likely a given action is to lead to victory.

But how could we estimate a good function Q? This is where neural networks come into play.

Regression after all¶

When playing, we generate lots of experiences consisting of the initial state s, the action taken a, the reward earned r and the state that followed s’. These experiences are our training data. We can frame the problem of estimating Q(s,a) as a simple regression problem. Given an input vector consisting of s and a the neural net is supposed to predict the a value of Q(s,a) equal to the target: r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’). If we are good at predicting Q(s,a) for different states s and actions a, we have a good approximation of Q. Note that Q(s’,a’) is also a prediction of the neural network we are training.

Given a batch of experiences < s, a, r, s’ >, the training process then looks as follows:

1. For each possible action a’ (left, right, stay), predict the expected future reward Q(s’,a’) using the neural net
2. Choose the highest value of the three predictions max Q(s’,a’)
3. Calculate r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’). This is the target value for the neural net
4. Train the neural net using the loss function 1/2(predicted_Q(s,a) - target)^2

During gameplay, all the experiences are stored in a replay memory. This is the class below.

The remember function simply saves an experience to a list. The get_batch function performs steps 1 to 3 of the list above and returns an input and a target vector. The actual training is done in a function discussed below.

In [5]:
class ExperienceReplay(object):
"""
During gameplay all the experiences < s, a, r, s’ > are stored in a replay memory.
In training, batches of randomly drawn experiences are used to generate the input and target for training.
"""
def __init__(self, max_memory=100, discount=.9):
"""
Setup
max_memory: the maximum number of experiences we want to store
memory: a list of experiences
discount: the discount factor for future experience

In the memory the information whether the game ended at the state is stored seperately in a nested array
[...
[experience, game_over]
[experience, game_over]
...]
"""
self.max_memory = max_memory
self.memory = list()
self.discount = discount

def remember(self, states, game_over):
#Save a state to memory
self.memory.append([states, game_over])
#We don't want to store infinite memories, so if we have too many, we just delete the oldest one
if len(self.memory) > self.max_memory:
del self.memory[0]

def get_batch(self, model, batch_size=10):

#How many experiences do we have?
len_memory = len(self.memory)

#Calculate the number of actions that can possibly be taken in the game
num_actions = model.output_shape[-1]

#Dimensions of the game field
env_dim = self.memory[0][0][0].shape[1]

#We want to return an input and target vector with inputs from an observed state...
inputs = np.zeros((min(len_memory, batch_size), env_dim))

#...and the target r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’)
#Note that our target is a matrix, with possible fields not only for the action taken but also
#for the other possible actions. The actions not take the same value as the prediction to not affect them
targets = np.zeros((inputs.shape[0], num_actions))

#We draw states to learn from randomly
for i, idx in enumerate(np.random.randint(0, len_memory,
size=inputs.shape[0])):
"""
Here we load one transition <s, a, r, s’> from memory
state_t: initial state s
action_t: action taken a
reward_t: reward earned r
state_tp1: the state that followed s’
"""
state_t, action_t, reward_t, state_tp1 = self.memory[idx][0]

#We also need to know whether the game ended at this state
game_over = self.memory[idx][1]

#add the state s to the input
inputs[i:i+1] = state_t

# First we fill the target values with the predictions of the model.
# They will not be affected by training (since the training loss for them is 0)
targets[i] = model.predict(state_t)[0]

"""
If the game ended, the expected reward Q(s,a) should be the final reward r.
Otherwise the target value is r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’)
"""
#  Here Q_sa is max_a'Q(s', a')
Q_sa = np.max(model.predict(state_tp1)[0])

#if the game ended, the reward is the final reward
if game_over:  # if game_over is True
targets[i, action_t] = reward_t
else:
# r + gamma * max Q(s’,a’)
targets[i, action_t] = reward_t + self.discount * Q_sa
return inputs, targets


Defining the model¶

Now it is time to define model that will learn Q. We are using Keras as a frontend to either Tensorflow or Theano. Our baseline model is a very simple 3 layer dense network. You can play around with more complex models and see whether you can improve performance.

In [11]:
def baseline_model(grid_size,num_actions,hidden_size):
#seting up the model with keras
model = Sequential()
model.compile(sgd(lr=.1), "mse")
return model


Parameters¶

Before we start training, we need to define some parameters. You can experiment with these, too.

In [12]:
# parameters
epsilon = .1  # exploration
num_actions = 3  # [move_left, stay, move_right]
max_memory = 500 # Maximum number of experiences we are storing
hidden_size = 100 # Size of the hidden layers
batch_size = 1 # Number of experiences we use for training per batch
grid_size = 10 # Size of the playing field

In [13]:
#Define model
model = baseline_model(grid_size,num_actions,hidden_size)
model.summary()

_________________________________________________________________
Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #
=================================================================
dense_4 (Dense)              (None, 100)               10100
_________________________________________________________________
dense_5 (Dense)              (None, 100)               10100
_________________________________________________________________
dense_6 (Dense)              (None, 3)                 303
=================================================================
Total params: 20,503
Trainable params: 20,503
Non-trainable params: 0
_________________________________________________________________

In [14]:
# Define environment/game
env = Catch(grid_size)

# Initialize experience replay object
exp_replay = ExperienceReplay(max_memory=max_memory)


Training the model¶

Training is relatively straightforward. We let the model play the game. While it plays, it generates training data in form of experiences. We use this training data to train our Q estimator.

In [15]:
def train(model,epochs, verbose = 1):
# Train
#Reseting the win counter
win_cnt = 0
# We want to keep track of the progress of the AI over time, so we save its win count history
win_hist = []
#Epochs is the number of games we play
for e in range(epochs):
loss = 0.
#Resetting the game
env.reset()
game_over = False
# get initial input
input_t = env.observe()

while not game_over:
#The learner is acting on the last observed game screen
#input_t is a vector containing representing the game screen
input_tm1 = input_t

"""
We want to avoid that the learner settles on a local minimum.
Imagine you are eating eating in an exotic restaurant. After some experimentation you find
that Penang Curry with fried Tempeh tastes well. From this day on, you are settled, and the only Asian
food you are eating is Penang Curry. How can your friends convince you that there is better Asian food?
It's simple: Sometimes, they just don't let you choose but order something random from the menu.
Maybe you'll like it.
The chance that your friends order for you is epsilon
"""
if np.random.rand() <= epsilon:
#Eat something random from the menu
action = np.random.randint(0, num_actions, size=1)
else:
#Choose yourself
#q contains the expected rewards for the actions
q = model.predict(input_tm1)
#We pick the action with the highest expected reward
action = np.argmax(q[0])

# apply action, get rewards and new state
input_t, reward, game_over = env.act(action)
#If we managed to catch the fruit we add 1 to our win counter
if reward == 1:
win_cnt += 1

#Uncomment this to render the game here
#display_screen(action,3000,inputs[0])

"""
The experiences < s, a, r, s’ > we make during gameplay are our training data.
Here we first save the last experience, and then load a batch of experiences to train our model
"""

# store experience
exp_replay.remember([input_tm1, action, reward, input_t], game_over)

inputs, targets = exp_replay.get_batch(model, batch_size=batch_size)

# train model on experiences
batch_loss = model.train_on_batch(inputs, targets)

#print(loss)
loss += batch_loss
if verbose > 0:
print("Epoch {:03d}/{:03d} | Loss {:.4f} | Win count {}".format(e,epochs, loss, win_cnt))
win_hist.append(win_cnt)
return win_hist


Playing many games¶

To become a good player, our model needs to play many games. I found that after about 4,000 games it becomes a decent player. For sake of a readable notebook I have disabled the output of the trainer here. See the section on evaluating progress below for a chart.

In [16]:
epoch = 5000 # Number of games played in training, I found the model needs about 4,000 games till it plays well
# Train the model
# For simplicity of the noteb
hist = train(model,epoch,verbose=0)
print("Training done")

Training done


Testing the model¶

Now that we have a great Catch player at hand, we want to see it in action! The test function is very similar to the train function. Only that in testing we do not save the experiences and train on them. But we now get to use the rendering functions defined above to watch our model play!

In [17]:
def test(model):
#This function lets a pretrained model play the game to evaluate how well it is doing
global last_frame_time
plt.ion()
# Define environment, game
env = Catch(grid_size)
#c is a simple counter variable keeping track of how much we train
c = 0
#Reset the last frame time (we are starting from 0)
last_frame_time = 0
#Reset score
points = 0
#For training we are playing the game 10 times
for e in range(10):
loss = 0.
#Reset the game
env.reset()
#The game is not over
game_over = False
# get initial input
input_t = env.observe()
#display_screen(3,points,input_t)
c += 1
while not game_over:
#The learner is acting on the last observed game screen
#input_t is a vector containing representing the game screen
input_tm1 = input_t
#Feed the learner the current status and get the expected rewards for different actions from it
q = model.predict(input_tm1)
#Select the action with the highest expected reward
action = np.argmax(q[0])
# apply action, get rewards and new state
input_t, reward, game_over = env.act(action)
#Update our score
points += reward
display_screen(action,points,input_t)
c += 1

In [20]:
test(model)


Evaluating progress¶

That demo is pretty impressive huh? Before we end this little excursion, let's have a closer look at how our model actually did at learning. Earlier, we saved the history of victories. Now we can plot the moving average of the difference, that is, how many additional victories did the model score per extra game. 1 extra victory per game means the model wins every game (it catches every fruit), 0 means it looses all of them. As you can see the model approaches a 100% victory rate over time. After 4000 plays, the model wins relatively consistently. The random drops in performance are likely due to the random choice epsilon that are made from time to time. A better model would get closer to 100% faster.

In [19]:
def moving_average_diff(a, n=100):
diff = np.diff(a)
ret = np.cumsum(diff, dtype=float)
ret[n:] = ret[n:] - ret[:-n]
return ret[n - 1:] / n

plt.plot(moving_average_diff(hist))
plt.ylabel('Average of victories per game')
plt.show()

In [ ]:
£