An abstraction-based method to check multi-agent deep reinforcement-learning behaviors
Author(s)
Mqirmi, PE
Belardinelli, F
León, BG
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) often struggles to ensure the safe behaviours of the learning agents, and therefore it is generally not adapted to safety-critical applications. To address this issue, we present a methodology that combines formal verification with (deep) RL algorithms to guarantee the satisfaction of formally-specified safety constraints both in training and testing. The approach we propose expresses the constraints to verify in Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic (PCTL) and builds an abstract representation of the system to reduce the complexity of the verification step. This abstract model allows for model checking techniques to identify a set of abstract policies that meet the safety constraints expressed in PCTL. Then, the agents' behaviours are restricted according to these safe abstract policies. We provide formal guarantees that by using this method, the actions of the agents always meet the safety constraints, and provide a procedure to generate an abstract model automatically. We empirically evaluate and show the effectiveness of our method in a multi-agent environment.
Date Issued
2021-05-03
Date Acceptance
2021-05-01
Citation
Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS, 2021, pp.474-482
ISBN
9781450383073
ISSN
1548-8403
Publisher
International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
Start Page
474
End Page
482
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS
Copyright Statement
© 2021 International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (www.ifaamas.org). All rights reserved.
Source
20th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2021-05-03
Finish Date
2021-05-07
Coverage Spatial
Virtual