Finite-Sample Analysis For Decentralized Batch Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning With Networked Agents
This work addresses a foundational gap in MARL theory for researchers, offering the first finite-sample analysis for batch MARL, though it is incremental as it builds on existing single-agent RL bounds.
The paper tackles the lack of theoretical understanding in multi-agent reinforcement learning by providing a finite-sample analysis for decentralized batch MARL with networked agents, developing algorithms for collaborative and competitive settings and quantifying error bounds that include terms from decentralized computation.
Despite the increasing interest in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) in multiple communities, understanding its theoretical foundation has long been recognized as a challenging problem. In this work, we address this problem by providing a finite-sample analysis for decentralized batch MARL with networked agents. Specifically, we consider two decentralized MARL settings, where teams of agents are connected by time-varying communication networks, and either collaborate or compete in a zero-sum game setting, without any central controller. These settings cover many conventional MARL settings in the literature. For both settings, we develop batch MARL algorithms that can be implemented in a decentralized fashion, and quantify the finite-sample errors of the estimated action-value functions. Our error analysis captures how the function class, the number of samples within each iteration, and the number of iterations determine the statistical accuracy of the proposed algorithms. Our results, compared to the finite-sample bounds for single-agent RL, involve additional error terms caused by decentralized computation, which is inherent in our decentralized MARL setting. This work appears to be the first finite-sample analysis for batch MARL, a step towards rigorous theoretical understanding of general MARL algorithms in the finite-sample regime.