Reinforcement Learning Revolution

Reinforcement Learning (RL) trains agents to make sequential decisions by trial and error, receiving rewards or penalties. RL powers autonomous vehicles, game-playing AI (AlphaGo), robotics, and optimization systems.

Key RL Algorithms

1. Deep Q-Networks (DQN)

• Value-based RL for discrete action spaces
• Experience replay and target networks
• Used in Atari game playing, routing optimization
• Achieves superhuman performance on many games

2. Policy Gradient Methods

• PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization): Stable, sample-efficient, industry standard
• A3C (Asynchronous Actor-Critic): Parallel training for faster convergence
• DDPG/TD3: Continuous action spaces (robotics)
• Used in robotics, autonomous driving, resource allocation

3. Model-Based RL

• Learn environment dynamics model
• Plan actions using the model
• More sample-efficient than model-free methods
• AlphaZero, MuZero for game playing

Real-World Applications

Robotics & Manipulation

• Robot arm manipulation (pick and place, assembly)
• Legged locomotion (humanoid, quadruped robots)
• Autonomous drones and vehicles
• Warehouse automation

Resource Optimization

• Data center cooling (Google: 40% energy savings)
• Traffic light optimization (reduce congestion by 20-30%)
• Portfolio management and trading
• Supply chain optimization

Recommendation Systems

• Sequential recommendations (YouTube, Netflix)
• Contextual bandits for personalization
• Ad bidding and placement
• 10-30% improvement over supervised learning

Implementation Stack

Frameworks: Stable-Baselines3, RLlib, TensorFlow Agents, PyTorch RL

Simulation: OpenAI Gym, MuJoCo, PyBullet, Unity ML-Agents

Deployment: Docker, Kubernetes, edge devices (Jetson)

Challenges & Solutions

• Sample Inefficiency: Use model-based RL, transfer learning
• Exploration: Curiosity-driven exploration, intrinsic rewards
• Sim-to-Real Gap: Domain randomization, robust training
• Reward Design: Inverse RL, human feedback (RLHF)

Pricing

• POC/Research: ₹15-30L (3-6 months)
• Production System: ₹40-80L (6-12 months)
• Custom Robotics: ₹80L-3Cr (12-24 months)