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Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2020.

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Main Author: Reynard, Matthew
Other Authors: Engelbrecht, H. A.
Format: Thesis
Language:en_ZA
Published: Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author Reynard, Matthew
author2 Engelbrecht, H. A.
author_browse Engelbrecht, H. A.
Reynard, Matthew
author_facet Engelbrecht, H. A.
Reynard, Matthew
author_sort Reynard, Matthew
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv Stellenbosch University
description Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2020.
format Thesis
id oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/107868
institution Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
language en_ZA
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:46:49.061Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
publisherStr Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
record_format dspace
source_str SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
spelling oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/107868 Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment Reynard, Matthew Engelbrecht, H. A. Kamper, M. J. Rosman, Benjamin Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Reinforcement learning -- Mathematical models Machine learning Minecraft (Game) Dojos UCTD Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2020. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: With the long-term goal of surviving the night in Minecraft, we ask whether a reinforcement learning agent learns better by first learning the skills to perform smaller tasks in a complex environment or by learning the skills in the complex environment from the start. This is investigated empirically in a non-trivial game environment. We use the premise of curriculum learning where an agent learns different skills in independent and isolated sub-environments referred to as dojos. The skills learned in the dojos are then used as different actions as the agent decides which skill to perform that best applies to the current game state. We evaluate this with experiments conducted in the Minecraft gaming environment. We find that our approach of Dojo learning is able to achieve better performance with faster training time in certain environments. The main benefit of this approach is that the reward functions can be finely tuned in the dojos for each action as compared to the traditional methods. However, the skills learned in the individual dojos become the limiting factor in performance as the agent is unable to combine these skills effectively when put in certain complex environments. This can be mitigated if the dojo modules are further trained to achieve similar results as a standard deep Q network. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Met die langtermyndoel om ’n nag in Minecraft te oorleef, vra ons of versterkingsleer beter leer deur eers die vaardighede aan te leer om kleiner take in ’n komplekse omgewing uit te voer of deur die vaardighede in die komplekse omgewing aan te leer. Dit word in ’n uitdagende spelomgewing ondersoek. Ons gebruik kurrikulumleer waar ’n agent verskillende vaardighede aanleer in onafhanklike en geïsoleerde sub-omgewings waarna as dojos verwys word. Die vaardighede wat in die dojos aangeleer word, word dan as verskillende aksies gebruik aangesien die agent besluit watter vaardighede hy moet uitvoer wat die beste van toepassing is op die huidige speltoestand. Ons evalueer dit eksperimenteel in die Minecraft-spelomgewing. Ons vind dat ons benadering van Dojo-leer beter vaar met ’n vinniger opleidingstyd in sekere omgewings. Die belangrikste voordeel van hierdie benadering is dat die beloningsfunksies in die dojo’s vir elke aksie fyn ingestel kan word in vergelyking met die tradisionele metodes. Die vaardighede wat in die individuele dojos aangeleer word, word egter die beperkende faktor aangesien die agent nie in staat is om hierdie vaardighede effektief te kombineer as dit in sekere komplekse omgewings geplaas word nie. Dit kan versag word as die dojo-modules verder afgerig word om soortgelyke resultate te lewer as ’n standaard diep Q-netwerk . Masters 2020-02-25T12:42:24Z 2020-04-28T12:07:00Z 2020-02-25T12:42:24Z 2020-04-28T12:07:00Z 2020-03 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/107868 en_ZA Stellenbosch University ix, 65 leaves : illustrations (some color) application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
spellingShingle Reinforcement learning -- Mathematical models
Machine learning
Minecraft (Game)
Dojos
UCTD
Reynard, Matthew
Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title_full Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title_fullStr Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title_full_unstemmed Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title_short Reinforcement learning in the Minecraft gaming environment
title_sort reinforcement learning in the minecraft gaming environment
topic Reinforcement learning -- Mathematical models
Machine learning
Minecraft (Game)
Dojos
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/107868
work_keys_str_mv AT reynardmatthew reinforcementlearningintheminecraftgamingenvironment