Flexible Data Augmentation in Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning

This paper explores an application of image augmentation in reinforcement learning tasks - a popular regularization technique in the computer vision area. The analysis is based on the model-free off-policy algorithms. As a regularization, we consider the augmentation of the frames that are sampled from the replay buffer of the model. Evaluated augmentation techniques are random changes in image contrast, random shifting, random cutting, and others. Research is done using the environments of the Atari games: Breakout, Space Invaders, Berzerk, Wizard of Wor, Demon Attack. Using augmentations allowed us to obtain results confirming the significant acceleration of the model’s algorithm convergence. We also proposed an adaptive mechanism for selecting the type of augmentation depending on the type of task being performed by the agent.