# RL-Pruner: Structured Pruning Using Reinforcement Learning for CNN Compression and Acceleration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.06463 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.06463/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Deep RL algorithms and representations, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 12 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Nov 2024.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [Deep RL algorithms and representations](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/deep-rl-algorithms-and-representations/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [MobileNets: Efficient Convolutional Neural Networks for Mobile Vision Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.04861/) (2017)
- [Pruning Filters for Efficient ConvNets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.08710/) (2016)
- [An Introduction to Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.08458/) (2015)
- [Soft Filter Pruning for Accelerating Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.06866/) (2018)
- [A Survey of Model Compression and Acceleration for Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09282/) (2017)
- [Incremental Network Quantization: Towards Lossless CNNs with Low-Precision Weights](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.03044/) (2017)
- [Compressing Deep Convolutional Networks using Vector Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6115/) (2014)
- [Neural Pruning via Growing Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09243/) (2020)
- [Channel Pruning via Automatic Structure Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.08565/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [SepPrune: Structured Pruning for Efficient Deep Speech Separation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12079/) (2025)
- [Adapt-Pruner: Adaptive Structural Pruning for Efficient Small Language Model Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03460/) (2025)
- [Locate-then-Sparsify: Attribution Guided Sparse Strategy for Visual Hallucination Mitigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16284/) (2026)
- [Before Parc Ferm'e: RL-Time Pruning for Efficient Embodied LLMs in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.31256/) (2026)
- [Kernelized Sparse Fine-Tuning with Bi-level Parameter Competition for Vision Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24037/) (2025)
- [Hardware-Aware YOLO Compression for Low-Power Edge AI on STM32U5 for Weeds Detection in Digital Agriculture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.07990/) (2025)
- [SPEAR: Structured Pruning for Spiking Neural Networks via Synaptic Operation Estimation and Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02945/) (2025)
- [Accelerating Reinforcement Learning Algorithms Convergence using Pre-trained Large Language Models as Tutors With Advice Reusing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.08329/) (2025)
- [Equivariant-Aware Structured Pruning for Efficient Edge Deployment: A Comprehensive Framework with Adaptive Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17242/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have demonstrated exceptional performance in recent years. Compressing these models not only reduces storage requirements, making deployment to edge devices feasible, but also accelerates inference, thereby reducing latency and computational costs. Structured pruning, which removes filters at the layer level, directly modifies the model architecture. This approach achieves a more compact architecture while maintaining target accuracy, ensuring that the compressed model retains good compatibility and hardware efficiency. Our method is based on a key observation: filters in different layers of a neural network have varying importance to the model's performance. When the number of filters to prune is fixed, the optimal pruning distribution across different layers is uneven to minimize performance loss. Layers that are more sensitive to pruning should account for a smaller proportion of the pruning distribution. To leverage this insight, we propose RL-Pruner, which uses reinforcement learning to learn the optimal pruning distribution. RL-Pruner can automatically extract dependencies between filters in the input model and perform pruning, without requiring model-specific pruning implementations. We conducted experiments on models such as GoogleNet, ResNet, and MobileNet, comparing our approach to other structured pruning methods to validate its effectiveness. Our code is available at https://github.com/Beryex/RLPruner-CNN.