mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Neural DNF-MT: A Neuro-symbolic Approach for Learning Interpretable and Editable Policies

arXiv 2501.03888 ↗First posted 7 Jan 2025cs.AI cs.LG cs.LOcited by 4

On the map: Deep reinforcement learning methods → Interpretable and logic-guided RL

Abstract (arXiv)

Although deep reinforcement learning has been shown to be effective, the model's black-box nature presents barriers to direct policy interpretation. To address this problem, we propose a neuro-symbolic approach called neural DNF-MT for end-to-end policy learning. The differentiable nature of the neural DNF-MT model enables the use of deep actor-critic algorithms for training. At the same time, its architecture is designed so that trained models can be directly translated into interpretable policies expressed as standard (bivalent or probabilistic) logic programs. Moreover, additional layers can be included to extract abstract features from complex observations, acting as a form of predicate invention. The logic representations are highly interpretable, and we show how the bivalent representations of deterministic policies can be edited and incorporated back into a neural model, facilitating manual intervention and adaptation of learned policies. We evaluate our approach on a range of tasks requiring learning deterministic or stochastic behaviours from various forms of observations. Our empirical results show that our neural DNF-MT model performs at the level of competing black-box methods whilst providing interpretable policies.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Interpretable and logic-guided RL, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods. Builds on 19 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2025.

Builds on

19 of 49 references.

References · 19

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 15,215
  2. 2016Asynchronous Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 2,258
  3. 2019Dota 2 with Large Scale Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,103
  4. 2023Minigrid & Miniworld: Modular & Customizable Reinforcement Learning Environments for Goal-Oriented Taskscited by 327
  5. 2017Learning Explanatory Rules from Noisy Datacited by 211
  6. 2018Programmatically Interpretable Reinforcement Learningcited by 193
  7. 2019Neural Logic Machinescited by 145
  8. 2020Logical Neural Networkscited by 119
  9. 2018Relational Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 73
  10. 2019Neural Logic Reinforcement Learningcited by 53
  11. 2021Inductive logic programming at 30cited by 47
  12. 2023Interpretable and Explainable Logical Policies via Neurally Guided Symbolic Abstractioncited by 46
7 more
  1. 2021Neuro-Symbolic Reinforcement Learning with First-Order Logiccited by 30
  2. 2021Differentiable Inductive Logic Programming for Structured Examplescited by 26
  3. 2020Automatic Gesture Recognition in Robot-assisted Surgery with Reinforcement Learning and Tree Searchcited by 23
  4. 2021Differentiable Logic Machinescited by 18
  5. 2022GALOIS: Boosting Deep Reinforcement Learning via Generalizable Logic Synthesiscited by 16
  6. 2021pix2rule: End-to-end Neuro-symbolic Rule Learningcited by 9
  7. 2023Neuro-symbolic Rule Learning in Real-world Classification Taskscited by 7

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 3.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024Three Pathways to Neurosymbolic Reinforcement Learning with Interpretable Model and Policy Networks
  2. 2026Sample-Efficient Neurosymbolic Deep Reinforcement Learning
  3. 2026Sample-efficient Neuro-symbolic Proximal Policy Optimization
  4. 2025Compositional Concept-Based Neuron-Level Interpretability for Deep Reinforcement Learning
  5. 2026Neuro-symbolic Action Masking for Deep Reinforcement Learning
  6. 2024End-to-End Neuro-Symbolic Reinforcement Learning with Textual Explanations
  7. 2025"So, Tell Me About Your Policy...": Distillation of interpretable policies from Deep Reinforcement Learning agents
  8. 2025From Explainability to Interpretability: Interpretable Policies in Reinforcement Learning Via Model Explanation