SEMDICE: Off-policy State Entropy Maximization via Stationary Distribution Correction Estimation
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
In the unsupervised pre-training for reinforcement learning, the agent aims to learn a prior policy for downstream tasks without relying on task-specific reward functions. We focus on state entropy maximization (SEM), where the goal is to learn a policy that maximizes the entropy of the state stationary distribution. In this paper, we introduce SEMDICE, a principled off-policy algorithm that computes an SEM policy from an arbitrary off-policy dataset, which optimizes the policy directly within the space of stationary distributions. SEMDICE computes a single, stationary Markov state-entropy-maximizing policy from an arbitrary off-policy dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that SEMDICE outperforms baseline algorithms in maximizing state entropy while achieving the best adaptation efficiency for downstream tasks among SEM-based unsupervised RL pre-training methods.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 52 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Dec 2025.
Builds on
39 of 52 references.
References · 39
- 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,204
- 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,199
- 2020A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representationscited by 11,979
- 2019Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learningcited by 7,482
- 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,635
- 2015Continuous control with deep reinforcement learningcited by 3,279
- 2015Trust Region Policy Optimizationcited by 2,503
- 2021Convex optimizationcited by 2,479
- 2017Curiosity-driven Exploration by Self-supervised Predictioncited by 1,173
- 2018Exploration by Random Network Distillationcited by 966
- 2021Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Edge of the Statistical Precipicecited by 781
- 2018Diversity is All You Need: Learning Skills without a Reward Functioncited by 734
27 more
- 2019Leveraging Procedural Generation to Benchmark Reinforcement Learningcited by 478
- 2019A Theory of Regularized Markov Decision Processescited by 279
- 2019Self-Supervised Exploration via Disagreementcited by 263
- 2018Provably Efficient Maximum Entropy Explorationcited by 240
- 2018Breaking the Curse of Horizon: Infinite-Horizon Off-Policy Estimationcited by 226
- 2019Adversarial Policies: Attacking Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 209
- 2019AlgaeDICE: Policy Gradient from Arbitrary Experiencecited by 187
- 2019Efficient Exploration via State Marginal Matchingcited by 186
- 2020Reward-Free Exploration for Reinforcement Learningcited by 177
- 2021Behavior From the Void: Unsupervised Active Pre-Trainingcited by 173
- 2021URLB: Unsupervised Reinforcement Learning Benchmarkcited by 138
- 2020GenDICE: Generalized Offline Estimation of Stationary Valuescited by 122
- 2021OptiDICE: Offline Policy Optimization via Stationary Distribution Correction Estimationcited by 121
- 2021APS: Active Pretraining with Successor Featurescited by 109
- 2020Reinforcement Learning via Fenchel-Rockafellar Dualitycited by 100
- 2020Off-Policy Evaluation via the Regularized Lagrangiancited by 86
- 2020Adaptive Reward-Free Explorationcited by 77
- 2022COptiDICE: Offline Constrained Reinforcement Learning via Stationary Distribution Correction Estimationcited by 69
- 2022Versatile Offline Imitation from Observations and Examples via Regularized State-Occupancy Matchingcited by 43
- 2021The Information Geometry of Unsupervised Reinforcement Learningcited by 36
- 2022The Importance of Non-Markovianity in Maximum State Entropy Explorationcited by 35
- 2023Fast Rates for Maximum Entropy Explorationcited by 32
- 2023Maximum State Entropy Exploration using Predecessor and Successor Representationscited by 23
- 2022LobsDICE: Offline Learning from Observation via Stationary Distribution Correction Estimationcited by 22
- 2023Accelerating Reinforcement Learning with Value-Conditional State Entropy Explorationcited by 22
- 2024ODICE: Revealing the Mystery of Distribution Correction Estimation via Orthogonal-gradient Updatecited by 21
- 2020Active Model Estimation in Markov Decision Processescited by 20
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.
1 paper.