docs/Training-ML-Agents.md

# Training ML-Agents

**Table of Contents**

- [Training ML-Agents](#training-ml-agents)
  - [Training with mlagents-learn](#training-with-mlagents-learn)
    - [Starting Training](#starting-training)
      - [Observing Training](#observing-training)
      - [Stopping and Resuming Training](#stopping-and-resuming-training)
      - [Loading an Existing Model](#loading-an-existing-model)
  - [Training Configurations](#training-configurations)
    - [Adding CLI Arguments to the Training Configuration file](#adding-cli-arguments-to-the-training-configuration-file)
      - [Environment settings](#environment-settings)
      - [Engine settings](#engine-settings)
      - [Checkpoint settings](#checkpoint-settings)
      - [Torch settings:](#torch-settings)
    - [Behavior Configurations](#behavior-configurations)
    - [Default Behavior Settings](#default-behavior-settings)
    - [Environment Parameters](#environment-parameters)
      - [Environment Parameter Randomization](#environment-parameter-randomization)
        - [Supported Sampler Types](#supported-sampler-types)
        - [Training with Environment Parameter Randomization](#training-with-environment-parameter-randomization)
      - [Curriculum](#curriculum)
        - [Training with a Curriculum](#training-with-a-curriculum)
    - [Training Using Concurrent Unity Instances](#training-using-concurrent-unity-instances)

For a broad overview of reinforcement learning, imitation learning and all the
training scenarios, methods and options within the ML-Agents Toolkit, see
[ML-Agents Toolkit Overview](ML-Agents-Overview.md).

Once your learning environment has been created and is ready for training, the
next step is to initiate a training run. Training in the ML-Agents Toolkit is
powered by a dedicated Python package, `mlagents`. This package exposes a
command `mlagents-learn` that is the single entry point for all training
workflows (e.g. reinforcement leaning, imitation learning, curriculum learning).
Its implementation can be found at
[ml-agents/mlagents/trainers/learn.py](../ml-agents/mlagents/trainers/learn.py).

## Training with mlagents-learn

### Starting Training

`mlagents-learn` is the main training utility provided by the ML-Agents Toolkit.
It accepts a number of CLI options in addition to a YAML configuration file that
contains all the configurations and hyperparameters to be used during training.
The set of configurations and hyperparameters to include in this file depend on
the agents in your environment and the specific training method you wish to
utilize. Keep in mind that the hyperparameter values can have a big impact on
the training performance (i.e. your agent's ability to learn a policy that
solves the task). In this page, we will review all the hyperparameters for all
training methods and provide guidelines and advice on their values.

To view a description of all the CLI options accepted by `mlagents-learn`, use
the `--help`:

```sh
mlagents-learn --help
```

The basic command for training is:

```sh
mlagents-learn <trainer-config-file> --env=<env_name> --run-id=<run-identifier>
```

where

- `<trainer-config-file>` is the file path of the trainer configuration YAML.
  This contains all the hyperparameter values. We offer a detailed guide on the
  structure of this file and the meaning of the hyperparameters (and advice on
  how to set them) in the dedicated
  [Training Configurations](#training-configurations) section below.
- `<env_name>`**(Optional)** is the name (including path) of your
  [Unity executable](Learning-Environment-Executable.md) containing the agents
  to be trained. If `<env_name>` is not passed, the training will happen in the
  Editor. Press the **Play** button in Unity when the message _"Start training
  by pressing the Play button in the Unity Editor"_ is displayed on the screen.
- `<run-identifier>` is a unique name you can use to identify the results of
  your training runs.

See the
[Getting Started Guide](Getting-Started.md#training-a-new-model-with-reinforcement-learning)
for a sample execution of the `mlagents-learn` command.

#### Observing Training

Regardless of which training methods, configurations or hyperparameters you
provide, the training process will always generate three artifacts, all found
in the `results/<run-identifier>` folder:

1. Summaries: these are training metrics that
   are updated throughout the training process. They are helpful to monitor your
   training performance and may help inform how to update your hyperparameter
   values. See [Using TensorBoard](Using-Tensorboard.md) for more details on how
   to visualize the training metrics.
1. Models: these contain the model checkpoints that
   are updated throughout training and the final model file (`.onnx`). This final
   model file is generated once either when training completes or is
   interrupted.
1. Timers file (under `results/<run-identifier>/run_logs`): this contains aggregated
   metrics on your training process, including time spent on specific code
   blocks. See [Profiling in Python](Profiling-Python.md) for more information
   on the timers generated.

These artifacts are updated throughout the training
process and finalized when training is completed or is interrupted.

#### Stopping and Resuming Training

To interrupt training and save the current progress, hit `Ctrl+C` once and wait
for the model(s) to be saved out.

To resume a previously interrupted or completed training run, use the `--resume`
flag and make sure to specify the previously used run ID.

If you would like to re-run a previously interrupted or completed training run
and re-use the same run ID (in this case, overwriting the previously generated
artifacts), then use the `--force` flag.

#### Loading an Existing Model

You can also use this mode to run inference of an already-trained model in
Python by using both the `--resume` and `--inference` flags. Note that if you
want to run inference in Unity, you should use the
[Unity Inference Engine](Getting-Started.md#running-a-pre-trained-model).

Additionally, if the network architecture changes, you may still load an existing model,
but ML-Agents will only load the parts of the model it can load and ignore all others. For instance,
if you add a new reward signal, the existing model will load but the new reward signal
will be initialized from scratch. If you have a model with a visual encoder (CNN) but
change the `hidden_units`, the CNN will be loaded but the body of the network will be
initialized from scratch.

Alternatively, you might want to start a new training run but _initialize_ it
using an already-trained model. You may want to do this, for instance, if your
environment changed and you want a new model, but the old behavior is still
better than random. You can do this by specifying
`--initialize-from=<run-identifier>`, where `<run-identifier>` is the old run
ID.

## Training Configurations

The Unity ML-Agents Toolkit provides a wide range of training scenarios, methods
and options. As such, specific training runs may require different training
configurations and may generate different artifacts and TensorBoard statistics.
This section offers a detailed guide into how to manage the different training
set-ups withing the toolkit.

More specifically, this section offers a detailed guide on the command-line
flags for `mlagents-learn` that control the training configurations:

- `<trainer-config-file>`: defines the training hyperparameters for each
  Behavior in the scene, and the set-ups for the environment parameters
  (Curriculum Learning and Environment Parameter Randomization)

It is important to highlight that successfully training a Behavior in the
ML-Agents Toolkit involves tuning the training hyperparameters and
configuration. This guide contains some best practices for tuning the training
process when the default parameters don't seem to be giving the level of
performance you would like. We provide sample configuration files for our
example environments in the [config/](../config/) directory. The
`config/ppo/3DBall.yaml` was used to train the 3D Balance Ball in the
[Getting Started](Getting-Started.md) guide. That configuration file uses the
PPO trainer, but we also have configuration files for SAC and GAIL.

Additionally, the set of configurations you provide depend on the training
functionalities you use (see [ML-Agents Toolkit Overview](ML-Agents-Overview.md)
for a description of all the training functionalities). Each functionality you
add typically has its own training configurations. For instance:

- Use PPO or SAC?
- Use Recurrent Neural Networks for adding memory to your agents?
- Use the intrinsic curiosity module?
- Ignore the environment reward signal?
- Pre-train using behavioral cloning? (Assuming you have recorded
  demonstrations.)
- Include the GAIL intrinsic reward signals? (Assuming you have recorded
  demonstrations.)
- Use self-play? (Assuming your environment includes multiple agents.)

The trainer config file, `<trainer-config-file>`, determines the features you will
use during training, and the answers to the above questions will dictate its contents.
The rest of this guide breaks down the different sub-sections of the trainer config file
and explains the possible settings for each. If you need a list of all the trainer
configurations, please see [Training Configuration File](Training-Configuration-File.md).

**NOTE:** The configuration file format has been changed between 0.17.0 and 0.18.0 and
between 0.18.0 and onwards. To convert
an old set of configuration files (trainer config, curriculum, and sampler files) to the new
format, a script has been provided. Run `python -m mlagents.trainers.upgrade_config -h` in your
console to see the script's usage.

### Adding CLI Arguments to the Training Configuration file

Additionally, within the training configuration YAML file, you can also add the
CLI arguments (such as `--num-envs`).

Reminder that a detailed description of all the CLI arguments can be found by
using the help utility:

```sh
mlagents-learn --help
```

These additional CLI arguments are grouped into environment, engine, checkpoint and torch.
The available settings and example values are shown below.

#### Environment settings

```yaml
env_settings:
  env_path: FoodCollector
  env_args: null
  base_port: 5005
  num_envs: 1
  seed: -1
  max_lifetime_restarts: 10
  restarts_rate_limit_n: 1
  restarts_rate_limit_period_s: 60
```

#### Engine settings

```yaml
engine_settings:
  width: 84
  height: 84
  quality_level: 5
  time_scale: 20
  target_frame_rate: -1
  capture_frame_rate: 60
  no_graphics: false
```

#### Checkpoint settings

```yaml
checkpoint_settings:
  run_id: foodtorch
  initialize_from: null
  load_model: false
  resume: false
  force: true
  train_model: false
  inference: false
```

#### Torch settings:

```yaml
torch_settings:
  device: cpu
```

### Behavior Configurations

The primary section of the trainer config file is a
set of configurations for each Behavior in your scene. These are defined under
the sub-section `behaviors` in your trainer config file. Some of the
configurations are required while others are optional. To help us get started,
below is a sample file that includes all the possible settings if we're using a
PPO trainer with all the possible training functionalities enabled (memory,
behavioral cloning, curiosity, GAIL and self-play). You will notice that
curriculum and environment parameter randomization settings are not part of the `behaviors`
configuration, but in their own section called `environment_parameters`.

```yaml
behaviors:
  BehaviorPPO:
    trainer_type: ppo

    hyperparameters:
      # Hyperparameters common to PPO and SAC
      batch_size: 1024
      buffer_size: 10240
      learning_rate: 3.0e-4
      learning_rate_schedule: linear

      # PPO-specific hyperparameters
      beta: 5.0e-3
      beta_schedule: constant
      epsilon: 0.2
      epsilon_schedule: linear
      lambd: 0.95
      num_epoch: 3
      shared_critic: False

    # Configuration of the neural network (common to PPO/SAC)
    network_settings:
      vis_encode_type: simple
      normalize: false
      hidden_units: 128
      num_layers: 2
      # memory
      memory:
        sequence_length: 64
        memory_size: 256

    # Trainer configurations common to all trainers
    max_steps: 5.0e5
    time_horizon: 64
    summary_freq: 10000
    keep_checkpoints: 5
    checkpoint_interval: 50000
    threaded: false
    init_path: null

    # behavior cloning
    behavioral_cloning:
      demo_path: Project/Assets/ML-Agents/Examples/Pyramids/Demos/ExpertPyramid.demo
      strength: 0.5
      steps: 150000
      batch_size: 512
      num_epoch: 3
      samples_per_update: 0

    reward_signals:
      # environment reward (default)
      extrinsic:
        strength: 1.0
        gamma: 0.99

      # curiosity module
      curiosity:
        strength: 0.02
        gamma: 0.99
        encoding_size: 256
        learning_rate: 3.0e-4

      # GAIL
      gail:
        strength: 0.01
        gamma: 0.99
        encoding_size: 128
        demo_path: Project/Assets/ML-Agents/Examples/Pyramids/Demos/ExpertPyramid.demo
        learning_rate: 3.0e-4
        use_actions: false
        use_vail: false

    # self-play
    self_play:
      window: 10
      play_against_latest_model_ratio: 0.5
      save_steps: 50000
      swap_steps: 2000
      team_change: 100000
```

Here is an equivalent file if we use an SAC trainer instead. Notice that the
configurations for the additional functionalities (memory, behavioral cloning,
curiosity and self-play) remain unchanged.

```yaml
behaviors:
  BehaviorSAC:
    trainer_type: sac

    # Trainer configs common to PPO/SAC (excluding reward signals)
    # same as PPO config

    # SAC-specific configs (replaces the hyperparameters section above)
    hyperparameters:
      # Hyperparameters common to PPO and SAC
      # Same as PPO config

      # SAC-specific hyperparameters
      # Replaces the "PPO-specific hyperparameters" section above
      buffer_init_steps: 0
      tau: 0.005
      steps_per_update: 10.0
      save_replay_buffer: false
      init_entcoef: 0.5
      reward_signal_steps_per_update: 10.0

    # Configuration of the neural network (common to PPO/SAC)
    network_settings:
      # Same as PPO config

    # Trainer configurations common to all trainers
      # <Same as PPO config>

    # pre-training using behavior cloning
    behavioral_cloning:
      # same as PPO config

    reward_signals:
      # environment reward
      extrinsic:
        # same as PPO config

      # curiosity module
      curiosity:
        # same as PPO config

      # GAIL
      gail:
        # same as PPO config

    # self-play
    self_play:
      # same as PPO config
```

We now break apart the components of the configuration file and describe what
each of these parameters mean and provide guidelines on how to set them. See
[Training Configuration File](Training-Configuration-File.md) for a detailed
description of all the configurations listed above, along with their defaults.
Unless otherwise specified, omitting a configuration will revert it to its default.

### Default Behavior Settings

In some cases, you may want to specify a set of default configurations for your Behaviors.
This may be useful, for instance, if your Behavior names are generated procedurally by
the environment and not known before runtime, or if you have many Behaviors with very similar
settings. To specify a default configuraton, insert a `default_settings` section in your YAML.
This section should be formatted exactly like a configuration for a Behavior.

```yaml
default_settings:
  # < Same as Behavior configuration >
behaviors:
  # < Same as above >
```

Behaviors found in the environment that aren't specified in the YAML will now use the `default_settings`,
and unspecified settings in behavior configurations will default to the values in `default_settings` if
specified there.

### Environment Parameters

In order to control the `EnvironmentParameters` in the Unity simulation during training,
you need to add a section called `environment_parameters`. For example you can set the
value of an `EnvironmentParameter` called `my_environment_parameter` to `3.0` with
the following code :

```yml
behaviors:
  BehaviorY:
    # < Same as above >

# Add this section
environment_parameters:
  my_environment_parameter: 3.0
```

Inside the Unity simulation, you can access your Environment Parameters by doing :

```csharp
Academy.Instance.EnvironmentParameters.GetWithDefault("my_environment_parameter", 0.0f);
```

#### Environment Parameter Randomization

To enable environment parameter randomization, you need to edit the `environment_parameters`
section of your training configuration yaml file. Instead of providing a single float value
for your environment parameter, you can specify a sampler instead. Here is an example with
three environment parameters called `mass`, `length` and `scale`:

```yml
behaviors:
  BehaviorY:
    # < Same as above >

# Add this section
environment_parameters:
  mass:
    sampler_type: uniform
    sampler_parameters:
        min_value: 0.5
        max_value: 10

  length:
    sampler_type: multirangeuniform
    sampler_parameters:
        intervals: [[7, 10], [15, 20]]

  scale:
    sampler_type: gaussian
    sampler_parameters:
        mean: 2
        st_dev: .3
```


| **Setting**                  | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| :--------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `sampler_type`               | A string identifier for the type of sampler to use for this `Environment Parameter`.                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| `sampler_parameters` | The parameters for a given `sampler_type`. Samplers of different types can have different `sampler_parameters` |

##### Supported Sampler Types

Below is a list of the `sampler_type` values supported by the toolkit.

- `uniform` - Uniform sampler
  - Uniformly samples a single float value from a range with a given minimum
    and maximum value (inclusive).
  - **parameters** - `min_value`, `max_value`
- `gaussian` - Gaussian sampler
  - Samples a single float value from a normal distribution with a given mean
    and standard deviation.
  - **parameters** - `mean`, `st_dev`
- `multirange_uniform` - Multirange uniform sampler
  - First, samples an interval from a set of intervals in proportion to relative
    length of the intervals. Then, uniformly samples a single float value from the
    sampled interval (inclusive). This sampler can take an arbitrary number of
    intervals in a list in the following format:
    [[`interval_1_min`, `interval_1_max`], [`interval_2_min`,
    `interval_2_max`], ...]
  - **parameters** - `intervals`

The implementation of the samplers can be found in the
[Samplers.cs file](https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ml-agents/blob/main/com.unity.ml-agents/Runtime/Sampler.cs).

##### Training with Environment Parameter Randomization

After the sampler configuration is defined, we proceed by launching `mlagents-learn`
and specify trainer configuration with  parameter randomization enabled. For example,
if we wanted to train the 3D ball agent with parameter randomization, we would run

```sh
mlagents-learn config/ppo/3DBall_randomize.yaml --run-id=3D-Ball-randomize
```

We can observe progress and metrics via TensorBoard.

#### Curriculum

To enable curriculum learning, you need to add a `curriculum` sub-section to your environment
parameter. Here is one example with the environment parameter `my_environment_parameter` :

```yml
behaviors:
  BehaviorY:
    # < Same as above >

# Add this section
environment_parameters:
  my_environment_parameter:
    curriculum:
      - name: MyFirstLesson # The '-' is important as this is a list
        completion_criteria:
          measure: progress
          behavior: my_behavior
          signal_smoothing: true
          min_lesson_length: 100
          threshold: 0.2
        value: 0.0
      - name: MySecondLesson # This is the start of the second lesson
        completion_criteria:
          measure: progress
          behavior: my_behavior
          signal_smoothing: true
          min_lesson_length: 100
          threshold: 0.6
          require_reset: true
        value:
          sampler_type: uniform
          sampler_parameters:
            min_value: 4.0
            max_value: 7.0
      - name: MyLastLesson
        value: 8.0
```

Note that this curriculum __only__ applies to `my_environment_parameter`. The `curriculum` section
contains a list of `Lessons`. In the example, the lessons are named `MyFirstLesson`, `MySecondLesson`
and `MyLastLesson`.
Each `Lesson` has 3 fields :

 - `name` which is a user defined name for the lesson (The name of the lesson will be displayed in
 the console when the lesson changes)
 - `completion_criteria` which determines what needs to happen in the simulation before the lesson
 can be considered complete. When that condition is met, the curriculum moves on to the next
 `Lesson`. Note that you do not need to specify a `completion_criteria` for the last `Lesson`
 - `value` which is the value the environment parameter will take during the lesson. Note that this
 can be a float or a sampler.

 There are the different settings of the `completion_criteria` :


| **Setting**         | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| :------------------ | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `measure`           | What to measure learning progress, and advancement in lessons by.<br><br> `reward` uses a measure of received reward, `progress` uses the ratio of steps/max_steps, while `Elo` is available only for self-play situations and uses Elo score as a curriculum completion measure.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| `behavior`        | Specifies which behavior is being tracked. There can be multiple behaviors with different names, each at different points of training. This setting allows the curriculum to track only one of them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| `threshold`        | Determines at what point in value of `measure` the lesson should be increased.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| `min_lesson_length` | The minimum number of episodes that should be completed before the lesson can change. If `measure` is set to `reward`, the average cumulative reward of the last `min_lesson_length` episodes will be used to determine if the lesson should change. Must be nonnegative. <br><br> **Important**: the average reward that is compared to the thresholds is different than the mean reward that is logged to the console. For example, if `min_lesson_length` is `100`, the lesson will increment after the average cumulative reward of the last `100` episodes exceeds the current threshold. The mean reward logged to the console is dictated by the `summary_freq` parameter defined above. |
| `signal_smoothing`  | Whether to weight the current progress measure by previous values.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| `require_reset`  | Whether changing lesson requires the environment to reset (default: false)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
##### Training with a Curriculum

Once we have specified our metacurriculum and curricula, we can launch
`mlagents-learn` to point to the config file containing
our curricula and PPO will train using Curriculum Learning. For example, to
train agents in the Wall Jump environment with curriculum learning, we can run:

```sh
mlagents-learn config/ppo/WallJump_curriculum.yaml --run-id=wall-jump-curriculum
```

We can then keep track of the current lessons and progresses via TensorBoard. If you've terminated
the run, you can resume it using `--resume` and lesson progress will start off where it
ended.


### Training Using Concurrent Unity Instances

In order to run concurrent Unity instances during training, set the number of
environment instances using the command line option `--num-envs=<n>` when you
invoke `mlagents-learn`. Optionally, you can also set the `--base-port`, which
is the starting port used for the concurrent Unity instances.

Some considerations:

- **Buffer Size** - If you are having trouble getting an agent to train, even
  with multiple concurrent Unity instances, you could increase `buffer_size` in
  the trainer config file. A common practice is to multiply
  `buffer_size` by `num-envs`.
- **Resource Constraints** - Invoking concurrent Unity instances is constrained
  by the resources on the machine. Please use discretion when setting
  `--num-envs=<n>`.
- **Result Variation Using Concurrent Unity Instances** - If you keep all the
  hyperparameters the same, but change `--num-envs=<n>`, the results and model
  would likely change.