Performance Improvement of Evolution Strategies using Reinforcement Learning

In this paper, we propose a new type of evolution strategies combined with reinforcement learning. We use the variances of fitness occurred by mutation to make the reinforcement signals which estimate and control the step length of mutation. With this proposed method, the convergence rate is improved. Also, we use cauchy distributed mutation to increase global convergence faculty. Cauchy distributed mutation is more likely to escape from a local minimum or move away from a plateau. After an outline of the history of evolution strategies, it is explained how evolution strategies can be combined with the reinforcement learning, named reinforcement evolution strategies. The performance of proposed method will be estimated by comparison with conventional evolution strategies on several test problems.