Norm Augmented Reinforcement Learning Agents With Synthesized Normative Rules: A Proposed Normative Agent Framework

Abstract

The dynamic deontic (DD) is a norm synthesis framework that extracts normative rules from reinforcement learning (RL), however it was not designed to be applied in agent coordination. This study proposes a norm augmented reinforcement learning framework (NARLF) that extends said model to include a norm deliberation mechanism for learned norms re-imputation for norm biased decision-making RL agents. This study aims to test the effects of synthesized norms applied on-line and off-line on agent learning performance. The framework consists of the DD framework extended with a pre-processing and deliberation component to allow re-imputation of normative rules. A deliberation model, the Norm Augmented Q-Table (NAugQT), is proposed to map normative rules into RL agents via q-values weight updates. Results show that the framework is able to map and improve RL agent’s performance but only when synthesized off-line edited absolute norm salience value norms are used. This shows limitations when unstable salience norms are applied. Improvement in norm extraction and pre-processing are required. © 2024 IGI Global. All rights reserved.