543 research outputs found
Open-ended Learning in Symmetric Zero-sum Games
Zero-sum games such as chess and poker are, abstractly, functions that
evaluate pairs of agents, for example labeling them `winner' and `loser'. If
the game is approximately transitive, then self-play generates sequences of
agents of increasing strength. However, nontransitive games, such as
rock-paper-scissors, can exhibit strategic cycles, and there is no longer a
clear objective -- we want agents to increase in strength, but against whom is
unclear. In this paper, we introduce a geometric framework for formulating
agent objectives in zero-sum games, in order to construct adaptive sequences of
objectives that yield open-ended learning. The framework allows us to reason
about population performance in nontransitive games, and enables the
development of a new algorithm (rectified Nash response, PSRO_rN) that uses
game-theoretic niching to construct diverse populations of effective agents,
producing a stronger set of agents than existing algorithms. We apply PSRO_rN
to two highly nontransitive resource allocation games and find that PSRO_rN
consistently outperforms the existing alternatives.Comment: ICML 2019, final versio
Correlated equilibria, good and bad : an experimental study
We report results from an experiment that explores the empirical validity of correlated equilibrium, an important generalization of the Nash equilibrium concept. Specifically, we seek to
understand the conditions under which subjects playing the game of Chicken will condition their behavior on private, third–party recommendations drawn from known distributions. In a “good–recommendations” treatment, the distribution we use is a correlated equilibrium with payoffs better
than any symmetric payoff in the convex hull of Nash equilibrium payoff vectors. In a “bad–recommendations” treatment, the distribution is a correlated equilibrium with payoffs worse than any Nash equilibrium payoff vector. In a “Nash–recommendations” treatment, the distribution is a convex combination of Nash equilibrium outcomes (which is also a correlated equilibrium), and in a fourth “very–good–recommendations” treatment, the distribution yields high payoffs, but is not a correlated equilibrium. We compare behavior in all of these treatments to the case where subjects do not receive recommendations. We find that when recommendations are not given to
subjects, behavior is very close to mixed–strategy Nash equilibrium play. When recommendations are given, behavior does differ from mixed–strategy Nash equilibrium, with the nature of the differ-
ences varying according to the treatment. Our main finding is that subjects will follow third–party recommendations only if those recommendations derive from a correlated equilibrium, and further,if that correlated equilibrium is payoff–enhancing relative to the available Nash equilibria
An Approximate Subgame-Perfect Equilibrium Computation Technique for Repeated Games
This paper presents a technique for approximating, up to any precision, the
set of subgame-perfect equilibria (SPE) in discounted repeated games. The
process starts with a single hypercube approximation of the set of SPE. Then
the initial hypercube is gradually partitioned on to a set of smaller adjacent
hypercubes, while those hypercubes that cannot contain any point belonging to
the set of SPE are simultaneously withdrawn.
Whether a given hypercube can contain an equilibrium point is verified by an
appropriate mathematical program. Three different formulations of the algorithm
for both approximately computing the set of SPE payoffs and extracting players'
strategies are then proposed: the first two that do not assume the presence of
an external coordination between players, and the third one that assumes a
certain level of coordination during game play for convexifying the set of
continuation payoffs after any repeated game history.
A special attention is paid to the question of extracting players' strategies
and their representability in form of finite automata, an important feature for
artificial agent systems.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
An exact solution method for binary equilibrium problems with compensation and the power market uplift problem
We propose a novel method to find Nash equilibria in games with binary
decision variables by including compensation payments and
incentive-compatibility constraints from non-cooperative game theory directly
into an optimization framework in lieu of using first order conditions of a
linearization, or relaxation of integrality conditions. The reformulation
offers a new approach to obtain and interpret dual variables to binary
constraints using the benefit or loss from deviation rather than marginal
relaxations. The method endogenizes the trade-off between overall (societal)
efficiency and compensation payments necessary to align incentives of
individual players. We provide existence results and conditions under which
this problem can be solved as a mixed-binary linear program.
We apply the solution approach to a stylized nodal power-market equilibrium
problem with binary on-off decisions. This illustrative example shows that our
approach yields an exact solution to the binary Nash game with compensation. We
compare different implementations of actual market rules within our model, in
particular constraints ensuring non-negative profits (no-loss rule) and
restrictions on the compensation payments to non-dispatched generators. We
discuss the resulting equilibria in terms of overall welfare, efficiency, and
allocational equity
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Using EPECs to model bilevel games in restructured electricity markets with locational prices
CWPE0619 (EPRG0602) Xinmin Hu and Daniel Ralph (Feb 2006) Using EPECs to model bilevel games in restructured electricity markets with locational prices We study a bilevel noncooperative game-theoretic model of electricity markets with locational marginal prices. Each player faces a bilevel optimization problem that we remodel as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints, MPEC. This gives an EPEC, equilibrium problem with equilibrium constraints. We establish sufficient conditions for existence of pure strategy Nash equilibria for this class of bilevel games and give some applications. We show by examples the effect of network transmission limits, i.e. congestion, on existence of equilibria. Then we study, for more general EPECs, the weaker pure strategy concepts of local Nash and Nash stationary equilibria. We model the latter via complementarity problems, CPs. Finally, we present numerical examples of methods that attempt to find local Nash or Nash stationary equilibria of randomly generated electricity market games. The CP solver PATH is found to be rather effective in this context
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