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Regularized Reward-Punishment Reinforcement Learning

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Computer Science > Machine Learning

arXiv:2606.28152 (cs)
[Submitted on 26 Jun 2026]

Title:Regularized Reward-Punishment Reinforcement Learning

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Abstract:We propose KL-Coupled Policy Regularization (KCPR), a policy coordination framework for Reward-Punishment Reinforcement Learning (RPRL). Based on KCPR, we derive KL-Coupled Soft Optimality (KCSO) and develop its deep realization, klDMP. Unlike existing RPRL approaches that optimize reward-seeking and punishment-related policies largely independently, KCPR enables direct interactions between companion policies by treating each as a dynamically learned prior for the other. KCSO yields coupled soft-optimal policies and KL-regularized Bellman operators, allowing reward and punishment information to jointly influence value propagation. To improve learning stability, we introduce a companion-prior softening mechanism and evaluate separate replay-buffer designs for balancing reward- and punishment-related experience. Experiments in grid-world and Gazebo robotic navigation tasks demonstrate that klDMP improves safety and learning stability while maintaining competitive task performance compared with DQN, SQL and softDMP. These results suggest that policy-level coordination provides an effective mechanism for integrating multiple behavioral objectives and may serve as a useful design principle for reinforcement learning systems with interacting motivational processes.
Subjects: Machine Learning (cs.LG); Robotics (cs.RO)
Cite as: arXiv:2606.28152 [cs.LG]
  (or arXiv:2606.28152v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.28152
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Jiexin Wang [view email]
[v1] Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:50:16 UTC (5,043 KB)
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