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Online transfer learning strategy for enhancing the scalability and deployment of deep reinforcement learning control in smart buildings

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  • Coraci, Davide
  • Brandi, Silvio
  • Hong, Tianzhen
  • Capozzoli, Alfonso

Abstract

In recent years, advanced control strategies based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) proved to be effective in optimizing the management of integrated energy systems in buildings, reducing energy costs and improving indoor comfort conditions when compared to traditional reactive controllers. However, the scalability and implementation of DRL controllers are still limited since they require a considerable amount of time before converging to a near-optimal solution. This issue is currently addressed in literature through the offline pre-training of the DRL agent. However this solution results in two main critical issues: (1) the need to develop a building surrogate model to perform the training task, and (2) the need to perform a fine-tuning process over several training episodes to obtain a near-optimal control policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Coraci, Davide & Brandi, Silvio & Hong, Tianzhen & Capozzoli, Alfonso, 2023. "Online transfer learning strategy for enhancing the scalability and deployment of deep reinforcement learning control in smart buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:333:y:2023:i:c:s0306261922018554
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120598
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    Cited by:

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    5. Nweye, Kingsley & Sankaranarayanan, Siva & Nagy, Zoltan, 2023. "MERLIN: Multi-agent offline and transfer learning for occupant-centric operation of grid-interactive communities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    6. Hua, Pengmin & Wang, Haichao & Xie, Zichan & Lahdelma, Risto, 2024. "Multi-criteria evaluation of novel multi-objective model predictive control method for indoor thermal comfort," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    7. Huang, Ruchen & He, Hongwen & Su, Qicong, 2024. "Towards a fossil-free urban transport system: An intelligent cross-type transferable energy management framework based on deep transfer reinforcement learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    8. Xu, Wenjie & Svetozarevic, Bratislav & Di Natale, Loris & Heer, Philipp & Jones, Colin N., 2024. "Data-driven adaptive building thermal controller tuning with constraints: A primal–dual contextual Bayesian optimization approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).

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