1st collaboration workshop on Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Accelerators (RL4AA'23)

Europe/Berlin
Building 345 (Institute of Beam Physics and Technology (KIT))

Building 345

Institute of Beam Physics and Technology (KIT)

Weingartener Str. 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen
Andrea Santamaria Garcia (KIT)
Description

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a powerful learning paradigm of machine learning (ML).  It is particularly suited to tackle control problems in large environments, can learn from experience without the need of a model of the dynamics, and can deal with delayed consequences.

Capturing your control problem as a meaningful Markov Decision Process (MDP) is not trivial. Additional challenges arise in the training in terms of stability and evaluation. Other practical aspects include reproducibility, efficiency, implementation, deployment in hardware, or choosing the most suitable algorithm for your problem.

RL applications in particle accelerators are very promising, but have been deployed in real machines only a handful of times. This workshop aims at lowering the barrier in applying RL and making it a more widely used tool.

We will take time for valuable discussions on the topic of RL applied to particle accelerators and to improve our common knowledge. We will also exchange ideas about promising future avenues and help consolidate a community to advance in this area of research in accelerator controls.

Registration
Registration
Participants
    • 8:30 AM 8:52 AM
      KIT-Shuttle to CN 22m Shuttle stop (https://maps.app.goo.gl/YEYs2qa4TdyRmKAR9?g_st=ic)

      Shuttle stop

      https://maps.app.goo.gl/YEYs2qa4TdyRmKAR9?g_st=ic

    • 9:00 AM 12:45 PM
      Introduction to RL workshop KARA hall seminar room (https://goo.gl/maps/bWuXfGLFZaRVvhuV8)

      KARA hall seminar room

      https://goo.gl/maps/bWuXfGLFZaRVvhuV8

      Introductory talks and hands-on tutorials

      • 9:00 AM
        Introduction to RL 40m
        Speaker: Dr Andrea Santamaria Garcia (KIT)
      • 9:40 AM
        Advanced concepts in RL 1h
        Speaker: Dr Simon Hirländer (University of Salzburg)
      • 10:40 AM
        Coffee break 20m
      • 11:00 AM
        Python tutorial: application to an accelerator problem 1h 45m

        Please find the instructions for the tutorial here: https://github.com/RL4AA/RL4AA23

        Speakers: Dr Andrea Santamaria Garcia (KIT), Chenran Xu (IBPT), Jan Kaiser (DESY), Dr Simon Hirländer (University of Salzburg)
    • 12:45 PM 2:00 PM
      Lunch break 1h 15m Building 145 (Canteen "Casino")

      Building 145

      Canteen "Casino"

    • 2:00 PM 3:00 PM
      IBPT seminar talk by Dr. Simon Hirländer "Reinforcement Learning in particle accelerator control: are we there yet?" 1h KARA hall seminar room (https://goo.gl/maps/bWuXfGLFZaRVvhuV8)

      KARA hall seminar room

      https://goo.gl/maps/bWuXfGLFZaRVvhuV8

      Speaker: Dr Simon Hirländer (University of Salzburg)
    • 3:00 PM 3:30 PM
      Coffee break 30m
    • 3:30 PM 6:00 PM
      Discussion on advanced RL topics
      • 3:30 PM
        Discussion Group 1: Modeling, limitations, and methods 35m
        Speaker: Simon Hirländer
      • 4:05 PM
        Discussion Group 2: Challenges I 35m
        Speaker: Chenran Xu (IBPT)
      • 4:40 PM
        Discussion Group 3: Challenges II 35m
        Speaker: Michael Schenk
      • 5:15 PM
        Discussion Group 4: Community 35m
        Speaker: Jan Kaiser
      • 5:50 PM
        Farewell 10m
        Speaker: Andrea Santamaria Garcia (KIT)