  System identification, also known as learning forward models, transfer
functions, system dynamics, etc., has a long tradition both in science and
engineering in different fields. Particularly, it is a recurring theme in
Reinforcement Learning research, where forward models approximate the state
transition function of a Markov Decision Process by learning a mapping function
from current state and action to the next state. This problem is commonly
defined as a Supervised Learning problem in a direct way. This common approach
faces several difficulties due to the inherent complexities of the dynamics to
learn, for example, delayed effects, high non-linearity, non-stationarity,
partial observability and, more important, error accumulation when using
bootstrapped predictions (predictions based on past predictions), over large
time horizons. Here we explore the use of Reinforcement Learning in this
problem. We elaborate on why and how this problem fits naturally and sound as a
Reinforcement Learning problem, and present some experimental results that
demonstrate RL is a promising technique to solve these kind of problems.

Machine Learning;Artificial Intelligence;Systems and Control;Systems and Control