1Cademy - Cumulative Future Reward (Return)

Episode A: [+2, +2, +2, +2, +2]
Episode B: [-5, -5, +10, +10, +1]

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Total Reward (Return)

Formula

Cumulative Future Reward (Return)

The cumulative future reward, often called the return, represents the total reward an agent accumulates from a specific time step $t$ until the final time step $T$ . It is a key metric in reinforcement learning for assessing the long-term value of actions or states. The return is calculated by summing the rewards from time step $t$ onwards, as shown by the formula: $\sum_{k=t}^{T} r_k$ , where $r_k$ represents the reward received at time step $k$ .