ml-agents/docs/Python-API.md

Unity ML-Agents Python Low Level API

The mlagents Python package contains two components: a low level API which allows you to interact directly with a Unity Environment (mlagents_envs) and an entry point to train (mlagents-learn) which allows you to train agents in Unity Environments using our implementations of reinforcement learning or imitation learning.

You can use the Python Low Level API to interact directly with your learning environment, and use it to develop new learning algorithms.

mlagents_envs

The ML-Agents Toolkit Low Level API is a Python API for controlling the simulation loop of an environment or game built with Unity. This API is used by the training algorithms inside the ML-Agent Toolkit, but you can also write your own Python programs using this API. Go here for a Jupyter Notebook walking through the functionality of the API.

The key objects in the Python API include:

• UnityEnvironment — the main interface between the Unity application and your code. Use UnityEnvironment to start and control a simulation or training session.
• BatchedStepResult — contains the data from Agents belonging to the same "AgentGroup" in the simulation, such as observations and rewards.
• AgentGroupSpec — describes the shape of the data inside a BatchedStepResult. For example, provides the dimensions of the observations of a group.

These classes are all defined in the base_env script.

An Agent Group is a group of Agents identified by a string name that share the same observations and action types. You can think about Agent Group as a group of agents that will share the same policy or behavior. All Agents in a group have the same goal and reward signals.

To communicate with an Agent in a Unity environment from a Python program, the Agent in the simulation must have Behavior Parameters set to communicate. You must set the Behavior Type to Default and give it a Behavior Name.

Note: The Behavior Name corresponds to the Agent Group name on Python.

Notice: Currently communication between Unity and Python takes place over an open socket without authentication. As such, please make sure that the network where training takes place is secure. This will be addressed in a future release.

Loading a Unity Environment

Python-side communication happens through UnityEnvironment which is located in environment.py. To load a Unity environment from a built binary file, put the file in the same directory as envs. For example, if the filename of your Unity environment is 3DBall.app, in python, run:

from mlagents_envs.environment import UnityEnvironment
env = UnityEnvironment(file_name="3DBall", base_port=5005, seed=1, side_channels=[])

• file_name is the name of the environment binary (located in the root directory of the python project).
• worker_id indicates which port to use for communication with the environment. For use in parallel training regimes such as A3C.
• seed indicates the seed to use when generating random numbers during the training process. In environments which do not involve physics calculations, setting the seed enables reproducible experimentation by ensuring that the environment and trainers utilize the same random seed.
• side_channels provides a way to exchange data with the Unity simulation that is not related to the reinforcement learning loop. For example: configurations or properties. More on them in the Modifying the environment from Python section.

If you want to directly interact with the Editor, you need to use file_name=None, then press the ▶️ button in the Editor when the message "Start training by pressing the Play button in the Unity Editor" is displayed on the screen

Interacting with a Unity Environment

The BaseEnv interface

A BaseEnv has the following methods:

• Reset : env.reset() Sends a signal to reset the environment. Returns None.
• Step : env.step() Sends a signal to step the environment. Returns None. Note that a "step" for Python does not correspond to either Unity Update nor FixedUpdate. When step() or reset() is called, the Unity simulation will move forward until an Agent in the simulation needs a input from Python to act.
• Close : env.close() Sends a shutdown signal to the environment and terminates the communication.
• Get Agent Group Names : env.get_agent_groups() Returns a list of agent group ids. Note that the number of groups can change over time in the simulation if new agent groups are created in the simulation.
• Get Agent Group Spec : env.get_agent_group_spec(agent_group: str) Returns the AgentGroupSpec corresponding to the agent_group given as input. An AgentGroupSpec contains information such as the observation shapes, the action type (multi-discrete or continuous) and the action shape. Note that the AgentGroupSpec for a specific group is fixed throughout the simulation.
• Get Batched Step Result for Agent Group : env.get_step_result(agent_group: str) Returns a BatchedStepResult corresponding to the agent_group given as input. A BatchedStepResult contains information about the state of the agents in a group such as the observations, the rewards, the done flags and the agent identifiers. The data is in np.array of which the first dimension is always the number of agents which requested a decision in the simulation since the last call to env.step() note that the number of agents is not guaranteed to remain constant during the simulation.
• Set Actions for Agent Group :env.set_actions(agent_group: str, action: np.array) Sets the actions for a whole agent group. action is a 2D np.array of dtype=np.int32 in the discrete action case and dtype=np.float32 in the continuous action case. The first dimension of action is the number of agents that requested a decision since the last call to env.step(). The second dimension is the number of discrete actions in multi-discrete action type and the number of actions in continuous action type.
• Set Action for Agent : env.set_action_for_agent(agent_group: str, agent_id: int, action: np.array) Sets the action for a specific Agent in an agent group. agent_group is the name of the group the Agent belongs to and agent_id is the integer identifier of the Agent. Action is a 1D array of type dtype=np.int32 and size equal to the number of discrete actions in multi-discrete action type and of type dtype=np.float32 and size equal to the number of actions in continuous action type.

Note: If no action is provided for an agent group between two calls to env.step() then the default action will be all zeros (in either discrete or continuous action space)

BathedStepResult and StepResult

A BatchedStepResult has the following fields :

• obs is a list of numpy arrays observations collected by the group of agent. The first dimension of the array corresponds to the batch size of the group (number of agents requesting a decision since the last call to env.step()).
• reward is a float vector of length batch size. Corresponds to the rewards collected by each agent since the last simulation step.
• done is an array of booleans of length batch size. Is true if the associated Agent was terminated during the last simulation step.
• max_step is an array of booleans of length batch size. Is true if the associated Agent reached its maximum number of steps during the last simulation step.
• agent_id is an int vector of length batch size containing unique identifier for the corresponding Agent. This is used to track Agents across simulation steps.
• action_mask is an optional list of two dimensional array of booleans. Only available in multi-discrete action space type. Each array corresponds to an action branch. The first dimension of each array is the batch size and the second contains a mask for each action of the branch. If true, the action is not available for the agent during this simulation step.

It also has the two following methods:

• n_agents() Returns the number of agents requesting a decision since the last call to env.step()
• get_agent_step_result(agent_id: int) Returns a StepResult for the Agent with the agent_id unique identifier.

A StepResult has the following fields:

• obs is a list of numpy arrays observations collected by the group of agent. (Each array has one less dimension than the arrays in BatchedStepResult)
• reward is a float. Corresponds to the rewards collected by the agent since the last simulation step.
• done is a bool. Is true if the Agent was terminated during the last simulation step.
• max_step is a bool. Is true if the Agent reached its maximum number of steps during the last simulation step.
• agent_id is an int and an unique identifier for the corresponding Agent.
• action_mask is an optional list of one dimensional array of booleans. Only available in multi-discrete action space type. Each array corresponds to an action branch. Each array contains a mask for each action of the branch. If true, the action is not available for the agent during this simulation step.

AgentGroupSpec

An Agent group can either have discrete or continuous actions. To check which type it is, use spec.is_action_discrete() or spec.is_action_continuous() to see which one it is. If discrete, the action tensors are expected to be np.int32. If continuous, the actions are expected to be np.float32.

An AgentGroupSpec has the following fields :

• observation_shapes is a List of Tuples of int : Each Tuple corresponds to an observation's dimensions (without the number of agents dimension). The shape tuples have the same ordering as the ordering of the BatchedStepResult and StepResult.
• action_type is the type of data of the action. it can be discrete or continuous. If discrete, the action tensors are expected to be np.int32. If continuous, the actions are expected to be np.float32.
• action_size is an int corresponding to the expected dimension of the action array.
  • In continuous action space it is the number of floats that constitute the action.
  • In discrete action space (same as multi-discrete) it corresponds to the number of branches (the number of independent actions)
• discrete_action_branches is a Tuple of int only for discrete action space. Each int corresponds to the number of different options for each branch of the action. For example : In a game direction input (no movement, left, right) and jump input (no jump, jump) there will be two branches (direction and jump), the first one with 3 options and the second with 2 options. (action_size = 2 and discrete_action_branches = (3,2,))

Modifying the environment from Python

The Environment can be modified by using side channels to send data to the environment. When creating the environment, pass a list of side channels as side_channels argument to the constructor.

Note : A side channel will only send/receive messages when env.step is called.

EngineConfigurationChannel

An EngineConfiguration will allow you to modify the time scale and graphics quality of the Unity engine. EngineConfigurationChannel has two methods :

• set_configuration_parameters with arguments
  • width: Defines the width of the display. Default 80.
  • height: Defines the height of the display. Default 80.
  • quality_level: Defines the quality level of the simulation. Default 1.
  • time_scale: Defines the multiplier for the deltatime in the simulation. If set to a higher value, time will pass faster in the simulation but the physics might break. Default 20.
  • target_frame_rate: Instructs simulation to try to render at a specified frame rate. Default -1.
• set_configuration with argument config which is an EngineConfig NamedTuple object.

For example :

from mlagents_envs.environment import UnityEnvironment
from mlagents_envs.side_channel.engine_configuration_channel import EngineConfigurationChannel

channel = EngineConfigurationChannel()

env = UnityEnvironment(base_port = UnityEnvironment.DEFAULT_EDITOR_PORT, side_channels = [channel])

channel.set_configuration_parameters(time_scale = 2.0)

i = env.reset()
...

FloatPropertiesChannel

A FloatPropertiesChannel will allow you to get and set float properties in the environment. You can call get_property and set_property on the side channel to read and write properties. FloatPropertiesChannel has three methods:

• set_property Sets a property in the Unity Environment.

  • key: The string identifier of the property.
  • value: The float value of the property.

• get_property Gets a property in the Unity Environment. If the property was not found, will return None.

  • key: The string identifier of the property.

• list_properties Returns a list of all the string identifiers of the properties

from mlagents_envs.environment import UnityEnvironment
from mlagents_envs.side_channel.float_properties_channel import FloatPropertiesChannel

channel = FloatPropertiesChannel()

env = UnityEnvironment(base_port = UnityEnvironment.DEFAULT_EDITOR_PORT, side_channels = [channel])

channel.set_property("parameter_1", 2.0)

i = env.reset()
...

Once a property has been modified in Python, you can access it in C# after the next call to step as follows:

var sharedProperties = Academy.Instance.FloatProperties;
float property1 = sharedProperties.GetPropertyWithDefault("parameter_1", 0.0f);

[Advanced] Create your own SideChannel

You can create your own SideChannel in C# and Python and use it to communicate data between the two.

Unity side

The side channel will have to implement the SideChannel abstract class. There are two methods that must be implemented :

• ChannelType() : Must return an integer identifying the side channel (This number must be the same on C# and Python). There can only be one side channel of a certain type during communication.
• OnMessageReceived(byte[] data) : You must implement this method to specify what the side channel will be doing with the data received from Python. The data is a byte[] argument.

To send a byte array from C# to Python, call the base.QueueMessageToSend(data) method inside the side channel. The data argument must be a byte[].

To register a side channel on the Unity side, call Academy.Instance.RegisterSideChannel with the side channel as only argument.

Python side

The side channel will have to implement the SideChannel abstract class. You must implement :

• channel_type(self) -> int (property) : Must return an integer identifying the side channel (This number must be the same on C# and Python). There can only be one side channel of a certain type during communication.
• on_message_received(self, data: bytes) -> None : You must implement this method to specify what the side channel will be doing with the data received from Unity. The data is a byte[] argument.

To send a byte array from Python to C#, call the super().queue_message_to_send(bytes_data) method inside the side channel. The bytes_data argument must be a bytes object.

To register a side channel on the Python side, pass the side channel as argument when creating the UnityEnvironment object. One of the arguments of the constructor (side_channels) is a list of side channels.

Example implementation

Here is a simple implementation of a Side Channel that will exchange strings between C# and Python (encoded as ascii).

One the C# side : Here is an implementation of a StringLogSideChannel that will listed to the UnityEngine.Debug.LogError calls in the game :

using UnityEngine;
using MLAgents;
using System.Text;

public class StringLogSideChannel : SideChannel
{
    public override int ChannelType()
    {
        return (int)SideChannelType.UserSideChannelStart + 1;
    }

    public override void OnMessageReceived(byte[] data)
    {
        var receivedString = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data);
        Debug.Log("From Python : " + receivedString);
    }

    public void SendDebugStatementToPython(string logString, string stackTrace, LogType type)
    {
        if (type == LogType.Error)
        {
            var stringToSend = type.ToString() + ": " + logString + "\n" + stackTrace;
            var encodedString = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(stringToSend);
            base.QueueMessageToSend(encodedString);
        }
    }
}

We also need to register this side channel to the Academy and to the Application.logMessageReceived events, so we write a simple MonoBehavior for this. (Do not forget to attach it to a GameObject in the scene).

using UnityEngine;
using MLAgents;


public class RegisterStringLogSideChannel : MonoBehaviour
{

    StringLogSideChannel stringChannel;
    public void Awake()
    {
        // We create the Side Channel
        stringChannel = new StringLogSideChannel();

        // When a Debug.Log message is created, we send it to the stringChannel
        Application.logMessageReceived += stringChannel.SendDebugStatementToPython;

        // Just in case the Academy has not yet initialized
        Academy.Instance.RegisterSideChannel(stringChannel);
    }

    public void OnDestroy()
    {
        // De-register the Debug.Log callback
        Application.logMessageReceived -= stringChannel.SendDebugStatementToPython;
        if (Academy.IsInitialized){
            Academy.Instance.UnregisterSideChannel(stringChannel);
        }
    }

    public void Update()
    {
        // Optional : If the space bar is pressed, raise an error !
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))
        {
            Debug.LogError("This is a fake error. Space bar was pressed in Unity.");
        }
    }
}

And here is the script on the Python side. This script creates a new Side channel type (StringLogChannel) and launches a UnityEnvironment with that side channel.

from mlagents_envs.environment import UnityEnvironment
from mlagents_envs.side_channel.side_channel import SideChannel, SideChannelType
import numpy as np


# Create the StringLogChannel class
class StringLogChannel(SideChannel):
    @property
    def channel_type(self) -> int:
        return SideChannelType.UserSideChannelStart + 1

    def on_message_received(self, data: bytes) -> None:
        """
        Note :We must implement this method of the SideChannel interface to
        receive messages from Unity
        """
        # We simply print the data received interpreted as ascii
        print(data.decode("ascii"))

    def send_string(self, data: str) -> None:
        # Convert the string to ascii
        bytes_data = data.encode("ascii")
        # We call this method to queue the data we want to send
        super().queue_message_to_send(bytes_data)

# Create the channel
string_log = StringLogChannel()

# We start the communication with the Unity Editor and pass the string_log side channel as input
env = UnityEnvironment(base_port=UnityEnvironment.DEFAULT_EDITOR_PORT, side_channels=[string_log])
env.reset()
string_log.send_string("The environment was reset")

group_name = env.get_agent_groups()[0]  # Get the first group_name
for i in range(1000):
    step_data = env.get_step_result(group_name)
    n_agents = step_data.n_agents()  # Get the number of agents
    # We send data to Unity : A string with the number of Agent at each
    string_log.send_string(
        "Step " + str(i) + " occurred with " + str(n_agents) + " agents."
    )
    env.step()  # Move the simulation forward

env.close()

Now, if you run this script and press Play the Unity Editor when prompted, The console in the Unity Editor will display a message at every Python step. Additionally, if you press the Space Bar in the Unity Engine, a message will appear in the terminal.