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Conditional Sequence Modeling for Safe Reinforcement Learning

Author

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  • Wensong Bai

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Chao Zhang

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    Advanced Technology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Qihang Xu

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Chufan Chen

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Chenhao Zhou

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

  • Hui Qian

    (College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

Abstract

Offline safe reinforcement learning (RL) aims to learn policies from a fixed dataset while maximizing performance under cumulative cost constraints. In practice, deployment requirements often vary across scenarios, necessitating a single policy capable of zero-shot adaptation to different cost thresholds. However, most existing offline safe RL methods are trained under a pre-specified threshold, yielding policies with limited generalization and deployment flexibility across cost thresholds. Motivated by recent progress in conditional sequence modeling (CSM), which enables flexible goal-conditioned control by specifying target returns, we propose Return–Cost Regularized Constrained Decision Transformer (RCDT), a CSM-based method that supports zero-shot deployment across multiple cost thresholds within a single trained policy. RCDT is the first CSM-based offline safe RL algorithm that integrates a Lagrangian-style cost penalty with an auto-adaptive penalty coefficient. To avoid overly conservative behavior and achieve a more favorable return–cost trade-off, a reward–cost-aware trajectory reweighting mechanism and Q-value regularization are further incorporated. Extensive experiments on the DSRL benchmark demonstrate that RCDT consistently improves return–cost trade-offs over representative baselines.

Suggested Citation

  • Wensong Bai & Chao Zhang & Qihang Xu & Chufan Chen & Chenhao Zhou & Hui Qian, 2026. "Conditional Sequence Modeling for Safe Reinforcement Learning," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-35, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:14:y:2026:i:6:p:1015-:d:1896629
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