A Study on Cyclical Learning Rates in Reinforcement Learning and Its Application to Temperature and Power Consumption Control of Refrigeration System

In recent years, with the advancement of computer hardware technology, an increasing number of complex control systems have begun employing reinforcement learning over traditional PID controls to address the challenge of managing multiple outputs simultaneously. In this study, we have for the first time adopted the cyclical learning rate method, which is widely used in deep learning, and applied it to deep reinforcement learning. Utilizing MATLAB Simulink, a detailed simulation model was developed with the RSD-4TFK5J model refrigeration storage as the reference object. We precisely evaluated the effects of various cyclical learning rate strategies on the training process of the model. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the cyclical learning rate method during the training phase, showcasing its potential to enhance learning efficiency and system performance in complex control environments.