Method for controlling a machine by means of a learning-based control agent, and controller

A computer-implemented method for controlling a machine by a learning-based control agent, comprising:

• a) providing a performance evaluator and using a control signal to determine a performance for controlling the machine by the control signal,
• b) providing an action evaluator and using the control signal to determine a deviation from a predefined control sequence,
• c) weighting a multiplicity of weight values for the performance with respect to the deviation are generated,
• d) feeding a multiplicity of state signals and the weight values into the control agent, wherein
• feeding a respectively resulting output signal from the control agent as a control signal into the performance evaluator and into the action evaluator,
• weighting a performance respectively determined by the performance evaluator with respect to a deviation respectively determined by the action evaluator by a target function according to the respective weight value, and
• outputting the control agent is trained to use a state signal and a weight value a control signal optimizing the target function, and
• e) in order to control the machine
• feeding an operating weight value and an operating state signal from the machine into the trained control agent, and
• supplying a resulting output signal from the trained control agent to the machine.