Preference Conditioned Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning: Decomposed, Diversity-Driven Policy Optimization

Abstract

Multi-objective reinforcement learning (MORL) seeks to train agents capable of balancing conflicting objectives. While single preference-conditioned policies offer a highly scalable solution, existing approaches remain brittle in practice, frequently failing to recover dense Pareto fronts. We demonstrate that this failure stems from two structural pathologies: destructive advantage cancellation caused by premature Early Scalarization (ES), and representational mode collapse across the preference space. To overcome these bottlenecks, we introduce $D^{3}PO$, a PPO-based framework that fundamentally reorganizes multi-objective optimization. By preserving per-objective learning signals through a decomposed pipeline and integrating preferences only after trust-region stabilization (Late-Stage Weighting), $D^{3}PO$ improves credit assignment under conflicting objectives. Concurrently, a scaled diversity regularizer encourages behavioral divergence proportional to preference distance. $D^{3}PO$ operates entirely within the efficient linear scalarization regime shared by standard deep MORL baselines. By reducing information loss caused due to linear scalarization rather than relying on expensive non-linear utility functions, it suggests that optimization bottlenecks play a significant role. Across available standard benchmarks, including high-dimensional and many-objective environments, $D^{3}PO$ consistently discovers broader, higher-quality Pareto fronts than prior methods, exceeding state-of-the-art hypervolume and expected utility using a single deployable policy.