A Policy Gradient Framework for Stochastic Optimal Control Problems with Global Convergence Guarantee
Optimization and Control
2025-04-15 v3 Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Systems and Control
Abstract
We consider policy gradient methods for stochastic optimal control problem in continuous time. In particular, we analyze the gradient flow for the control, viewed as a continuous time limit of the policy gradient method. We prove the global convergence of the gradient flow and establish a convergence rate under some regularity assumptions. The main novelty in the analysis is the notion of local optimal control function, which is introduced to characterize the local optimality of the iterate.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2302.05816,
title = {A Policy Gradient Framework for Stochastic Optimal Control Problems with Global Convergence Guarantee},
author = {Mo Zhou and Jianfeng Lu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.05816},
year = {2025}
}