English

Active Search with a Cost for Switching Actions

Information Theory 2015-05-12 v1 math.IT

Abstract

Active Sequential Hypothesis Testing (ASHT) is an extension of the classical sequential hypothesis testing problem with controls. Chernoff (Ann. Math. Statist., 1959) proposed a policy called Procedure A and showed its asymptotic optimality as the cost of sampling was driven to zero. In this paper we study a further extension where we introduce costs for switching of actions. We show that a modification of Chernoff's Procedure A, one that we call Sluggish Procedure A, is asymptotically optimal even with switching costs. The growth rate of the total cost, as the probability of false detection is driven to zero, and as a switching parameter of the Sluggish Procedure A is driven down to zero, is the same as that without switching costs.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1505.02358,
  title  = {Active Search with a Cost for Switching Actions},
  author = {Nidhin Koshy Vaidhiyan and Rajesh Sundaresan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.02358},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

8 pages. Presented at 2015 Information Theory and Applications Workshop

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:31:11.459Z