English

Fixed-point equations solving Risk-sensitive MDP with constraint

Optimization and Control 2023-03-27 v2

Abstract

There are no computationally feasible algorithms that provide solutions to the finite horizon Risk-sensitive Constrained Markov Decision Process (Risk-CMDP) problem, even for problems with moderate horizon. With an aim to design the same, we derive a fixed-point equation such that the optimal policy of Risk-CMDP is also a solution. We further provide two optimization problems equivalent to the Risk-CMDP. These formulations are instrumental in designing a global algorithm that converges to the optimal policy. The proposed algorithm is based on random restarts and a local improvement step, where the local improvement step utilizes the solution of the derived fixed-point equation; random restarts ensure global optimization. We also provide numerical examples to illustrate the feasibility of our algorithm for inventory control problem with risk-sensitive cost and constraint. The complexity of the algorithm grows only linearly with the time-horizon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.02686,
  title  = {Fixed-point equations solving Risk-sensitive MDP with constraint},
  author = {Vartika Singh and Veeraruna Kavitha},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.02686},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the 2023 American Control Conference (ACC)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T02:54:23.179Z