Related papers: Value Iteration with Options and State Aggregation
Our work aims at developing reinforcement learning algorithms that do not rely on the Markov assumption. We consider the class of Non-Markov Decision Processes where histories can be abstracted into a finite set of states while preserving…
We introduce synchronizing objectives for Markov decision processes (MDP). Intuitively, a synchronizing objective requires that eventually, at every step there is a state which concentrates almost all the probability mass. In particular, it…
We consider a finite number of $N$ statistically equal agents, each moving on a finite set of states according to a continuous-time Markov Decision Process (MDP). Transition intensities of the agents and generated rewards depend not only on…
Value iteration (VI) is a foundational dynamic programming method, important for learning and planning in optimal control and reinforcement learning. VI proceeds in batches, where the update to the value of each state must be completed…
In this paper, we study a mean-variance optimization problem in an infinite horizon discrete time discounted Markov decision process (MDP). The objective is to minimize the variance of system rewards with the constraint of mean performance.…
Discovering useful temporal abstractions, in the form of options, is widely thought to be key to applying reinforcement learning and planning to increasingly complex domains. Building on the empirical success of the Expert Iteration…
We propose an abstraction-based multi-document summarization framework that can construct new sentences by exploring more fine-grained syntactic units than sentences, namely, noun/verb phrases. Different from existing abstraction-based…
This paper considers optimization over multiple renewal systems coupled by time average constraints. These systems act asynchronously over variable length frames. For each system, at the beginning of each renewal frame, it chooses an action…
We propose an algorithm for deterministic continuous Markov Decision Processes with sparse rewards that computes the optimal policy exactly with no dependency on the size of the state space. The algorithm has time complexity of $O( |R|^3…
The Value Iteration (VI) algorithm is an iterative procedure to compute the value function of a Markov decision process, and is the basis of many reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms as well. As the error convergence rate of VI as a…
Within the framework of probably approximately correct Markov decision processes (PAC-MDP), much theoretical work has focused on methods to attain near optimality after a relatively long period of learning and exploration. However,…
We consider multiple-environment Markov decision processes (MEMDP), which consist of a finite set of MDPs over the same state space, representing different scenarios of transition structure and probability. The value of a strategy is the…
We prove new upper and lower bounds for sample complexity of finding an $\epsilon$-optimal policy of an infinite-horizon average-reward Markov decision process (MDP) given access to a generative model. When the mixing time of the…
We propose a compositional approach for constructing abstractions of general Markov decision processes using approximate probabilistic relations. The abstraction framework is based on the notion of $\delta$-lifted relations, using which one…
We revisit the finite time analysis of policy gradient methods in the one of the simplest settings: finite state and action MDPs with a policy class consisting of all stochastic policies and with exact gradient evaluations. There has been…
The main focus of Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) is studying how large Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) can be more efficiently solved when addressed in a modular way, by combining partial solutions computed for smaller subtasks.…
Constrained decision-making is essential for designing safe policies in real-world control systems, yet simulated environments often fail to capture real-world adversities. We consider the problem of learning a policy that will maximize the…
We provide a framework for speeding up algorithms for time-bounded reachability analysis of continuous-time Markov decision processes. The principle is to find a small, but almost equivalent subsystem of the original system and only analyse…
This work introduces a new abstraction technique for reducing the state space of large, discrete-time labelled Markov chains. The abstraction leverages the semantics of interval Markov decision processes and the existing notion of…
We introduce a class of models for multidimensional control problems which we call skip-free Markov decision processes on trees. We describe and analyse an algorithm applicable to Markov decision processes of this type that are skip-free in…