Related papers: Approximation method for discrete Markov decision …
This paper presents four different ways of looking at the well-known Least Squares Temporal Differences (LSTD) algorithm for computing the value function of a Markov Reward Process, each of them leading to different insights: the…
We propose a stochastic approximation (SA) based method with randomization of samples for policy evaluation using the least squares temporal difference (LSTD) algorithm. Our proposed scheme is equivalent to running regular temporal…
This work is motivated by the challenges of applying the sample average approximation (SAA) method to multistage stochastic programming with an unknown continuous-state Markov process. While SAA is widely used in static and two-stage…
We consider the problem of finding a control policy for a Markov Decision Process (MDP) to maximize the probability of reaching some states while avoiding some other states. This problem is motivated by applications in robotics, where such…
We explain how to use Kolmogorov Superposition Theorem (KST) to break the curse of dimensionality when approximating a dense class of multivariate continuous functions. We first show that there is a class of functions called…
We consider off-policy temporal-difference (TD) learning methods for policy evaluation in Markov decision processes with finite spaces and discounted reward criteria, and we present a collection of convergence results for several…
In this paper, we consider the finite-state approximation of a discrete-time constrained Markov decision process (MDP) under the discounted and average cost criteria. Using the linear programming formulation of the constrained discounted…
We consider the problem of controlling a Markov decision process (MDP) with a large state space, so as to minimize average cost. Since it is intractable to compete with the optimal policy for large scale problems, we pursue the more modest…
This paper introduces time-continuous numerical schemes to simulate stochastic differential equations (SDEs) arising in mathematical finance, population dynamics, chemical kinetics, epidemiology, biophysics, and polymeric fluids. These…
TD($\lambda$) with function approximation has proved empirically successful for some complex reinforcement learning problems. For linear approximation, TD($\lambda$) has been shown to minimise the squared error between the approximate value…
State-space models (SSMs) are a highly expressive model class for learning patterns in time series data and for system identification. Deterministic versions of SSMs (e.g. LSTMs) proved extremely successful in modeling complex time series…
We present new algorithms for computing and approximating bisimulation metrics in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Bisimulation metrics are an elegant formalism that capture behavioral equivalence between states and provide strong…
We consider LSTD($\lambda$), the least-squares temporal-difference algorithm with eligibility traces algorithm proposed by Boyan (2002). It computes a linear approximation of the value function of a fixed policy in a large Markov Decision…
Stochastic collocation methods for approximating the solution of partial differential equations with random input data (e.g., coefficients and forcing terms) suffer from the curse of dimensionality whereby increases in the stochastic…
We study the online estimation of the optimal policy of a Markov decision process (MDP). We propose a class of Stochastic Primal-Dual (SPD) methods which exploit the inherent minimax duality of Bellman equations. The SPD methods update a…
In a deterministic world, a planning agent can be certain of the consequences of its planned sequence of actions. Not so, however, in dynamic, stochastic domains where Markov decision processes are commonly used. Unfortunately these suffer…
In this paper we propose two behavioral distances that support approximate reasoning on Stochastic Markov Models (SMMs), that are continuous-time stochastic transition systems where the residence time on each state is described by a generic…
Optimization problems involving sequential decisions in a stochastic environment were studied in Stochastic Programming (SP), Stochastic Optimal Control (SOC) and Markov Decision Processes (MDP). In this paper we mainly concentrate on SP…
Inverse problems in scientific computing often require optimization over infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. A commonly used solver in such settings is stochastic gradient descent (SGD), where gradients are approximated using randomly…
This paper proposes a novel low-rank approximation to the multivariate State-Space Model. The Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE) approach is applied component-wise to the independent-in-time Mat\'ern Gaussian innovation term in…