Related papers: Proposed Approximate Dynamic Programming for Pathf…
This work studies the design of safe control policies for large-scale non-linear systems operating in uncertain environments. In such a case, the robust control framework is a principled approach to safety that aims to maximize the…
Guided policy search algorithms can be used to optimize complex nonlinear policies, such as deep neural networks, without directly computing policy gradients in the high-dimensional parameter space. Instead, these methods use supervised…
Bayesian models quantify uncertainty and facilitate optimal decision-making in downstream applications. For most models, however, practitioners are forced to use approximate inference techniques that lead to sub-optimal decisions due to…
We propose a new method for shape recognition and retrieval based on dynamic programming. Our approach uses the dynamic programming algorithm to compute the optimal score and to find the optimal alignment between two strings. First, each…
This paper studies the classical problem of detecting the locations of signal occurrences in a one-dimensional noisy measurement. Assuming the signal occurrences do not overlap, we formulate the detection task as a constrained likelihood…
This work investigates the finite-horizon optimal covariance steering problem for discrete-time linear systems subject to both additive and multiplicative uncertainties as well as state and input chance constraints. In particular, a…
This paper addresses the problem of planning a safe (i.e., collision-free) trajectory from an initial state to a goal region when the obstacle space is a-priori unknown and is incrementally revealed online, e.g., through line-of-sight…
Regression methods are fundamental for scientific and technological applications. However, fitted models can be highly unreliable outside of their training domain, and hence the quantification of their uncertainty is crucial in many of…
We introduce a new concept of approximation applicable to decision problems and functions, inspired by Bayesian probability. From the perspective of a Bayesian reasoner with limited computational resources, the answer to a problem that…
In order to develop provably safe human-in-the-loop systems, accurate and precise models of human behavior must be developed. In the case of intelligent vehicles, one can imagine the need for predicting driver behavior to develop minimally…
Selectivity estimation of a boolean query based on frequent itemsets can be solved by describing the problem by a linear program. However, the number of variables in the equations is exponential, rendering the approach tractable only for…
We design improved approximation algorithms for NP-hard graph problems by incorporating predictions (e.g., learned from past data). Our prediction model builds upon and extends the $\varepsilon$-prediction framework by Cohen-Addad, d'Orsi,…
Autonomous robotic tasks require actively perceiving the environment to achieve application-specific goals. In this paper, we address the problem of positioning an RGB camera to collect the most informative images to represent an unknown…
In this paper we study the problem of discovering a timeline of events in a temporal network. We model events as dense subgraphs that occur within intervals of network activity. We formulate the event-discovery task as an optimization…
Probabilistic sampling methods have become very popular to solve single-shot path planning problems. Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs) in particular have been shown to be very efficient in solving high dimensional problems. Even though…
We consider the classic problem of Network Reliability. A network is given together with a source vertex, one or more target vertices, and probabilities assigned to each of the edges. Each edge appears in the network with its associated…
The scenario-based optimization approach (`scenario approach') provides an intuitive way of approximating the solution to chance-constrained optimization programs, based on finding the optimal solution under a finite number of sampled…
In this article, we discuss two algorithms tailored to discrete-time deterministic finite-horizon nonlinear optimal control problems or so-called deterministic trajectory optimization problems. Both algorithms can be derived from an…
Robust optimization has been established as a leading methodology to approach decision problems under uncertainty. To derive a robust optimization model, a central ingredient is to identify a suitable model for uncertainty, which is called…
In this paper, we develop approximate dynamic programming methods for stochastic systems modeled as Markov Decision Processes, given both soft performance criteria and hard constraints in a class of probabilistic temporal logic called…