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In this work, we address the problem of determining reliable policies in reinforcement learning (RL), with a focus on optimization under uncertainty and the need for performance guarantees. While classical RL algorithms aim at maximizing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-22 Nadir Farhi

We study offline reinforcement learning (RL) which seeks to learn a good policy based on a fixed, pre-collected dataset. A fundamental challenge behind this task is the distributional shift due to the dataset lacking sufficient exploration,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-11 Wenzhuo Zhou

Q-value iteration (Q-VI) is usually analyzed through the \(\gamma\)-contraction of the Bellman operator. This argument proves convergence to \(Q^*\), but it gives only a coarse account of when the induced greedy policy becomes optimal. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-06 Donghwan Lee

Policy Dual Averaging (PDA) offers a principled Policy Mirror Descent (PMD) framework that more naturally admits value function approximation than standard PMD, enabling the use of approximate advantage (or Q-) functions while retaining…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-12 Ji Gao , Caleb Ju , Guanghui Lan , Zhaohui Tong

This paper considers the extension of data-enabled predictive control (DeePC) to nonlinear systems via general basis functions. Firstly, we formulate a basis functions DeePC behavioral predictor and we identify necessary and sufficient…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-11-10 Mircea Lazar

Market-based mechanisms such as auctions are being studied as an appropriate means for resource allocation in distributed and mulitagent decision problems. When agents value resources in combination rather than in isolation, they must often…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-01-30 Craig Boutilier , Moises Goldszmidt , Bikash Sabata

This paper considers the linear-quadratic dual control problem where the system parameters need to be identified and the control objective needs to be optimized in the meantime. Contrary to existing works on data-driven linear-quadratic…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-11-22 Yiwen Lu , Yilin Mo

When function approximation is used, solving the Bellman optimality equation with stability guarantees has remained a major open problem in reinforcement learning for decades. The fundamental difficulty is that the Bellman operator may…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-06-07 Bo Dai , Albert Shaw , Lihong Li , Lin Xiao , Niao He , Zhen Liu , Jianshu Chen , Le Song

Multi-task reinforcement learning trains generalist policies that can execute multiple tasks. While recent years have seen significant progress, existing approaches rarely provide formal performance guarantees, which are indispensable when…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Yannik Schnitzer , Mathias Jackermeier , Alessandro Abate , David Parker

The paper introduces the first formulation of convex Q-learning for Markov decision processes with function approximation. The algorithms and theory rest on a relaxation of a dual of Manne's celebrated linear programming characterization of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-09-12 Fan Lu , Sean Meyn

This paper provides an approximate online adaptive solution to the infinite-horizon optimal tracking problem for control-affine continuous-time nonlinear systems with unknown drift dynamics. Model-based reinforcement learning is used to…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2017-07-25 Rushikesh Kamalapurkar , Lindsey Andrews , Patrick Walters , Warren E. Dixon

Suboptimal methods in optimal control arise due to a limited computational budget, unknown system dynamics, or a short prediction window among other reasons. Although these methods are ubiquitous, their transient performance remains…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-04-08 Aren Karapetyan , Efe C. Balta , Andrea Iannelli , John Lygeros

New approaches to the theory of dynamic programming view dynamic programs as families of policy operators acting on partially ordered sets. In this paper, we extend these ideas by shifting from arbitrary partially ordered sets to ordered…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-02 Nisha Peng , John Stachurski

Greedy-GQ with linear function approximation, originally proposed in \cite{maei2010toward}, is a value-based off-policy algorithm for optimal control in reinforcement learning, and it has a non-linear two timescale structure with the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-03 Yue Wang , Yi Zhou , Shaofeng Zou

We study offline multitask reinforcement learning in settings where multiple tasks share a low-rank representation of their action-value functions. In this regime, a learner is provided with fixed datasets collected from several related…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-28 Kausthubh Manda , Raghuram Bharadwaj Diddigi

A practical challenge in reinforcement learning are combinatorial action spaces that make planning computationally demanding. For example, in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning, a potentially large number of agents jointly…

We study the convergence of $Q$-learning with linear function approximation. Our key contribution is the introduction of a novel multi-Bellman operator that extends the traditional Bellman operator. By exploring the properties of this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-02 Diogo S. Carvalho , Pedro A. Santos , Francisco S. Melo

This paper considers an optimization problem for a dynamical system whose evolution depends on a collection of binary decision variables. We develop scalable approximation algorithms with provable suboptimality bounds to provide…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2016-10-31 Insoon Yang , Samuel A. Burden , Ram Rajagopal , S. Shankar Sastry , Claire J. Tomlin

We devise a distributional variant of gradient temporal-difference (TD) learning. Distributional reinforcement learning has been demonstrated to outperform the regular one in the recent study \citep{bellemare2017distributional}. In the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-04-04 Chao Qu , Shie Mannor , Huan Xu

Reinforcement learning algorithms in multi-agent systems deliver highly resilient and adaptable solutions for common problems in telecommunications,aerospace, and industrial robotics. However, achieving an optimal global goal remains a…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2021-05-18 Changgang Zheng , Shufan Yang , Juan Parra-Ullauri , Antonio Garcia-Dominguez , Nelly Bencomo