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Equipping approximate dynamic programming (ADP) with inputconstraints has a tremendous significance. This enables ADP to be applied tothe systems with actuator limitations, which is quite common for dynamicalsystems. In a conventional…
Reinforcement learning based adaptive/approximate dynamic programming (ADP) is a powerful technique to determine an approximate optimal controller for a dynamical system. These methods bypass the need to analytically solve the nonlinear…
We revisit the identification of an $\varepsilon$-optimal policy in average-reward Markov Decision Processes (MDP). In such MDPs, two measures of complexity have appeared in the literature: the diameter, $D$, and the optimal bias span, $H$,…
We study a fundamental stochastic selection problem involving $n$ independent random variables, each of which can be queried at some cost. Given a tolerance level $\delta$, the goal is to find a value that is $\delta$-approximately minimum…
Min-max optimization of an objective function $f: \mathbb{R}^d \times \mathbb{R}^d \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is an important model for robustness in an adversarial setting, with applications to many areas including optimization, economics,…
Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) and other randomized search heuristics are often considered as unbiased algorithms that are invariant with respect to different transformations of the underlying search space. However, if a certain amount of…
Acceleration for non-convex functions is a fundamental challenge in optimisation. We revisit star-convex functions, which are strictly unimodal on all lines through a minimizer. [1] accelerate unconstrained star-convex minimization of…
We study the problem of Robust Outlier Arm Identification (ROAI), where the goal is to identify arms whose expected rewards deviate substantially from the majority, by adaptively sampling from their reward distributions. We compute the…
We study several questions related to diversifying search results. We give improved approximation algorithms in each of the following problems, together with some lower bounds. - We give a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for a…
Minimising the longest travel distance for a group of mobile robots with interchangeable goals requires knowledge of the shortest length paths between all robots and goal destinations. Determining the exact length of the shortest paths in…
We study the real-valued combinatorial pure exploration of the multi-armed bandit in the fixed-budget setting. We first introduce the Combinatorial Successive Asign (CSA) algorithm, which is the first algorithm that can identify the best…
We address the minimization of a smooth objective function under an $\ell_0$-constraint and simple convex constraints. When the problem has no constraints except the $\ell_0$-constraint, some efficient algorithms are available; for example,…
We present an optimal and efficient algorithm for finding a shortest path in an elastic optical network. The algorithm is an adaptation of the Dijkstra shortest path algorithm, where we take into account the spectrum continuity and…
Searches are conducted to find missing persons and/or objects given uncertain information, imperfect observers and large search areas in Search and Rescue (SAR). In many scenarios, such as Maritime SAR, expected survival times are short and…
Determining the physical characteristics of a star is an inverse problem consisting in estimating the parameters of models for the stellar structure and evolution, knowing certain observable quantities. We use a Bayesian approach to solve…
Two complementary techniques for analyzing search spaces are proposed: (i) an algorithm to detect search points with potential to be local optima; and (ii) a slightly adjusted Wang-Landau sampling algorithm to explore larger search spaces.…
We introduce a new complexity measure for finite strings using probabilistic finite-state automata (PFAs), in the same spirit as existing notions employing DFAs and NFAs, and explore its properties. The PFA complexity $A_P(x)$ is the least…
We give a new, short proof that graphs embeddable in a given Euler genus-$g$ surface admit a simple $f(g)$-round $\alpha$-approximation distributed algorithm for Minimum Dominating Set (MDS), where the approximation ratio $\alpha \le 906$.…
In this paper, near optimal tracking of a class of nonlinear systems is addressed. Adaptive (approximate) dynamic programming approach is used to calculate the optimal control in closed form. ADP (Adaptive (approximate) dynamic programming)…
Minimizing a convex, quadratic objective of the form $f_{\mathbf{A},\mathbf{b}}(x) := \frac{1}{2}x^\top \mathbf{A} x - \langle \mathbf{b}, x \rangle$ for $\mathbf{A} \succ 0 $ is a fundamental problem in machine learning and optimization.…