Related papers: Factoring Exogenous State for Model-Free Monte Car…
The need to calibrate increasingly complex statistical models requires a persistent effort for further advances on available, computationally intensive Monte Carlo methods. We study here an advanced version of familiar Markov Chain Monte…
In this paper we build on previous work which uses inferences techniques, in particular Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, to solve parameterized control problems. We propose a number of modifications in order to make this approach…
This paper addresses the problem of planning under uncertainty in large Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Factored MDPs represent a complex state space using state variables and the transition model using a dynamic Bayesian network. This…
Partially Observable Monte-Carlo Planning (POMCP) is a powerful online algorithm able to generate approximate policies for large Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes. The online nature of this method supports scalability by…
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) have been used to formulate many decision-making problems in science and engineering. The objective is to synthesize the best decision (action selection) policies to maximize expected rewards (minimize…
We study model-free policy learning for discrete-time mean-field control (MFC) problems with finite state space and compact action space. In contrast to the extensive literature on value-based methods for MFC, policy-based approaches remain…
This paper presents a systematic method for the selection of the Model Predictive Control (MPC) stage cost. We match the MPC feedback law to a proportional-integral (PI) controller, which we efficiently tune by high-performance Monte Carlo…
We propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme to perform state inference in non-linear non-Gaussian state-space models. Current state-of-the-art methods to address this problem rely on particle MCMC techniques and its variants, such…
We propose a method for Monte Carlo simulations of systems with a complex action. The method has the advantages of being in principle applicable to any such system and provides a solution to the overlap problem. In some cases, like in the…
Atomistic simulations provide valuable insights into the physical processes governing material behavior. However, their applicability is fundamentally constrained by the limited time scales accessible to brute-force simulations. This…
We propose a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm based on Gibbs sampling with parallel tempering to solve nonlinear optimal control problems. The algorithm is applicable to nonlinear systems with dynamics that can be approximately…
We describe a technique for constraining macroscopic fluctuations in thermodynamic variables well-suited for Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of multiphase equilibria. In particular for multicomponent systems this amounts to a statistical…
This paper is concerned with a data-driven technique for constructing finite Markov decision processes (MDPs) as finite abstractions of discrete-time stochastic control systems with unknown dynamics while providing formal closeness…
Model-free policy learning has been shown to be capable of learning manipulation policies which can solve long-time horizon tasks using single-step manipulation primitives. However, training these policies is a time-consuming process…
In statistical data assimilation one seeks the largest maximum of the conditional probability distribution $P(\mathbf{X},\mathbf{p}|\mathbf{Y})$ of model states, $\mathbf{X}$, and parameters,$\mathbf{p}$, conditioned on observations…
In this paper, we consider solving discounted Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) under the constraint that the resulting policy is stabilizing. In practice MDPs are solved based on some form of policy approximation. We will leverage recent…
This work considers the sample and computational complexity of obtaining an $\epsilon$-optimal policy in a discounted Markov Decision Process (MDP), given only access to a generative model. In this work, we study the effectiveness of the…
The basic idea of fast Monte Carlo (MC) simulations is to perform particle-based MC simulations with the excluded-volume interactions modeled by "soft" repulsive potentials that allow particle overlapping. This gives much faster system…
The paper provides a new approach to the determination of a single state value for stochastic output feedback problems using paradigms from Model Predictive Control, particularly the distinction between open-loop and closed-loop control and…
Metropolis Monte Carlo simulation is a powerful tool for studying the equilibrium properties of matter. In complex condensed-phase systems, however, it is difficult to design Monte Carlo moves with high acceptance probabilities that also…