Related papers: Computational Approaches for Stochastic Shortest P…
We consider partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with limit-average payoff, where a reward value in the interval [0,1] is associated to every transition, and the payoff of an infinite path is the long-run average of the…
A matrix optimization problem over an uncertain linear system on finite horizon (abbreviated as MOPUL) is studied, in which the uncertain transition matrix is regarded as a decision variable. This problem is in general NP-hard. By using the…
In this paper, we consider a modified version of the control problem in a model free Markov decision process (MDP) setting with large state and action spaces. The control problem most commonly addressed in the contemporary literature is to…
The Skolem problem and the related Positivity problem for linear recurrence sequences are outstanding number-theoretic problems whose decidability has been open for many decades. In this paper, the inherent mathematical difficulty of a…
Memory is a key computational bottleneck when solving large-scale convex optimization problems such as semidefinite programs (SDPs). In this paper, we focus on the regime in which storing an $n\times n$ matrix decision variable is…
We consider the NP-hard problem of minimizing a convex quadratic function over the integer lattice ${\bf Z}^n$. We present a simple semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation for obtaining a nontrivial lower bound on the optimal value of the…
Autonomous vehicles face the problem of optimizing the expected performance of subsequent maneuvers while bounding the risk of collision with surrounding dynamic obstacles. These obstacles, such as agent vehicles, often exhibit stochastic…
Constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) are used as a decision-making framework to study the long-run performance of a stochastic system. It is well-known that a stationary optimal policy of a CMDP problem under discounted cost…
Semidefinite programming (SDP) is a central topic in mathematical optimization with extensive studies on its efficient solvers. In this paper, we present a proof-of-principle sublinear-time algorithm for solving SDPs with low-rank…
The synthesis problem for partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) is to compute a policy that satisfies a given specification. Such policies have to take the full execution history of a POMDP into account, rendering the…
Robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs) extend standard Markov decision processes (MDPs) to account for uncertainty in the transition probabilities. RMDPs have an uncertainty set that defines a set of possible transition functions, each of…
We introduce an NP-complete graph decision problem, the "Multi-stage graph Simple Path" (abbr. MSP) problem, which focuses on determining the existence of specific "global paths" in a graph $G$. We show that the MSP problem can be solved in…
The Single-Source Shortest Path (SSSP) problem is well-known for the challenges in developing fast, practical, and work-efficient parallel algorithms. This work introduces a novel shortest path search method. It allows paths with different…
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…
We present fast algorithms for approximate shortest paths in the massively parallel computation (MPC) model. We provide randomized algorithms that take $poly(\log{\log{n}})$ rounds in the near-linear memory MPC model. Our results are for…
Semidefinite programming (SDP) is a powerful framework from convex optimization that has striking potential for data science applications. This paper develops a provably correct randomized algorithm for solving large, weakly constrained SDP…
Stochastic shortest path (SSP) is a well-known problem in planning and control, in which an agent has to reach a goal state in minimum total expected cost. In the learning formulation of the problem, the agent is unaware of the environment…
There is much interest in using partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) as a formal model for planning in stochastic domains. This paper is concerned with finding optimal policies for POMDPs. We propose several improvements…
Several attempts to dampen the curse of dimensionnality problem of the Dynamic Programming approach for solving multistage optimization problems have been investigated. One popular way to address this issue is the Stochastic Dual Dynamic…
We present a method for solving implicit (factored) Markov decision processes (MDPs) with very large state spaces. We introduce a property of state space partitions which we call epsilon-homogeneity. Intuitively, an epsilon-homogeneous…