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Related papers: A Theory of Regularized Markov Decision Processes

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We present an efficient robust value iteration for \texttt{s}-rectangular robust Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with a time complexity comparable to standard (non-robust) MDPs which is significantly faster than any existing method. We do…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-02-01 Navdeep Kumar , Kfir Levy , Kaixin Wang , Shie Mannor

We study reinforcement learning with linear function approximation and finite-memory approximations for partially observed Markov decision processes (POMDPs). We first present an algorithm for the value evaluation of finite-memory feedback…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-05-22 Ali Devran Kara

In this paper we consider the basic version of Reinforcement Learning (RL) that involves computing optimal data driven (adaptive) policies for Markovian decision process with unknown transition probabilities. We provide a brief survey of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-09-16 Wesley Cowan , Michael N. Katehakis , Daniel Pirutinsky

Many learning algorithms can be represented as Markov processes, and understanding their generalization error is a central topic in learning theory. For specific continuous-time noisy algorithms, a prominent analysis technique relies on…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-06 Benjamin Dupuis , Maxime Haddouche , George Deligiannidis , Umut Simsekli

Reinforcement learning (RL) has exceeded human performance in many synthetic settings such as video games and Go. However, real-world deployment of end-to-end RL models is less common, as RL models can be very sensitive to slight…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-09-29 Jing Dong , Jingwei Li , Baoxiang Wang , Jingzhao Zhang

The use of convex regularizers allows for easy optimization, though they often produce biased estimation and inferior prediction performance. Recently, nonconvex regularizers have attracted a lot of attention and outperformed convex ones.…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-02-14 Quanming Yao , James. T Kwok

A popular perspective in Reinforcement learning (RL) casts the problem as probabilistic inference on a graphical model of the Markov decision process (MDP). The core object of study is the probability of each state-action pair being visited…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-23 Jean Tarbouriech , Tor Lattimore , Brendan O'Donoghue

Although Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms have found tremendous success in simulated domains, they often cannot directly be applied to physical systems, especially in cases where there are hard constraints to satisfy (e.g. on safety…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-08-28 Harsh Satija , Philip Amortila , Joelle Pineau

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) has become a cornerstone technique for post-training large language models. While most existing approaches rely on the reverse KL-regularization, recent empirical studies have begun…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Di Wu , Chengshuai Shi , Jing Yang , Cong Shen

Despite huge successes on a wide range of tasks, neural networks are known to sometimes struggle to generalise to unseen data. Many approaches have been proposed over the years to promote the generalisation ability of neural networks,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-02 Christiaan P. Opperman , Anna S. Bosman , Katherine M. Malan

We devise a control-theoretic reinforcement learning approach to support direct learning of the optimal policy. We establish various theoretical properties of our approach, such as convergence and optimality of our analog of the Bellman…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-01 Weiqin Chen , Mark S. Squillante , Chai Wah Wu , Santiago Paternain

Learning and optimal control under robust Markov decision processes (MDPs) have received increasing attention, yet most existing theory, algorithms, and applications focus on finite-horizon or discounted models. Long-run average-reward…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-12-12 Shengbo Wang , Nian Si

Recently regular decision processes have been proposed as a well-behaved form of non-Markov decision process. Regular decision processes are characterised by a transition function and a reward function that depend on the whole history,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-05-19 Alessandro Ronca , Giuseppe De Giacomo

Multi-objective Markov decision processes are a special kind of multi-objective optimization problem that involves sequential decision making while satisfying the Markov property of stochastic processes. Multi-objective reinforcement…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-22 Sherif Abdelfattah , Kathryn Kasmarik , Jiankun Hu

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are used to model a wide variety of applications ranging from game playing over robotics to finance. Their optimal policy typically maximizes the expected sum of rewards given at each step of the decision…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-26 Maximilian Nägele , Jan Olle , Thomas Fösel , Remmy Zen , Florian Marquardt

The solution to empirical risk minimization with $f$-divergence regularization (ERM-$f$DR) is extended to constrained optimization problems, establishing conditions for equivalence between the solution and constraints. A dual formulation of…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-02-21 Francisco Daunas , Iñaki Esnaola , Samir M. Perlaza , Gholamali Aminian

Quadratic programming is a workhorse of modern nonlinear optimization, control, and data science. Although regularized methods offer convergence guarantees under minimal assumptions on the problem data, they can exhibit the slow…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-18 Jeremy Bertoncini , Alberto De Marchi , Matthias Gerdts , Simon Gottschalk

We study the relation between different Markov Decision Process (MDP) frameworks in the machine learning and econometrics literatures, including the standard MDP, the entropy and general regularized MDP, and stochastic MDP, where the latter…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-08-19 Tien Mai , Patrick Jaillet

Although deep RL models have shown a great potential for solving various types of tasks with minimal supervision, several key challenges remain in terms of learning from limited experience, adapting to environmental changes, and…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-07-10 Dongjae Kim , Jee Hang Lee , Jae Hoon Shin , Minsu Abel Yang , Sang Wan Lee

We propose a novel distributionally robust $Q$-learning algorithm for the non-tabular case accounting for continuous state spaces where the state transition of the underlying Markov decision process is subject to model uncertainty. The…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-27 Chung I Lu , Julian Sester , Aijia Zhang