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Model-based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms allow us to combine model-generated data with those collected from interaction with the real system in order to alleviate the data efficiency problem in RL. However, designing such…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-25 Yinlam Chow , Brandon Cui , MoonKyung Ryu , Mohammad Ghavamzadeh

In this paper, we propose a new mutual information framework for multi-agent reinforcement learning to enable multiple agents to learn coordinated behaviors by regularizing the accumulated return with the simultaneous mutual information…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2023-03-02 Woojun Kim , Whiyoung Jung , Myungsik Cho , Youngchul Sung

Multi-period mean-variance optimization is a long-standing problem, caused by the failure of dynamic programming principle. This paper studies the mean-variance optimization in a setting of finite-horizon discrete-time Markov decision…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-31 Li Xia , Zhihui Yu

Motivated by applications in risk-sensitive reinforcement learning, we study mean-variance optimization in a discounted reward Markov Decision Process (MDP). Specifically, we analyze a Temporal Difference (TD) learning algorithm with linear…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-13 Tejaram Sangadi , L. A. Prashanth , Krishna Jagannathan

We present the first finite time global convergence analysis of policy gradient in the context of infinite horizon average reward Markov decision processes (MDPs). Specifically, we focus on ergodic tabular MDPs with finite state and action…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-03-12 Navdeep Kumar , Yashaswini Murthy , Itai Shufaro , Kfir Y. Levy , R. Srikant , Shie Mannor

Learning expressive and efficient policy functions is a promising direction in reinforcement learning (RL). While flow-based policies have recently proven effective in modeling complex action distributions with a fast deterministic sampling…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Guojian Zhan , Letian Tao , Pengcheng Wang , Yixiao Wang , Yiheng Li , Yuxin Chen , Hongyang Li , Masayoshi Tomizuka , Shengbo Eben Li

Robust Markov decision processes (MDPs) address the challenge of model uncertainty by optimizing the worst-case performance over an uncertainty set of MDPs. In this paper, we focus on the robust average-reward MDPs under the model-free…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-05-19 Yue Wang , Alvaro Velasquez , George Atia , Ashley Prater-Bennette , Shaofeng Zou

We introduce a distributional method for learning the optimal policy in risk averse Markov decision process with finite state action spaces, latent costs, and stationary dynamics. We assume sequential observations of states, actions, and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-01 Ziteng Cheng , Sebastian Jaimungal , Nick Martin

We propose an epoch-based reinforcement learning algorithm for infinite-horizon average-cost Markov decision processes (MDPs) that leverages a partial order over a policy class. In this structure, $\pi' \leq \pi$ if data collected under…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-08-07 Zhongjun Zhang , Shipra Agrawal , Ilan Lobel , Sean R. Sinclair , Christina Lee Yu

This paper aims to establish an entropy-regularized value-based reinforcement learning method that can ensure the monotonic improvement of policies at each policy update. Unlike previously proposed lower-bounds on policy improvement in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-08-26 Lingwei Zhu , Takamitsu Matsubara

Many robotic tasks are composed of a lot of temporally correlated sub-tasks in a highly complex environment. It is important to discover situational intentions and proper actions by deliberating on temporal abstractions to solve problems…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-26 Se-Wook Yoo , Seung-Woo Seo

We consider the stochastic shortest path planning problem in MDPs, i.e., the problem of designing policies that ensure reaching a goal state from a given initial state with minimum accrued cost. In order to account for rare but important…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-03-30 Mohamadreza Ahmadi , Anushri Dixit , Joel W. Burdick , Aaron D. Ames

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are the defacto frame-work for sequential decision making in the presence ofstochastic uncertainty. A classical optimization criterion forMDPs is to maximize the expected discounted-sum pay-off, which…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-02-28 Tomas Brazdil , Krishnendu Chatterjee , Petr Novotny , Jiri Vahala

Robust reinforcement learning (RL) under the average-reward criterion is essential for long-term decision-making, particularly when the environment may differ from its specification. However, a significant gap exists in understanding the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-26 Zachary Roch , Chi Zhang , George Atia , Yue Wang

In real-world decision-making problems, for instance in the fields of finance, robotics or autonomous driving, keeping uncertainty under control is as important as maximizing expected returns. Risk aversion has been addressed in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-09 Lorenzo Bisi , Luca Sabbioni , Edoardo Vittori , Matteo Papini , Marcello Restelli

Regulating the importance ratio is critical for the training stability of Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) based frameworks. However, prevailing ratio control methods, such as hard clipping, suffer from non-differentiable…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-24 Hongjun Wang , Wei Liu , Weibo Gu , Xing Sun , Kai Han

Average-reward Markov decision processes (MDPs) provide a foundational framework for sequential decision-making under uncertainty. However, average-reward MDPs have remained largely unexplored in reinforcement learning (RL) settings, with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-08-29 Juan Sebastian Rojas , Chi-Guhn Lee

In this paper, we present a novel Model Predictive Control method for autonomous robots subject to arbitrary forms of uncertainty. The proposed Risk-Aware Model Predictive Path Integral (RA-MPPI) control utilizes the Conditional…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-09-27 Ji Yin , Zhiyuan Zhang , Panagiotis Tsiotras

Value-at-risk (VaR), also known as quantile, is a crucial risk measure in finance and other fields. However, optimizing VaR metrics in Markov decision processes (MDPs) is challenging because VaR is non-additive and the traditional dynamic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-31 Li Xia , Jinyan Pan

This paper studies the problem of risk-averse receding horizon motion planning for agents with uncertain dynamics, in the presence of stochastic, dynamic obstacles. We propose a model predictive control (MPC) scheme that formulates the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-04-02 Anushri Dixit , Mohamadreza Ahmadi , Joel W. Burdick