Related papers: A Dynamical Systems Approach for Convergence of th…
The Bayesian inversion method demonstrates significant potential for solving inverse problems, enabling both point estimation and uncertainty quantification (UQ). However, Bayesian maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation may become unstable…
The speed of convergence of the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm for Gaussian mixture model fitting is known to be dependent on the amount of overlap among the mixture components. In this paper, we study the impact of mixing…
Bayesian meta-learning enables robust and fast adaptation to new tasks with uncertainty assessment. The key idea behind Bayesian meta-learning is empirical Bayes inference of hierarchical model. In this work, we extend this framework to…
Today's complex robotic designs comprise in some cases a large number of degrees of freedom, enabling for multi-objective task resolution (e.g., humanoid robots or aerial manipulators). This paper tackles the stability problem of a…
Optimal stopping is a fundamental class of stochastic dynamic optimization problems with numerous applications in finance and operations management. We introduce a new approach for solving computationally-demanding stochastic optimal…
In recent years, Bayesian inference in large-scale inverse problems found in science, engineering and machine learning has gained significant attention. This paper examines the robustness of the Bayesian approach by analyzing the stability…
Expectation Maximization (EM) is among the most popular algorithms for estimating parameters of statistical models. However, EM, which is an iterative algorithm based on the maximum likelihood principle, is generally only guaranteed to find…
Expectation maximization (EM) is the default algorithm for fitting probabilistic models with missing or latent variables, yet we lack a full understanding of its non-asymptotic convergence properties. Previous works show results along the…
This paper introduces a computationally efficient method that converges globally to B-stationary points of mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPECs). B-stationarity is necessary for optimality and means that no feasible…
We present the particle stochastic approximation EM (PSAEM) algorithm for learning of dynamical systems. The method builds on the EM algorithm, an iterative procedure for maximum likelihood inference in latent variable models. By combining…
Many machine learning and optimization algorithms can be cast as instances of stochastic approximation (SA). The convergence rate of these algorithms is known to be slow, with the optimal mean squared error (MSE) of order $O(n^{-1})$. In…
MAP is the problem of finding a most probable instantiation of a set of variables in a Bayesian network given some evidence. Unlike computing posterior probabilities, or MPE (a special case of MAP), the time and space complexity of…
In many real-world reinforcement learning (RL) problems, besides optimizing the main objective function, an agent must concurrently avoid violating a number of constraints. In particular, besides optimizing performance it is crucial to…
Approximate message passing (AMP) type algorithms have been widely used in the signal reconstruction of certain large random linear systems. A key feature of the AMP-type algorithms is that their dynamics can be correctly described by state…
Approximate algorithms for structured prediction problems---such as LP relaxations and the popular alpha-expansion algorithm (Boykov et al. 2001)---typically far exceed their theoretical performance guarantees on real-world instances. These…
Improved EM strategies, based on the idea of efficient data augmentation (Meng and van Dyk 1997, 1998), are presented for ML estimation of mixture proportions. The resulting algorithms inherit the simplicity, ease of implementation, and…
Motivated by the widespread use of temporal-difference (TD-) and Q-learning algorithms in reinforcement learning, this paper studies a class of biased stochastic approximation (SA) procedures under a mild "ergodic-like" assumption on the…
In the pursuit of autonomous spacecraft proximity maneuvers and docking(PMD), we introduce a novel Bayesian actor-critic reinforcement learning algorithm to learn a control policy with the stability guarantee. The PMD task is formulated as…
We propose a composite Lyapunov framework for nonlinear autonomous systems that ensures strict decay through a pair of differential inequalities. The approach yields integral estimates, quantitative convergence rates, vanishing of…
This paper presents a synthesis approach aiming to guarantee a minimum upper-bound for the time taken to reach a target set of non-zero measure that encompasses the origin, while taking into account uncertainties and input and state…