Related papers: Scenario-decomposition Solution Framework for Nons…
Dual control explicitly addresses the problem of trading off active exploration and exploitation in the optimal control of partially unknown systems. While the problem can be cast in the framework of stochastic dynamic programming, exact…
Scenario reduction algorithms can be an effective means to provide a tractable description of the uncertainty in optimal control problems. However, they might significantly compromise the performance of the controlled system. In this paper,…
We consider the optimal control problem of a general nonlinear spatio-temporal system described by Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). Theory and algorithms for control of spatio-temporal systems are of rising interest among the…
We address the design and synthesis of optimal control strategies for high-dimensional stochastic dynamical systems. Such systems may be deterministic nonlinear systems evolving from random initial states, or systems driven by random…
This paper studies the dynamic programming principle for general convex stochastic optimization problems introduced by Rockafellar and Wets in [30]. We extend the applicability of the theory by relaxing compactness and boundedness…
In this paper we develop a novel, discrete-time optimal control framework for mechanical systems with uncertain model parameters. We consider finite-horizon problems where the performance index depends on the statistical moments of the…
Since Peng (1993) established a local maximum principle for a general stochastic control problem governed by forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), the corresponding partial differential equation (PDE) characterization…
In this paper we consider a broad class of infinite horizon discrete-time optimal control models that involve a nonnegative cost function and an affine mapping in their dynamic programming equation. They include as special cases classical…
The classical dynamic programming-based optimal stochastic control methods fail to cope with nonseparable dynamic optimization problems as the principle of optimality no longer applies in such situations. Among these notorious nonseparable…
Stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) has been a promising solution to complex control problems under uncertain disturbances. However, traditional SMPC approaches either require exact knowledge of probabilistic distributions, or rely…
In this paper, based on real-time nonlinear receding horizon control methodology, a novel approach is developed for parameter estimation of time invariant and time varying nonlinear dynamical systems in chaotic environments. Here, the…
In the constraint programming framework, state-of-the-art static and dynamic decomposition techniques are hard to apply to problems with complete initial constraint graphs. For such problems, we propose a hybrid approach of these techniques…
Multistage stochastic optimization problems are, by essence, complex as their solutions are indexed both by stages and by uncertainties. Their large scale nature makes decomposition methods appealing, like dynamic programming which is a…
In this article, we discuss two algorithms tailored to discrete-time deterministic finite-horizon nonlinear optimal control problems or so-called deterministic trajectory optimization problems. Both algorithms can be derived from an…
We propose a decomposition method for solving a general class of linear-quadratic (LQ) McKean-Vlasov control problems involving conditional expectations and random coefficients, where the system dynamics are driven by two independent Wiener…
Multi-stage problems with uncertain parameters and integer decisions variables are among the most difficult applications of robust optimization (RO). The challenge in these problems is to find optimal here-and-now decisions, taking into…
We provide a unifying approximate dynamic programming framework that applies to a broad variety of problems involving sequential estimation. We consider first the construction of surrogate cost functions for the purposes of optimization,…
In this paper, we present a discretization algorithm for finite horizon risk constrained dynamic programming algorithm in [Chow_Pavone_13]. Although in a theoretical standpoint, Bellman's recursion provides a systematic way to find optimal…
We consider covariance control problems for nonlinear stochastic systems. Our objective is to find an optimal control strategy to steer the state from an initial distribution to a terminal one with specified mean and covariance. This…
This paper presents a method to approximately solve stochastic optimal control problems in which the cost function and the system dynamics are polynomial. For stochastic systems with polynomial dynamics, the moments of the state can be…