Related papers: Risk-Sensitive Motion Planning using Entropic Valu…

Robust Markov Decision Processes (RMDPs) have received significant research interest, offering an alternative to standard Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) that often assume fixed transition probabilities. RMDPs address this by optimizing…

In this paper, we study a novel episodic risk-sensitive Reinforcement Learning (RL) problem, named Iterated CVaR RL, which aims to maximize the tail of the reward-to-go at each step, and focuses on tightly controlling the risk of getting…

One of the critical challenges in automated driving is ensuring safety of automated vehicles despite the unknown behavior of the other vehicles. Although motion prediction modules are able to generate a probability distribution associated…

Robot navigation in dynamic, crowded environments poses a significant challenge due to the inherent uncertainties in the obstacle model. In this work, we propose a risk-adaptive approach based on the Conditional Value-at-Risk Barrier…

Motion planning for autonomous robots and vehicles in presence of uncontrolled agents remains a challenging problem as the reactive behaviors of the uncontrolled agents must be considered. Since the uncontrolled agents usually demonstrate…

We treat the problem of risk-aware control for stochastic shortest path (SSP) on Markov decision processes (MDP). Typically, expectation is considered for SSP, which however is oblivious to the incurred risk. We present an alternative view,…

This paper develops a safety analysis method for stochastic systems that is sensitive to the possibility and severity of rare harmful outcomes. We define risk-sensitive safe sets as sub-level sets of the solution to a non-standard optimal…

We present the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) in the context of Markov chains and Markov decision processes with reachability and mean-payoff objectives. CVaR quantifies risk by means of the expectation of the worst p-quantile. As such it…

This paper proposes an iterative distributionally robust model predictive control (MPC) scheme to solve a risk-constrained infinite-horizon optimal control problem. In each iteration, the algorithm generates a trajectory from the starting…

This work investigates the challenge of ensuring safety guarantees in the presence of uncontrollable agents, whose behaviors are stochastic and depend on both their own and the system's states. We present a neural model predictive control…

In automated driving, risk describes potential harm to passengers of an autonomous vehicle (AV) and other road users. Recent studies suggest that human-like driving behavior emerges from embedding risk in AV motion planning algorithms.…

We study risk-sensitive Reinforcement Learning (RL), where we aim to maximize the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) with a fixed risk tolerance $\tau$. Prior theoretical work studying risk-sensitive RL focuses on the tabular Markov Decision…

Robots will increasingly operate near humans that introduce uncertainties in the motion planning problem due to their complex nature. Typically, chance constraints are introduced in the planner to optimize performance while guaranteeing…

We study a linear-quadratic, optimal control problem on a discrete, finite time horizon with distributional ambiguity, in which the cost is assessed via Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). We take steps toward deriving a scalable dynamic…

This paper presents an algorithm for local motion planning in environments populated by moving elliptical obstacles whose velocity, shape and size are fully known but may change with time. We base the algorithm on a collision avoidance…

Risk-sensitive reinforcement learning (RL) aims to optimize policies that balance the expected reward and risk. In this paper, we present a novel risk-sensitive RL framework that employs an Iterated Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR)…

We tackle safe trajectory planning under Gaussian mixture model (GMM) uncertainty. Specifically, we use a GMM to model the multimodal behaviors of obstacles' uncertain states. Then, we develop a mixed-integer conic approximation to the…

This article develops a new algorithm named TTRISK to solve high-dimensional risk-averse optimization problems governed by differential equations (ODEs and/or PDEs) under uncertainty. As an example, we focus on the so-called Conditional…

We study a first-order primal-dual subgradient method to optimize risk-constrained risk-penalized optimization problems, where risk is modeled via the popular conditional value at risk (CVaR) measure. The algorithm processes independent and…

Navigation in human-robot shared crowded environments remains challenging, as robots are expected to move efficiently while respecting human motion conventions. However, many existing approaches emphasize safety or efficiency while…