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We present a data-driven approach for distributionally robust chance constrained optimization problems (DRCCPs). We consider the case where the decision maker has access to a finite number of samples or realizations of the uncertainty. The…
We introduce the Value-at-Risk Constrained Policy Optimization algorithm (VaR-CPO), a sample efficient and conservative method designed to optimize Value-at-Risk (VaR) constrained reinforcement learning (RL) problems. Empirically, we…
Convex sample approximations of chance-constrained optimization problems are considered, in which chance constraints are replaced by sets of sampled constraints. We propose a randomized sample selection strategy that allows tight bounds to…
We develop two penalty based difference of convex (DC) algorithms for solving chance constrained programs. First, leveraging a rank-based DC decomposition of the chance constraint, we propose a proximal penalty based DC algorithm in the…
In this paper, "chance optimization" problems are introduced, where one aims at maximizing the probability of a set defined by polynomial inequalities. These problems are, in general, nonconvex and computationally hard. With the objective…
The popularity of Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), a risk functional from finance, has been growing in the control systems community due to its intuitive interpretation and axiomatic foundation. We consider a nonstandard optimal control…
In high-stakes machine learning applications, it is crucial to not only perform well on average, but also when restricted to difficult examples. To address this, we consider the problem of training models in a risk-averse manner. We propose…
This paper deals with the impact of linear approximations for the unknown nonconvex confidence region of chance-constrained AC optimal power flow problems. Such approximations are required for the formulation of tractable chance…
Many recent advances in machine learning are driven by a challenging trifecta: large data size $N$; high dimensions; and expensive algorithms. In this setting, cross-validation (CV) serves as an important tool for model assessment. Recent…
We propose a sigmoidal approximation for the value-at-risk (that we call SigVaR) and we use this approximation to tackle nonlinear programs (NLPs) with chance constraints. We prove that the approximation is conservative and that the level…
Chance constraints are a valuable tool for the design of safe decisions in uncertain environments; they are used to model satisfaction of a constraint with a target probability. However, because of possible non-convexity and non-smoothness,…
Outer approximation methods have long been employed to tackle a variety of optimization problems, including linear programming, in the 1960s, and continue to be effective for solving variational inequalities, general convex problems, as…
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…
We study a risk-constrained version of the stochastic shortest path (SSP) problem, where the risk measure considered is Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). We propose two algorithms that obtain a locally risk-optimal policy by employing four…
Chance constrained programming (CCP) is a powerful framework for addressing optimization problems under uncertainty. In this paper, we introduce a novel Gradient-Guided Diffusion-based Optimization framework, termed GGDOpt, which tackles…
This paper studies simple bilevel problems, where a convex upper-level function is minimized over the optimal solutions of a convex lower-level problem. We first show the fundamental difficulty of simple bilevel problems, that the…
Many control policies used in various applications determine the input or action by solving a convex optimization problem that depends on the current state and some parameters. Common examples of such convex optimization control policies…
In this paper, we present an equivalent convex optimization formulation for discrete-time stochastic linear systems subject to linear chance constraints, alongside a tight convex relaxation for quadratic chance constraints. By lifting the…
Safe reinforcement learning (RL) aims to learn policies that satisfy certain constraints before deploying them to safety-critical applications. Previous primal-dual style approaches suffer from instability issues and lack optimality…
With the increasing interest in applying the methodology of difference-of-convex (dc) optimization to diverse problems in engineering and statistics, this paper establishes the dc property of many well-known functions not previously known…