Related papers: From Convex Optimization to MDPs: A Review of Firs…
This paper studies convergence properties of optimal values and actions for discounted and average-cost Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with weakly continuous transition probabilities and applies these properties to the stochastic…
Markov decision processes (MDPs) are standard models for probabilistic systems with non-deterministic behaviours. Mean payoff (or long-run average reward) provides a mathematically elegant formalism to express performance related…
Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) is a rich mathematical framework that embraces a large class of complex sequential decision-making problems under uncertainty with limited observations. However, the complexity of…
In this paper, building on the formulation of quantum Markov decision processes (q-MDPs) presented in our previous work [{\sc N.~Saldi, S.~Sanjari, and S.~Y\"{u}ksel}, {\em Quantum Markov Decision Processes: General Theory, Approximations,…
Using an optimization algorithm to solve a machine learning problem is one of mainstreams in the field of science. In this work, we demonstrate a comprehensive comparison of some state-of-the-art first-order optimization algorithms for…
In this paper, a novel stochastic extra-step quasi-Newton method is developed to solve a class of nonsmooth nonconvex composite optimization problems. We assume that the gradient of the smooth part of the objective function can only be…
Discrete-time Markov Chains (MCs) and Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are two standard formalisms in system analysis. Their main associated quantitative objectives are hitting probabilities, discounted sum, and mean payoff. Although there…
We consider the problem of controlling a Markov decision process (MDP) with a large state space, so as to minimize average cost. Since it is intractable to compete with the optimal policy for large scale problems, we pursue the more modest…
Rapid advances in data collection and processing capabilities have allowed for the use of increasingly complex models that give rise to nonconvex optimization problems. These formulations, however, can be arbitrarily difficult to solve in…
Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) have recently become popular among many AI researchers because they serve as a natural model for planning under uncertainty. Value iteration is a well-known algorithm for finding…
We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with $\omega$-regular specifications given as parity objectives. We consider the problem of computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices from where the objective can be ensured with…
We introduce a new approximate solution technique for first-order Markov decision processes (FOMDPs). Representing the value function linearly w.r.t. a set of first-order basis functions, we compute suitable weights by casting the…
In this paper, we propose new proximal Newton-type methods for convex optimization problems in composite form. The applications include model predictive control (MPC) and embedded MPC. Our new methods are computationally attractive since…
Classical convergence analyses for optimization algorithms rely on the widely-adopted uniform smoothness assumption. However, recent experimental studies have demonstrated that many machine learning problems exhibit non-uniform smoothness,…
Value iteration is a well-known method of solving Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) that is simple to implement and boasts strong theoretical convergence guarantees. However, the computational cost of value iteration quickly becomes…
We consider a class of optimization problems over stochastic variables where the algorithm can learn information about the value of any variable through a series of costly steps; we model this information acquisition process as a Markov…
Incorporating second order curvature information in gradient based methods have shown to improve convergence drastically despite its computational intensity. In this paper, we propose a stochastic (online) quasi-Newton method with…
Markov decision processes (MDPs) are used to model a wide variety of applications ranging from game playing over robotics to finance. Their optimal policy typically maximizes the expected sum of rewards given at each step of the decision…
Dynamic optimization of mean and variance in Markov decision processes (MDPs) is a long-standing challenge caused by the failure of dynamic programming. In this paper, we propose a new approach to find the globally optimal policy for…
This paper proposes a nonmonotone proximal quasi-Newton algorithm for unconstrained convex multiobjective composite optimization problems. To design the search direction, we minimize the max-scalarization of the variations of the Hessian…