English
Related papers

Related papers: Active Inference for Stochastic Control

200 papers

Flexible, goal-directed behavior is a fundamental aspect of human life. Based on the free energy minimization principle, the theory of active inference formalizes the generation of such behavior from a computational neuroscience…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-08-03 Fedor Scholz , Christian Gumbsch , Sebastian Otte , Martin V. Butz

This paper presents a novel approach to Autonomous Vehicle (AV) control through the application of active inference, a theory derived from neuroscience that conceptualizes the brain as a predictive machine. Traditional autonomous driving…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-03-17 Elahe Delavari , John Moore , Junho Hong , Jaerock Kwon

Active inference is an ambitious theory that treats perception, inference and action selection of autonomous agents under the heading of a single principle. It suggests biologically plausible explanations for many cognitive phenomena,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2018-06-22 Martin Biehl , Christian Guckelsberger , Christoph Salge , Simón C. Smith , Daniel Polani

The ability to accurately predict others' behavior is central to the safety and efficiency of interactive robotics. Unfortunately, robots often lack access to key information on which these predictions may hinge, such as other agents'…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-11-02 Haimin Hu , David Isele , Sangjae Bae , Jaime F. Fisac

Active inference, a neurally-inspired model for inferring actions based on the free energy principle (FEP), has been proposed as a unifying framework for understanding perception, action, and learning in the brain. Active inference has…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-20 Prashant Rangarajan , Rajesh P. N. Rao

Active inference is a mathematical framework for understanding how agents (biological or artificial) interact with their environments, enabling continual adaptation and decision-making. It combines Bayesian inference and free energy…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-10-02 Rithvik Prakki

In this paper we are introducing a new reinforcement learning method for control problems in environments with delayed feedback. Specifically, our method employs stochastic planning, versus previous methods that used deterministic planning.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-02 Zhiyuan Yao , Ionut Florescu , Chihoon Lee

Active Inference is an emerging framework providing a quantitative account of behavioral processes in neuroscience and a principled approach to decision-making under uncertainty. Its application to agency problems is natural, offering an…

Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science · Computer Science 2026-04-15 Francesco Maria Mancinelli , Matteo Torzoni , Domenico Maisto , Francesco Donnarumma , Alberto Corigliano , Giovanni Pezzulo , Andrea Manzoni

Optimal control under uncertainty is a prevailing challenge for many reasons. One of the critical difficulties lies in producing tractable solutions for the underlying stochastic optimization problem. We show how advanced approximate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-28 Joe Watson , Hany Abdulsamad , Rolf Findeisen , Jan Peters

Branching Time Active Inference (Champion et al., 2021b,a) is a framework proposing to look at planning as a form of Bayesian model expansion. Its root can be found in Active Inference (Friston et al., 2016; Da Costa et al., 2020; Champion…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-15 Théophile Champion , Marek Grześ , Howard Bowman

Active inference is a normative principle underwriting perception, action, planning, decision-making and learning in biological or artificial agents. From its inception, its associated process theory has grown to incorporate complex…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2021-02-02 Lancelot Da Costa , Thomas Parr , Noor Sajid , Sebastijan Veselic , Victorita Neacsu , Karl Friston

In this paper we propose a framework towards achieving two intertwined objectives: (i) equipping reinforcement learning with active exploration and deliberate information gathering, such that it regulates state and parameter uncertainties…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-09-10 Mohammad S. Ramadan , Mahmoud A. Hayajnh , Michael T. Tolley , Kyriakos G. Vamvoudakis

Active inference is a process theory of the brain that states that all living organisms infer actions in order to minimize their (expected) free energy. However, current experiments are limited to predefined, often discrete, state spaces.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-02-25 Ozan Çatal , Tim Verbelen , Johannes Nauta , Cedric De Boom , Bart Dhoedt

Robots in uncertain real-world environments must perform both goal-directed and exploratory actions. However, most deep learning-based control methods neglect exploration and struggle under uncertainty. To address this, we adopt deep active…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-12-02 Kentaro Fujii , Shingo Murata

Intelligent systems have the ability to improve their behaviour over time taking observations, experiences or explicit feedback into account. Traditional approaches separate the learning problem and make isolated use of techniques from…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-01-12 Simon Reichhuber , Sven Tomforde

Active Inference is a theory of action arising from neuroscience which casts action and planning as a bayesian inference problem to be solved by minimizing a single quantity - the variational free energy. Active Inference promises a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-07-10 Beren Millidge

We present a method for active inference with partial observations in stochastic systems through incentive design, also known as the leader-follower game. Consider a leader agent who aims to infer a follower agent's type given a finite set…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-02-12 Xinyi Wei , Chongyang Shi , Shuo Han , Ahmed H. Hemida , Charles A. Kamhoua , Jie Fu

This work presents an approach for control, state-estimation and learning model (hyper)parameters for robotic manipulators. It is based on the active inference framework, prominent in computational neuroscience as a theory of the brain,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-03-31 Mohamed Baioumy , Paul Duckworth , Bruno Lacerda , Nick Hawes

We develop a comprehensive description of the active inference framework, as proposed by Friston (2010), under a machine-learning compliant perspective. Stemming from a biological inspiration and the auto-encoding principles, the sketch of…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2018-01-09 Emmanuel Daucé

Even if path planning can be solved using standard techniques from dynamic programming and control, the problem can also be approached using probabilistic inference. The algorithms that emerge using the latter framework bear some appealing…