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Related papers: Block Contextual MDPs for Continual Learning

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We are interested in learning models of non-stationary environments, which can be framed as a multi-task learning problem. Model-free reinforcement learning algorithms can achieve good asymptotic performance in multi-task learning at a cost…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-24 Elahe Aghapour , Nora Ayanian

We consider the problem of learning in a non-stationary reinforcement learning (RL) environment, where the setting can be fully described by a piecewise stationary discrete-time Markov decision process (MDP). We introduce a variant of the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-04-04 Reda Alami , Mohammed Mahfoud , Eric Moulines

In the predict-then-optimize framework, the objective is to train a predictive model, mapping from environment features to parameters of an optimization problem, which maximizes decision quality when the optimization is subsequently solved.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-19 Kai Wang , Sanket Shah , Haipeng Chen , Andrew Perrault , Finale Doshi-Velez , Milind Tambe

We study reward-free reinforcement learning (RL) with linear function approximation, where the agent works in two phases: (1) in the exploration phase, the agent interacts with the environment but cannot access the reward; and (2) in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-15 Junkai Zhang , Weitong Zhang , Quanquan Gu

We study the reinforcement learning (RL) problem in a constrained Markov decision process (CMDP), where an agent explores the environment to maximize the expected cumulative reward while satisfying a single constraint on the expected total…

Solving control tasks in complex environments automatically through learning offers great potential. While contemporary techniques from deep reinforcement learning (DRL) provide effective solutions, their decision-making is not transparent.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-07-03 Martin Tappler , Edi Muškardin , Bernhard K. Aichernig , Bettina Könighofer

In this paper we consider the basic version of Reinforcement Learning (RL) that involves computing optimal data driven (adaptive) policies for Markovian decision process with unknown transition probabilities. We provide a brief survey of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-09-16 Wesley Cowan , Michael N. Katehakis , Daniel Pirutinsky

Optimally sequencing experimental assays in drug discovery is a high-stakes planning problem under severe uncertainty and resource constraints. A primary obstacle for standard reinforcement learning (RL) is the absence of an explicit…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-22 Tianchi Chen , Jan Bima , Sean L. Wu , Otto Ritter , Bingjia Yang , Xiang Yu

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has emerged as a powerful paradigm for solving complex decision-making problems. However, DRL-based systems still face significant dependability challenges particularly in real-time environments due to the…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Guoxin Su , Thomas Robinson , Hoa Khanh Dam , Li Liu , David S. Rosenblum

Recent research has turned to Reinforcement Learning (RL) to solve challenging decision problems, as an alternative to hand-tuned heuristics. RL can learn good policies without the need for modeling the environment's dynamics. Despite this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-30 Pouya Hamadanian , Malte Schwarzkopf , Siddartha Sen , Mohammad Alizadeh

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has demonstrated strong potential for industrial process control, yet policies trained in simulation often suffer from a significant sim-to-real gap when deployed on physical hardware. This work systematically…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-13 Tatjana Krau , Jorge Mandlmaier , Tobias Damm , Frieder Heieck

We present a general framework for applying learning algorithms and heuristical guidance to the verification of Markov decision processes (MDPs). The primary goal of our techniques is to improve performance by avoiding an exhaustive…

A fundamental (and largely open) challenge in sequential decision-making is dealing with non-stationary environments, where exogenous environmental conditions change over time. Such problems are traditionally modeled as non-stationary…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-01-23 Baiting Luo , Yunuo Zhang , Abhishek Dubey , Ayan Mukhopadhyay

We study model-based reinforcement learning (RL) for episodic Markov decision processes (MDP) whose transition probability is parametrized by an unknown transition core with features of state and action. Despite much recent progress in…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-11-19 Taehyun Hwang , Min-hwan Oh

Autonomous vehicles have shown promising potential to be a groundbreaking technology for improving the safety of road users. For these vehicles, as well as many other safety-critical robotic technologies, to be deployed in real-world…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-14 Emran Yasser Moustafa , Ivana Dusparic

Delays frequently occur in real-world environments, yet standard reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms often assume instantaneous perception of the environment. We study random sensor delays in POMDPs, where observations may arrive…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-17 Armin Karamzade , Kyungmin Kim , JB Lanier , Davide Corsi , Roy Fox

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a technique to learn the control policy for an agent that interacts with a stochastic environment. In any given state, the agent takes some action, and the environment determines the probability distribution…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-30 Gaurav Gupta , Chenzhong Yin , Jyotirmoy V. Deshmukh , Paul Bogdan

Model-free Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms such as Q-learning [Watkins, Dayan 92] have been widely used in practice and can achieve human level performance in applications such as video games [Mnih et al. 15]. Recently, equipped with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-05-03 Zhao Song , Wen Sun

We describe theoretical bounds and a practical algorithm for teaching a model by demonstration in a sequential decision making environment. Unlike previous efforts that have optimized learners that watch a teacher demonstrate a static…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2012-10-19 Thomas J. Walsh , Sergiu Goschin

Model-based reinforcement learning (RL) is appealing because (i) it enables planning and thus more strategic exploration, and (ii) by decoupling dynamics from rewards, it enables fast transfer to new reward functions. However, learning an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-07-14 Evan Zheran Liu , Ramtin Keramati , Sudarshan Seshadri , Kelvin Guu , Panupong Pasupat , Emma Brunskill , Percy Liang