Related papers: Global Convergence Using Policy Gradient Methods f…
Policy gradient methods are powerful reinforcement learning algorithms and have been demonstrated to solve many complex tasks. However, these methods are also data-inefficient, afflicted with high variance gradient estimates, and frequently…
The convergence of policy gradient algorithms hinges on the optimization landscape of the underlying optimal control problem. Theoretical insights into these algorithms can often be acquired from analyzing those of linear quadratic control.…
We consider (stochastic) softmax policy gradient (PG) methods for bandits and tabular Markov decision processes (MDPs). While the PG objective is non-concave, recent research has used the objective's smoothness and gradient domination…
Multi-agent interactions are increasingly important in the context of reinforcement learning, and the theoretical foundations of policy gradient methods have attracted surging research interest. We investigate the global convergence of…
In this paper we propose a novel gradient algorithm to learn a policy from an expert's observed behavior assuming that the expert behaves optimally with respect to some unknown reward function of a Markovian Decision Problem. The…
Generative adversarial imitation learning (GAIL) is a popular inverse reinforcement learning approach for jointly optimizing policy and reward from expert trajectories. A primary question about GAIL is whether applying a certain policy…
Stochastic optimal control of dynamical systems is a crucial challenge in sequential decision-making. Recently, control-as-inference approaches have had considerable success, providing a viable risk-sensitive framework to address the…
We consider the joint design and control of discrete-time stochastic dynamical systems over a finite time horizon. We formulate the problem as a multi-step optimization problem under uncertainty seeking to identify a system design and a…
In recent times, a variety of Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms have been proposed for optimal tracking problem of continuous time nonlinear systems with input constraints. Most of these algorithms are based on the notion of uniform…
Real-world control systems require policies that are not only high-performing but also interpretable and robust. A promising direction toward this goal is model-based control, which learns system dynamics and cost functions from historical…
We study the global convergence of policy gradient for infinite-horizon, continuous state and action space, and entropy-regularized Markov decision processes (MDPs). We consider a softmax policy with (one-hidden layer) neural network…
This paper studies stochastic control problems with the action space taken to be probability measures, with the objective penalised by the relative entropy. We identify suitable metric space on which we construct a gradient flow for the…
We study a finite-horizon covariance steering problem for discrete-time Markov jump linear systems (MJLS) with both state- and control-dependent multiplicative noise. The objective is to minimize a quadratic running cost while steering the…
In this work, we propose a stochastic gradient descent (SGD) framework to design data-driven policy gradient descent algorithms for the linear quadratic regulator problem. Two alternative schemes are considered to estimate the policy…
With the advancement of data-driven techniques, addressing continuous con-trol challenges has become more efficient. However, the reliance of these methods on historical data introduces the potential for unexpected decisions in novel…
This paper develops a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) strategy for a class of discrete-time linear systems with consideration of globally coupled constraints. The DMPC under study is based on the dual problem concerning all…
Action-constrained reinforcement learning (RL) is a widely-used approach in various real-world applications, such as scheduling in networked systems with resource constraints and control of a robot with kinematic constraints. While the…
Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms for real-world robotic applications need a data-efficient learning process and the ability to handle complex, unknown dynamical systems. These requirements are handled well by model-based and…
The linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem has reemerged as an important theoretical benchmark for reinforcement learning-based control of complex dynamical systems with continuous state and action spaces. In contrast with nearly all…
Traditional policy gradient methods are fundamentally flawed. Natural gradients converge quicker and better, forming the foundation of contemporary Reinforcement Learning such as Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) and Proximal Policy…