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We consider multiple parallel Markov decision processes (MDPs) coupled by global constraints, where the time varying objective and constraint functions can only be observed after the decision is made. Special attention is given to how well…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-09-12 Xiaohan Wei , Hao Yu , Michael J. Neely

Regularization of control policies using entropy can be instrumental in adjusting predictability of real-world systems. Applications benefiting from such approaches range from, e.g., cybersecurity, which aims at maximal unpredictability, to…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-02-18 Menno van Zutphen , Giannis Delimpaltadakis , Maurice Heemels , Duarte Antunes

Non-stationary domains, that change in unpredicted ways, are a challenge for agents searching for optimal policies in sequential decision-making problems. This paper presents a combination of Markov Decision Processes (MDP) with Answer Set…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2017-06-06 Leonardo A. Ferreira , Reinaldo A. C. Bianchi , Paulo E. Santos , Ramon Lopez de Mantaras

We consider a problem in which a single repairer is responsible for the maintenance and repair of a collection of machines, positioned at different locations on a network of nodes and edges. Machines deteriorate according to stochastic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-24 Dongnuan Tian , Rob Shone

We study the synthesis of a policy in a Markov decision process (MDP) following which an agent reaches a target state in the MDP while minimizing its total discounted cost. The problem combines a reachability criterion with a discounted…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-18 Yagiz Savas , Christos K. Verginis , Michael Hibbard , Ufuk Topcu

Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) have been used to formulate many decision-making problems in science and engineering. The objective is to synthesize the best decision (action selection) policies to maximize expected rewards (minimize…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-07-08 Mahmoud El Chamie , Behcet Acikmese

We study the synthesis of mode switching protocols for a class of discrete-time switched linear systems in which the mode jumps are governed by Markov decision processes (MDPs). We call such systems MDP-JLS for brevity. Each state of the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-01-06 Bo Wu , Murat Cubuktepe , Franck Djeumou , Zhe Xu , Ufuk Topcu

We study off-policy evaluation and learning from sequential data in a structured class of Markov decision processes that arise from repeated interactions with an exogenous sequence of arrivals with contexts, which generate unknown…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-20 Nathan Kallus , Angela Zhou

We study the policy testing problem in discounted Markov decision processes (MDPs) in the fixed-confidence setting under a generative model with static sampling. The goal is to decide whether the value of a given policy exceeds a specified…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-04-21 Kaito Ariu , Po-An Wang , Alexandre Proutiere , Kenshi Abe

We introduce a novel cyclic Markov decision process (MDP) framework for multi-step decision problems with heterogeneous stage-specific dynamics, transitions, and discount factors across the cycle. In this setting, offline learning is…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-13 Kyungbok Lee , Angelica Cristello Sarteau , Michael R. Kosorok

We consider deterministic finite-horizon optimal control problems with a fixed initial state. We introduce an on-line policy iteration method, which, starting from a given policy, however obtained, generates a sequence of cost-improving…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-12 Yuchao Li , Fei Chen , Yingke Li , Chuchu Fan , Dimitri Bertsekas

Solving partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) is highly intractable in general, at least in part because the optimal policy may be infinitely large. In this paper, we explore the problem of finding the optimal policy from…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-01-30 Nicolas Meuleau , Kee-Eung Kim , Leslie Pack Kaelbling , Anthony R. Cassandra

We consider inexact policy iteration methods for large-scale infinite-horizon discounted MDPs with finite spaces, a variant of policy iteration where the policy evaluation step is implemented inexactly using an iterative solver for linear…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-04-10 Matilde Gargiani , Robin Sieber , Efe Balta , Dominic Liao-McPherson , John Lygeros

We study the problem of learning Markov decision processes with finite state and action spaces when the transition probability distributions and loss functions are chosen adversarially and are allowed to change with time. We introduce an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2013-03-14 Yasin Abbasi-Yadkori , Peter L. Bartlett , Csaba Szepesvari

A Tree Markov Decision Problem (T-MDP) is a finite-horizon MDP with a starting state $s_{1}$, in which every state is reachable from $s_{1}$ through exactly one state-action trajectory. T-MDPs arise naturally as abstractions of decision…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-05-07 Anvay Shah , Ramsundar Anandanarayanan , Sharayu Moharir , Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan

Recent control algorithms for Markov decision processes (MDPs) have been designed using an implicit analogy with well-established optimization algorithms. In this paper, we adopt the quasi-Newton method (QNM) from convex optimization to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-06 Mohammad Amin Sharifi Kolarijani , Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani

In this paper we provide faster algorithms for approximately solving discounted Markov Decision Processes in multiple parameter regimes. Given a discounted Markov Decision Process (DMDP) with $|S|$ states, $|A|$ actions, discount factor…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-12-24 Aaron Sidford , Mengdi Wang , Xian Wu , Yinyu Ye

We introduce synchronizing objectives for Markov decision processes (MDP). Intuitively, a synchronizing objective requires that eventually, at every step there is a state which concentrates almost all the probability mass. In particular, it…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2011-02-22 Laurent Doyen , Thierry Massart , Mahsa Shirmohammadi

We consider approximate dynamic programming for the infinite-horizon stationary $\gamma$-discounted optimal control problem formalized by Markov Decision Processes. While in the exact case it is known that there always exists an optimal…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2013-04-23 Boris Lesner , Bruno Scherrer

We consider the problem of learning in adversarial Markov decision processes [MDPs] with an oblivious adversary in a full-information setting. The agent interacts with an environment during $T$ episodes, each of which consists of $H$…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-06 Daniil Tiapkin , Evgenii Chzhen , Gilles Stoltz