Related papers: Homotopic Policy Mirror Descent: Policy Convergenc…
Driven by the empirical success and wide use of deep neural networks, understanding the generalization performance of overparameterized models has become an increasingly popular question. To this end, there has been substantial effort to…
Learning-to-optimize is an emerging framework that seeks to speed up the solution of certain optimization problems by leveraging training data. Learned optimization solvers have been shown to outperform classical optimization algorithms in…
In this paper, we revisit and improve the convergence of policy gradient (PG), natural PG (NPG) methods, and their variance-reduced variants, under general smooth policy parametrizations. More specifically, with the Fisher information…
We introduce a novel method for solving density-based topology optimization problems: Sigmoidal Mirror descent with a Projected Latent variable (SiMPL). The SiMPL method (pronounced as ``the simple method'') optimizes a design using only…
Distributed optimization often requires finding the minimum of a global objective function written as a sum of local functions. A group of agents work collectively to minimize the global function. We study a continuous-time decentralized…
This paper explores a new framework for reinforcement learning based on online convex optimization, in particular mirror descent and related algorithms. Mirror descent can be viewed as an enhanced gradient method, particularly suited to…
We consider infinite-horizon $\gamma$-discounted (linear) constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) where the objective is to find a policy that maximizes the expected cumulative reward subject to expected cumulative constraints. Given…
In the paper, we design a novel Bregman gradient policy optimization framework for reinforcement learning based on Bregman divergences and momentum techniques. Specifically, we propose a Bregman gradient policy optimization (BGPO) algorithm…
Reinforcement learning (RL) on high-dimensional and complex problems relies on abstraction for improved efficiency and generalization. In this paper, we study abstraction in the continuous-control setting, and extend the definition of…
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a formal framework for modeling and solving sequential decision-making problems. In finite-time horizons such problems are relevant for instance for optimal stopping or specific supply chain problems,…
To solve distributed optimization efficiently with various constraints and nonsmooth functions, we propose a distributed mirror descent algorithm with embedded Bregman damping, as a generalization of conventional distributed…
In this work, we study $\gamma$-discounted infinite-horizon tabular Markov decision processes (MDPs) and introduce a framework called dynamic policy gradient (DynPG). The framework directly integrates dynamic programming with (any) policy…
We study best-policy identification for finite-horizon risk-sensitive reinforcement learning under the entropic risk measure. Recent work established a constant gap in the exponential horizon dependence between lower and upper bounds on the…
We provide theoretical guarantees for convergence of discrete-time policy mirror descent with inexact advantage functions updated using temporal difference (TD) learning for entropy regularised MDPs in Polish state and action spaces. We…
Policy gradient methods are widely used in reinforcement learning. Yet, the nonconvexity of policy optimization poses significant challenges in understanding the global convergence of policy gradient methods. For a class of finite-horizon…
In this paper, we propose a policy gradient method for confounded partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with continuous state and observation spaces in the offline setting. We first establish a novel identification result…
Constrained competitive optimization involves multiple agents trying to minimize conflicting objectives, subject to constraints. This is a highly expressive modeling language that subsumes most of modern machine learning. In this work we…
This paper addresses the challenge of solving Constrained Markov Decision Processes (CMDPs) with $d > 1$ constraints when the transition dynamics are unknown, but samples can be drawn from a generative model. We propose a model-based…
This letter investigates the convergence and concentration properties of the Stochastic Mirror Descent (SMD) algorithm utilizing biased stochastic subgradients. We establish the almost sure convergence of the algorithm's iterates under the…
We consider the problem of learning an $\varepsilon$-optimal policy in a general class of continuous-space Markov decision processes (MDPs) having smooth Bellman operators. Given access to a generative model, we achieve rate-optimal sample…