Related papers: Stochastic Dynamic Programming Heuristic for the (…
This paper studies the computation of robust deterministic policies for Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) in the Lightning Does Not Strike Twice (LDST) model of Mannor, Mebel and Xu (ICML '12). In this model, designed to provide robustness…
We consider solving nonlinear optimization problems with a stochastic objective and deterministic equality constraints. We assume for the objective that its evaluation, gradient, and Hessian are inaccessible, while one can compute their…
Scheduling a residential building short-term to optimize the electricity bill can be difficult with the inclusion of capacity-based grid tariffs. Scheduling the building based on a proposed measured-peak (MP) grid tariff, which is a cost…
A stochastic program typically involves several parameters, including deterministic first-stage parameters and stochastic second-stage elements that serve as input data. These programs are re-solved whenever any input parameter changes.…
The continuous-review (s,S) inventory model is a cornerstone of stochastic inventory theory, yet its analysis becomes analytically intractable when dealing with non-Markovian systems. In such systems, evaluating long-run performance…
Optimal stopping is the problem of determining when to stop a stochastic system in order to maximize reward, which is of practical importance in domains such as finance, operations management and healthcare. Existing methods for…
In this paper, we study multistage stochastic mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MS-MINLP). This general class of problems encompasses, as important special cases, multistage stochastic convex optimization with non-Lipschitzian value…
Freight carriers rely on tactical plans to satisfy demand in a cost-effective way. For computational tractability in real large-scale settings, such plans are typically computed by solving deterministic and cyclic formulations. An important…
We consider online statistical inference of constrained stochastic nonlinear optimization problems. We apply the Stochastic Sequential Quadratic Programming (StoSQP) method to solve these problems, which can be regarded as applying…
In this paper, we introduce a new stochastic approximation (SA) type algorithm, namely the randomized stochastic gradient (RSG) method, for solving an important class of nonlinear (possibly nonconvex) stochastic programming (SP) problems.…
We are interested in optimally controlling a discrete time dynamical system that can be influenced by exogenous uncertainties. This is generally called a Stochas-tic Optimal Control (SOC) problem and the Dynamic Programming (DP) principle…
While reinforcement learning has been increasingly applied to stochastic control, few studies have systematically examined policy-based methods in queuing environments modeled as a semi-Markov decision process (SMDP). To address this gap,…
We propose a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method that can incorporate adaptive sampling for stochastic nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems with upper-C^2 objectives. Upper-$\Ctwo$ functions can be viewed as…
With the rapid growth in renewable energy and battery storage technologies, there exists significant opportunity to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs through optimization. However, optimization algorithms must take into account the…
Motion planning and control problems are embedded and essential in almost all robotics applications. These problems are often formulated as stochastic optimal control problems and solved using dynamic programming algorithms. Unfortunately,…
Safety in stochastic control systems, which are subject to random noise with a known probability distribution, aims to compute policies that satisfy predefined operational constraints with high confidence throughout the uncertain evolution…
We are interested in risk constraints for infinite horizon discrete time Markov decision processes (MDPs). Starting with average reward MDPs, we show that increasing concave stochastic dominance constraints on the empirical distribution of…
We consider the problem of finding the best memoryless stochastic policy for an infinite-horizon partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) with finite state and action spaces with respect to either the discounted or mean reward…
Multi-stage decision problems under uncertainty can be efficiently solved with the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) algorithm. However, traditional implementations require all stage problems to be feasible. Feasibility is usually…
The Container Relocation Problem (CRP) is concerned with finding a sequence of moves of containers that minimizes the number of relocations needed to retrieve all containers, while respecting a given order of retrieval. However, the…