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Constrained Reinforcement Learning (CRL) addresses sequential decision-making problems where agents are required to achieve goals by maximizing the expected return while meeting domain-specific constraints. In this setting, policy-based…
Binary optimization has a wide range of applications in combinatorial optimization problems such as MaxCut, MIMO detection, and MaxSAT. However, these problems are typically NP-hard due to the binary constraints. We develop a novel…
Safety is a fundamental challenge in reinforcement learning (RL), particularly in real-world applications such as autonomous driving, robotics, and healthcare. To address this, Constrained Markov Decision Processes (CMDPs) are commonly used…
We study robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs) with general policy parameterization under s-rectangular and non-rectangular uncertainty sets. Prior work is largely limited to tabular policies, and hence either lacks sample complexity…
This work proposes an accelerated primal-dual dynamical system for affine constrained convex optimization and presents a class of primal-dual methods with nonergodic convergence rates. In continuous level, exponential decay of a novel…
The linear primal-dual hybrid gradient (PDHG) method is a first-order method that splits convex optimization problems with saddle-point structure into smaller subproblems. Unlike those obtained in most splitting methods, these subproblems…
In this work, we investigate the margin-maximization bias exhibited by gradient-based algorithms in classifying linearly separable data. We present an in-depth analysis of the specific properties of the velocity field associated with…
In this paper, we present a new policy gradient (PG) methods, namely the block policy mirror descent (BPMD) method for solving a class of regularized reinforcement learning (RL) problems with (strongly)-convex regularizers. Compared to the…
We propose a new randomized algorithm for solving convex optimization problems that have a large number of constraints (with high probability). Existing methods like interior-point or Newton-type algorithms are hard to apply to such…
We study the global convergence of policy gradient for infinite-horizon entropy-regularized Markov decision processes (MDPs) with continuous state and action spaces. We consider log-linear softmax policies with linear function…
While the techniques in optimal control theory are often model-based, the policy optimization (PO) approach directly optimizes the performance metric of interest. Even though it has been an essential approach for reinforcement learning…
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…
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…
Conic optimization is the minimization of a differentiable convex objective function subject to conic constraints. We propose a novel primal-dual first-order method for conic optimization, named proportional-integral projected gradient…
We present a new algorithm for solving optimization problems with objective functions that are the sum of a smooth function and a (potentially) nonsmooth regularization function, and nonlinear equality constraints. The algorithm may be…
Minimax problems have recently attracted a lot of research interests. A few efforts have been made to solve decentralized nonconvex strongly-concave (NCSC) minimax-structured optimization; however, all of them focus on smooth problems with…
This paper proposes a novel termination criterion, termed the advantage gap function, for finite state and action Markov decision processes (MDP) and reinforcement learning (RL). By incorporating this advantage gap function into the design…
We develop a framework for convexifying a fairly general class of optimization problems. Under additional assumptions, we analyze the suboptimality of the solution to the convexified problem relative to the original nonconvex problem and…
This paper develops a continuous-time primal-dual accelerated method with an increasing damping coefficient for a class of convex optimization problems with affine equality constraints. This paper analyzes critical values for parameters in…
In the optimization of dynamic systems, the variables typically have constraints. Such problems can be modeled as a Constrained Markov Decision Process (CMDP). This paper considers the peak Constrained Markov Decision Process (PCMDP), where…