Related papers: Efficient Global Planning in Large MDPs via Stocha…
In this paper we consider a general, challenging distributed optimization set-up arising in several important network control applications. Agents of a network want to minimize the sum of local cost functions, each one depending on a local…
Existing value function approximation methods have been successfully used in many applications, but they often lack useful a priori error bounds. We propose a new approximate bilinear programming formulation of value function approximation,…
Recently the primal-dual method of multipliers (PDMM), a novel distributed optimization method, was proposed for solving a general class of decomposable convex optimizations over graphic models. In this work, we first study the convergence…
The paper deals with finite-state Markov decision processes (MDPs) with integer weights assigned to each state-action pair. New algorithms are presented to classify end components according to their limiting behavior with respect to the…
This paper proposes a new formulation for the dynamic resource allocation problem, which converts the traditional MDP model with known parameters and no capacity constraints to a new model with uncertain parameters and a resource capacity…
We consider distributed optimization as motivated by machine learning in a multi-agent system: each agent holds local data and the goal is to minimize an aggregate loss function over a common model, via an interplay of local training and…
In this paper we consider a distributed optimization scenario in which a set of processors aims at minimizing the maximum of a collection of "separable convex functions" subject to local constraints. This set-up is motivated by peak-demand…
Selecting the fastest algorithm for a specific signal/image processing task is a challenging question. We propose an approach based on the Performance Estimation Problem framework that numerically and automatically computes the worst-case…
We present an efficient robust value iteration for \texttt{s}-rectangular robust Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with a time complexity comparable to standard (non-robust) MDPs which is significantly faster than any existing method. We do…
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) offer a fairly generic and powerful framework to discuss the notion of optimal policies for dynamic systems, in particular when the dynamics are stochastic. However, computing the optimal policy of an MDP…
We develop a novel unified randomized block-coordinate primal-dual algorithm to solve a class of nonsmooth constrained convex optimization problems, which covers different existing variants and model settings from the literature. We prove…
We consider a class of multi-agent optimization problems, where each agent has a local objective function that depends on its own decision variables and the aggregate of others, and is willing to cooperate with other agents to minimize the…
The ability to compute reward-optimal policies for given and known finite Markov decision processes (MDPs) underpins a variety of applications across planning, controller synthesis, and verification. However, we often want policies (1) to…
We study entropy-regularized constrained Markov decision processes (CMDPs) under the soft-max parameterization, in which an agent aims to maximize the entropy-regularized value function while satisfying constraints on the expected total…
We study model-based learning of finite-window policies in tabular partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). A common approach to learning under partial observability is to approximate unbounded history dependencies using…
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…
Inspired by online ad allocation, we study online stochastic packing linear programs from theoretical and practical standpoints. We first present a near-optimal online algorithm for a general class of packing linear programs which model…
Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of iteratively minimizing a majorizing surrogate of an objective function. Because of its simplicity and its wide applicability, this principle has been very popular in statistics and in signal…
Multi-agent planning under stochastic dynamics is usually formalised using decentralized (partially observable) Markov decision processes ( MDPs) and reachability or expected reward specifications. In this paper, we propose a different…
This paper presents a new safety specification method that is robust against errors in the probability distribution of disturbances. Our proposed distributionally robust safe policy maximizes the probability of a system remaining in a…