Related papers: Geometry and convergence of natural policy gradien…
In this paper, we extend the geometric descent method recently proposed by Bubeck, Lee and Singh to tackle nonsmooth and strongly convex composite problems. We prove that our proposed algorithm, dubbed geometric proximal gradient method…
Policy gradient methods are among the most effective methods in challenging reinforcement learning problems with large state and/or action spaces. However, little is known about even their most basic theoretical convergence properties,…
We revisit the finite time analysis of policy gradient methods in the one of the simplest settings: finite state and action MDPs with a policy class consisting of all stochastic policies and with exact gradient evaluations. There has been…
In this paper, we investigate a model-free optimal control design that minimizes an infinite horizon average expected quadratic cost of states and control actions subject to a probabilistic risk or chance constraint using input-output data.…
Natural policy gradient (NPG) is a common policy optimization algorithm and can be viewed as mirror ascent in the space of probabilities. Recently, Vaswani et al. [2021] introduced a policy gradient method that corresponds to mirror ascent…
We contribute the first provable guarantees of global convergence to Nash equilibria (NE) in two-player zero-sum convex Markov games (cMGs) by using independent policy gradient methods. Convex Markov games, recently defined by Gemp et al.…
A convergence analysis is developed for the regularized Newton method for training neural networks (NNs) in the overparameterized limit. As the number of hidden units tends to infinity, the NN training dynamics converge in probability to…
In a recent study, Ansary (Optim Methods Softw 38(3):570-590,2023) proposed a Newton-type proximal gradient method for nonlinear multiobjective optimization problems (NPGMO). However, the favorable convergence properties typically…
Projected policy gradient under the simplex parameterization, policy gradient and natural policy gradient under the softmax parameterization, are fundamental algorithms in reinforcement learning. There have been a flurry of recent…
In this work, we propose Natural Hypergradient Descent (NHGD), a new method for solving bilevel optimization problems. To address the computational bottleneck in hypergradient estimation--namely, the need to compute or approximate Hessian…
The softmax policy gradient (PG) method, which performs gradient ascent under softmax policy parameterization, is arguably one of the de facto implementations of policy optimization in modern reinforcement learning. For $\gamma$-discounted…
In this paper, we study Newton-conjugate gradient (Newton-CG) methods for minimizing a nonconvex function $f$ whose Hessian is $(H_f,\nu)$-H\"older continuous with modulus $H_f>0$ and exponent $\nu\in(0,1]$. Recently proposed Newton-CG…
In a real Hilbert space setting, we study the convergence properties of an inexact gradient algorithm featuring both viscous and Hessian driven damping for convex differentiable optimization. In this algorithm, the gradient evaluation can…
We consider the problem of risk-sensitive control in a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. In particular, we aim to find a risk-optimal policy by maximizing the distortion riskmetric (DRM) of the discounted reward in a finite horizon…
Policy gradient methods have been frequently applied to problems in control and reinforcement learning with great success, yet existing convergence analysis still relies on non-intuitive, impractical and often opaque conditions. In…
Stable concurrent learning and control of dynamical systems is the subject of adaptive control. Despite being an established field with many practical applications and a rich theory, much of the development in adaptive control for nonlinear…
Policy gradient methods, where one searches for the policy of interest by maximizing the value functions using first-order information, become increasingly popular for sequential decision making in reinforcement learning, games, and…
We introduce the receding-horizon policy gradient (RHPG) algorithm, the first PG algorithm with provable global convergence in learning the optimal linear estimator designs, i.e., the Kalman filter (KF). Notably, the RHPG algorithm does not…
Parametric manifold optimization problems frequently arise in various machine learning tasks, where state functions are defined on infinite-dimensional manifolds. We propose a unified accelerated natural gradient descent (ANGD) framework to…
Policy optimization, which finds the desired policy by maximizing value functions via optimization techniques, lies at the heart of reinforcement learning (RL). In addition to value maximization, other practical considerations arise as…