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Differential dynamic programming (DDP) is a popular technique for solving nonlinear optimal control problems with locally quadratic approximations. However, existing DDP methods are not designed for stochastic systems with unknown…
We introduce an innovative numerical technique based on convex optimization to solve a range of infinite dimensional variational problems arising from the application of the background method to fluid flows. In contrast to most existing…
We study a first-order primal-dual subgradient method to optimize risk-constrained risk-penalized optimization problems, where risk is modeled via the popular conditional value at risk (CVaR) measure. The algorithm processes independent and…
Benders decomposition is one of the most applied methods to solve two-stage stochastic problems (TSSP) with a large number of scenarios. The main idea behind the Benders decomposition is to solve a large problem by replacing the values of…
In this paper, we revisit the multistage spectral risk minimization models proposed by Philpott et al.~\cite{PdF13} and Guigues and R\"omisch \cite{GuR12} but with some new focuses. We consider a situation where the decision maker's (DM's)…
Semidefinite programs (SDPs) and their solvers are powerful tools with many applications in machine learning and data science. Designing scalable SDP solvers is challenging because by standard the positive semidefinite decision variable is…
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…
Stochastic dual dynamic programming is a cutting plane type algorithm for multi-stage stochastic optimization originated about 30 years ago. In spite of its popularity in practice, there does not exist any analysis on the convergence rates…
We treat the problem of risk-aware control for stochastic shortest path (SSP) on Markov decision processes (MDP). Typically, expectation is considered for SSP, which however is oblivious to the incurred risk. We present an alternative view,…
This paper provides an overview, analysis, and comparison of second-order dynamic optimization algorithms, i.e., constrained Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP). Although a variety of these…
The multistage robust unit commitment (UC) is of paramount importance for achieving reliable operations considering the uncertainty of renewable realizations. The typical affine decision rule method and the robust feasible region method may…
This paper studies the optimization of Markov decision processes (MDPs) from a risk-seeking perspective, where the risk is measured by conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). The objective is to find a policy that maximizes the long-run CVaR of…
Sample average approximation--based stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and model predictive control (MPC) are two different methods for approaching multistage stochastic optimization. In this paper we investigate the conditions under…
We consider infinite-horizon Markov Decision Processes where parameters, such as transition probabilities, are unknown and estimated from data. The popular distributionally robust approach to addressing the parameter uncertainty can…
In this paper we provide faster algorithms for approximately solving discounted Markov Decision Processes in multiple parameter regimes. Given a discounted Markov Decision Process (DMDP) with $|S|$ states, $|A|$ actions, discount factor…
In this study, we consider two classes of multicriteria two-stage stochastic programs in finite probability spaces with multivariate risk constraints. The first-stage problem features a multivariate stochastic benchmarking constraint based…
The Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem models probabilistic sequential-decision problems where an agent must pursue a goal while minimizing a cost function. Because of the probabilistic dynamics, it is desired to have a cost function…
Planning in Markov decision processes (MDPs) typically optimises the expected cost. However, optimising the expectation does not consider the risk that for any given run of the MDP, the total cost received may be unacceptably high. An…
We define a regularized variant of the Dual Dynamic Programming algorithm called REDDP (REgularized Dual Dynamic Programming) to solve nonlinear dynamic programming equations. We extend the algorithm to solve nonlinear stochastic dynamic…
We present experimental work on a primal-dual framework simultaneously approximating maximum cut and weighted fractional cut-covering instances. In this primal-dual framework, we solve a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation to either…