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This work focuses on off-policy evaluation (OPE) with function approximation in infinite-horizon undiscounted Markov decision processes (MDPs). For MDPs that are ergodic and linear (i.e. where rewards and dynamics are linear in some known…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-24 Nevena Lazic , Dong Yin , Mehrdad Farajtabar , Nir Levine , Dilan Gorur , Chris Harris , Dale Schuurmans

In reinforcement learning, an agent attempts to learn high-performing behaviors through interacting with the environment, such behaviors are often quantified in the form of a reward function. However some aspects of behavior-such as ones…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-27 Yiming Zhang , Quan Vuong , Keith W. Ross

We consider risk-sensitive Markov decision processes (MDPs), where the MDP model is influenced by a parameter which takes values in a compact metric space. We identify sufficient conditions under which small perturbations in the model…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-09-28 Shiping Shao , Abhishek Gupta , William B. Haskell

In this paper, we consider risk-sensitive Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with Borel state and action spaces and unbounded cost under both finite and infinite planning horizons. Our optimality criterion is based on the recursive…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-16 Nicole Bäuerle , Alexander Glauner

Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) provides a rational and sound framework for finding the optimal design while taking uncertainties into ac-count. The main issue in implementing RBDO methods, particularly stochastic simu-lation…

Applications · Statistics 2020-03-03 Wang-Sheng Liu , Sai Hung Cheung

We study sequential decision making in environments where rewards are only partially observed, but can be modeled as a function of observed contexts and the chosen action by the decision maker. This setting, known as contextual bandits,…

Methodology · Statistics 2015-03-11 Miroslav Dudík , Dumitru Erhan , John Langford , Lihong Li

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are formal models commonly used in sequential decision-making. MDPs capture the stochasticity that may arise, for instance, from imprecise actuators via probabilities in the transition function. However, in…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-06-21 Marnix Suilen , Thiago D. Simão , David Parker , Nils Jansen

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…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-02-01 Navdeep Kumar , Kfir Levy , Kaixin Wang , Shie Mannor

While the classic off-policy evaluation (OPE) literature commonly assumes decision time points to be evenly spaced for simplicity, in many real-world scenarios, such as those involving user-initiated visits, decisions are made at…

Methodology · Statistics 2024-09-17 Xin Chen , Wenbin Lu , Shu Yang , Dipankar Bandyopadhyay

We present a systematic introduction to first-order optimality conditions for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPECs), emphasizing the limitations of classical nonlinear programming techniques. The goal is twofold. First,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-04 Louis Shuo Wang

In many practical settings control decisions must be made under partial/imperfect information about the evolution of a relevant state variable. Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) is a relatively well-developed framework…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-12-30 Yanling Chang , Alfredo Garcia , Zhide Wang , Lu Sun

We exploit analogies between first-order algorithms for constrained optimization and non-smooth dynamical systems to design a new class of accelerated first-order algorithms for constrained optimization. Unlike Frank-Wolfe or projected…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-05-02 Michael Muehlebach , Michael I. Jordan

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…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-12-18 Fei Wu , Erik Demeulemeester , Jannik Matuschke

We study computationally and statistically efficient reinforcement learning under the linear $Q^{\pi}$ realizability assumption, where any policy's $Q$-function is linear in a given state-action feature representation. Prior methods in this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Yijing Ke , Zihan Zhang , Ruosong Wang

Markov decision processes (MDPs) is viewed as an optimization of an objective function over certain linear operators over general function spaces. A new existence result is established for the existence of optimal policies in general MDPs,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-01 Abhishek Gupta , Aditya Mahajan

Uncertain partially observable Markov decision processes (uPOMDPs) allow the probabilistic transition and observation functions of standard POMDPs to belong to a so-called uncertainty set. Such uncertainty, referred to as epistemic…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-11-02 Murat Cubuktepe , Nils Jansen , Sebastian Junges , Ahmadreza Marandi , Marnix Suilen , Ufuk Topcu

Long-term fairness is an important factor of consideration in designing and deploying learning-based decision systems in high-stake decision-making contexts. Recent work has proposed the use of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to formulate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-25 Eric Yang Yu , Zhizhen Qin , Min Kyung Lee , Sicun Gao

In this work, we propose an efficient implementation of mixtures of experts distributional regression models which exploits robust estimation by using stochastic first-order optimization techniques with adaptive learning rate schedulers. We…

Computation · Statistics 2026-03-23 David Rügamer , Florian Pfisterer , Bernd Bischl , Bettina Grün

We study the optimization of the expected long-term reward in finite partially observable Markov decision processes over the set of stationary stochastic policies. In the case of deterministic observations, also known as state aggregation,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-11-18 Mareike Dressler , Marina Garrote-López , Guido Montúfar , Johannes Müller , Kemal Rose

In this paper, we study planning in stochastic systems, modeled as Markov decision processes (MDPs), with preferences over temporally extended goals. Prior work on temporal planning with preferences assumes that the user preferences form a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-03-09 Hazhar Rahmani , Abhishek N. Kulkarni , Jie Fu