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Robust Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a powerful framework for modeling sequential decision-making problems with model uncertainty. This paper proposes the first first-order framework for solving robust MDPs. Our algorithm interleaves…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-01-18 Julien Grand-Clément , Christian Kroer

We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) which are a standard model for probabilistic systems. We focus on qualitative properties for MDPs that can express that desired behaviors of the system arise almost-surely (with probability 1) or…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2014-05-06 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Martin Chmelik , Przemyslaw Daca

This paper deals with control of partially observable discrete-time stochastic systems. It introduces and studies Markov Decision Processes with Incomplete Information and with semi-uniform Feller transition probabilities. The important…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-08-30 Eugene A. Feinberg , Pavlo O. Kasyanov , Michael Z. Zgurovsky

This paper investigates model robustness in reinforcement learning (RL) to reduce the sim-to-real gap in practice. We adopt the framework of distributionally robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs), aimed at learning a policy that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-09 Laixi Shi , Gen Li , Yuting Wei , Yuxin Chen , Matthieu Geist , Yuejie Chi

This paper considers robust Markov decision processes under parametric transition distributions. We assume that the true transition distribution is uniquely specified by some parametric distribution, and explicitly enforce that the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-11-24 Ben Black , Trivikram Dokka , Christopher Kirkbride

We propose policy gradient algorithms for robust infinite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDPs) with non-rectangular uncertainty sets, thereby addressing an open challenge in the robust MDP literature. Indeed, uncertainty sets that…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-30 Mengmeng Li , Daniel Kuhn , Tobias Sutter

We present a general framework for applying learning algorithms and heuristical guidance to the verification of Markov decision processes (MDPs). The primary goal of our techniques is to improve performance by avoiding an exhaustive…

We present a novel $Q$-learning algorithm tailored to solve distributionally robust Markov decision problems where the corresponding ambiguity set of transition probabilities for the underlying Markov decision process is a Wasserstein ball…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-21 Ariel Neufeld , Julian Sester

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is a powerful tool for decision making under uncertainty. It is particularly appealing because of its ability to leverage existing data. However, many practical problems call for decision-making…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-04-04 Yuxiao Chen , Jip Kim , James Anderson

Advances in mobile computing technologies have made it possible to monitor and apply data-driven interventions across complex systems in real time. Markov decision processes (MDPs) are the primary model for sequential decision problems with…

Methodology · Statistics 2018-03-20 Longshaokan Wang , Eric B. Laber , Katie Witkiewitz

We introduce Multi-Environment Markov Decision Processes (MEMDPs) which are MDPs with a set of probabilistic transition functions. The goal in a MEMDP is to synthesize a single controller with guaranteed performances against all…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2014-12-04 Jean-François Raskin , Ocan Sankur

The paper studies an improved estimate for the rate of convergence for nonlinear homogeneous discrete-time Markov chains. These processes are nonlinear in terms of the distribution law. Hence, the transition kernels are dependent on the…

Probability · Mathematics 2021-05-21 Aleksandr Shchegolev

This article presents the complexity of reachability decision problems for parametric Markov decision processes (pMDPs), an extension to Markov decision processes (MDPs) where transitions probabilities are described by polynomials over a…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2020-09-29 Sebastian Junges , Joost-Pieter Katoen , Guillermo A. Pérez , Tobias Winkler

Markov decision problems (MDPs) provide the foundations for a number of problems of interest to AI researchers studying automated planning and reinforcement learning. In this paper, we summarize results regarding the complexity of solving…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-02-21 Michael L. Littman , Thomas L. Dean , Leslie Pack Kaelbling

In this paper we model basketball plays as episodes from team-specific non-stationary Markov decision processes (MDPs) with shot clock dependent transition probabilities. Bayesian hierarchical models are employed in the modeling and…

Applications · Statistics 2021-04-19 Nathan Sandholtz , Luke Bornn

Robust Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) address environmental shift through distributionally robust optimization (DRO) by finding an optimal worst-case policy within an uncertainty set of transition kernels. However, standard DRO approaches…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-10 Akram S. Awad , Shihab Ahmed , Yue Wang , George K. Atia

Robust and distributionally robust optimization are modeling paradigms for decision-making under uncertainty where the uncertain parameters are only known to reside in an uncertainty set or are governed by any probability distribution from…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-07-21 Jianzhe Zhen , Daniel Kuhn , Wolfram Wiesemann

We consider a distributionally robust Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (DR-POMDP), where the distribution of the transition-observation probabilities is unknown at the beginning of each decision period, but their realizations…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-12-09 Hideaki Nakao , Ruiwei Jiang , Siqian Shen

Safety is an essential requirement for reinforcement learning systems. The newly emerging framework of robust constrained Markov decision processes allows learning policies that satisfy long-term constraints while providing guarantees under…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-19 David M. Bossens , Atsushi Nitanda

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