Related papers: Constrained Stein Variational Trajectory Optimizat…
In this work, we consider constrained stochastic optimization problems under hidden convexity, i.e., those that admit a convex reformulation via non-linear (but invertible) map $c(\cdot)$. A number of non-convex problems ranging from…
Dynamic real-time optimization (DRTO) is a challenging task due to the fact that optimal operating conditions must be computed in real time. The main bottleneck in the industrial application of DRTO is the presence of uncertainty. Many…
Ensembles of deep neural networks have achieved great success recently, but they do not offer a proper Bayesian justification. Moreover, while they allow for averaging of predictions over several hypotheses, they do not provide any…
Stochastic non-convex non-concave optimization, formally characterized as Stochastic Variational Inequalities (SVIs), presents unique challenges due to rotational dynamics and the absence of a global merit function. While adaptive step-size…
Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD) is a non-parametric inference algorithm that evolves a set of particles to fit a given distribution of interest. We analyze the non-asymptotic properties of SVGD, showing that there exists a set of…
To be applicable to real world scenarios trajectory planning schemes for mobile autonomous systems must be able to efficiently deal with obstacles in the area of operation. In the context of optimization based trajectory planning and…
Motion planning is a key aspect of robotics. A common approach to address motion planning problems is trajectory optimization. Trajectory optimization can represent the high-level behaviors of robots through mathematical formulations.…
Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD) is a popular variational inference algorithm which simulates an interacting particle system to approximately sample from a target distribution, with impressive empirical performance across various…
Many practical applications of robotics require systems that can operate safely despite uncertainty. In the context of motion planning, two types of uncertainty are particularly important when planning safe robot trajectories. The first is…
We present a unified framework for solving trajectory optimization problems in a derivative-free manner through the use of sequential convex programming. Traditionally, nonconvex optimization problems are solved by forming and solving a…
The contribution of this paper is the application of compound state-triggered constraints (STCs) to real-time quad-rotor path planning. Originally developed for rocket landing applications, STCs are made up of a trigger condition and a…
Gradient-based trajectory optimization (GTO) has gained wide popularity for quadrotor trajectory replanning. However, it suffers from local minima, which is not only fatal to safety but also unfavorable for smooth navigation. In this paper,…
Improving sample efficiency has been a longstanding goal in reinforcement learning. This paper proposes $\mathtt{VRMPO}$ algorithm: a sample efficient policy gradient method with stochastic mirror descent. In $\mathtt{VRMPO}$, a novel…
In this paper, we propose a unified view of gradient-based algorithms for stochastic convex composite optimization by extending the concept of estimate sequence introduced by Nesterov. More precisely, we interpret a large class of…
Bayesian computation plays an important role in modern machine learning and statistics to reason about uncertainty. A key computational challenge in Bayesian inference is to develop efficient techniques to approximate, or draw samples from…
Combinatorial optimization problems are ubiquitous in industry. In addition to finding a solution with minimum cost, problems of high relevance involve a number of constraints that the solution must satisfy. Variational quantum algorithms…
We consider Constrained Online Convex Optimization (COCO) with adversarially chosen constraints. At each round, the learner chooses an action before observing the loss and constraint function for that round. The goal is to achieve small…
We consider convex-concave saddle-point problems where the objective functions may be split in many components, and extend recent stochastic variance reduction methods (such as SVRG or SAGA) to provide the first large-scale linearly…
This article develops a new algorithm named TTRISK to solve high-dimensional risk-averse optimization problems governed by differential equations (ODEs and/or PDEs) under uncertainty. As an example, we focus on the so-called Conditional…
In this article, we introduce a novel type of spatio-temporal sequential patterns called Constricted Spatio-Temporal Sequential (CSTS) patterns and thoroughly analyze their properties. We demonstrate that the set of CSTS patterns is a…