Related papers: Approximation of Convex Envelope Using Reinforceme…
Reducing the amount of human supervision is a key problem in machine learning and a natural approach is that of exploiting the relations (structure) among different tasks. This is the idea at the core of multi-task learning. In this context…
We consider the problem of reinforcement learning when provided with (1) a baseline control policy and (2) a set of constraints that the learner must satisfy. The baseline policy can arise from demonstration data or a teacher agent and may…
This paper presents an interpretable reward design framework for reinforcement learning based constrained optimal control problems with state and terminal constraints. The problem is formalized within a standard partially observable Markov…
For solving large-scale non-convex problems, we propose inexact variants of trust region and adaptive cubic regularization methods, which, to increase efficiency, incorporate various approximations. In particular, in addition to approximate…
We consider Markov Decision Problems defined over continuous state and action spaces, where an autonomous agent seeks to learn a map from its states to actions so as to maximize its long-term discounted accumulation of rewards. We address…
A new approach to solving a large class of factorable nonlinear programming (NLP) problems to global optimality is presented in this paper. Unlike the traditional strategy of partitioning the decision-variable space employed in many…
We consider nonconvex obstacle avoidance where a robot described by nonlinear dynamics and a nonconvex shape has to avoid nonconvex obstacles. Obstacle avoidance is a fundamental problem in robotics and well studied in control. However,…
This manuscript surveys reinforcement learning from the perspective of optimization and control with a focus on continuous control applications. It surveys the general formulation, terminology, and typical experimental implementations of…
We consider the chance-constrained binary knapsack problem (CKP), where the item weights are independent and normally distributed. We introduce a continuous relaxation for the CKP, represented as a non-convex optimization problem, which we…
We study quasi-convex optimization problems, where only a subset of the constraints can be sampled, and yet one would like a probabilistic guarantee on the obtained solution with respect to the initial (unknown) optimization problem. Even…
We study the expressibility and learnability of convex optimization solution functions and their multi-layer architectural extension. The main results are: \emph{(1)} the class of solution functions of linear programming (LP) and quadratic…
The task of approximating an arbitrary convex function arises in several learning problems such as convex regression, learning with a difference of convex (DC) functions, and learning Bregman or $f$-divergences. In this paper, we develop…
We propose a stochastic approximation method for approximating the efficient frontier of chance-constrained nonlinear programs. Our approach is based on a bi-objective viewpoint of chance-constrained programs that seeks solutions on the…
This article investigates the numerical approximation of shape optimization problems with PDE constraint on classes of convex domains. The convexity constraint provides a compactness property which implies well posedness of the problem.…
Quadratically constrained quadratic programs (QCQPs) are ubiquitous in optimization: Such problems arise in applications from operations research, power systems, signal processing, chemical engineering, and portfolio theory, among others.…
We consider robust optimization problems, where the goal is to optimize in the worst case over a class of objective functions. We develop a reduction from robust improper optimization to Bayesian optimization: given an oracle that returns…
We consider the problem of Reinforcement Learning for nonlinear stochastic dynamical systems. We show that in the RL setting, there is an inherent ``Curse of Variance" in addition to Bellman's infamous ``Curse of Dimensionality", in…
Classical theory for quasi-Newton schemes has focused on smooth deterministic unconstrained optimization while recent forays into stochastic convex optimization have largely resided in smooth, unconstrained, and strongly convex regimes.…
To every nearly convex optimization problem, that is a minimization problem with a nearly convex objective function and a nearly convex constraint set, we associate a uniquely defined convex optimization problem with a lower semicontinuous…
This paper presents a Successive Convexification ($ \texttt{SCvx} $) algorithm to solve a class of non-convex optimal control problems with certain types of state constraints. Sources of non-convexity may include nonlinear dynamics and…