Related papers: Efficient Constraint Generation for Stochastic Sho…

We study the problem of learning in the stochastic shortest path (SSP) setting, where an agent seeks to minimize the expected cost accumulated before reaching a goal state. We design a novel model-based algorithm EB-SSP that carefully skews…

Goal-oriented Reinforcement Learning, where the agent needs to reach the goal state while simultaneously minimizing the cost, has received significant attention in real-world applications. Its theoretical formulation, stochastic shortest…

In this paper, we study the single-source shortest-path (SSSP) problem with positive edge weights, which is a notoriously hard problem in the parallel context. In practice, the $\Delta$-stepping algorithm proposed by Meyer and Sanders has…

We developed a corporative stochastic approximation (CSA) type algorithm for semi-infinite programming (SIP), where the cut generation problem is solved inexactly. First, we provide general error bounds for inexact CSA. Then, we propose two…

We study reinforcement learning in stochastic path (SP) problems. The goal in these problems is to maximize the expected sum of rewards until the agent reaches a terminal state. We provide the first regret guarantees in this general problem…

In this paper we propose two algorithms in the tabular setting and an algorithm for the function approximation setting for the Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem. SSP problems form an important class of problems in Reinforcement…

Policy optimization is among the most popular and successful reinforcement learning algorithms, and there is increasing interest in understanding its theoretical guarantees. In this work, we initiate the study of policy optimization for the…

The search for the optimal pair of active and protection paths in a network with Shared Risk Link Groups (SRLG) is a challenging but high-value problem in the industry that is inevitable in ensuring reliable connections on the modern…

We study the stochastic shortest path (SSP) problem in reinforcement learning with linear function approximation, where the transition kernel is represented as a linear mixture of unknown models. We call this class of SSP problems as linear…

We consider the motion-planning problem of planning a collision-free path of a robot in the presence of risk zones. The robot is allowed to travel in these zones but is penalized in a super-linear fashion for consecutive accumulative time…

We study the Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem with a linear mixture transition kernel, where an agent repeatedly interacts with a stochastic environment and seeks to reach certain goal state while minimizing the cumulative cost.…

Single Source Shortest Paths ($\textrm{SSSP}$) is among the most well-studied problems in computer science. In the incremental (resp. decremental) setting, the goal is to maintain distances from a fixed source in a graph undergoing edge…

We consider three shortest path problems in directed graphs with random arc lengths. For the first and the second problems, a risk measure is involved. While the first problem consists in finding a path minimizing this risk measure, the…

We introduce a stochastic version of the cutting-plane method for a large class of data-driven Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Optimization (MINLO) problems. We show that under very weak assumptions the stochastic algorithm is able to converge to…

We propose the k-Shortest-Path (k-SP) constraint: a novel constraint on the agent's trajectory that improves the sample efficiency in sparse-reward MDPs. We show that any optimal policy necessarily satisfies the k-SP constraint. Notably,…

We consider stochastic shortest path problems with infinite state and control spaces, a nonnegative cost per stage, and a termination state. We extend the notion of a proper policy, a policy that terminates within a finite expected number…

The Restricted Shortest Path (RSP) problem, also known as the Delay-Constrained Least-Cost (DCLC) problem, is an NP-hard bicriteria optimization problem on graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. In a graph where each edge is assigned a…

Stochastic trajectory optimization methods like STOMP enable planning with non-differentiable costs, offering substantial flexibility over gradient-based approaches. We show that STOMP implicitly minimizes the KL divergence from a Boltzmann…

The Constraint Shortest Path (CSP) problem is as follows. An $n$-vertex graph is given, each edge/arc assigned two weights. Let us call them "cost" and "length" for definiteness. Finding a min-cost upper-bounded length path between a given…

The Shortest-Path Problem in Graph of Convex Sets (SPP in GCS) is a recently developed optimization framework that blends discrete and continuous decision making. Many relevant problems in robotics, such as collision-free motion planning,…