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Reinforcement learning (RL) has achieved remarkable success in a wide range of sequential decision-making problems. Recent diffusion-based policies further improve RL by modeling complex, high-dimensional action distributions. However,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-11 Xiaofeng Xiao , Xiao Hu , Yang Ye , Xubo Yue

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is a very active research area. However, several technical and scientific issues require to be addressed, amongst which we can mention data inefficiency, exploration-exploitation trade-off, and multi-task…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-24 Mohammad Reza Samsami , Hossein Alimadad

Sample inefficiency is a long-lasting problem in reinforcement learning (RL). The state-of-the-art estimates the optimal action values while it usually involves an extensive search over the state-action space and unstable optimization.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-11-27 Kaixiang Lin , Jiayu Zhou

We describe a new approach for managing aleatoric uncertainty in the Reinforcement Learning (RL) paradigm. Instead of selecting actions according to a single statistic, we propose a distributional method based on the second-order stochastic…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-08 John D. Martin , Michal Lyskawinski , Xiaohu Li , Brendan Englot

Lexicographic multi-objective problems, which consist of multiple conflicting subtasks with explicit priorities, are common in real-world applications. Despite the advantages of Reinforcement Learning (RL) in single tasks, extending…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-12 Ruiyu Qiu , Rui Wang , Guanghui Yang , Xiang Li , Zhijiang Shao

This work introduces a toolchain for applying Reinforcement Learning (RL), specifically the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm, in safety-critical real-world environments. As an exemplary application, transient load control…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-25 Julian Bedei , Lucas Koch , Kevin Badalian , Alexander Winkler , Patrick Schaber , Jakob Andert

We study the estimation of risk-sensitive policies in reinforcement learning problems defined by a Markov Decision Process (MDPs) whose state and action spaces are countably finite. Prior efforts are predominately afflicted by computational…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-03-02 Junyu Zhang , Amrit Singh Bedi , Mengdi Wang , Alec Koppel

One typical assumption in inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) is that human experts act to optimize the expected utility of a stochastic cost with a fixed distribution. This assumption deviates from actual human behaviors under ambiguity.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-09-25 Rui Chen , Wenshuo Wang , Zirui Zhao , Ding Zhao

In order to model risk aversion in reinforcement learning, an emerging line of research adapts familiar algorithms to optimize coherent risk functionals, a class that includes conditional value-at-risk (CVaR). Because optimizing the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-03-09 Audrey Huang , Liu Leqi , Zachary C. Lipton , Kamyar Azizzadenesheli

We propose a novel framework for risk-sensitive reinforcement learning (RSRL) that incorporates robustness against transition uncertainty. We define two distinct yet coupled risk measures: an inner risk measure addressing state and cost…

Risk Management · Quantitative Finance 2026-01-01 Shanyu Han , Yangbo He , Yang Liu

We present a two-step hybrid reinforcement learning (RL) policy that is designed to generate interpretable and robust hierarchical policies on the RL problem with graph-based input. Unlike prior deep reinforcement learning policies…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-20 Tongzhou Mu , Kaixiang Lin , Feiyang Niu , Govind Thattai

Hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) learns to make decisions on multiple levels of temporal abstraction. A key challenge in HRL is that the low-level policy changes over time, making it difficult for the high-level policy to generate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-29 Vivienne Huiling Wang , Tinghuai Wang , Joni Pajarinen

In this work, we address the problem of determining reliable policies in reinforcement learning (RL), with a focus on optimization under uncertainty and the need for performance guarantees. While classical RL algorithms aim at maximizing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-22 Nadir Farhi

We derive a policy gradient theorem for Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) objectives in finite-horizon Reinforcement Learning (RL), generalizing the standard policy gradient theorem and encompassing distortion-based risk objectives as…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-18 Olivier Lepel , Anas Barakat

Distributionally robust offline reinforcement learning (RL) aims to find a policy that performs the best under the worst environment within an uncertainty set using an offline dataset collected from a nominal model. While recent advances in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-07 Ruiquan Huang , Yingbin Liang , Jing Yang

Policy gradient methods are among the most effective methods for large-scale reinforcement learning, and their empirical success has prompted several works that develop the foundation of their global convergence theory. However, prior works…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-12-25 Junzi Zhang , Jongho Kim , Brendan O'Donoghue , Stephen Boyd

Research in quantitative finance has demonstrated that reinforcement learning (RL) methods have delivered promising outcomes in the context of hedging financial portfolios. For example, hedging a portfolio of European options using RL…

Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science · Computer Science 2024-07-16 Anil Sharma , Freeman Chen , Jaesun Noh , Julio DeJesus , Mario Schlener

We investigate reinforcement learning (RL) in the presence of distributional mismatch between training and deployment, where policies trained in simulators often underperform in practice due to mismatches between training and deployment…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-12 Debamita Ghosh , George K. Atia , Yue Wang

Risk-sensitive reinforcement learning (RL) has garnered significant attention in recent years due to the growing interest in deploying RL agents in real-world scenarios. A critical aspect of risk awareness involves modeling highly rare risk…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-30 Karthik Somayaji NS , Yu Wang , Malachi Schram , Jan Drgona , Mahantesh Halappanavar , Frank Liu , Peng Li

This paper targets the efficient construction of a safety shield for decision making in scenarios that incorporate uncertainty. Markov decision processes (MDPs) are prominent models to capture such planning problems. Reinforcement learning…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-11-26 Nils Jansen , Bettina Könighofer , Sebastian Junges , Alexandru C. Serban , Roderick Bloem