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We study the problem of reinforcement learning in infinite-horizon discounted linear Markov decision processes (MDPs), and propose the first computationally efficient algorithm achieving rate-optimal regret guarantees in this setting. Our…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-16 Antoine Moulin , Gergely Neu , Luca Viano

Robots often face challenges in domestic environments where visual feedback is ineffective, such as retrieving objects obstructed by occlusions or finding a light switch in the dark. In these cases, utilizing contacts to localize the target…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-09-30 Muhammad Suhail Saleem , Rishi Veerapaneni , Maxim Likhachev

We introduce and study constrained Markov Decision Processes (cMDPs) with anytime constraints. An anytime constraint requires the agent to never violate its budget at any point in time, almost surely. Although Markovian policies are no…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-14 Jeremy McMahan , Xiaojin Zhu

We study the problem of synthesizing a controller that maximizes the entropy of a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) subject to a constraint on the expected total reward. Such a controller minimizes the predictability of a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-09-16 Michael Hibbard , Yagiz Savas , Bo Wu , Takashi Tanaka , Ufuk Topcu

In most real-world reinforcement learning applications, state information is only partially observable, which breaks the Markov decision process assumption and leads to inferior performance for algorithms that conflate observations with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-12 Hongming Zhang , Tongzheng Ren , Chenjun Xiao , Dale Schuurmans , Bo Dai

Learning-based approaches to verifying unknown Markov decision processes (MDPs) often employ uncertain MDPs. These models use, for example, confidence intervals to capture transition uncertainty and allow synthesis of policies that are…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-05 Yannik Schnitzer , Alessandro Abate , David Parker

We consider the problem of designing policies for partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with dynamic coherent risk objectives. Synthesizing risk-averse optimal policies for POMDPs requires infinite memory and thus…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-09-30 Mohamadreza Ahmadi , Masahiro Ono , Michel D. Ingham , Richard M. Murray , Aaron D. Ames

We consider a dynamic programming (DP) approach to approximately solving an infinite-horizon constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) problem with a fixed initial-state for the expected total discounted-reward criterion with a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-08 Hyeong Soo Chang

We study the synthesis of a policy in a Markov decision process (MDP) following which an agent reaches a target state in the MDP while minimizing its total discounted cost. The problem combines a reachability criterion with a discounted…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-03-18 Yagiz Savas , Christos K. Verginis , Michael Hibbard , Ufuk Topcu

Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) have been used to formulate many decision-making problems in science and engineering. The objective is to synthesize the best decision (action selection) policies to maximize expected rewards (or minimize…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-07-07 Mahmoud El Chamie , Behcet Acikmese

The increasing use of autonomous robot systems in hazardous environments underscores the need for efficient search and rescue operations. Despite significant advancements, existing literature on object search often falls short in overcoming…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-04-08 Matthew Collins , Jared J. Beard , Nicholas Ohi , Yu Gu

We study the problem of learning optimal policies in finite-horizon Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) using low-rank reinforcement learning (RL) methods. In finite-horizon MDPs, the policies, and therefore the value functions (VFs) are not…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-14 Sergio Rozada , Jose Luis Orejuela , Antonio G. Marques

POMDPs are useful models for systems where the true underlying state is not known completely to an outside observer; the outside observer incompletely knows the true state of the system, and observes a noisy version of the true system…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-09-01 Caleb M. Bowyer

We study average-reward Markov decision processes (AMDPs) and develop novel first-order methods with strong theoretical guarantees for both policy optimization and policy evaluation. Compared with intensive research efforts in finite sample…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-01 Tianjiao Li , Feiyang Wu , Guanghui Lan

A popular perspective in Reinforcement learning (RL) casts the problem as probabilistic inference on a graphical model of the Markov decision process (MDP). The core object of study is the probability of each state-action pair being visited…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-23 Jean Tarbouriech , Tor Lattimore , Brendan O'Donoghue

We study the $(\varepsilon, \delta)$-PAC policy identification problem in finite-horizon episodic Markov Decision Processes. Existing approaches provide finite-time guarantees for approximate settings ($\varepsilon>0$) but suffer from high…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-06 Cyrille Kone , Kevin Jamieson

Planning under partial obervability is essential for autonomous robots. A principled way to address such planning problems is the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). Although solving POMDPs is computationally intractable,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-07-24 Marcus Hoerger , Hanna Kurniawati , Alberto Elfes

Online planning under uncertainty in partially observable domains is an essential capability in robotics and AI. The partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) is a mathematically principled framework for addressing…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-10-14 Da Kong , Vadim Indelman

Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) rely on the key assumption that probability distributions are precisely known. Robust POMDPs (RPOMDPs) alleviate this concern by defining imprecise probabilities, referred to as…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-07-30 Eline M. Bovy , Marnix Suilen , Sebastian Junges , Nils Jansen

In this work, we study the problem of actively classifying the attributes of dynamical systems characterized as a finite set of Markov decision process (MDP) models. We are interested in finding strategies that actively interact with the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-01-06 Bo Wu , Niklas Lauffer , Mohamadreza Ahmadi , Suda Bharadwaj , Zhe Xu , Ufuk Topcu