Related papers: Optimally Controlling a Random Population

In this paper, we present an original set of flocking rules using an ecologically-inspired paradigm for control of multi-robot systems. We translate these rules into a constraint-driven optimal control problem where the agents minimize…

This paper rigorously connects the problem of optimal control of McKean-Vlasov dynamics with large systems of interacting controlled state processes. Precisely, the empirical distributions of near-optimal control-state pairs for the…

We describe an algorithm to solve Bellman optimization that replaces a sum over paths determining the optimal cost-to-go by an analytic method localized in state space. Our approach follows from the established relation between stochastic…

This paper studies an optimal consensus problem for a group of heterogeneous high-order agents with unknown control directions. Compared with existing consensus results, the consensus point is further required to an optimal solution to some…

In this paper the connection between stochastic optimal control and reinforcement learning is investigated. Our main motivation is to apply importance sampling to sampling rare events which can be reformulated as an optimal control problem.…

Integrity of elections is vital to democratic systems, but it is frequently threatened by malicious actors. The study of algorithmic complexity of the problem of manipulating election outcomes by changing its structural features is known as…

In this paper, we consider a class of stochastic optimal control problems with risk constraints that are expressed as bounded probabilities of failure for particular initial states. We present here a martingale approach that diffuses a risk…

We will consider exact controllability of the distributed system governed by the wave equation with memory. It will be proved that this mechanical system can be driven to rest in finite time, the absolute value of the distributed control…

This paper focuses on a model for opinion dynamics, where the influence weights of agents evolve in time. We formulate a control problem of consensus type, in which the objective is to drive all agents to a final target point under suitable…

A Stochastic Control Problem can be solved by Dynamic Programming or Distributed Optimal Control with the Kolmogorov equation for the probability density of the Markov process of the problem. It can be solved also with Supervised Learning.…

In this paper we introduce the notion of optimization under control and communication constraint in a robotic network. Starting from a general setup, we focus our attention on the problem of achieving rendezvous in minimum time for a…

We study population protocols, a model of distributed computing appropriate for modeling well-mixed chemical reaction networks and other physical systems where agents exchange information in pairwise interactions, but have no control over…

In this paper, we consider an optimal control problem for a prescription opioid epidemic model that describes the interaction between the regular prescription or addictive use of opioid drugs, and the process of rehabilitation and that of…

We consider a system that is exactly controllable. For given initial state, terminal state and objective function, an optimal control is often well-defined. Such an optimal control has the disadvantage that although it works perfectly well…

This paper is concerned with impulse approximate controllability for stochastic evolution equations with impulse controls. As direct applications, we formulate captivating minimal norm and time optimal control problems; The minimal norm…

We study mean-field control problems in discrete-time under the infinite horizon average cost optimality criteria. We focus on both the finite population and the infinite population setups. We show the existence of a solution to the average…

This paper investigates the optimal harvesting strategy for a single species living in random environments whose growth is given by a regime-switching diffusion. Harvesting acts as a (stochastic) control on the size of the population. The…

In this paper, we formulate and solve a randomized optimal consensus problem for multi-agent systems with stochastically time-varying interconnection topology. The considered multi-agent system with a simple randomized iterating rule…

This paper considers an optimal impulse control problem of dynamical systems generated by a flow. The performance criteria are total costs over the infinite time horizon. Apart from the main performance to be minimized, there are multiple…

In this paper, we consider robust control using randomized algorithms. We extend the existing order statistics distribution theory to the general case in which the distribution of population is not assumed to be continuous and the order…