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Related papers: Planning and Learning in Average Risk-aware MDPs

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We develop a stochastic approximation-type algorithm to solve finite state/action, infinite-horizon, risk-aware Markov decision processes. Our algorithm has two loops. The inner loop computes the risk by solving a stochastic saddle-point…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-05 Wenjie Huang , William B. Haskell

The robust $\phi$-regularized Markov Decision Process (RRMDP) framework focuses on designing control policies that are robust against parameter uncertainties due to mismatches between the simulator (nominal) model and real-world settings.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-10 Kishan Panaganti , Adam Wierman , Eric Mazumdar

Decision-making under uncertainty is a crucial ability for autonomous systems. In its most general form, this problem can be formulated as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). The solution policy of a POMDP can be…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-04-09 Sung-Kyun Kim , Rohan Thakker , Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi

We extend the options framework for temporal abstraction in reinforcement learning from discounted Markov decision processes (MDPs) to average-reward MDPs. Our contributions include general convergent off-policy inter-option learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-27 Yi Wan , Abhishek Naik , Richard S. Sutton

In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning algorithm to solve a multi-agent Markov decision process (MMDP). The goal, inspired by Blackwell's Approachability Theorem, is to lower the time average cost of each agent to below a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-11-22 Keshav P. Keval , Vivek S. Borkar

In many sequential decision-making problems one is interested in minimizing an expected cumulative cost while taking into account \emph{risk}, i.e., increased awareness of events of small probability and high consequences. Accordingly, the…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2017-04-07 Yinlam Chow , Mohammad Ghavamzadeh , Lucas Janson , Marco Pavone

A risk-averse preview-based $Q$-learning planner is presented for navigation of autonomous vehicles. To this end, the multi-lane road ahead of a vehicle is represented by a finite-state non-stationary Markov decision process (MDP). A risk…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-10-19 Majid Mazouchi , Subramanya Nageshrao , Hamidreza Modares

Planning in Markov decision processes (MDPs) typically optimises the expected cost. However, optimising the expectation does not consider the risk that for any given run of the MDP, the total cost received may be unacceptably high. An…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-03-11 Marc Rigter , Paul Duckworth , Bruno Lacerda , Nick Hawes

To overcome the curse of dimensionality and curse of modeling in Dynamic Programming (DP) methods for solving classical Markov Decision Process (MDP) problems, Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms are popular. In this paper, we consider…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-11-29 Arghyadip Roy , Vivek Borkar , Abhay Karandikar , Prasanna Chaporkar

Model-free Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms such as Q-learning [Watkins, Dayan 92] have been widely used in practice and can achieve human level performance in applications such as video games [Mnih et al. 15]. Recently, equipped with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-05-03 Zhao Song , Wen Sun

We consider online reinforcement learning (RL) in episodic Markov decision processes (MDPs) under the linear $q^\pi$-realizability assumption, where it is assumed that the action-values of all policies can be expressed as linear functions…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-12-21 Gellért Weisz , András György , Csaba Szepesvári

We study reward-free reinforcement learning (RL) with linear function approximation, where the agent works in two phases: (1) in the exploration phase, the agent interacts with the environment but cannot access the reward; and (2) in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-15 Junkai Zhang , Weitong Zhang , Quanquan Gu

In this paper, we provide a novel algorithm for solving planning and learning problems of Markov decision processes. The proposed algorithm follows a policy iteration-type update by using a rank-one approximation of the transition…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-23 Arman Sharifi Kolarijani , Tolga Ok , Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani , Mohamad Amin Sharif Kolarijani

Planning plays an important role in the broad class of decision theory. Planning has drawn much attention in recent work in the robotics and sequential decision making areas. Recently, Reinforcement Learning (RL), as an agent-environment…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2016-08-18 Kamyar Azizzadenesheli , Alessandro Lazaric , Animashree Anandkumar

Designing efficient learning algorithms with complexity guarantees for Markov decision processes (MDPs) with large or continuous state and action spaces remains a fundamental challenge. We address this challenge for entropy-regularized MDPs…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-05 Matthieu Meunier , Christoph Reisinger , Yufei Zhang

We revisit the reduction of learning in adversarial Markov decision processes [MDPs] to adversarial learning based on $Q$--values; this reduction has been considered in a number of recent articles as one building block to perform policy…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-20 Matthieu Jonckheere , Chiara Mignacco , Gilles Stoltz

Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) aims to maximize the expected total reward, while the risk of uncertain outcomes needs to be controlled to ensure reliable performance in a risk-averse setting. In this paper, we consider the problem…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-18 Xian Yu , Siqian Shen

We develop several provably efficient model-free reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms for infinite-horizon average-reward Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). We consider both online setting and the setting with access to a simulator. In the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-06-29 Zihan Zhang , Qiaomin Xie

Designing sample-efficient and computationally feasible reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms is particularly challenging in environments with large or infinite state and action spaces. In this paper, we advance this effort by presenting…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-04 Zakaria Mhammedi

Model-free Reinforcement Learning (RL) works well when experience can be collected cheaply and model-based RL is effective when system dynamics can be modeled accurately. However, both assumptions can be violated in real world problems such…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-05-07 Mohak Bhardwaj , Ankur Handa , Dieter Fox , Byron Boots