English
Related papers

Related papers: Improving Reinforcement Learning Sample-Efficiency…

200 papers

In this paper, we consider reinforcement learning of Markov Decision Processes (MDP) with peak constraints, where an agent chooses a policy to optimize an objective and at the same time satisfy additional constraints. The agent has to take…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-09 Ather Gattami

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

We study the model-based reward-free reinforcement learning with linear function approximation for episodic Markov decision processes (MDPs). In this setting, the agent works in two phases. In the exploration phase, the agent interacts with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-01-03 Weitong Zhang , Dongruo Zhou , Quanquan Gu

Model Predictive Control (MPC) offers safe and near-optimal control but suffers from high computational costs. Approximate MPC (AMPC) mitigates this by learning a cheaper surrogate policy, typically by training a neural network on state-MPC…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-13 Elias Milios , Felix Berkel , Felix Gruber , Melanie N. Zeilinger , Kim P. Wabersich

In an episodic Markov Decision Process (MDP) problem, an online algorithm chooses from a set of actions in a sequence of $H$ trials, where $H$ is the episode length, in order to maximize the total payoff of the chosen actions. Q-learning,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-07-11 Xu Zhu

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

Leveraging an equivalence property in the state-space of a Markov Decision Process (MDP) has been investigated in several studies. This paper studies equivalence structure in the reinforcement learning (RL) setup, where transition…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-10-10 Mahsa Asadi , Mohammad Sadegh Talebi , Hippolyte Bourel , Odalric-Ambrym Maillard

Reinforcement learning (RL) in large environments often suffers from severe computational bottlenecks, as conventional regret minimization algorithms require repeated, costly calls to planning and statistical estimation oracles. While…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-04 Haichen Hu , Jian Qian , David Simchi-Levi

The reinforcement learning algorithms that focus on how to compute the gradient and choose next actions, are effectively improved the performance of the agents. However, these algorithms are environment-agnostic. This means that the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-28 Pouya Parsa , Raoof Zare Moayedi , Mohammad Bornosi , Mohammad Mahdi Bejani

We investigate the problems of model estimation and reward-free learning in episodic Block MDPs. In these MDPs, the decision maker has access to rich observations or contexts generated from a small number of latent states. We are first…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-02-27 Yassir Jedra , Junghyun Lee , Alexandre Proutière , Se-Young Yun

The sim-to-real gap, which represents the disparity between training and testing environments, poses a significant challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). A promising approach to addressing this challenge is distributionally robust RL,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-05 Miao Lu , Han Zhong , Tong Zhang , Jose Blanchet

The curse of dimensionality renders Reinforcement Learning (RL) impractical in many real-world settings with exponentially large state and action spaces. Yet, many environments exhibit exploitable structure that can accelerate learning. To…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-16 Thomas van Vuren , Fiona Sloothaak , Maarten G. Wolf , Jaron Sanders

Ensuring the robustness of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) agents against adversarial attacks is critical for their trustworthy deployment. Recent research highlights the challenges of achieving state-adversarial robustness and suggests…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-25 Haoran Li , Zicheng Zhang , Wang Luo , Congying Han , Jiayu Lv , Tiande Guo , Yudong Hu

Temporal-difference learning with gradient correction (TDC) is a two time-scale algorithm for policy evaluation in reinforcement learning. This algorithm was initially proposed with linear function approximation, and was later extended to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-29 Yue Wang , Shaofeng Zou , Yi Zhou

Partial observability is a common challenge in many reinforcement learning applications, which requires an agent to maintain memory, infer latent states, and integrate this past information into exploration. This challenge leads to a number…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-27 Chi Jin , Sham M. Kakade , Akshay Krishnamurthy , Qinghua Liu

We consider episodic reinforcement learning in reward-mixing Markov decision processes (RMMDPs): at the beginning of every episode nature randomly picks a latent reward model among $M$ candidates and an agent interacts with the MDP…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-07 Jeongyeol Kwon , Yonathan Efroni , Constantine Caramanis , Shie Mannor

In this paper, we consider the finite-state approximation of a discrete-time constrained Markov decision process (MDP) under the discounted and average cost criteria. Using the linear programming formulation of the constrained discounted…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-07-10 Naci Saldi

We introduce a novel approach to hierarchical reinforcement learning for Linearly-solvable Markov Decision Processes (LMDPs) in the infinite-horizon average-reward setting. Unlike previous work, our approach allows learning low-level and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-07-10 Guillermo Infante , Anders Jonsson , Vicenç Gómez

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

We present metrics for measuring the similarity of states in a finite Markov decision process (MDP). The formulation of our metrics is based on the notion of bisimulation for MDPs, with an aim towards solving discounted infinite horizon…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2012-07-19 Norman Ferns , Prakash Panangaden , Doina Precup