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We propose a novel reformulation of the stochastic optimal control problem as an approximate inference problem, demonstrating, that such a interpretation leads to new practical methods for the original problem. In particular we characterise…
The Shortest-Path Problem in Graph of Convex Sets (SPP in GCS) is a recently developed optimization framework that blends discrete and continuous decision making. Many relevant problems in robotics, such as collision-free motion planning,…
Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) consist of a set of variables taking values from some finite domain and a set of local constraints on these variables. The objective is to find an assignment to the variables that maximizes the…
Safe exploration is a key to applying reinforcement learning (RL) in safety-critical systems. Existing safe exploration methods guaranteed safety under the assumption of regularity, and it has been difficult to apply them to large-scale…
Improving sample efficiency is central to Reinforcement Learning (RL), especially in environments where the rewards are sparse. Some recent approaches have proposed to specify reward functions as manually designed or learned reward…
The Resource Constrained Shortest Path Problem (RCSPP) is a fundamental combinatorial optimisation problem in which the goal is to find a least-cost path in a directed graph subject to one or more resource constraints. In this paper we…
We study the Stochastic Shortest Path (SSP) problem for autonomous systems with mixed max-sum cost aggregations under Linear Temporal Logic constraints. Classical SSP formulations rely on sum-aggregated costs, which are suitable for…
The Stochastic Sequential Threshold Assignment Problem (SSTAP) addresses the optimal assignment of arriving tasks (jobs) to available resources (workers) to maximize a reward function which consists of indicator functions that incorporate…
In many real-world applications, reinforcement learning (RL) agents might have to solve multiple tasks, each one typically modeled via a reward function. If reward functions are expressed linearly, and the agent has previously learned a set…
This article presents a short and concise description of stochastic approximation algorithms in reinforcement learning of Markov decision processes. The algorithms can also be used as a suboptimal method for partially observed Markov…
In standard reinforcement learning (RL), a learning agent seeks to optimize the overall reward. However, many key aspects of a desired behavior are more naturally expressed as constraints. For instance, the designer may want to limit the…
The Shortest Paths Problem (SPP) is no longer unresolved. Just for a large scalar of instance on this problem, even we cannot know if an algorithm achieves the computing. Those cutting-edge methods are still in the low performance. If we go…
This paper considers stochastic optimization problems whose objective functions involve powers of random variables. For example, consider the classic Stochastic lp Load Balancing Problem (SLBp): There are $m$ machines and $n$ jobs, and…
Modern Reinforcement Learning (RL) is commonly applied to practical problems with an enormous number of states, where function approximation must be deployed to approximate either the value function or the policy. The introduction of…
Despite impressive results, reinforcement learning (RL) suffers from slow convergence and requires a large variety of tuning strategies. In this paper, we investigate the ability of RL algorithms on simple continuous control tasks. We show…
The stochastic three points (STP) algorithm is a derivative-free optimization technique designed for unconstrained optimization problems in $\mathbb{R}^d$. In this paper, we analyze this algorithm for three classes of functions: smooth…
A very popular approach for solving stochastic optimization problems is the stochastic gradient descent method (SGD). Although the SGD iteration is computationally cheap and the practical performance of this method may be satisfactory under…
The purpose of this work is to introduce and characterize the Bounded Acceleration Shortest Path (BASP) problem, a generalization of the Shortest Path (SP) problem. This problem is associated to a graph: the nodes represent positions of a…
Stochastic versions of proximal methods have gained much attention in statistics and machine learning. These algorithms tend to admit simple, scalable forms, and enjoy numerical stability via implicit updates. In this work, we propose and…
Two-timescale Stochastic Approximation (SA) algorithms are widely used in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Their iterates have two parts that are updated using distinct stepsizes. In this work, we develop a novel recipe for their finite sample…