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Robust Markov Decision Processes (RMDPs) are a widely used framework for sequential decision-making under parameter uncertainty. RMDPs have been extensively studied when the objective is to maximize the discounted return, but little is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-15 Julien Grand-Clément , Marek Petrik , Nicolas Vieille

Policy Iteration (PI) is a widely used family of algorithms to compute optimal policies for Markov Decision Problems (MDPs). We derive upper bounds on the running time of PI on Deterministic MDPs (DMDPs): the class of MDPs in which every…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2023-10-10 Ritesh Goenka , Eashan Gupta , Sushil Khyalia , Pratyush Agarwal , Mulinti Shaik Wajid , Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan

Robust Markov decision processes (MDPs) aim to handle changing or partially known system dynamics. To solve them, one typically resorts to robust optimization methods. However, this significantly increases computational complexity and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-14 Esther Derman , Yevgeniy Men , Matthieu Geist , Shie Mannor

We study value-iteration (VI) algorithms for solving general (a.k.a. multichain) Markov decision processes (MDPs) under the average-reward criterion, a fundamental but theoretically challenging setting. Beyond the difficulties inherent to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-23 Matthew Zurek , Yudong Chen

We study reinforcement learning (RL) with linear function approximation in Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) satisfying \emph{linear Bellman completeness} -- a fundamental setting where the Bellman backup of any linear value function remains…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Zakaria Mhammedi , Alexander Rakhlin , Nneka Okolo

Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are standard models for dynamic systems with probabilistic and nondeterministic behaviour in uncertain environments. We prove that in POMDPs with long-run average objective, the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-09-29 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Raimundo Saona , Bruno Ziliotto

We study a class of infinite-horizon average-cost Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) whose reward and transition structures are nearly separable. For the totally separable baseline (that is, with no perturbation), we derive an explicit…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-28 Dhairya Kantawala

We consider non-standard Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) where the target function is not only a simple expectation of the accumulated reward. Instead, we consider rather general functionals of the joint distribution of terminal state and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-16 Nicole Bäuerle , Tamara Göll , Anna Jaśkiewicz

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are widely used for modeling decision-making problems in robotics, automated control, and economics. Traditional MDPs assume that the decision maker (DM) knows all states and actions. However, this may not…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2014-07-29 Joseph Y. Halpern , Nan Rong , Ashutosh Saxena

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are widely used for modeling decision-making problems in robotics, automated control, and economics. Traditional MDPs assume that the decision maker (DM) knows all states and actions. However, this may not…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2010-06-14 Joseph Y. Halpern , Nan Rong , Ashutosh Saxena

Robust Markov decision processes (MDPs) provide a general framework to model decision problems where the system dynamics are changing or only partially known. Efficient methods for some \texttt{sa}-rectangular robust MDPs exist, using its…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-10-06 Navdeep Kumar , Kfir Levy , Kaixin Wang , Shie Mannor

This paper analyzes the stability of optimal policies in the long-run stochastic control framework with an averaged risk-sensitive criterion for discrete-time MDPs on finite state-action space. In particular, we study the robustness of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-23 Nicole Bäuerle , Marcin Pitera , Łukasz Stettner

We study infinite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDPs) where the decision maker evaluates each of her strategies by aggregating the infinite stream of expected stage-rewards. The crucial feature of our approach is that the aggregation…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-05 János Flesch , Arkadi Predtetchinski , William D Sudderth , Xavier Venel

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

We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multiple limit-average (or mean-payoff) objectives. There exist two different views: (i) the expectation semantics, where the goal is to optimize the expected mean-payoff objective, and (ii)…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2019-03-14 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Zuzana Křetínská , Jan Křetínský

In this review/tutorial article, we present recent progress on optimal control of partially observed Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs). We first present regularity and continuity conditions for POMDPs and their belief-MDP reductions, where…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-03 Ali Devran Kara , Serdar Yuksel

This paper studies discrete-time average-cost infinite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDPs) with Borel state and action sets. It introduces new sufficient conditions for { the} validity of optimality inequalities and optimality…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-28 Eugene A. Feinberg , Pavlo O. Kasyanov , Liliia S. Paliichuk

The Markov Decision Process (MDP) is a popular framework for sequential decision-making problems, and uncertainty quantification is an essential component of it to learn optimal decision-making strategies. In particular, a Bayesian…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-05-06 Jiaqi Guo , Chon Wai Ho , Sumeetpal S. Singh

We study the problem of synthesizing a policy that maximizes the entropy of a Markov decision process (MDP) subject to a temporal logic constraint. Such a policy minimizes the predictability of the paths it generates, or dually, maximizes…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-06-17 Yagiz Savas , Melkior Ornik , Murat Cubuktepe , Mustafa O. Karabag , Ufuk Topcu

We study Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multiple limit-average (or mean-payoff) functions. We consider two different objectives, namely, expectation and satisfaction objectives. Given an MDP with k limit-average functions, in the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-07-01 Tomáš Brázdil , Václav Brožek , Krishnendu Chatterjee , Vojtěch Forejt , Antonín Kučera