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We introduce learning and planning algorithms for average-reward MDPs, including 1) the first general proven-convergent off-policy model-free control algorithm without reference states, 2) the first proven-convergent off-policy model-free…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-06-29 Yi Wan , Abhishek Naik , Richard S. Sutton

We present a method for a certain class of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) that can relate the optimal policy back to one or more reward sources in the environment. For a given initial state, without fully computing the value function,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-06-12 Josh Bertram , Peng Wei

In this paper, we develop a method to automatically generate a control policy for a dynamical system modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP). The control specification is given as a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formula over a set of…

Robotics · Computer Science 2011-03-24 Xu Chu Ding , Stephen L. Smith , Calin Belta , Daniela Rus

We study the exploration problem with approximate linear action-value functions in episodic reinforcement learning under the notion of low inherent Bellman error, a condition normally employed to show convergence of approximate value…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-30 Andrea Zanette , Alessandro Lazaric , Mykel Kochenderfer , Emma Brunskill

We consider the problem of controlling a fully specified Markov decision process (MDP), also known as the planning problem, when the state space is very large and calculating the optimal policy is intractable. Instead, we pursue the more…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-01-09 Yasin Abbasi-Yadkori , Peter L. Bartlett , Xi Chen , Alan Malek

This paper is devoted to studying constrained continuous-time Markov decision processes (MDPs) in the class of randomized policies depending on state histories. The transition rates may be unbounded, the reward and costs are admitted to be…

Probability · Mathematics 2012-01-04 Xianping Guo , Xinyuan Song

Blackwell's approachability (Blackwell, 1954, 1956) is a very general online learning framework where a Decision Maker obtains vector-valued outcomes, and aims at the convergence of the average outcome to a given ``target'' set. Blackwell…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-08-26 Joon Kwon , Yijun Wan , Bruno Ziliotto

We study the convergence of Markov Decision Processes made of a large number of objects to optimization problems on ordinary differential equations (ODE). We show that the optimal reward of such a Markov Decision Process, satisfying a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2011-05-20 Nicolas Gast , Bruno Gaujal , Jean-Yves Le Boudec

We consider the problem of finding the best memoryless stochastic policy for an infinite-horizon partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) with finite state and action spaces with respect to either the discounted or mean reward…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-05-02 Johannes Müller , Guido Montúfar

Control policies, trained using the Deep Reinforcement Learning, have been recently shown to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks introducing even very small perturbations to the policy input. The attacks proposed so far have been designed…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-08-02 Alessio Russo , Alexandre Proutiere

We investigate the problem of synthesizing optimal control policies for Markov decision processes (MDPs) with both qualitative and quantitative objectives. Specifically, our goal is to achieve a given linear temporal logic (LTL) task with…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-04-08 Yu Chen , Shaoyuan Li , Xiang Yin

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are formal models commonly used in sequential decision-making. MDPs capture the stochasticity that may arise, for instance, from imprecise actuators via probabilities in the transition function. However, in…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-06-21 Marnix Suilen , Thiago D. Simão , David Parker , Nils Jansen

This note summarizes the optimization formulations used in the study of Markov decision processes. We consider both the discounted and undiscounted processes under the standard and the entropy-regularized settings. For each setting, we…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-12-18 Lexing Ying , Yuhua Zhu

Missions for autonomous systems often require agents to visit multiple targets in complex operating conditions. This work considers the problem of visiting a set of targets in minimum time by a team of non-communicating agents in a Markov…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-06-21 Farhad Nawaz , Melkior Ornik

Although in recent years reinforcement learning has become very popular the number of successful applications to different kinds of operations research problems is rather scarce. Reinforcement learning is based on the well-studied dynamic…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-04-03 Manuel Schneckenreither

We propose a principled kernel-based policy iteration algorithm to solve the continuous-state Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). In contrast to most decision-theoretic planning frameworks, which assume fully known state transition models, we…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-06-04 Junhong Xu , Kai Yin , Lantao Liu

Integrated task and motion planning has emerged as a challenging problem in sequential decision making, where a robot needs to compute high-level strategy and low-level motion plans for solving complex tasks. While high-level strategies…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2018-02-19 Siddharth Srivastava , Nishant Desai , Richard Freedman , Shlomo Zilberstein

Often one has a preference order among the different systems that satisfy a given specification. Under a probabilistic assumption about the possible inputs, such a preference order is naturally expressed by a weighted automaton, which…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2011-04-15 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Thomas A. Henzinger , Barbara Jobstmann , Rohit Singh

The goal of a traditional Markov decision process (MDP) is to maximize expected cumulative reward over a defined horizon (possibly infinite). In many applications, however, a decision maker may be interested in optimizing a specific…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-10-16 Xiaocheng Li , Huaiyang Zhong , Margaret L. Brandeau

N-discount optimality was introduced as a hierarchical form of policy- and value-function optimality, with Blackwell optimality lying at the top level of the hierarchy Veinott (1969); Blackwell (1962). We formalize notions of myopic…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-05-22 Nicholas Denis