Related papers: Heuristics for Combinatorial Optimization via Valu…

This paper describes a purely data-driven solution to a class of sequential decision-making problems with a large number of concurrent online decisions, with applications to computing systems and operations research. We assume that while…

Finding a feasible and prompt solution to the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a prerequisite for efficient freight transportation, seamless logistics, and sustainable mobility. Traditional optimization methods reach their limits when…

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a fundamental framework for sequential decision-making, in which an agent learns an optimal policy through interactions with an unknown environment. In settings with function approximation, many existing RL…

Model-based Reinforcement Learning (MBRL) is a promising framework for learning control in a data-efficient manner. MBRL algorithms can be fairly complex due to the separate dynamics modeling and the subsequent planning algorithm, and as a…

We report a novel, computationally efficient approach for solving hard nonlinear problems of reinforcement learning (RL). Here we combine umbrella sampling, from computational physics/chemistry, with optimal control methods. The approach is…

Optimal decision making with limited or no information in stochastic environments where multiple agents interact is a challenging topic in the realm of artificial intelligence. Reinforcement learning (RL) is a popular approach for arriving…

In recent years, reinforcement learning has achieved many remarkable successes due to the growing adoption of deep learning techniques and the rapid growth in computing power. Nevertheless, it is well-known that flat reinforcement learning…

Training a deep neural network to maximize a target objective has become the standard recipe for successful machine learning over the last decade. These networks can be optimized with supervised learning, if the target objective is…

Visual Odometry (VO) is essential to downstream mobile robotics and augmented/virtual reality tasks. Despite recent advances, existing VO methods still rely on heuristic design choices that require several weeks of hyperparameter tuning by…

Solving combinatorial optimization (CO) on graphs is among the fundamental tasks for upper-stream applications in data mining, machine learning and operations research. Despite the inherent NP-hard challenge for CO, heuristics,…

We study constrained reinforcement learning (CRL) from a novel perspective by setting constraints directly on state density functions, rather than the value functions considered by previous works. State density has a clear physical and…

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…

Combinatorial optimization (CO) is the fundamental problem at the intersection of computer science, applied mathematics, etc. The inherent hardness in CO problems brings up challenge for solving CO exactly, making deep-neural-network-based…

Recent studies in using deep learning to solve routing problems focus on construction heuristics, the solutions of which are still far from optimality. Improvement heuristics have great potential to narrow this gap by iteratively refining a…

Large language models (LLMs) have recently advanced automatic heuristic design (AHD) for combinatorial optimization (CO), where candidate heuristics are iteratively proposed, evaluated, and refined. Most existing approaches search over…

In Changjun Fan et al. [Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36363-w (2023)], the authors present a deep reinforced learning approach to augment combinatorial optimization heuristics. In particular, they present results…

Reinforcement Learning and, recently, Deep Reinforcement Learning are popular methods for solving sequential decision-making problems modeled as Markov Decision Processes. RL modeling of a problem and selecting algorithms and…

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a control approach that can handle nonlinear stochastic optimal control problems. However, despite the promise exhibited, RL has yet to see marked translation to industrial practice primarily due to its…

Reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a promising tool for combinatorial optimization (CO) problems due to its ability to learn fast, effective, and generalizable solutions. Nonetheless, existing works mostly focus on one-shot…

Value function based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, for example, $Q$-learning, learn optimal policies from datasets of actions, rewards, and state transitions. However, when the underlying state transition dynamics are stochastic…