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A core challenge of Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is its sample efficiency, which can be improved by grouping state-action pairs and using their aggregate statistics instead of single-node statistics. On the Go Abstractions in Upper…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-10-30 Robin Schmöcker , Alexander Dockhorn , Bodo Rosenhahn

We study the global convergence of policy gradient for infinite-horizon, continuous state and action space, and entropy-regularized Markov decision processes (MDPs). We consider a softmax policy with (one-hidden layer) neural network…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-17 Bekzhan Kerimkulov , James-Michael Leahy , David Šiška , Lukasz Szpruch

Despite the advances in probabilistic model checking, the scalability of the verification methods remains limited. In particular, the state space often becomes extremely large when instantiating parameterized Markov decision processes…

Exploration is essential for reinforcement learning (RL). To face the challenges of exploration, we consider a reward-free RL framework that completely separates exploration from exploitation and brings new challenges for exploration…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-12-11 Chuheng Zhang , Yuanying Cai , Longbo Huang , Jian Li

We study offline Reinforcement Learning in large infinite-horizon discounted Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) when the reward and transition models are linearly realizable under a known feature map. Starting from the classic linear-program…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-24 Gergely Neu , Nneka Okolo

Reinforcement learning is a framework for interactive decision-making with incentives sequentially revealed across time without a system dynamics model. Due to its scaling to continuous spaces, we focus on policy search where one…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-04 Amrit Singh Bedi , Anjaly Parayil , Junyu Zhang , Mengdi Wang , Alec Koppel

In many sequential decision-making problems, the goal is to optimize a utility function while satisfying a set of constraints on different utilities. This learning problem is formalized through Constrained Markov Decision Processes (CMDPs).…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-03-05 Yonathan Efroni , Shie Mannor , Matteo Pirotta

In Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with intermittent state information, decision-making becomes challenging due to periods of missing observations. Linear programming (LP) methods can play a crucial role in solving MDPs, in particular,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-09 Konstantin Avrachenkov , Madhu Dhiman , Veeraruna Kavitha

In this paper, we consider risk-sensitive Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with Borel state and action spaces and unbounded cost under both finite and infinite planning horizons. Our optimality criterion is based on the recursive…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-16 Nicole Bäuerle , Alexander Glauner

Efficient exploration is a central problem in reinforcement learning and is often formalized as maximizing the entropy of the state-action occupancy measure. While unconstrained maximum-entropy exploration is relatively well understood,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-01 Florian Wolf , Ilyas Fatkhullin , Niao He

In many real-world applications (e.g., planetary exploration, robot navigation), an autonomous agent must be able to explore a space with guaranteed safety. Most safe exploration algorithms in the field of reinforcement learning and…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2018-09-13 Akifumi Wachi , Hiroshi Kajino , Asim Munawar

Maximising a cumulative reward function that is Markov and stationary, i.e., defined over state-action pairs and independent of time, is sufficient to capture many kinds of goals in a Markov decision process (MDP). However, not all goals…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-06-05 Tom Zahavy , Brendan O'Donoghue , Guillaume Desjardins , Satinder Singh

We are interested in risk constraints for infinite horizon discrete time Markov decision processes (MDPs). Starting with average reward MDPs, we show that increasing concave stochastic dominance constraints on the empirical distribution of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2012-06-21 William B. Haskell , Rahul Jain

In this paper we consider the problem of how a reinforcement learning agent tasked with solving a set of related Markov decision processes can use knowledge acquired early in its lifetime to improve its ability to more rapidly solve novel,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-02-26 Francisco M. Garcia , Bruno C. da Silva , Philip S. Thomas

We address the challenge of exploration in reinforcement learning (RL) when the agent operates in an unknown environment with sparse or no rewards. In this work, we study the maximum entropy exploration problem of two different types. The…

Graph games are fundamental in strategic reasoning of multi-agent systems and their environments. We study a new family of graph games which combine stochastic environmental uncertainties and auction-based interactions among the agents,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-12-30 Guy Avni , Martin Kurečka , Kaushik Mallik , Petr Novotný , Suman Sadhukhan

Traditional power grid infrastructure presents significant barriers to renewable energy integration and perpetuates energy access inequities, with low-income communities experiencing disproportionately longer power outages. This study…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-09-03 Riya Kinnarkar , Mansur Arief

We study a large-scale patrol problem with state-dependent costs and multi-agent coordination.We consider heterogeneous agents, rather general reward functions, and the capabilities of tracking agents' trajectories.Given the complexity and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-12-12 Jing Fu , Zengfu Wang , Jie Chen

Analysis of Markov Decision Processes (MDP) is often hindered by state space explosion. Abstraction is a well-established technique in model checking to mitigate this issue. This paper presents a novel lazy abstraction method for MDP…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2024-06-04 Dániel Szekeres , Kristóf Marussy , István Majzik

We consider planning problems for graphs, Markov decision processes (MDPs), and games on graphs. While graphs represent the most basic planning model, MDPs represent interaction with nature and games on graphs represent interaction with an…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-04-20 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Wolfgang Dvořák , Monika Henzinger , Alexander Svozil