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In this paper, we provide a novel algorithm for solving planning and learning problems of Markov decision processes. The proposed algorithm follows a policy iteration-type update by using a rank-one approximation of the transition…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-23 Arman Sharifi Kolarijani , Tolga Ok , Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani , Mohamad Amin Sharif Kolarijani

Policy gradient methods are extensively used in reinforcement learning as a way to optimize expected return. In this paper, we explore the evolution of the policy parameters, for a special class of exactly solvable POMDPs, as a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-04 Gavin McCracken , Colin Daniels , Rosie Zhao , Anna Brandenberger , Prakash Panangaden , Doina Precup

We study the policy testing problem in discounted Markov decision processes (MDPs) in the fixed-confidence setting under a generative model with static sampling. The goal is to decide whether the value of a given policy exceeds a specified…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-04-21 Kaito Ariu , Po-An Wang , Alexandre Proutiere , Kenshi Abe

We present a scheme for sequential decision making with a risk-sensitive objective and constraints in a dynamic environment. A neural network is trained as an approximator of the mapping from parameter space to space of risk and policy with…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-07-10 Shuai Ma , Jia Yuan Yu , Ahmet Satir

Stochastic gradient methods are the workhorse (algorithms) of large-scale optimization problems in machine learning, signal processing, and other computational sciences and engineering. This paper studies Markov chain gradient descent, a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-09-13 Tao Sun , Yuejiao Sun , Wotao Yin

We consider reinforcement learning in changing Markov Decision Processes where both the state-transition probabilities and the reward functions may vary over time. For this problem setting, we propose an algorithm using a sliding window…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-05-28 Pratik Gajane , Ronald Ortner , Peter Auer

Markov decision process (MDP) is a decision making framework where a decision maker is interested in maximizing the expected discounted value of a stream of rewards received at future stages at various states which are visited according to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-12-19 Hoang Nam Nguyen , Abdel Lisser , Vikas Vikram Singh

We consider the problem of sampling from a discrete and structured distribution as a sequential decision problem, where the objective is to find a stochastic policy such that objects are sampled at the end of this sequential process…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-29 Tristan Deleu , Padideh Nouri , Nikolay Malkin , Doina Precup , Yoshua Bengio

In this paper, we study the distributionally robust joint chance constrained Markov decision process. {Utilizing the logarithmic transformation technique,} we derive its deterministic reformulation with bi-convex terms under the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-01-03 Tian Xia , Jia Liu , Zhiping Chen

Reinforcement Learning Algorithms are predominantly developed for stationary environments, and the limited literature that considers nonstationary environments often involves specific assumptions about changes that can occur in transition…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-25 Ranga Shaarad Ayyagari , Revanth Raj Eega , Ambedkar Dukkipati

In this paper, we study a class of stochastic processes, called evolving network Markov chains, in evolving networks. Our approach is to transform the degree distribution problem of an evolving network to a corresponding problem of evolving…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2009-04-23 Zhenting Hou , Xiangxing Kong , Dinghua Shi , Guanrong Chen , Qinggui Zhao

We propose a formulation of the stochastic cutting stock problem as a discounted infinite-horizon Markov decision process. At each decision epoch, given current inventory of items, an agent chooses in which patterns to cut objects in stock…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-29 Anselmo R. Pitombeira-Neto , Arthur H. Fonseca Murta

A Markov decision problem is called reversible if the stationary controlled Markov chain is reversible under every stationary Markovian strategy. A natural application in which such problems arise is in the control of Metropolis-Hastings…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-07-13 Venkat Anantharam

The problem of synthesizing stochastic explicit model predictive control policies is known to be quickly intractable even for systems of modest complexity when using classical control-theoretic methods. To address this challenge, we present…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-24 Ján Drgoňa , Sayak Mukherjee , Aaron Tuor , Mahantesh Halappanavar , Draguna Vrabie

In this paper we consider a control problem for a Partially Observable Piecewise Deterministic Markov Process of the following type: After the jump of the process the controller receives a noisy signal about the state and the aim is to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-07-21 Nicole Bäuerle , Dirk Lange

We investigate reinforcement learning in the setting of Markov decision processes for a large number of exchangeable agents interacting in a mean field manner. Applications include, for example, the control of a large number of robots…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-04-30 René Carmona , Mathieu Laurière , Zongjun Tan

In this paper, we show the convergence rates of posterior distributions of the model dynamics in a MDP for both episodic and continuous tasks. The theoretical results hold for general state and action space and the parameter space of the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2019-07-23 Zhen Li , Eric Laber

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 develop policy gradients methods for stochastic control with exit time in a model-free setting. We propose two types of algorithms for learning either directly the optimal policy or by learning alternately the value function (critic) and…

Computational Finance · Quantitative Finance 2023-02-16 Mohamed Hamdouche , Pierre Henry-Labordere , Huyen Pham

Finding optimal policies which maximize long term rewards of Markov Decision Processes requires the use of dynamic programming and backward induction to solve the Bellman optimality equation. However, many real-world problems require…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-10 Mridul Agarwal , Vaneet Aggarwal