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The temporal difference (TD) error was first formalized in Sutton (1988), where it was first characterized as the difference between temporally successive predictions, and later, in that same work, formulated as the difference between a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-24 Juan Sebastian Rojas , Chi-Guhn Lee

Real-world reinforcement learning is often \emph{nonstationary}: rewards and dynamics drift, accelerate, oscillate, and trigger abrupt switches in the optimal action. Existing theory often represents nonstationarity with coarse-scale models…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-30 Zuyuan Zhang , Mahdi Imani , Tian Lan

Using insight from numerical approximation of ODEs and the problem formulation and solution methodology of TD learning through a Galerkin relaxation, I propose a new class of TD learning algorithms. After applying the improved numerical…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-04-21 Caleb Bowyer

We consider a sequential decision making problem where the agent faces the environment characterized by the stochastic discrete events and seeks an optimal intervention policy such that its long-term reward is maximized. This problem exists…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-12-29 Chao Qu , Xiaoyu Tan , Siqiao Xue , Xiaoming Shi , James Zhang , Hongyuan Mei

This paper studies reinforcement learning (RL) in doubly inhomogeneous environments under temporal non-stationarity and subject heterogeneity. In a number of applications, it is commonplace to encounter datasets generated by system dynamics…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-03-18 Liyuan Hu , Mengbing Li , Chengchun Shi , Zhenke Wu , Piotr Fryzlewicz

We study the policy evaluation problem in multi-agent reinforcement learning, modeled by a Markov decision process. In this problem, the agents operate in a common environment under a fixed control policy, working together to discover the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-01-13 Thinh T. Doan , Siva Theja Maguluri , Justin Romberg

Modeling the dynamics of non-stationary stochastic systems requires balancing the representational power of deep learning with the mathematical transparency of classical models. While classical Markov transition operators provide explicit,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-07 Jan Rovirosa , Jesse Schmolze

We consider the problem of steering a system with unknown, stochastic dynamics to satisfy a rich, temporally layered task given as a signal temporal logic formula. We represent the system as a Markov decision process in which the states are…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2015-10-23 Austin Jones , Derya Aksaray , Zhaodan Kong , Mac Schwager , Calin Belta

The goal of this paper is to investigate distributed temporal difference (TD) learning for a networked multi-agent Markov decision process. The proposed approach is based on distributed optimization algorithms, which can be interpreted as…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-14 Han-Dong Lim , Donghwan Lee

We explore fixed-horizon temporal difference (TD) methods, reinforcement learning algorithms for a new kind of value function that predicts the sum of rewards over a $\textit{fixed}$ number of future time steps. To learn the value function…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-02-12 Kristopher De Asis , Alan Chan , Silviu Pitis , Richard S. Sutton , Daniel Graves

We develop a structural theory of information backflow in minimal non-Markovian relaxation processes within the framework of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The approach is based on the time-convolution (TC) and time-convolutionless…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-02-12 Koichi Nakagawa

The goal of this paper is to study a distributed version of the gradient temporal-difference (GTD) learning algorithm for a class of multi-agent Markov decision processes (MDPs). The temporal-difference (TD) learning is a reinforcement…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-04-29 Donghwan Lee , Jianghai Hu

We study the multi-step off-policy learning approach to distributional RL. Despite the apparent similarity between value-based RL and distributional RL, our study reveals intriguing and fundamental differences between the two cases in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-07-18 Yunhao Tang , Mark Rowland , Rémi Munos , Bernardo Ávila Pires , Will Dabney , Marc G. Bellemare

This paper presents a model-based reinforcement learning (RL) framework for optimal closed-loop control of nonlinear robotic systems. The proposed approach learns linear lifted dynamics through Koopman operator theory and integrates the…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-04-23 Wenjian Hao , Yuxuan Fang , Zehui Lu , Shaoshuai Mou

In this paper we introduce the idea of improving the performance of parametric temporal-difference (TD) learning algorithms by selectively emphasizing or de-emphasizing their updates on different time steps. In particular, we show that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2016-07-21 Richard S. Sutton , A. Rupam Mahmood , Martha White

We assess non-Markovianity of a quantum open-system dynamics through the violation of temporal bell-like inequalities in a controllable Nuclear Magnetic Resonance system. We investigate experimentally the connections between the violation…

We consider reinforcement learning (RL) for a class of problems with bagged decision times. A bag contains a finite sequence of consecutive decision times. The transition dynamics are non-Markovian and non-stationary within a bag. All…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-08 Daiqi Gao , Hsin-Yu Lai , Predrag Klasnja , Susan A. Murphy

This paper establishes a rigorous connection between regularized discrete-time reinforcement learning (RL) and continuous-time stochastic optimal control. Specifically, classical RL algorithms are typically solving a regularized…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-24 Huyên Pham , Yuming Paul Zhang , Yuhua Zhu

Distributed Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithms has attracted a surge of interest lately mainly due to the recent advancements of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Conventional Model-Based (MB) or Model-Free (MF) RL algorithms…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-01-03 Mohammad Salimibeni , Arash Mohammadi , Parvin Malekzadeh , Konstantinos N. Plataniotis

We study policy evaluation problems in multi-task reinforcement learning (RL) under a low-rank representation setting. In this setting, we are given $N$ learning tasks where the corresponding value function of these tasks lie in an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-05 Yitao Bai , Sihan Zeng , Justin Romberg , Thinh T. Doan