SEMI-MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES WITH INCOMPLETE STATE OBSERVATION : DISCOUNTED COST CRITERION

Accelerated decomposition techniques for large discounted Markov decision processes

Many hierarchical techniques to solve large Markov decision processes (MDPs) are based on the partition of the state space into strongly connected components (SCCs) that can be classified into some levels. In each level, smaller problems named restricted MDPs are solved, and then these partial solutions are combined to obtain the global solution. In this paper, we first propose a novel algorith...

Chapter 13 CONSTRAINED DISCOUNTED SEMI - MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES

Discounted Markov decision processes with utility constraints

-We consider utility-constrained Markov decision processes. The expected utility of the total discounted reward is maximized subject to multiple expected utility constraints. By introducing a corresponding Lagrange function, a saddle-point theorem of the utility constrained optimization is derived. The existence of a constrained optimal policy is characterized by optimal action sets specified w...

Countable State Markov Decision Processes with Unbounded Jump Rates and Discounted Cost: Optimality Equation and Approximations

This paper considers Markov decision processes (MDPs) with unbounded rates, as a function of state. We are especially interested in studying structural properties of optimal policies and the value function. A common method to derive such properties is by value iteration applied to the uniformised MDP. However, due to the unboundedness of the rates, uniformisation is not possible, and so value i...

l AVERAGE COST SEMI - MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES

^ The Semi-Markov Decision model is considered under the criterion of long-run average cost. A new criterion, which for any policy considers the limit of the expected cost Incurred during the first n transitions divided by the expected length of the first n transitions, is considered. Conditions guaranteeing that an optimal stationary (nonrandomized) policy exist are then presented. It is also ...