A new policy iteration algorithm for partially observable Markov decision processes is presented that is simpler and more efficient than an earlier policy iteration algorithm of Sondik (1971,1978). The key simplification is representation of a policy as a finite-state controller. This representation makes policy evaluation straightforward. The paper's contribution is to show that the dynamic-pr...

This paper presents an approach to building plans using partially observable Markov decision processes. The approach begins with a base solution that assumes full observability. The partially observable solution is incrementally constructed by considering increasing amounts of information from observations. The base solution directs the expansion of the plan by providing an evaluation function ...

Interactive partially observable Markov decision processes (I-POMDP) provide a formal framework for planning for a self-interested agent in multiagent settings. An agent operating in a multiagent environment must deliberate about the actions that other agents may take and the effect these actions have on the environment and the rewards it receives. Traditional I-POMDPs model this dependence on ...

Learning the internal representation of partially observable environments has proven to be a di cult problem. State representations which rely on prior models, such as partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are computation expensive and sensitive to the accuracy of the underlying model dynamics. Recent work by Still and Bialek o ers an information theoretic approach that compre...

We address ad hoc teamwork, where an agent must coordinate with other agents in an unknown common task without pre-defined coordination. We formalize the ad hoc teamwork problem as a sequential decision problem and propose (i) the use of an online learning approach that considers the different tasks depending on their ability to predict the behavior of the teammate; and (ii) a decision-theoreti...

We examine a version of the Cops and Robber (CR) game in which the robber is invisible, i.e., the cops do not know his location until they capture him. Apparently this game (CiR) has received little attention in the CR literature. We examine two variants: in the first the robber is adversarial (he actively tries to avoid capture); in the second he is drunk (he performs a random walk). Our goal ...

A new translation from Partially Observable MDP into Fully Observable MDP is described here. Unlike the classical translation, the resulting problem state space is finite, making MDP solvers able to solve this simplified version of the initial partially observable problem: this approach encodes agent beliefs with fuzzy measures over states, leading to an MDP whose state space is a finite set of...

Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) are powerful models for planning under uncertainty in partially observable domains. However, computing optimal solutions for POMDPs is challenging because of the high computational requirements of POMDP solution algorithms. Several algorithms use a subroutine to prune dominated vectors in value functions, which requires a large number of l...

The management of patients over a prolonged period of time is a complicated task involving both diagnostic and prognostic reasoning with incomplete and often uncertain knowledge. Various formalisations of this type of task exist, but these often conceal one or more essential ingredients of the problem. This article explores the suitability of partially observable Markov decision processes to fo...

We study finite-state controllers (FSCs) for partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). The key insight is that computing (randomized) FSCs on POMDPs is equivalent to synthesis for parametric Markov chains (pMCs). This correspondence enables using parameter synthesis techniques to compute FSCs for POMDPs in a black-box fashion. We investigate how typical restrictions on parameter ...