On the Convergence of Modified Policy Iteration in Risk Sensitive Exponential Cost Markov Decision Processes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Murthy, Yashaswini, Moharrami, Mehrdad, Srikant, R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Murthy, Yashaswini
Moharrami, Mehrdad
Srikant, R.
author_facet Murthy, Yashaswini
Moharrami, Mehrdad
Srikant, R.
contents Modified policy iteration (MPI) is a dynamic programming algorithm that combines elements of policy iteration and value iteration. The convergence of MPI has been well studied in the context of discounted and average-cost MDPs. In this work, we consider the exponential cost risk-sensitive MDP formulation, which is known to provide some robustness to model parameters. Although policy iteration and value iteration have been well studied in the context of risk sensitive MDPs, MPI is unexplored. We provide the first proof that MPI also converges for the risk-sensitive problem in the case of finite state and action spaces. Since the exponential cost formulation deals with the multiplicative Bellman equation, our main contribution is a convergence proof which is quite different than existing results for discounted and risk-neutral average-cost problems as well as risk sensitive value and policy iteration approaches. We conclude our analysis with simulation results, assessing MPI's performance relative to alternative dynamic programming methods like value iteration and policy iteration across diverse problem parameters. Our findings highlight risk-sensitive MPI's enhanced computational efficiency compared to both value and policy iteration techniques.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_03811
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the Convergence of Modified Policy Iteration in Risk Sensitive Exponential Cost Markov Decision Processes
Murthy, Yashaswini
Moharrami, Mehrdad
Srikant, R.
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
Modified policy iteration (MPI) is a dynamic programming algorithm that combines elements of policy iteration and value iteration. The convergence of MPI has been well studied in the context of discounted and average-cost MDPs. In this work, we consider the exponential cost risk-sensitive MDP formulation, which is known to provide some robustness to model parameters. Although policy iteration and value iteration have been well studied in the context of risk sensitive MDPs, MPI is unexplored. We provide the first proof that MPI also converges for the risk-sensitive problem in the case of finite state and action spaces. Since the exponential cost formulation deals with the multiplicative Bellman equation, our main contribution is a convergence proof which is quite different than existing results for discounted and risk-neutral average-cost problems as well as risk sensitive value and policy iteration approaches. We conclude our analysis with simulation results, assessing MPI's performance relative to alternative dynamic programming methods like value iteration and policy iteration across diverse problem parameters. Our findings highlight risk-sensitive MPI's enhanced computational efficiency compared to both value and policy iteration techniques.
title On the Convergence of Modified Policy Iteration in Risk Sensitive Exponential Cost Markov Decision Processes
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.03811