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Main Authors: Pan, Yunian, Li, Tao, Zhu, Quanyan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00385
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author Pan, Yunian
Li, Tao
Zhu, Quanyan
author_facet Pan, Yunian
Li, Tao
Zhu, Quanyan
contents Meta-learning has been proposed as a promising machine learning topic in recent years, with important applications to image classification, robotics, computer games, and control systems. In this paper, we study the problem of using meta-learning to deal with uncertainty and heterogeneity in ergodic linear quadratic regulators. We integrate the zeroth-order optimization technique with a typical meta-learning method, proposing an algorithm that omits the estimation of policy Hessian, which applies to tasks of learning a set of heterogeneous but similar linear dynamic systems. The induced meta-objective function inherits important properties of the original cost function when the set of linear dynamic systems are meta-learnable, allowing the algorithm to optimize over a learnable landscape without projection onto the feasible set. We provide stability and convergence guarantees for the exact gradient descent process by analyzing the boundedness and local smoothness of the gradient for the meta-objective, which justify the proposed algorithm with gradient estimation error being small. We provide the sample complexity conditions for these theoretical guarantees, as well as a numerical example at the end to corroborate this perspective.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_00385
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Model-Agnostic Meta-Policy Optimization via Zeroth-Order Estimation: A Linear Quadratic Regulator Perspective
Pan, Yunian
Li, Tao
Zhu, Quanyan
Systems and Control
Meta-learning has been proposed as a promising machine learning topic in recent years, with important applications to image classification, robotics, computer games, and control systems. In this paper, we study the problem of using meta-learning to deal with uncertainty and heterogeneity in ergodic linear quadratic regulators. We integrate the zeroth-order optimization technique with a typical meta-learning method, proposing an algorithm that omits the estimation of policy Hessian, which applies to tasks of learning a set of heterogeneous but similar linear dynamic systems. The induced meta-objective function inherits important properties of the original cost function when the set of linear dynamic systems are meta-learnable, allowing the algorithm to optimize over a learnable landscape without projection onto the feasible set. We provide stability and convergence guarantees for the exact gradient descent process by analyzing the boundedness and local smoothness of the gradient for the meta-objective, which justify the proposed algorithm with gradient estimation error being small. We provide the sample complexity conditions for these theoretical guarantees, as well as a numerical example at the end to corroborate this perspective.
title Model-Agnostic Meta-Policy Optimization via Zeroth-Order Estimation: A Linear Quadratic Regulator Perspective
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.00385