Policy Gradient Adaptive Control for the LQR: Indirect and Direct Approaches

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhao, Feiran, Chiuso, Alessandro, Dörfler, Florian
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhao, Feiran
Chiuso, Alessandro
Dörfler, Florian
author_facet Zhao, Feiran
Chiuso, Alessandro
Dörfler, Florian
contents Motivated by recent advances of reinforcement learning and direct data-driven control, we propose policy gradient adaptive control (PGAC) for the linear quadratic regulator (LQR), which uses online closed-loop data to improve the control policy while maintaining stability. Our method adaptively updates the policy in feedback by descending the gradient of the LQR cost and is categorized as indirect, when gradients are computed via an estimated model, versus direct, when gradients are derived from data using sample covariance parameterization. Beyond the vanilla gradient, we also showcase the merits of the natural gradient and Gauss-Newton methods for the policy update. Notably, natural gradient descent bridges the indirect and direct PGAC, and the Gauss-Newton method of the indirect PGAC leads to an adaptive version of the celebrated Hewer's algorithm. To account for the uncertainty from noise, we propose a regularization method for both indirect and direct PGAC. For all the considered PGAC approaches, we show closed-loop stability and convergence of the policy to the optimal LQR gain. Simulations validate our theoretical findings and demonstrate the robustness and computational efficiency of PGAC.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_03706
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Policy Gradient Adaptive Control for the LQR: Indirect and Direct Approaches
Zhao, Feiran
Chiuso, Alessandro
Dörfler, Florian
Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
Motivated by recent advances of reinforcement learning and direct data-driven control, we propose policy gradient adaptive control (PGAC) for the linear quadratic regulator (LQR), which uses online closed-loop data to improve the control policy while maintaining stability. Our method adaptively updates the policy in feedback by descending the gradient of the LQR cost and is categorized as indirect, when gradients are computed via an estimated model, versus direct, when gradients are derived from data using sample covariance parameterization. Beyond the vanilla gradient, we also showcase the merits of the natural gradient and Gauss-Newton methods for the policy update. Notably, natural gradient descent bridges the indirect and direct PGAC, and the Gauss-Newton method of the indirect PGAC leads to an adaptive version of the celebrated Hewer's algorithm. To account for the uncertainty from noise, we propose a regularization method for both indirect and direct PGAC. For all the considered PGAC approaches, we show closed-loop stability and convergence of the policy to the optimal LQR gain. Simulations validate our theoretical findings and demonstrate the robustness and computational efficiency of PGAC.
title Policy Gradient Adaptive Control for the LQR: Indirect and Direct Approaches
topic Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.03706