Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lauand, Caio Kalil, Meyn, Sean
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04424
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Table of Contents:
  • Simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) is an approach to gradient-free optimization introduced by Spall as a simplification of the approach of Kiefer and Wolfowitz. In many cases the most attractive option is the single-sample version known as 1SPSA, which is the focus of the present paper, containing two major contributions: a modification of the algorithm designed to ensure convergence from arbitrary initial condition, and a new approach to exploration to dramatically accelerate the rate of convergence. Examples are provided to illustrate the theory, and to demonstrate that estimates from unmodified 1SPSA may diverge even for a quadratic objective function.