Harnessing Data from Clustered LQR Systems: Personalized and Collaborative Policy Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kanakeri, Vinay, Bajaj, Shivam, Verma, Ashwin, Gupta, Vijay, Mitra, Aritra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kanakeri, Vinay
Bajaj, Shivam
Verma, Ashwin
Gupta, Vijay
Mitra, Aritra
author_facet Kanakeri, Vinay
Bajaj, Shivam
Verma, Ashwin
Gupta, Vijay
Mitra, Aritra
contents It is known that reinforcement learning (RL) is data-hungry. To improve sample-efficiency of RL, it has been proposed that the learning algorithm utilize data from 'approximately similar' processes. However, since the process models are unknown, identifying which other processes are similar poses a challenge. In this work, we study this problem in the context of the benchmark Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) setting. Specifically, we consider a setting with multiple agents, each corresponding to a copy of a linear process to be controlled. The agents' local processes can be partitioned into clusters based on similarities in dynamics and tasks. Combining ideas from sequential elimination and zeroth-order policy optimization, we propose a new algorithm that performs simultaneous clustering and learning to output a personalized policy (controller) for each cluster. Under a suitable notion of cluster separation that captures differences in closed-loop performance across systems, we prove that our approach guarantees correct clustering with high probability. Furthermore, we show that the sub-optimality gap of the policy learned for each cluster scales inversely with the size of the cluster, with no additional bias, unlike in prior works on collaborative learning-based control. Our work is the first to reveal how clustering can be used in data-driven control to learn personalized policies that enjoy statistical gains from collaboration but do not suffer sub-optimality due to inclusion of data from dissimilar processes. From a distributed implementation perspective, our method is attractive as it incurs only a mild logarithmic communication overhead.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_17489
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Harnessing Data from Clustered LQR Systems: Personalized and Collaborative Policy Optimization
Kanakeri, Vinay
Bajaj, Shivam
Verma, Ashwin
Gupta, Vijay
Mitra, Aritra
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
It is known that reinforcement learning (RL) is data-hungry. To improve sample-efficiency of RL, it has been proposed that the learning algorithm utilize data from 'approximately similar' processes. However, since the process models are unknown, identifying which other processes are similar poses a challenge. In this work, we study this problem in the context of the benchmark Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) setting. Specifically, we consider a setting with multiple agents, each corresponding to a copy of a linear process to be controlled. The agents' local processes can be partitioned into clusters based on similarities in dynamics and tasks. Combining ideas from sequential elimination and zeroth-order policy optimization, we propose a new algorithm that performs simultaneous clustering and learning to output a personalized policy (controller) for each cluster. Under a suitable notion of cluster separation that captures differences in closed-loop performance across systems, we prove that our approach guarantees correct clustering with high probability. Furthermore, we show that the sub-optimality gap of the policy learned for each cluster scales inversely with the size of the cluster, with no additional bias, unlike in prior works on collaborative learning-based control. Our work is the first to reveal how clustering can be used in data-driven control to learn personalized policies that enjoy statistical gains from collaboration but do not suffer sub-optimality due to inclusion of data from dissimilar processes. From a distributed implementation perspective, our method is attractive as it incurs only a mild logarithmic communication overhead.
title Harnessing Data from Clustered LQR Systems: Personalized and Collaborative Policy Optimization
topic Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17489