Strong Duality and Dual Ascent Approach to Continuous-Time Chance-Constrained Stochastic Optimal Control

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Patil, Apurva, Duarte, Alfredo, Bisetti, Fabrizio, Tanaka, Takashi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Patil, Apurva
Duarte, Alfredo
Bisetti, Fabrizio
Tanaka, Takashi
author_facet Patil, Apurva
Duarte, Alfredo
Bisetti, Fabrizio
Tanaka, Takashi
contents The paper addresses a continuous-time continuous-space chance-constrained stochastic optimal control (SOC) problem where the probability of failure to satisfy given state constraints is explicitly bounded. We leverage the notion of exit time from continuous-time stochastic calculus to formulate a chance-constrained SOC problem. Without any conservative approximation, the chance constraint is transformed into an expectation of an indicator function which can be incorporated into the cost function by considering a dual formulation. We then express the dual function in terms of the solution to a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman partial differential equation parameterized by the dual variable. Under a certain assumption on the system dynamics and cost function, it is shown that a strong duality holds between the primal chance-constrained problem and its dual. The Path integral approach is utilized to numerically solve the dual problem via gradient ascent using open-loop samples of system trajectories. We present simulation studies on chance-constrained motion planning for spatial navigation of mobile robots and the solution of the path integral approach is compared with that of the finite difference method.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_19451
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Strong Duality and Dual Ascent Approach to Continuous-Time Chance-Constrained Stochastic Optimal Control
Patil, Apurva
Duarte, Alfredo
Bisetti, Fabrizio
Tanaka, Takashi
Systems and Control
Robotics
The paper addresses a continuous-time continuous-space chance-constrained stochastic optimal control (SOC) problem where the probability of failure to satisfy given state constraints is explicitly bounded. We leverage the notion of exit time from continuous-time stochastic calculus to formulate a chance-constrained SOC problem. Without any conservative approximation, the chance constraint is transformed into an expectation of an indicator function which can be incorporated into the cost function by considering a dual formulation. We then express the dual function in terms of the solution to a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman partial differential equation parameterized by the dual variable. Under a certain assumption on the system dynamics and cost function, it is shown that a strong duality holds between the primal chance-constrained problem and its dual. The Path integral approach is utilized to numerically solve the dual problem via gradient ascent using open-loop samples of system trajectories. We present simulation studies on chance-constrained motion planning for spatial navigation of mobile robots and the solution of the path integral approach is compared with that of the finite difference method.
title Strong Duality and Dual Ascent Approach to Continuous-Time Chance-Constrained Stochastic Optimal Control
topic Systems and Control
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19451