Bayesian Ambiguity Contraction-based Adaptive Robust Markov Decision Processes for Adversarial Surveillance Missions

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Hauptverfasser: Choi, Jimin, Li, Max Z.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Choi, Jimin
Li, Max Z.
author_facet Choi, Jimin
Li, Max Z.
contents Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) are envisioned to enable autonomous Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions in contested environments, where adversaries may act strategically to deceive or evade detection. These missions pose challenges due to model uncertainty and the need for safe, real-time decision-making. Robust Markov Decision Processes (RMDPs) provide worst-case guarantees but are limited by static ambiguity sets that capture initial uncertainty without adapting to new observations. This paper presents an adaptive RMDP framework tailored to ISR missions with CCAs. We introduce a mission-specific formulation in which aircraft alternate between movement and sensing states. Adversarial tactics are modeled as a finite set of transition kernels, each capturing assumptions about how adversarial sensing or environmental conditions affect rewards. Our approach incrementally refines policies by eliminating inconsistent threat models, allowing agents to shift from conservative to aggressive behaviors while maintaining robustness. We provide theoretical guarantees showing that the adaptive planner converges as credible sets contract to the true threat and maintains safety under uncertainty. Experiments under Gaussian and non-Gaussian threat models across diverse network topologies show higher mission rewards and fewer exposure events compared to nominal and static robust planners.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_01660
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian Ambiguity Contraction-based Adaptive Robust Markov Decision Processes for Adversarial Surveillance Missions
Choi, Jimin
Li, Max Z.
Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) are envisioned to enable autonomous Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions in contested environments, where adversaries may act strategically to deceive or evade detection. These missions pose challenges due to model uncertainty and the need for safe, real-time decision-making. Robust Markov Decision Processes (RMDPs) provide worst-case guarantees but are limited by static ambiguity sets that capture initial uncertainty without adapting to new observations. This paper presents an adaptive RMDP framework tailored to ISR missions with CCAs. We introduce a mission-specific formulation in which aircraft alternate between movement and sensing states. Adversarial tactics are modeled as a finite set of transition kernels, each capturing assumptions about how adversarial sensing or environmental conditions affect rewards. Our approach incrementally refines policies by eliminating inconsistent threat models, allowing agents to shift from conservative to aggressive behaviors while maintaining robustness. We provide theoretical guarantees showing that the adaptive planner converges as credible sets contract to the true threat and maintains safety under uncertainty. Experiments under Gaussian and non-Gaussian threat models across diverse network topologies show higher mission rewards and fewer exposure events compared to nominal and static robust planners.
title Bayesian Ambiguity Contraction-based Adaptive Robust Markov Decision Processes for Adversarial Surveillance Missions
topic Optimization and Control
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.01660