Markov Decision Processes

Author : Martin L. Puterman
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118625870
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Markov Decision Processes written by Martin L. Puterman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-08-28 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wiley-Interscience Paperback Series consists of selected books that have been made more accessible to consumers in an effort to increase global appeal and general circulation. With these new unabridged softcover volumes, Wiley hopes to extend the lives of these works by making them available to future generations of statisticians, mathematicians, and scientists. "This text is unique in bringing together so many results hitherto found only in part in other texts and papers. . . . The text is fairly self-contained, inclusive of some basic mathematical results needed, and provides a rich diet of examples, applications, and exercises. The bibliographical material at the end of each chapter is excellent, not only from a historical perspective, but because it is valuable for researchers in acquiring a good perspective of the MDP research potential." —Zentralblatt fur Mathematik ". . . it is of great value to advanced-level students, researchers, and professional practitioners of this field to have now a complete volume (with more than 600 pages) devoted to this topic. . . . Markov Decision Processes: Discrete Stochastic Dynamic Programming represents an up-to-date, unified, and rigorous treatment of theoretical and computational aspects of discrete-time Markov decision processes." —Journal of the American Statistical Association

Author : Nicole Bäuerle
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642183247
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Markov Decision Processes with Applications to Finance written by Nicole Bäuerle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of Markov decision processes focuses on controlled Markov chains in discrete time. The authors establish the theory for general state and action spaces and at the same time show its application by means of numerous examples, mostly taken from the fields of finance and operations research. By using a structural approach many technicalities (concerning measure theory) are avoided. They cover problems with finite and infinite horizons, as well as partially observable Markov decision processes, piecewise deterministic Markov decision processes and stopping problems. The book presents Markov decision processes in action and includes various state-of-the-art applications with a particular view towards finance. It is useful for upper-level undergraduates, Master's students and researchers in both applied probability and finance, and provides exercises (without solutions).

Author : Richard J. Boucherie
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319477668
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Markov Decision Processes in Practice written by Richard J. Boucherie and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-10 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents classical Markov Decision Processes (MDP) for real-life applications and optimization. MDP allows users to develop and formally support approximate and simple decision rules, and this book showcases state-of-the-art applications in which MDP was key to the solution approach. The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 is devoted to the state-of-the-art theoretical foundation of MDP, including approximate methods such as policy improvement, successive approximation and infinite state spaces as well as an instructive chapter on Approximate Dynamic Programming. It then continues with five parts of specific and non-exhaustive application areas. Part 2 covers MDP healthcare applications, which includes different screening procedures, appointment scheduling, ambulance scheduling and blood management. Part 3 explores MDP modeling within transportation. This ranges from public to private transportation, from airports and traffic lights to car parking or charging your electric car . Part 4 contains three chapters that illustrates the structure of approximate policies for production or manufacturing structures. In Part 5, communications is highlighted as an important application area for MDP. It includes Gittins indices, down-to-earth call centers and wireless sensor networks. Finally Part 6 is dedicated to financial modeling, offering an instructive review to account for financial portfolios and derivatives under proportional transactional costs. The MDP applications in this book illustrate a variety of both standard and non-standard aspects of MDP modeling and its practical use. This book should appeal to readers for practitioning, academic research and educational purposes, with a background in, among others, operations research, mathematics, computer science, and industrial engineering.

Author : Eugene A. Feinberg
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461508053
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Handbook of Markov Decision Processes written by Eugene A. Feinberg and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eugene A. Feinberg Adam Shwartz This volume deals with the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and their applications. Each chapter was written by a leading expert in the re spective area. The papers cover major research areas and methodologies, and discuss open questions and future research directions. The papers can be read independently, with the basic notation and concepts ofSection 1.2. Most chap ters should be accessible by graduate or advanced undergraduate students in fields of operations research, electrical engineering, and computer science. 1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES The theory of Markov Decision Processes-also known under several other names including sequential stochastic optimization, discrete-time stochastic control, and stochastic dynamic programming-studiessequential optimization ofdiscrete time stochastic systems. The basic object is a discrete-time stochas tic system whose transition mechanism can be controlled over time. Each control policy defines the stochastic process and values of objective functions associated with this process. The goal is to select a "good" control policy. In real life, decisions that humans and computers make on all levels usually have two types ofimpacts: (i) they cost orsavetime, money, or other resources, or they bring revenues, as well as (ii) they have an impact on the future, by influencing the dynamics. In many situations, decisions with the largest immediate profit may not be good in view offuture events. MDPs model this paradigm and provide results on the structure and existence of good policies and on methods for their calculation.

Author : Xianping Guo
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642025471
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Continuous-Time Markov Decision Processes written by Xianping Guo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-09-18 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuous-time Markov decision processes (MDPs), also known as controlled Markov chains, are used for modeling decision-making problems that arise in operations research (for instance, inventory, manufacturing, and queueing systems), computer science, communications engineering, control of populations (such as fisheries and epidemics), and management science, among many other fields. This volume provides a unified, systematic, self-contained presentation of recent developments on the theory and applications of continuous-time MDPs. The MDPs in this volume include most of the cases that arise in applications, because they allow unbounded transition and reward/cost rates. Much of the material appears for the first time in book form.

Author : Olivier Sigaud
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118620100
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Markov Decision Processes in Artificial Intelligence written by Olivier Sigaud and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-03-04 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a mathematical framework for modeling sequential decision problems under uncertainty as well as reinforcement learning problems. Written by experts in the field, this book provides a global view of current research using MDPs in artificial intelligence. It starts with an introductory presentation of the fundamental aspects of MDPs (planning in MDPs, reinforcement learning, partially observable MDPs, Markov games and the use of non-classical criteria). It then presents more advanced research trends in the field and gives some concrete examples using illustrative real life applications.

Author : Mausam Natarajan
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031015592
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Planning with Markov Decision Processes written by Mausam Natarajan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are widely popular in Artificial Intelligence for modeling sequential decision-making scenarios with probabilistic dynamics. They are the framework of choice when designing an intelligent agent that needs to act for long periods of time in an environment where its actions could have uncertain outcomes. MDPs are actively researched in two related subareas of AI, probabilistic planning and reinforcement learning. Probabilistic planning assumes known models for the agent's goals and domain dynamics, and focuses on determining how the agent should behave to achieve its objectives. On the other hand, reinforcement learning additionally learns these models based on the feedback the agent gets from the environment. This book provides a concise introduction to the use of MDPs for solving probabilistic planning problems, with an emphasis on the algorithmic perspective. It covers the whole spectrum of the field, from the basics to state-of-the-art optimal and approximation algorithms. We first describe the theoretical foundations of MDPs and the fundamental solution techniques for them. We then discuss modern optimal algorithms based on heuristic search and the use of structured representations. A major focus of the book is on the numerous approximation schemes for MDPs that have been developed in the AI literature. These include determinization-based approaches, sampling techniques, heuristic functions, dimensionality reduction, and hierarchical representations. Finally, we briefly introduce several extensions of the standard MDP classes that model and solve even more complex planning problems. Table of Contents: Introduction / MDPs / Fundamental Algorithms / Heuristic Search Algorithms / Symbolic Algorithms / Approximation Algorithms / Advanced Notes

Author : Jerzy Filar
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461240549
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competitive Markov Decision Processes written by Jerzy Filar and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended as a text covering the central concepts and techniques of Competitive Markov Decision Processes. It is an attempt to present a rig orous treatment that combines two significant research topics: Stochastic Games and Markov Decision Processes, which have been studied exten sively, and at times quite independently, by mathematicians, operations researchers, engineers, and economists. Since Markov decision processes can be viewed as a special noncompeti tive case of stochastic games, we introduce the new terminology Competi tive Markov Decision Processes that emphasizes the importance of the link between these two topics and of the properties of the underlying Markov processes. The book is designed to be used either in a classroom or for self-study by a mathematically mature reader. In the Introduction (Chapter 1) we outline a number of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses for which this book could usefully serve as a text. A characteristic feature of competitive Markov decision processes - and one that inspired our long-standing interest - is that they can serve as an "orchestra" containing the "instruments" of much of modern applied (and at times even pure) mathematics. They constitute a topic where the instruments of linear algebra, applied probability, mathematical program ming, analysis, and even algebraic geometry can be "played" sometimes solo and sometimes in harmony to produce either beautifully simple or equally beautiful, but baroque, melodies, that is, theorems.

Author : Eitan Altman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351458248
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constrained Markov Decision Processes written by Eitan Altman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a unified approach for the study of constrained Markov decision processes with a finite state space and unbounded costs. Unlike the single controller case considered in many other books, the author considers a single controller with several objectives, such as minimizing delays and loss, probabilities, and maximization of throughputs. It is desirable to design a controller that minimizes one cost objective, subject to inequality constraints on other cost objectives. This framework describes dynamic decision problems arising frequently in many engineering fields. A thorough overview of these applications is presented in the introduction. The book is then divided into three sections that build upon each other.

Author : Vikram Krishnamurthy
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316594785
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Partially Observed Markov Decision Processes written by Vikram Krishnamurthy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-21 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering formulation, algorithms, and structural results, and linking theory to real-world applications in controlled sensing (including social learning, adaptive radars and sequential detection), this book focuses on the conceptual foundations of partially observed Markov decision processes (POMDPs). It emphasizes structural results in stochastic dynamic programming, enabling graduate students and researchers in engineering, operations research, and economics to understand the underlying unifying themes without getting weighed down by mathematical technicalities. Bringing together research from across the literature, the book provides an introduction to nonlinear filtering followed by a systematic development of stochastic dynamic programming, lattice programming and reinforcement learning for POMDPs. Questions addressed in the book include: when does a POMDP have a threshold optimal policy? When are myopic policies optimal? How do local and global decision makers interact in adaptive decision making in multi-agent social learning where there is herding and data incest? And how can sophisticated radars and sensors adapt their sensing in real time?