Download or read book Approximate Solution Methods for Partially Observable Markov and Semi-Markov Decision Processes written by Huizhen Yu (Ph. D.) and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Cont.) We thus provide an alternative to the earlier actor-only algorithm GPOMDP. Our work also clarifies the relationship between the reinforcement learning methods for POMDPs and those for MDPs. For average cost MDPs, we provide a convergence and convergence rate analysis for a least squares temporal difference (TD) algorithm, called LSPE, and previously proposed for discounted problems. We use this algorithm in the critic portion of the policy gradient algorithm for POMDPs with finite-state controllers. Finally, we investigate the properties of the limsup and liminf average cost functions of various types of policies. We show various convexity and concavity properties of these costfunctions, and we give a new necessary condition for the optimal liminf average cost to be constant. Based on this condition, we prove the near-optimality of the class of finite-state controllers under the assumption of a constant optimal liminf average cost. This result provides a theoretical guarantee for the finite-state controller approach.