Maximizing the Conditional Expected Reward for Reaching the Goal

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

The paper addresses the problem of computing maximal conditional expected accumulated rewards until reaching a target state (briefly called maximal conditional expectations) in finite-state Markov decision processes where the condition is given as a reachability constraint. Conditional expectations of this type can, e.g., stand for the maximal expected termination time of probabilistic programs with non-determinism, under the condition that the program eventually terminates, or for the worst-case expected penalty to be paid, assuming that at least three deadlines are missed. The main results of the paper are (i) a polynomial-time algorithm to check the finiteness of maximal conditional expectations, (ii) PSPACE-completeness for the threshold problem in acyclic Markov decision processes where the task is to check whether the maximal conditional expectation exceeds a given threshold, (iii) a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm for the threshold problem in the general (cyclic) case, and (iv) an exponential-time algorithm for computing the maximal conditional expectation and an optimal scheduler.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems
EditorsAxel Legay, Tiziana Margaria
PublisherSpringer, Berlin [u. a.]
Pages269–285
ISBN (print)978-3-662-54579-9
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesLecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 10206
ISSN0302-9743

Conference

Title23rd International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems
Abbreviated titleTACAS 2017
Conference number
Duration22 - 29 April 2017
Degree of recognitionInternational event
Location
CityUppsala
CountrySweden

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-5321-9343/work/142236722
Scopus 85017515216
ORCID /0000-0003-1724-2586/work/165453592

Keywords

Keywords

  • Conditional Expected Reward, Goal State, Markov Decision Process, Threshold Algorithm, Maximal Path

Library keywords