Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Author: Mykel J. Kochenderfer

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2015-07-24

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0262331713

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An introduction to decision making under uncertainty from a computational perspective, covering both theory and applications ranging from speech recognition to airborne collision avoidance. Many important problems involve decision making under uncertainty—that is, choosing actions based on often imperfect observations, with unknown outcomes. Designers of automated decision support systems must take into account the various sources of uncertainty while balancing the multiple objectives of the system. This book provides an introduction to the challenges of decision making under uncertainty from a computational perspective. It presents both the theory behind decision making models and algorithms and a collection of example applications that range from speech recognition to aircraft collision avoidance. Focusing on two methods for designing decision agents, planning and reinforcement learning, the book covers probabilistic models, introducing Bayesian networks as a graphical model that captures probabilistic relationships between variables; utility theory as a framework for understanding optimal decision making under uncertainty; Markov decision processes as a method for modeling sequential problems; model uncertainty; state uncertainty; and cooperative decision making involving multiple interacting agents. A series of applications shows how the theoretical concepts can be applied to systems for attribute-based person search, speech applications, collision avoidance, and unmanned aircraft persistent surveillance. Decision Making Under Uncertainty unifies research from different communities using consistent notation, and is accessible to students and researchers across engineering disciplines who have some prior exposure to probability theory and calculus. It can be used as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in fields including computer science, aerospace and electrical engineering, and management science. It will also be a valuable professional reference for researchers in a variety of disciplines.

Optimal Financial Decision Making under Uncertainty
Optimal Financial Decision Making under Uncertainty

Author: Giorgio Consigli

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-10-17

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 3319416138

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The scope of this volume is primarily to analyze from different methodological perspectives similar valuation and optimization problems arising in financial applications, aimed at facilitating a theoretical and computational integration between methods largely regarded as alternatives. Increasingly in recent years, financial management problems such as strategic asset allocation, asset-liability management, as well as asset pricing problems, have been presented in the literature adopting formulation and solution approaches rooted in stochastic programming, robust optimization, stochastic dynamic programming (including approximate SDP) methods, as well as policy rule optimization, heuristic approaches and others. The aim of the volume is to facilitate the comprehension of the modeling and methodological potentials of those methods, thus their common assumptions and peculiarities, relying on similar financial problems. The volume will address different valuation problems common in finance related to: asset pricing, optimal portfolio management, risk measurement, risk control and asset-liability management. The volume features chapters of theoretical and practical relevance clarifying recent advances in the associated applied field from different standpoints, relying on similar valuation problems and, as mentioned, facilitating a mutual and beneficial methodological and theoretical knowledge transfer. The distinctive aspects of the volume can be summarized as follows: Strong benchmarking philosophy, with contributors explicitly asked to underline current limits and desirable developments in their areas. Theoretical contributions, aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art in the given domain with a clear potential for applications The inclusion of an algorithmic-computational discussion of issues arising on similar valuation problems across different methods. Variety of applications: rarely is it possible within a single volume to consider and analyze different, and possibly competing, alternative optimization techniques applied to well-identified financial valuation problems. Clear definition of the current state-of-the-art in each methodological and applied area to facilitate future research directions.

Algorithms for Optimization
Algorithms for Optimization

Author: Mykel J. Kochenderfer

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0262039427

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A comprehensive introduction to optimization with a focus on practical algorithms for the design of engineering systems. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to optimization with a focus on practical algorithms. The book approaches optimization from an engineering perspective, where the objective is to design a system that optimizes a set of metrics subject to constraints. Readers will learn about computational approaches for a range of challenges, including searching high-dimensional spaces, handling problems where there are multiple competing objectives, and accommodating uncertainty in the metrics. Figures, examples, and exercises convey the intuition behind the mathematical approaches. The text provides concrete implementations in the Julia programming language. Topics covered include derivatives and their generalization to multiple dimensions; local descent and first- and second-order methods that inform local descent; stochastic methods, which introduce randomness into the optimization process; linear constrained optimization, when both the objective function and the constraints are linear; surrogate models, probabilistic surrogate models, and using probabilistic surrogate models to guide optimization; optimization under uncertainty; uncertainty propagation; expression optimization; and multidisciplinary design optimization. Appendixes offer an introduction to the Julia language, test functions for evaluating algorithm performance, and mathematical concepts used in the derivation and analysis of the optimization methods discussed in the text. The book can be used by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics, statistics, computer science, any engineering field, (including electrical engineering and aerospace engineering), and operations research, and as a reference for professionals.

Algorithms for Decision Making
Algorithms for Decision Making

Author: Mykel J. Kochenderfer

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 701

ISBN-13: 0262047012

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A broad introduction to algorithms for decision making under uncertainty, introducing the underlying mathematical problem formulations and the algorithms for solving them. Automated decision-making systems or decision-support systems—used in applications that range from aircraft collision avoidance to breast cancer screening—must be designed to account for various sources of uncertainty while carefully balancing multiple objectives. This textbook provides a broad introduction to algorithms for decision making under uncertainty, covering the underlying mathematical problem formulations and the algorithms for solving them. The book first addresses the problem of reasoning about uncertainty and objectives in simple decisions at a single point in time, and then turns to sequential decision problems in stochastic environments where the outcomes of our actions are uncertain. It goes on to address model uncertainty, when we do not start with a known model and must learn how to act through interaction with the environment; state uncertainty, in which we do not know the current state of the environment due to imperfect perceptual information; and decision contexts involving multiple agents. The book focuses primarily on planning and reinforcement learning, although some of the techniques presented draw on elements of supervised learning and optimization. Algorithms are implemented in the Julia programming language. Figures, examples, and exercises convey the intuition behind the various approaches presented.

Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty
Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty

Author: Vincent A. W. J. Marchau

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 3030052524

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This open access book focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty: From Theory to Practice is divided into four parts. Part I presents five approaches for designing strategic plans under deep uncertainty: Robust Decision Making, Dynamic Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, Info-Gap Decision Theory, and Engineering Options Analysis. Each approach is worked out in terms of its theoretical foundations, methodological steps to follow when using the approach, latest methodological insights, and challenges for improvement. In Part II, applications of each of these approaches are presented. Based on recent case studies, the practical implications of applying each approach are discussed in depth. Part III focuses on using the approaches and tools in real-world contexts, based on insights from real-world cases. Part IV contains conclusions and a synthesis of the lessons that can be drawn for designing, applying, and implementing strategic plans under deep uncertainty, as well as recommendations for future work. The publication of this book has been funded by the Radboud University, the RAND Corporation, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares.

Optimal Decisions Under Uncertainty
Optimal Decisions Under Uncertainty

Author: J.K. Sengupta

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 3642701639

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Understanding the stochastic enviornment is as much important to the manager as to the economist. From production and marketing to financial management, a manager has to assess various costs imposed by uncertainty. The economist analyzes the role of incomplete and too often imperfect information structures on the optimal decisions made by a firm. The need for understanding the role of uncertainty in quantitative decision models, both in economics and management science provide the basic motivation of this monograph. The stochastic environment is analyzed here in terms of the following specific models of optimization: linear and quadratic models, linear programming, control theory and dynamic programming. Uncertainty is introduced here through the para meters, the constraints, and the objective function and its impact evaluated. Specifically recent developments in applied research are emphasized, so that they can help the decision-maker arrive at a solution which has some desirable charac teristics like robustness, stability and cautiousness. Mathematical treatment is kept at a fairly elementary level and applied as pects are emphasized much more than theory. Moreover, an attempt is made to in corporate the economic theory of uncertainty into the stochastic theory of opera tions research. Methods of optimal decision rules illustrated he re are applicable in three broad areas: (a) applied economic models in resource allocation and economic planning, (b) operations research models involving portfolio analysis and stochastic linear programming and (c) systems science models in stochastic control and adaptive behavior.

Decision Making under Constraints
Decision Making under Constraints

Author: Martine Ceberio

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 3030408140

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This book presents extended versions of selected papers from the annual International Workshops on Constraint Programming and Decision Making from 2016 to 2018. The papers address all stages of decision-making under constraints: (1) precisely formulating the problem of multi-criteria decision-making; (2) determining when the corresponding decision problem is algorithmically solvable; (3) finding the corresponding algorithms and making these algorithms as efficient as possible; and (4) taking into account interval, probabilistic, and fuzzy uncertainty inherent in the corresponding decision-making problems. In many application areas, it is necessary to make effective decisions under constraints, and there are several area-specific techniques for such decision problems. However, because they are area-specific, it is not easy to apply these techniques in other application areas. As such, the annual International Workshops on Constraint Programming and Decision Making focus on cross-fertilization between different areas, attracting researchers and practitioners from around the globe. The book includes numerous papers describing applications, in particular, applications to engineering, such as control of unmanned aerial vehicles, and vehicle protection against improvised explosion devices.

Modern Optimization Methods for Decision Making Under Risk and Uncertainty
Modern Optimization Methods for Decision Making Under Risk and Uncertainty

Author: Alexei A. Gaivoronski

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2023-10-06

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1000983927

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The book comprises original articles on topical issues of risk theory, rational decision making, statistical decisions, and control of stochastic systems. The articles are the outcome of a series international projects involving the leading scholars in the field of modern stochastic optimization and decision making. The structure of stochastic optimization solvers is described. The solvers in general implement stochastic quasi-gradient methods for optimization and identification of complex nonlinear models. These models constitute an important methodology for finding optimal decisions under risk and uncertainty. While a large part of current approaches towards optimization under uncertainty stems from linear programming (LP) and often results in large LPs of special structure, stochastic quasi-gradient methods confront nonlinearities directly without need of linearization. This makes them an appropriate tool for solving complex nonlinear problems, concurrent optimization and simulation models, and equilibrium situations of different types, for instance, Nash or Stackelberg equilibrium situations. The solver finds the equilibrium solution when the optimization model describes the system with several actors. The solver is parallelizable, performing several simulation threads in parallel. It is capable of solving stochastic optimization problems, finding stochastic Nash equilibria, and of composite stochastic bilevel problems where each level may require the solution of stochastic optimization problem or finding Nash equilibrium. Several complex examples with applications to water resources management, energy markets, pricing of services on social networks are provided. In the case of power system, regulator makes decision on the final expansion plan, considering the strategic behavior of regulated companies and coordinating the interests of different economic entities. Such a plan can be an equilibrium − a planned decision where a company cannot increase its expected gain unilaterally.

Bounded Rationality
Bounded Rationality

Author: Gerd Gigerenzer

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2002-07-26

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9780262571647

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In a complex and uncertain world, humans and animals make decisions under the constraints of limited knowledge, resources, and time. Yet models of rational decision making in economics, cognitive science, biology, and other fields largely ignore these real constraints and instead assume agents with perfect information and unlimited time. About forty years ago, Herbert Simon challenged this view with his notion of "bounded rationality." Today, bounded rationality has become a fashionable term used for disparate views of reasoning. This book promotes bounded rationality as the key to understanding how real people make decisions. Using the concept of an "adaptive toolbox," a repertoire of fast and frugal rules for decision making under uncertainty, it attempts to impose more order and coherence on the idea of bounded rationality. The contributors view bounded rationality neither as optimization under constraints nor as the study of people's reasoning fallacies. The strategies in the adaptive toolbox dispense with optimization and, for the most part, with calculations of probabilities and utilities. The book extends the concept of bounded rationality from cognitive tools to emotions; it analyzes social norms, imitation, and other cultural tools as rational strategies; and it shows how smart heuristics can exploit the structure of environments.

Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Author: Claude Greengard

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 146849256X

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In the ideal world, major decisions would be made based on complete and reliable information available to the decision maker. We live in a world of uncertainties, and decisions must be made from information which may be incomplete and may contain uncertainty. The key mathematical question addressed in this volume is "how to make decision in the presence of quantifiable uncertainty." The volume contains articles on model problems of decision making process in the energy and power industry when the available information is noisy and/or incomplete. The major tools used in studying these problems are mathematical modeling and optimization techniques; especially stochastic optimization. These articles are meant to provide an insight into this rapidly developing field, which lies in the intersection of applied statistics, probability, operations research, and economic theory. It is hoped that the present volume will provide entry to newcomers into the field, and stimulation for further research.