Dual Formulation for Non-Rectangular Lp Robust Markov Decision Processes

We study robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs) with non-rectangular uncertainty sets, which capture interdependencies across states unlike traditional rectangular models. While non-rectangular robust policy evaluation is generally NP-hard, even in approximation, we identify a powerful class of $L_p$-bounded uncertainty sets that avoid these complexity barriers due to their structural simplicity. We further show that this class can be decomposed into infinitely many \texttt{sa}-rectangular $L_p$-bounded sets and leverage its structural properties to derive a novel dual formulation for $L_p$ RMDPs. This formulation provides key insights into the adversary's strategy and enables the development of the first robust policy evaluation algorithms for non-rectangular RMDPs. Empirical results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms brute-force methods, establishing a promising foundation for future investigation into non-rectangular robust MDPs.

@article{kumar2025_2502.09432,
  title={ Dual Formulation for Non-Rectangular Lp Robust Markov Decision Processes },
  author={ Navdeep Kumar and Adarsh Gupta and Maxence Mohamed Elfatihi and Giorgia Ramponi and Kfir Yehuda Levy and Shie Mannor },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.09432},
  year={ 2025 }
}