Handbook of Learning and Approximate Dynamic Progr Amming

• A complete resource to Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP), including on-line simulation code
• Provides a tutorial that readers can use to start implementing the learning algorithms provided in the book
• Includes ideas, directions, and recent results on current research issues and addresses applications where ADP has been successfully implemented
• The contributors are leading researchers in the field

For the past two decades, researchers in such fields as computer science, electrical engineering, and material science have been working to develop methods capable of finding high-quality approximate solutions to problems whose exact solutions are not attainable with classical dynamic programming because of high computational complexity and a lack of accurate knowledge about system dynamics. Some of them attended a National Science Foundation workshop in April 2002 in Playacar Mexico to trade findings and insights, which are summarized here. The 23 papers provide overviews of several aspects, then describe technical developments and applications. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

JENNIE SI is Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. She is director of Intelligent Systems Laboratory, which focuses on analysis and design of learning and adaptive systems. In addition to her own publications, she is the Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, and past Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing. She was the co-chair for the 2002 NSF Workshop on Learning and Approximate Dynamic Programming.

ANDREW G. BARTO is Professor of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is co-director of the Autonomous Learning Laboratory, which carries out interdisciplinary research on machine learning and modeling of biological learning. He is a core faculty member of the Neuroscience and Behavior Program of the University of Massachusetts and was the co-chair for the 2002 NSF Workshop on Learning and Approximate Dynamic Programming. He currently serves as an associate editor of Neural Computation.

WARREN B. POWELL is Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University. He is director of CASTLE Laboratory, which focuses on real-time optimization of complex dynamic systems arising in transportation and logistics.

DONALD C. WUNSCH is the Mary K. Finley Missouri Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Missouri, Rolla. He heads the Applied Computational Intelligence Laboratory and also has a joint appointment in Computer Science, and is President-Elect of the International Neural Networks Society.