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Data-Driven Stochastic Optimal Control using Linear Transfer Operators

We provide a data-driven framework for optimal control of a continuous-time stochastic dynamical system. The proposed framework relies on the linear operator theory involving linear Perron-Frobenius (P-F) and Koopman operators. Our first results involving the P-F operator provide a convex formulation to the optimal control problem in the dual space of densities. This convex formulation of the stochastic optimal control problem leads to an infinite-dimensional convex program. The finite-dimensional approximation of the convex program is obtained using a data-driven approximation of the P-F operator. Our second results demonstrate the use of the Koopman operator, which is dual to the P-F operator, for the stochastic optimal control design. We show that the Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equation can be expressed using the Koopman operator. We provide an iterative procedure along the lines of a popular policy iteration algorithm based on the data-driven approximation of the Koopman operator for solving the HJB equation. The two formulations, namely the convex formulation involving P-F operator and Koopman based formulation using HJB equation, can be viewed as dual to each other where the duality follows due to the dual nature of P-F and Koopman operators. Finally, we present several numerical examples to demonstrate the efficacy of the developed framework.