# Dynamical System Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08340 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08340/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL theory and sample complexity, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 12 of its 24 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Jun 2025.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL theory and sample complexity](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-theory-and-sample-complexity/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.01290/) (2018)
- [Trust Region Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.05477/) (2015)
- [High-Dimensional Continuous Control Using Generalized Advantage Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02438/) (2015)
- [World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10122/) (2018)
- [Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.10087/) (2017)
- [Reinforcement Learning with Deep Energy-Based Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.08165/) (2017)
- [New insights and perspectives on the natural gradient method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.1193/) (2014)
- [Maximum a Posteriori Policy Optimisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.06920/) (2018)
- [A Theory of Regularized Markov Decision Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.11275/) (2019)
- [Global Optimality Guarantees For Policy Gradient Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01786/) (2019)
- [Equivalence of stochastic and deterministic policy gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23244/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Distributions as Actions: A Unified Framework for Diverse Action Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.16608/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We develop an optimization framework centered around a core idea: once a (parametric) policy is specified, control authority is transferred to the policy, resulting in an autonomous dynamical system. Thus we should be able to optimize policy parameters without further reference to controls or actions, and without directly using the machinery of approximate Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning. Here we derive simpler algorithms at the autonomous system level, and show that they compute the same quantities as policy gradients and Hessians, natural gradients, proximal methods. Analogs to approximate policy iteration and off-policy learning are also available. Since policy parameters and other system parameters are treated uniformly, the same algorithms apply to behavioral cloning, mechanism design, system identification, learning of state estimators. Tuning of generative AI models is not only possible, but is conceptually closer to the present framework than to Reinforcement Learning.