Continuous-Time Q-Learning for Infinite-Horizon Discounted Cost Linear Quadratic Regulator Problems

This paper presents a method of Q-learning to solve the discounted linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem for continuous-time (CT) continuous-state systems. Most available methods in the existing literature for CT systems to solve the LQR problem generally need partial or complete knowledge of the system dynamics. Q-learning is effective for unknown dynamical systems, but has generally been well understood only for discrete-time systems. The contribution of this paper is to present a Q-learning methodology for CT systems which solves the LQR problem without having any knowledge of the system dynamics. A natural and rigorous justified parameterization of the Q-function is given in terms of the state, the control input, and its derivatives. This parameterization allows the implementation of an online Q-learning algorithm for CT systems. The simulation results supporting the theoretical development are also presented.