Control-Oriented Scenario Tree Construction through Reinforcement Learning
2608.09335

Authors

Bert Claessens,Pierre Pinson,Chris Develder,Fabio Pavirani

Abstract

Multistage stochastic model predictive control (MPC) handles uncertainty by optimizing over a scenario tree, a finite branching approximation of future outcomes constructed from sampled forecasts. To build such a tree, conventional methods focus on matching the underlying probability distribution---e.g., via Wasserstein-based scenario reduction---but improved distributional accuracy does not necessarily yield better control performance.

We propose a control-oriented approach that learns scenario tree construction directly from its impact on downstream decisions. Fixing the tree topology, we formulate tree construction as a sequential assignment of sampled scenarios to leaves.

This assignment is parameterized by an attention-based policy over the scenario set and trained using reinforcement learning, with closed-loop control profit as the objective. Training is stabilized by an asymmetric critic that leverages realized future trajectories.

We evaluate the method on a risk-averse battery arbitrage problem. Across a range of forecast set sizes, the learned construction consistently achieves the highest profit, outperforming classical forward and backward reduction methods and certainty-equivalent (single-trajectory forecast) control.

The learned policy also exhibits greater robustness on challenging instances, consistently demonstrating better tail-risk characteristics. Analysis of the resulting trees indicates that our method constructs compact, selectively branching structures that capture high-impact events while keeping most trajectories nearly deterministic.

These findings highlight that the value of a scenario tree depends critically on the decisions it supports, and provide an effective framework to train scenario tree constructors merely based on the closed-loop control optimization signal.

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