MBrain: A Multi-channel Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Brain Signals

Brain signals are important quantitative data for understanding physiological activities and diseases of human brain. Most existing studies pay attention to supervised learning methods, which, however, require high-cost clinical labels. In addition, the huge difference in the clinical patterns of brain signals measured by invasive (e.g., SEEG) and non-invasive (e.g., EEG) methods leads to the lack of a unified method. To handle the above issues, we propose to study the self-supervised learning (SSL) framework for brain signals that can be applied to pre-train either SEEG or EEG data. Intuitively, brain signals, generated by the firing of neurons, are transmitted among different connecting structures in human brain. Inspired by this, we propose MBrain to learn implicit spatial and temporal correlations between different channels (i.e., contacts of the electrode, corresponding to different brain areas) as the cornerstone for uniformly modeling different types of brain signals. Specifically, we represent the spatial correlation by a graph structure, which is built with proposed multi-channel CPC. We theoretically prove that optimizing the goal of multi-channel CPC can lead to a better predictive representation and apply the instantaneou-time-shift prediction task based on it. Then we capture the temporal correlation by designing the delayed-time-shift prediction task. Finally, replace-discriminative-learning task is proposed to preserve the characteristics of each channel. Extensive experiments of seizure detection on both EEG and SEEG large-scale real-world datasets demonstrate that our model outperforms several state-of-the-art time series SSL and unsupervised models, and has the ability to be deployed to clinical practice.

Driving Tasks Transfer in Deep Reinforcement Learning for Decision-making of Autonomous Vehicles

Knowledge transfer is a promising concept to achieve real-time decision-making for autonomous vehicles. This paper constructs a transfer deep reinforcement learning framework to transform the driving tasks in inter-section environments. The driving missions at the un-signalized intersection are cast into a left turn, right turn, and running straight for automated vehicles. The goal of the autonomous ego vehicle (AEV) is to drive through the intersection situation efficiently and safely. This objective promotes the studied vehicle to increase its speed and avoid crashing other vehicles. The decision-making pol-icy learned from one driving task is transferred and evaluated in another driving mission. Simulation results reveal that the decision-making strategies related to similar tasks are transferable. It indicates that the presented control framework could reduce the time consumption and realize online implementation.

Data-Driven Transferred Energy Management Strategy for Hybrid Electric Vehicles via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Real-time applications of energy management strategies (EMSs) in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the harshest requirements for researchers and engineers. Inspired by the excellent problem-solving capabilities of deep reinforcement learning (DRL), this paper proposes a real-time EMS via incorporating the DRL method and transfer learning (TL). The related EMSs are derived from and evaluated on the real-world collected driving cycle dataset from Transportation Secure Data Center (TSDC). The concrete DRL algorithm is proximal policy optimization (PPO) belonging to the policy gradient (PG) techniques. For specification, many source driving cycles are utilized for training the parameters of deep network based on PPO. The learned parameters are transformed into the target driving cycles under the TL framework. The EMSs related to the target driving cycles are estimated and compared in different training conditions. Simulation results indicate that the presented transfer DRL-based EMS could effectively reduce time consumption and guarantee control performance.

Decision-making for Autonomous Vehicles on Highway: Deep Reinforcement Learning with Continuous Action Horizon

Decision-making strategy for autonomous vehicles de-scribes a sequence of driving maneuvers to achieve a certain navigational mission. This paper utilizes the deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method to address the continuous-horizon decision-making problem on the highway. First, the vehicle kinematics and driving scenario on the freeway are introduced. The running objective of the ego automated vehicle is to execute an efficient and smooth policy without collision. Then, the particular algorithm named proximal policy optimization (PPO)-enhanced DRL is illustrated. To overcome the challenges in tardy training efficiency and sample inefficiency, this applied algorithm could realize high learning efficiency and excellent control performance. Finally, the PPO-DRL-based decision-making strategy is estimated from multiple perspectives, including the optimality, learning efficiency, and adaptability. Its potential for online application is discussed by applying it to similar driving scenarios.

Decision-making at Unsignalized Intersection for Autonomous Vehicles: Left-turn Maneuver with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Decision-making module enables autonomous vehicles to reach appropriate maneuvers in the complex urban environments, especially the intersection situations. This work proposes a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based left-turn decision-making framework at unsignalized intersection for autonomous vehicles. The objective of the studied automated vehicle is to make an efficient and safe left-turn maneuver at a four-way unsignalized intersection. The exploited DRL methods include deep Q-learning (DQL) and double DQL. Simulation results indicate that the presented decision-making strategy could efficaciously reduce the collision rate and improve transport efficiency. This work also reveals that the constructed left-turn control structure has a great potential to be applied in real-time.

A Comparative Analysis of Deep Reinforcement Learning-enabled Freeway Decision-making for Automated Vehicles

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is becoming a prevalent and powerful methodology to address the artificial intelligent problems. Owing to its tremendous potentials in self-learning and self-improvement, DRL is broadly serviced in many research fields. This article conducted a comprehensive comparison of multiple DRL approaches on the freeway decision-making problem for autonomous vehicles. These techniques include the common deep Q learning (DQL), double DQL (DDQL), dueling DQL, and prioritized replay DQL. First, the reinforcement learning (RL) framework is introduced. As an extension, the implementations of the above mentioned DRL methods are established mathematically. Then, the freeway driving scenario for the automated vehicles is constructed, wherein the decision-making problem is transferred as a control optimization problem. Finally, a series of simulation experiments are achieved to evaluate the control performance of these DRL-enabled decision-making strategies. A comparative analysis is realized to connect the autonomous driving results with the learning characteristics of these DRL techniques.

Defining Digital Quadruplets in the Cyber-Physical-Social Space for Parallel Driving

Parallel driving is a novel framework to synthesize vehicle intelligence and transport automation. This article aims to define digital quadruplets in parallel driving. In the cyber-physical-social systems (CPSS), based on the ACP method, the names of the digital quadruplets are first given, which are descriptive, predictive, prescriptive and real vehicles. The objectives of the three virtual digital vehicles are interacting, guiding, simulating and improving with the real vehicles. Then, the three virtual components of the digital quadruplets are introduced in detail and their applications are also illustrated. Finally, the real vehicles in the parallel driving system and the research process of the digital quadruplets are depicted. The presented digital quadruplets in parallel driving are expected to make the future connected automated driving safety, efficiently and synergistically.

Adaptive Energy Management for Real Driving Conditions via Transfer Reinforcement Learning

This article proposes a transfer reinforcement learning (RL) based adaptive energy managing approach for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) with parallel topology. This approach is bi-level. The up-level characterizes how to transform the Q-value tables in the RL framework via driving cycle transformation (DCT). Especially, transition probability matrices (TPMs) of power request are computed for different cycles, and induced matrix norm (IMN) is employed as a critical criterion to identify the transformation differences and to determine the alteration of the control strategy. The lower-level determines how to set the corresponding control strategies with the transformed Q-value tables and TPMs by using model-free reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm. Numerical tests illustrate that the transferred performance can be tuned by IMN value and the transfer RL controller could receive a higher fuel economy. The comparison demonstrates that the proposed strategy exceeds the conventional RL approach in both calculation speed and control performance.

Digital Quadruplets for Cyber-Physical-Social Systems based Parallel Driving: From Concept to Applications

Digital quadruplets aiming to improve road safety, traffic efficiency, and driving cooperation for future connected automated vehicles are proposed with the enlightenment of ACP based parallel driving. The ACP method denotes Artificial societies, Computational experiments, and Parallel execution modules for cyber-physical-social systems. Four agents are designed in the framework of digital quadruplets: descriptive vehicles, predictive vehicles, prescriptive vehicles, and real vehicles. The three virtual vehicles (descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive) dynamically interact with the real one in order to enhance the safety and performance of the real vehicle. The details of the three virtual vehicles in the digital quadruplets are described. Then, the interactions between the virtual and real vehicles are presented. The experimental results of the digital quadruplets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Decision-making Strategy on Highway for Autonomous Vehicles using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Autonomous driving is a promising technology to reduce traffic accidents and improve driving efficiency. In this work, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-enabled decision-making policy is constructed for autonomous vehicles to address the overtaking behaviors on the highway. First, a highway driving environment is founded, wherein the ego vehicle aims to pass through the surrounding vehicles with an efficient and safe maneuver. A hierarchical control framework is presented to control these vehicles, which indicates the upper-level manages the driving decisions, and the lower-level cares about the supervision of vehicle speed and acceleration. Then, the particular DRL method named dueling deep Q-network (DDQN) algorithm is applied to derive the highway decision-making strategy. The exhaustive calculative procedures of deep Q-network and DDQN algorithms are discussed and compared. Finally, a series of estimation simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed highway decision-making policy. The advantages of the proposed framework in convergence rate and control performance are illuminated. Simulation results reveal that the DDQN-based overtaking policy could accomplish highway driving tasks efficiently and safely.