Multiple noncooperative targets encirclement by relative distance-based positioning and neural antisynchronization control

From prehistoric encirclement for hunting to GPS orbiting the earth for positioning, target encirclement has numerous real world applications. However, encircling multiple non-cooperative targets in GPS-denied environments remains challenging. In this work, multiple targets encirclement by using a minimum of two tasking agents, is considered where the relative distance measurements between the agents and the targets can be obtained by using onboard sensors. Based on the measurements, the center of all the targets is estimated directly by a fuzzy wavelet neural network (FWNN) and the least squares fit method. Then, a new distributed anti-synchronization controller (DASC) is designed so that the two tasking agents are able to encircle all targets while staying opposite to each other. In particular, the radius of the desired encirclement trajectory can be dynamically determined to avoid potential collisions between the two agents and all targets. Based on the Lyapunov stability analysis method, the convergence proofs of the neural network prediction error, the target-center position estimation error, and the controller error are addressed respectively. Finally, both numerical simulations and UAV flight experiments are conducted to demonstrate the validity of the encirclement algorithms. The flight tests recorded video and other simulation results can be found in https://youtu.be/B8uTorBNrl4.

Distance-based Multiple Non-cooperative Ground Target Encirclement for Complex Environments

This paper proposes a comprehensive strategy for complex multi-target-multi-drone encirclement in an obstacle-rich and GPS-denied environment, motivated by practical scenarios such as pursuing vehicles or humans in urban canyons. The drones have omnidirectional range sensors that can robustly detect ground targets and obtain noisy relative distances. After each drone task is assigned, a novel distance-based target state estimator (DTSE) is proposed by estimating the measurement output noise variance and utilizing the Kalman filter. By integrating anti-synchronization techniques and pseudo-force functions, an acceleration controller enables two tasking drones to cooperatively encircle a target from opposing positions while navigating obstacles. The algorithms effectiveness for the discrete-time double-integrator system is established theoretically, particularly regarding observability. Moreover, the versatility of the algorithm is showcased in aerial-to-ground scenarios, supported by compelling simulation results. Experimental validation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Enhancing Neural Subset Selection: Integrating Background Information into Set Representations

Learning neural subset selection tasks, such as compound selection in AI-aided drug discovery, have become increasingly pivotal across diverse applications. The existing methodologies in the field primarily concentrate on constructing models that capture the relationship between utility function values and subsets within their respective supersets. However, these approaches tend to overlook the valuable information contained within the superset when utilizing neural networks to model set functions. In this work, we address this oversight by adopting a probabilistic perspective. Our theoretical findings demonstrate that when the target value is conditioned on both the input set and subset, it is essential to incorporate an \textit{invariant sufficient statistic} of the superset into the subset of interest for effective learning. This ensures that the output value remains invariant to permutations of the subset and its corresponding superset, enabling identification of the specific superset from which the subset originated. Motivated by these insights, we propose a simple yet effective information aggregation module designed to merge the representations of subsets and supersets from a permutation invariance perspective. Comprehensive empirical evaluations across diverse tasks and datasets validate the enhanced efficacy of our approach over conventional methods, underscoring the practicality and potency of our proposed strategies in real-world contexts.

Enhancing Evolving Domain Generalization through Dynamic Latent Representations

Domain generalization is a critical challenge for machine learning systems. Prior domain generalization methods focus on extracting domain-invariant features across several stationary domains to enable generalization to new domains. However, in non-stationary tasks where new domains evolve in an underlying continuous structure, such as time, merely extracting the invariant features is insufficient for generalization to the evolving new domains. Nevertheless, it is non-trivial to learn both evolving and invariant features within a single model due to their conflicts. To bridge this gap, we build causal models to characterize the distribution shifts concerning the two patterns, and propose to learn both dynamic and invariant features via a new framework called Mutual Information-Based Sequential Autoencoders (MISTS). MISTS adopts information theoretic constraints onto sequential autoencoders to disentangle the dynamic and invariant features, and leverage a domain adaptive classifier to make predictions based on both evolving and invariant information. Our experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that MISTS succeeds in capturing both evolving and invariant information, and present promising results in evolving domain generalization tasks.

An Adaptive Incremental Gradient Method With Support for Non-Euclidean Norms

Stochastic variance reduced methods have shown strong performance in solving finite-sum problems. However, these methods usually require the users to manually tune the step-size, which is time-consuming or even infeasible for some large-scale optimization tasks. To overcome the problem, we propose and analyze several novel adaptive variants of the popular SAGA algorithm. Eventually, we design a variant of Barzilai-Borwein step-size which is tailored for the incremental gradient method to ensure memory efficiency and fast convergence. We establish its convergence guarantees under general settings that allow non-Euclidean norms in the definition of smoothness and the composite objectives, which cover a broad range of applications in machine learning. We improve the analysis of SAGA to support non-Euclidean norms, which fills the void of existing work. Numerical experiments on standard datasets demonstrate a competitive performance of the proposed algorithm compared with existing variance-reduced methods and their adaptive variants.

A Data-driven Human Responsibility Management System

An ideal safe workplace is described as a place where staffs fulfill responsibilities in a well-organized order, potential hazardous events are being monitored in real-time, as well as the number of accidents and relevant damages are minimized. However, occupational-related death and injury are still increasing and have been highly attended in the last decades due to the lack of comprehensive safety management. A smart safety management system is therefore urgently needed, in which the staffs are instructed to fulfill responsibilities as well as automating risk evaluations and alerting staffs and departments when needed. In this paper, a smart system for safety management in the workplace based on responsibility big data analysis and the internet of things (IoT) are proposed. The real world implementation and assessment demonstrate that the proposed systems have superior accountability performance and improve the responsibility fulfillment through real-time supervision and self-reminder.

An Efficient and Integrated Algorithm for Video Enhancement in Challenging Lighting Conditions

We describe a novel integrated algorithm for real-time enhancement of video acquired under challenging lighting conditions. Such conditions include low lighting, haze, and high dynamic range situations. The algorithm automatically detects the dominate source of impairment, then depending on whether it is low lighting, haze or others, a corresponding pre-processing is applied to the input video, followed by the core enhancement algorithm. Temporal and spatial redundancies in the video input are utilized to facilitate real-time processing and to improve temporal and spatial consistency of the output. The proposed algorithm can be used as an independent module, or be integrated in either a video encoder or a video decoder for further optimizations.