Weight Map Layer for Noise and Adversarial Attack Robustness

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are known for their good performance and generalization in vision-related tasks and have become state-of-the-art in both application and research-based domains. However, just like other neural network models, they suffer from a susceptibility to noise and adversarial attacks. An adversarial defence aims at reducing a neural network's susceptibility to adversarial attacks through learning or architectural modifications. We propose a weight map layer (WM) as a generic architectural addition to CNNs and show that it can increase their robustness to noise and adversarial attacks. We further explain the enhanced robustness of the two WM variants introduced via an adaptive noise-variance amplification (ANVA) hypothesis and provide evidence and insights in support of it. We show that the WM layer can be integrated into scaled up models to increase their noise and adversarial attack robustness, while achieving the same or similar accuracy levels.