Sampling-based planning algorithm is a powerful tool for solving planning problems in high-dimensional state spaces. In this article, we present a novel approach to sampling in the most promising regions, which significantly reduces planning time-consumption. The RRT# algorithm defines the Relevant Region based on the cost-to-come provided by the optimal forward-searching tree. However, it uses the cumulative cost of a direct connection between the current state and the goal state as the cost-to-go. To improve the path planning efficiency, we propose a batch sampling method that samples in a refined Relevant Region with a direct sampling strategy, which is defined according to the optimal cost-to-come and the adaptive cost-to-go, taking advantage of various sources of heuristic information. The proposed sampling approach allows the algorithm to build the search tree in the direction of the most promising area, resulting in a superior initial solution quality and reducing the overall computation time compared to related work. To validate the effectiveness of our method, we conducted several simulations in both $SE(2)$ and $SE(3)$ state spaces. And the simulation results demonstrate the superiorities of proposed algorithm.
Distribution data refers to a data set where each sample is represented as a probability distribution, a subject area receiving burgeoning interest in the field of statistics. Although several studies have developed distribution-to-distribution regression models for univariate variables, the multivariate scenario remains under-explored due to technical complexities. In this study, we introduce models for regression from one Gaussian distribution to another, utilizing the Wasserstein metric. These models are constructed using the geometry of the Wasserstein space, which enables the transformation of Gaussian distributions into components of a linear matrix space. Owing to their linear regression frameworks, our models are intuitively understandable, and their implementation is simplified because of the optimal transport problem's analytical solution between Gaussian distributions. We also explore a generalization of our models to encompass non-Gaussian scenarios. We establish the convergence rates of in-sample prediction errors for the empirical risk minimizations in our models. In comparative simulation experiments, our models demonstrate superior performance over a simpler alternative method that transforms Gaussian distributions into matrices. We present an application of our methodology using weather data for illustration purposes.
Bayesian model comparison (BMC) offers a principled approach for assessing the relative merits of competing computational models and propagating uncertainty into model selection decisions. However, BMC is often intractable for the popular class of hierarchical models due to their high-dimensional nested parameter structure. To address this intractability, we propose a deep learning method for performing BMC on any set of hierarchical models which can be instantiated as probabilistic programs. Since our method enables amortized inference, it allows efficient re-estimation of posterior model probabilities and fast performance validation prior to any real-data application. In a series of extensive validation studies, we benchmark the performance of our method against the state-of-the-art bridge sampling method and demonstrate excellent amortized inference across all BMC settings. We then showcase our method by comparing four hierarchical evidence accumulation models that have previously been deemed intractable for BMC due to partly implicit likelihoods. In this application, we corroborate evidence for the recently proposed L\'evy flight model of decision-making and show how transfer learning can be leveraged to enhance training efficiency. We provide reproducible code for all analyses and an open-source implementation of our method.
Motivated by the efficiency investigation of the Tranformer-based transform coding framework, namely SwinT-ChARM, we propose to enhance the latter, as first, with a more straightforward yet effective Tranformer-based channel-wise auto-regressive prior model, resulting in an absolute image compression transformer (ICT). Current methods that still rely on ConvNet-based entropy coding are limited in long-range modeling dependencies due to their local connectivity and an increasing number of architectural biases and priors. On the contrary, the proposed ICT can capture both global and local contexts from the latent representations and better parameterize the distribution of the quantized latents. Further, we leverage a learnable scaling module with a sandwich ConvNeXt-based pre/post-processor to accurately extract more compact latent representation while reconstructing higher-quality images. Extensive experimental results on benchmark datasets showed that the proposed adaptive image compression transformer (AICT) framework significantly improves the trade-off between coding efficiency and decoder complexity over the versatile video coding (VVC) reference encoder (VTM-18.0) and the neural codec SwinT-ChARM.
Efficiently pricing multi-asset options is a challenging problem in quantitative finance. When the characteristic function is available, Fourier-based methods are competitive compared to alternative techniques because the integrand in the frequency space often has a higher regularity than that in the physical space. However, when designing a numerical quadrature method for most Fourier pricing approaches, two key aspects affecting the numerical complexity should be carefully considered: (i) the choice of damping parameters that ensure integrability and control the regularity class of the integrand and (ii) the effective treatment of high dimensionality. We propose an efficient numerical method for pricing European multi-asset options based on two complementary ideas to address these challenges. First, we smooth the Fourier integrand via optimized choice of damping parameters based on a proposed optimization rule. Second, we employ sparsification and dimension-adaptivity techniques to accelerate the convergence of the quadrature in high dimensions. The extensive numerical study on basket and rainbow options under the multivariate geometric Brownian motion and some L\'evy models demonstrates the advantages of adaptivity and the damping rule on the numerical complexity of quadrature methods. Moreover, the approach achieves substantial computational gains compared to the Monte Carlo method.
The optimal prediction strategy for out-of-distribution (OOD) setups is a fundamental question in machine learning. In this paper, we address this question and present several contributions. We propose three reject option models for OOD setups: the Cost-based model, the Bounded TPR-FPR model, and the Bounded Precision-Recall model. These models extend the standard reject option models used in non-OOD setups and define the notion of an optimal OOD selective classifier. We establish that all the proposed models, despite their different formulations, share a common class of optimal strategies. Motivated by the optimal strategy, we introduce double-score OOD methods that leverage uncertainty scores from two chosen OOD detectors: one focused on OOD/ID discrimination and the other on misclassification detection. The experimental results consistently demonstrate the superior performance of this simple strategy compared to state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, we propose novel evaluation metrics derived from the definition of the optimal strategy under the proposed OOD rejection models. These new metrics provide a comprehensive and reliable assessment of OOD methods without the deficiencies observed in existing evaluation approaches.
Differential privacy guarantees allow the results of a statistical analysis involving sensitive data to be released without compromising the privacy of any individual taking part. Achieving such guarantees generally requires the injection of noise, either directly into parameter estimates or into the estimation process. Instead of artificially introducing perturbations, sampling from Bayesian posterior distributions has been shown to be a special case of the exponential mechanism, producing consistent, and efficient private estimates without altering the data generative process. The application of current approaches has, however, been limited by their strong bounding assumptions which do not hold for basic models, such as simple linear regressors. To ameliorate this, we propose $\beta$D-Bayes, a posterior sampling scheme from a generalised posterior targeting the minimisation of the $\beta$-divergence between the model and the data generating process. This provides private estimation that is generally applicable without requiring changes to the underlying model and consistently learns the data generating parameter. We show that $\beta$D-Bayes produces more precise inference estimation for the same privacy guarantees, and further facilitates differentially private estimation via posterior sampling for complex classifiers and continuous regression models such as neural networks for the first time.
In this paper, we provide a novel framework for the analysis of generalization error of first-order optimization algorithms for statistical learning when the gradient can only be accessed through partial observations given by an oracle. Our analysis relies on the regularity of the gradient w.r.t. the data samples, and allows to derive near matching upper and lower bounds for the generalization error of multiple learning problems, including supervised learning, transfer learning, robust learning, distributed learning and communication efficient learning using gradient quantization. These results hold for smooth and strongly-convex optimization problems, as well as smooth non-convex optimization problems verifying a Polyak-Lojasiewicz assumption. In particular, our upper and lower bounds depend on a novel quantity that extends the notion of conditional standard deviation, and is a measure of the extent to which the gradient can be approximated by having access to the oracle. As a consequence, our analysis provides a precise meaning to the intuition that optimization of the statistical learning objective is as hard as the estimation of its gradient. Finally, we show that, in the case of standard supervised learning, mini-batch gradient descent with increasing batch sizes and a warm start can reach a generalization error that is optimal up to a multiplicative factor, thus motivating the use of this optimization scheme in practical applications.
The logic of goal-directed knowing-how extends the standard epistemic logic with an operator of knowing-how. The knowing-how operator is interpreted as that there exists a strategy such that the agent knows that the strategy can make sure that p. This paper presents a tableau procedure for the multi-agent version of the logic of strategically knowing-how and shows the soundness and completeness of this tableau procedure. This paper also shows that the satisfiability problem of the logic can be decided in PSPACE.
We investigate a generalized framework for estimating latent low-rank tensors in an online setting, encompassing both linear and generalized linear models. This framework offers a flexible approach for handling continuous or categorical variables. Additionally, we investigate two specific applications: online tensor completion and online binary tensor learning. To address these challenges, we propose the online Riemannian gradient descent algorithm, which demonstrates linear convergence and the ability to recover the low-rank component under appropriate conditions in all applications. Furthermore, we establish a precise entry-wise error bound for online tensor completion. Notably, our work represents the first attempt to incorporate noise in the online low-rank tensor recovery task. Intriguingly, we observe a surprising trade-off between computational and statistical aspects in the presence of noise. Increasing the step size accelerates convergence but leads to higher statistical error, whereas a smaller step size yields a statistically optimal estimator at the expense of slower convergence. Moreover, we conduct regret analysis for online tensor regression. Under the fixed step size regime, a fascinating trilemma concerning the convergence rate, statistical error rate, and regret is observed. With an optimal choice of step size we achieve an optimal regret of $O(\sqrt{T})$. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to the adaptive setting where the horizon T is unknown. In this case, we demonstrate that by employing different step sizes, we can attain a statistically optimal error rate along with a regret of $O(\log T)$. To validate our theoretical claims, we provide numerical results that corroborate our findings and support our assertions.
Unsupervised domain adaptation has recently emerged as an effective paradigm for generalizing deep neural networks to new target domains. However, there is still enormous potential to be tapped to reach the fully supervised performance. In this paper, we present a novel active learning strategy to assist knowledge transfer in the target domain, dubbed active domain adaptation. We start from an observation that energy-based models exhibit free energy biases when training (source) and test (target) data come from different distributions. Inspired by this inherent mechanism, we empirically reveal that a simple yet efficient energy-based sampling strategy sheds light on selecting the most valuable target samples than existing approaches requiring particular architectures or computation of the distances. Our algorithm, Energy-based Active Domain Adaptation (EADA), queries groups of targe data that incorporate both domain characteristic and instance uncertainty into every selection round. Meanwhile, by aligning the free energy of target data compact around the source domain via a regularization term, domain gap can be implicitly diminished. Through extensive experiments, we show that EADA surpasses state-of-the-art methods on well-known challenging benchmarks with substantial improvements, making it a useful option in the open world. Code is available at //github.com/BIT-DA/EADA.