Nonlinear tracking control enabling a dynamical system to track a desired trajectory is fundamental to robotics, serving a wide range of civil and defense applications. In control engineering, designing tracking control requires complete knowledge of the system model and equations. We develop a model-free, machine-learning framework to control a two-arm robotic manipulator using only partially observed states, where the controller is realized by reservoir computing. Stochastic input is exploited for training, which consists of the observed partial state vector as the first and its immediate future as the second component so that the neural machine regards the latter as the future state of the former. In the testing (deployment) phase, the immediate-future component is replaced by the desired observational vector from the reference trajectory. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the control framework using a variety of periodic and chaotic signals, and establish its robustness against measurement noise, disturbances, and uncertainties.
Stress prediction in porous materials and structures is challenging due to the high computational cost associated with direct numerical simulations. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based architectures have recently been proposed as surrogates to approximate and extrapolate the solution of such multiscale simulations. These methodologies are usually limited to 2D problems due to the high computational cost of 3D voxel based CNNs. We propose a novel geometric learning approach based on a Graph Neural Network (GNN) that efficiently deals with three-dimensional problems by performing convolutions over 2D surfaces only. Following our previous developments using pixel-based CNN, we train the GNN to automatically add local fine-scale stress corrections to an inexpensively computed coarse stress prediction in the porous structure of interest. Our method is Bayesian and generates densities of stress fields, from which credible intervals may be extracted. As a second scientific contribution, we propose to improve the extrapolation ability of our network by deploying a strategy of online physics-based corrections. Specifically, we condition the posterior predictions of our probabilistic predictions to satisfy partial equilibrium at the microscale, at the inference stage. This is done using an Ensemble Kalman algorithm, to ensure tractability of the Bayesian conditioning operation. We show that this innovative methodology allows us to alleviate the effect of undesirable biases observed in the outputs of the uncorrected GNN, and improves the accuracy of the predictions in general.
Quantum computing has recently emerged as a transformative technology. Yet, its promised advantages rely on efficiently translating quantum operations into viable physical realizations. In this work, we use generative machine learning models, specifically denoising diffusion models (DMs), to facilitate this transformation. Leveraging text-conditioning, we steer the model to produce desired quantum operations within gate-based quantum circuits. Notably, DMs allow to sidestep during training the exponential overhead inherent in the classical simulation of quantum dynamics -- a consistent bottleneck in preceding ML techniques. We demonstrate the model's capabilities across two tasks: entanglement generation and unitary compilation. The model excels at generating new circuits and supports typical DM extensions such as masking and editing to, for instance, align the circuit generation to the constraints of the targeted quantum device. Given their flexibility and generalization abilities, we envision DMs as pivotal in quantum circuit synthesis, enhancing both practical applications but also insights into theoretical quantum computation.
Interior point methods (IPMs) that handle nonconvex constraints such as IPOPT, KNITRO and LOQO have had enormous practical success. We consider IPMs in the setting where the objective and constraints are thrice differentiable, and have Lipschitz first and second derivatives on the feasible region. We provide an IPM that, starting from a strictly feasible point, finds a $\mu$-approximate Fritz John point by solving $\mathcal{O}( \mu^{-7/4})$ trust-region subproblems. For IPMs that handle nonlinear constraints, this result represents the first iteration bound with a polynomial dependence on $1/\mu$. We also show how to use our method to find scaled-KKT points starting from an infeasible solution and improve on existing complexity bounds.
We propose a new framework for the simultaneous inference of monotone and smoothly time-varying functions under complex temporal dynamics utilizing the monotone rearrangement and the nonparametric estimation. We capitalize the Gaussian approximation for the nonparametric monotone estimator and construct the asymptotically correct simultaneous confidence bands (SCBs) by carefully designed bootstrap methods. We investigate two general and practical scenarios. The first is the simultaneous inference of monotone smooth trends from moderately high-dimensional time series, and the proposed algorithm has been employed for the joint inference of temperature curves from multiple areas. Specifically, most existing methods are designed for a single monotone smooth trend. In such cases, our proposed SCB empirically exhibits the narrowest width among existing approaches while maintaining confidence levels, and has been used for testing several hypotheses tailored to global warming. The second scenario involves simultaneous inference of monotone and smoothly time-varying regression coefficients in time-varying coefficient linear models. The proposed algorithm has been utilized for testing the impact of sunshine duration on temperature which is believed to be increasing by the increasingly severe greenhouse effect. The validity of the proposed methods has been justified in theory as well as by extensive simulations.
In prediction settings where data are collected over time, it is often of interest to understand both the importance of variables for predicting the response at each time point and the importance summarized over the time series. Building on recent advances in estimation and inference for variable importance measures, we define summaries of variable importance trajectories. These measures can be estimated and the same approaches for inference can be applied regardless of the choice of the algorithm(s) used to estimate the prediction function. We propose a nonparametric efficient estimation and inference procedure as well as a null hypothesis testing procedure that are valid even when complex machine learning tools are used for prediction. Through simulations, we demonstrate that our proposed procedures have good operating characteristics, and we illustrate their use by investigating the longitudinal importance of risk factors for suicide attempt.
Lyapunov functions play a vital role in the context of control theory for nonlinear dynamical systems. Besides its classical use for stability analysis, Lyapunov functions also arise in iterative schemes for computing optimal feedback laws such as the well-known policy iteration. In this manuscript, the focus is on the Lyapunov function of a nonlinear autonomous finite-dimensional dynamical system which will be rewritten as an infinite-dimensional linear system using the Koopman or composition operator. Since this infinite-dimensional system has the structure of a weak-* continuous semigroup, in a specially weighted $\mathrm{L}^p$-space one can establish a connection between the solution of an operator Lyapunov equation and the desired Lyapunov function. It will be shown that the solution to this operator equation attains a rapid eigenvalue decay which justifies finite rank approximations with numerical methods. The potential benefit for numerical computations will be demonstrated with two short examples.
We introduce PUNQ, a novel quantum programming language with quantum control, which features higher-order programs that can be superposed, enabling quantum control via quantum conditionals. Our language boasts a type system guaranteeing both unitarity and polynomial-time normalization. Unitarity is achieved by using a special modality for superpositions while requiring orthogonality among superposed terms. Polynomial-time normalization is achieved using a linear-logic-based type discipline employing Barber and Plotkin duality along with a specific modality to account for potential duplications. This type discipline also guarantees that derived values have polynomial size. PUNQ seamlessly combines the two modalities: quantum circuit programs uphold unitarity, and all programs are evaluated in polynomial time, ensuring their feasibility.
We propose a new variable selection procedure for a functional linear model with multiple scalar responses and multiple functional predictors. This method is based on basis expansions of the involved functional predictors and coefficients that lead to a multivariate linear regression model. Then a criterion by means of which the variable selection problem reduces to that of estimating a suitable set is introduced. Estimation of this set is achieved by using appropriate penalizations of estimates of this criterion, so leading to our proposal. A simulation study that permits to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and to compare it with existing methods is given.
Most state-of-the-art machine learning techniques revolve around the optimisation of loss functions. Defining appropriate loss functions is therefore critical to successfully solving problems in this field. We present a survey of the most commonly used loss functions for a wide range of different applications, divided into classification, regression, ranking, sample generation and energy based modelling. Overall, we introduce 33 different loss functions and we organise them into an intuitive taxonomy. Each loss function is given a theoretical backing and we describe where it is best used. This survey aims to provide a reference of the most essential loss functions for both beginner and advanced machine learning practitioners.
Deep learning is usually described as an experiment-driven field under continuous criticizes of lacking theoretical foundations. This problem has been partially fixed by a large volume of literature which has so far not been well organized. This paper reviews and organizes the recent advances in deep learning theory. The literature is categorized in six groups: (1) complexity and capacity-based approaches for analyzing the generalizability of deep learning; (2) stochastic differential equations and their dynamic systems for modelling stochastic gradient descent and its variants, which characterize the optimization and generalization of deep learning, partially inspired by Bayesian inference; (3) the geometrical structures of the loss landscape that drives the trajectories of the dynamic systems; (4) the roles of over-parameterization of deep neural networks from both positive and negative perspectives; (5) theoretical foundations of several special structures in network architectures; and (6) the increasingly intensive concerns in ethics and security and their relationships with generalizability.