pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Bilinear Data-Driven Min-Max MPC: Designing Rational Controllers via Sum-of-squares Optimization
Authors: Yifan Xie, Julian Berberich, Robin Strässer, Frank Allgöwer
Date: 2025-04-07 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control

We propose a data-driven min-max model predictive control (MPC) scheme to control unknown discrete-time bilinear systems. Based on a sequence of noisy input-state data, we state a set-membership representation for the unknown system dynamics. Then, we derive a sum-of-squares (SOS) program that minimizes an upper bound on the worst-case cost over all bilinear systems consistent with the data. As a crucial technical ingredient, the SOS program involves a rational controller parameterization to improve feasibility and tractability. We prove that the resulting data-driven MPC scheme ensures closed-loop stability and constraint satisfaction for the unknown bilinear system. We demonstrate the practicality of the proposed scheme in a numerical example.
Dynamic hysteresis model of grain-oriented ferromagnetic material using neural operators
Authors: Ziqing Guo, Binh H. Nguyen, Hamed Hamzehbahmani, Ruth V. Sabariego
Date: 2025-04-07 00:00:00
Tasks: Data Augmentation

Accurately capturing the behavior of grain-oriented (GO) ferromagnetic materials is crucial for modeling the electromagnetic devices. In this paper, neural operator models, including Fourier neural operator (FNO), U-net combined FNO (U-FNO) and Deep operator network (DeepONet) are used to approximate the dynamic hysteresis models of GO steel. Furthermore, two types of data augmentation strategies including cyclic rolling augmentation and Gaussian data augmentation (GDA) are implemented to enhance the learning ability of models. With the inclusion of these augmentation techniques, the optimized models account for not only the peak values of the magnetic flux density but also the effects of different frequencies and phase shifts. The accuracy of all models is assessed using the L2-norm of the test data and the mean relative error (MRE) of calculated core losses. Each model performs well in different scenarios, but FNO consistently achieves the best performance across all cases.
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multiple Anesthetics Collaborative Control
Authors: Huijie Li, Yide Yu, Si Shi, Anmin Hu, Jian Huo, Wei Lin, Chaoran Wu, Wuman Luo
Date: 2025-04-07 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Reinforcement Learning, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning

Automated control of personalized multiple anesthetics in clinical Total Intravenous Anesthesia (TIVA) is crucial yet challenging. Current systems, including target-controlled infusion (TCI) and closed-loop systems, either rely on relatively static pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models or focus on single anesthetic control, limiting personalization and collaborative control. To address these issues, we propose a novel framework, Value Decomposition Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning (VD-MADRL). VD-MADRL optimizes the collaboration between two anesthetics propofol (Agent I) and remifentanil (Agent II). And It uses a Markov Game (MG) to identify optimal actions among heterogeneous agents. We employ various value function decomposition methods to resolve the credit allocation problem and enhance collaborative control. We also introduce a multivariate environment model based on random forest (RF) for anesthesia state simulation. Additionally, a data resampling and alignment technique ensures synchronized trajectory data. Our experiments on general and thoracic surgery datasets show that VD-MADRL performs better than human experience. It improves dose precision and keeps anesthesia states stable, providing great clinical value.
A Simultaneous Approach for Training Neural Differential-Algebraic Systems of Equations
Authors: Laurens R. Lueg, Victor Alves, Daniel Schicksnus, John R. Kitchin, Carl D. Laird, Lorenz T. Biegler
Date: 2025-04-07 00:00:00

Scientific machine learning is an emerging field that broadly describes the combination of scientific computing and machine learning to address challenges in science and engineering. Within the context of differential equations, this has produced highly influential methods, such as neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs). Recent works extend this line of research to consider neural differential-algebraic systems of equations (DAEs), where some unknown relationships within the DAE are learned from data. Training neural DAEs, similarly to neural ODEs, is computationally expensive, as it requires the solution of a DAE for every parameter update. Further, the rigorous consideration of algebraic constraints is difficult within common deep learning training algorithms such as stochastic gradient descent. In this work, we apply the simultaneous approach to neural DAE problems, resulting in a fully discretized nonlinear optimization problem, which is solved to local optimality and simultaneously obtains the neural network parameters and the solution to the corresponding DAE. We extend recent work demonstrating the simultaneous approach for neural ODEs, by presenting a general framework to solve neural DAEs, with explicit consideration of hybrid models, where some components of the DAE are known, e.g. physics-informed constraints. Furthermore, we present a general strategy for improving the performance and convergence of the nonlinear programming solver, based on solving an auxiliary problem for initialization and approximating Hessian terms. We achieve promising results in terms of accuracy, model generalizability and computational cost, across different problem settings such as sparse data, unobserved states and multiple trajectories. Lastly, we provide several promising future directions to improve the scalability and robustness of our approach.
Distributed Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming for Mixed-Traffic Intersection Control
Authors: Viet-Anh Le, Andreas A. Malikopoulos
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00

In this paper, we present a distributed algorithm utilizing the proximal alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) in conjunction with sequential constraint tightening to address mixed-integer quadratic programming (MIQP) problems associated with traffic light systems and connected automated vehicles (CAVs) in mixed-traffic intersections. We formulate a comprehensive MIQP model aimed at optimizing the coordination of traffic light systems and CAVs, thereby fully capitalizing on the advantages of CAV integration under conditions of high penetration rates. To effectively approximate the intricate multi-agent MIQP challenges, we develop a distributed algorithm that employs proximal ADMM for solving the convex relaxation of the MIQP while systematically tightening the constraint coefficients to uphold integrality requirements. The performance of our control framework and the efficacy of the distributed algorithm are rigorously validated through a series of simulations conducted across varying penetration rates and traffic volumes.
AI in a vat: Fundamental limits of efficient world modelling for agent sandboxing and interpretability
Authors: Fernando Rosas, Alexander Boyd, Manuel Baltieri
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00
Tasks: AI Agent

Recent work proposes using world models to generate controlled virtual environments in which AI agents can be tested before deployment to ensure their reliability and safety. However, accurate world models often have high computational demands that can severely restrict the scope and depth of such assessments. Inspired by the classic `brain in a vat' thought experiment, here we investigate ways of simplifying world models that remain agnostic to the AI agent under evaluation. By following principles from computational mechanics, our approach reveals a fundamental trade-off in world model construction between efficiency and interpretability, demonstrating that no single world model can optimise all desirable characteristics. Building on this trade-off, we identify procedures to build world models that either minimise memory requirements, delineate the boundaries of what is learnable, or allow tracking causes of undesirable outcomes. In doing so, this work establishes fundamental limits in world modelling, leading to actionable guidelines that inform core design choices related to effective agent evaluation.
Persistently Exciting Data-Driven Model Predictive Control
Authors: Lucca Heinze Faro, Yuanbo Nie, Paul Trodden
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00
Tasks: model, Model Predictive Control

Persistence of excitation (PE) of the system input is a fundamental requirement for the successful operation of data-driven model predictive control, as it ensures that the input--output data contains sufficient information about the underlying system dynamics. Nonetheless, this property is usually assumed rather than guaranteed. This paper introduces a novel data-driven predictive control formulation that maintains persistence of excitation. The technical development that permits this is the characterization of the nonexciting input set i.e. the set of inputs that lead to loss of PE, and the consequent derivation of a pair of disjoint, linear inequality constraints on the input that, if satisfied, maintain PE. When used in the predictive control formulation, these constraints lead to a mixed-integer optimal control problem with a single binary variable or, equivalently, a pair of disjoint quadratic programming problems that can be efficiently and reliably solved in parallel. Numerical examples show how these constraints are able to maintain persistence of excitation on the input during the controller's operation.
Confidence-Aware Learning Optimal Terminal Guidance via Gaussian Process Regression
Authors: Han Wang, Donghe Chen, Tengjie Zheng, Lin Cheng, Shengping Gong
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency, regression

Modern aerospace guidance systems demand rigorous constraint satisfaction, optimal performance, and computational efficiency. Traditional analytical methods struggle to simultaneously satisfy these requirements. While data driven methods have shown promise in learning optimal guidance strategy, challenges still persist in generating well-distributed optimal dataset and ensuring the reliability and trustworthiness of learned strategies. This paper presents a confidence-aware learning framework that addresses these limitations. First, a region-controllable optimal data generation method is proposed leveraging Hamiltonian state transition matrices, enabling efficient generation of optimal trajectories of specified data distribution. Then, to obtain a lightweight and effective dataset for efficient strategy learning, an error-distribution-smoothing method is incorporated to employ data filtering, which reduces dataset size by almost 90% while preserving prediction accuracy. To assess the operational domain of the learned strategy, a confidence-aware learning guidance strategy is proposed based on gaussian process regression, achieving constraint satisfaction even beyond training distributions. Numerical simulations validate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed learning framework in terms of data generation, data filtering and strategy learning.
Fine Tuning a Data-Driven Estimator
Authors: Braghadeesh Lakshminarayanan, Cristian R. Rojas
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00

In recent years, many industries have developed high-fidelity simulators, such as digital twins, to represent physical systems, although their parameters must be calibrated to accurately reflect the true system. This need has paved the way for the creation of data-driven parameter estimators to calibrate such simulators. These estimators are constructed by generating synthetic observations for various parameter settings of the simulator and then establishing a mapping from these observations to the corresponding parameter settings using supervised learning. However, if the true system's parameters fall outside the range of the sampled parameter set used to construct the mapping, the resulting predictions will suffer from out-of-distribution (OOD) issues. In this paper, we introduce a fine-tuning approach for a specific data-driven estimator, known as the Two-Stage estimator, designed to mitigate the problems associated with OOD and improve its accuracy.
Distributed Nash Equilibrium Seeking in Coalition Games for Uncertain Euler-Lagrange Systems With Application to USV Swarm Confrontation
Authors: Cheng Yuwen, Guanghui Wen, Jialing Zhou, Meng Luan, TingWen Huang
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00

In this paper, a coalition game with local and coupling constraints is studied for uncertain Euler-Lagrange (EL) systems subject to disturbances with unknown bounds. In the coalition game, each agent collaborates with other agents within the same coalition to optimize its coalition's cost function while simultaneously competing against agents in other coalitions. Under a distributed framework where each agent has access only to its own action, cost function, and constraint parameters, a distributed strategy is proposed to seek the Nash equilibrium (NE). By combining adaptive methods and sign functions, model uncertainties and disturbances with unknown bounds in the EL system are compensated and suppressed, respectively. Furthermore, an integration of adaptive methods and consensus protocols is employed to update the Lagrange multipliers of both local and coupling constraints. A dynamic average consensus is employed to estimate the gradient of coalition function, while the leader-following protocol is adopted to estimate the actions of other agents. By leveraging Lyapunov theory, the NE is proven to be asymptotically stable. Moreover, an unmanned surface vehicle swarm confrontation is meticulously modeled and analyzed in the coalition game framework. A diverse array of tasks, including formation, encirclement, and interception, are systematically formulated. A numerical example demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Redefining Information Freshness: AoGI for Generative AI in 6G Networks
Authors: Yuquan Xiao, Qinghe Du, Wenchi Cheng, George K. Karagiannidis, Arumugam Nallanathan, Mohsen Guizani
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is playing an increasingly important role in enriching and facilitating human life by generating various useful information, of which real-time GenAI is a significant part and has great potential in applications such as real-time robot control, automated driving, augmented reality, etc. There are a variety of information updating processes in real-time GenAI, and the age of information (AoI) is an effective metric for evaluating information freshness. However, due to the diversity and generativity of information in real-time GenAI, it may be incompatible to directly use existing information aging metrics to assess its timeliness. In this article, we introduce a new concept called Age of Generative Information (AoGI) to evaluate the freshness of generative information, which takes into account the information delay caused not only by sampling and transmission, but also by computation. Furthermore, since real-time GenAI services are often supported by mobile-edge-cloud (MEC) collaborative computing in 6G networks and some of the generated information is privacy sensitive, it is recommended that the identities of edge and cloud should always be verified in a zero-trust manner. We introduce the concept of Age of Trust (AoT) to characterise the decay process of their trust level. We also discuss the optimisations of these evolved information aging metrics, focusing on the impact of dynamic external conditions, including wireless environments and limited computational resources. Finally, we highlight several open challenges in providing timeliness guarantees for real-time GenAI services.
Data-Driven Reachability Analysis for Piecewise Affine Systems
Authors: Peng Xie, Johannes Betz, Davide M. Raimondo, Amr Alanwar
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00
Tasks: Autonomous Vehicles

Hybrid systems play a crucial role in modeling real-world applications where discrete and continuous dynamics interact, including autonomous vehicles, power systems, and traffic networks. Safety verification for these systems requires determining whether system states can enter unsafe regions under given initial conditions and uncertainties, a question directly addressed by reachability analysis. However, hybrid systems present unique difficulties because their state space is divided into multiple regions with distinct dynamic models, causing traditional data-driven methods to produce inadequate over-approximations of reachable sets at region boundaries where dynamics change abruptly. This paper introduces a novel approach using hybrid zonotopes for data-driven reachability analysis of piecewise affine systems. Our method addresses the boundary transition problem by developing computational algorithms that calculate the family of set models guaranteed to contain the true system trajectories. Additionally, we extend and evaluate three methods for set-based estimation that account for input-output data with measurement noise.
ChronoSync: A Decentralized Chronometer Synchronization Protocol for Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Federico M. Zegers, Sean Phillips
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00

This work presents a decentralized time synchronization algorithm for multi-agent systems. Each agent possesses two clocks, a hardware clock that is perturbed by environmental phenomena (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, g forces, etc.) and a steerable software clock that inherits the perturbations affecting the hardware clock. Under these disturbances and the independent time kept by the hardware clocks, our consensus-based controller enables all agents to steer their software-defined clocks into practical synchronization while achieving a common user-defined clock drift. Furthermore, we treat the drift of each hardware clock as an unknown parameter, which our algorithm can accurately estimate. The coupling of the agents is modeled by a connected, undirected, and static graph. However, each agent possesses a timer mechanism that determines when to broadcast a sample of its software time and update its own software-time estimate. Hence, communication between agents can be directed, intermittent, and asynchronous. The closed-loop dynamics of the ensemble is modeled using a hybrid system, where a Lyapunov-based stability analysis demonstrates that a set encoding the time synchronization and clock drift estimation objectives is globally practically exponentially stable. The performance suggested by the theoretical development is confirmed in simulation.
Economic Battery Storage Dispatch with Deep Reinforcement Learning from Rule-Based Demonstrations
Authors: Manuel Sage, Martin Staniszewski, Yaoyao Fiona Zhao
Date: 2025-04-06 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Reinforcement Learning

The application of deep reinforcement learning algorithms to economic battery dispatch problems has significantly increased recently. However, optimizing battery dispatch over long horizons can be challenging due to delayed rewards. In our experiments we observe poor performance of popular actor-critic algorithms when trained on yearly episodes with hourly resolution. To address this, we propose an approach extending soft actor-critic (SAC) with learning from demonstrations. The special feature of our approach is that, due to the absence of expert demonstrations, the demonstration data is generated through simple, rule-based policies. We conduct a case study on a grid-connected microgrid and use if-then-else statements based on the wholesale price of electricity to collect demonstrations. These are stored in a separate replay buffer and sampled with linearly decaying probability along with the agent's own experiences. Despite these minimal modifications and the imperfections in the demonstration data, the results show a drastic performance improvement regarding both sample efficiency and final rewards. We further show that the proposed method reliably outperforms the demonstrator and is robust to the choice of rule, as long as the rule is sufficient to guide early training into the right direction.
Optimal Teaming for Coordination with Bounded Rationality via Convex Optimization
Authors: Zhewei Wang, Olugbenga Moses Anubi, Marcos M. Vasconcelos
Date: 2025-04-05 00:00:00

Teaming is the process of establishing connections among agents within a system to enable collaboration toward achieving a collective goal. This paper examines teaming in the context of a network of agents learning to coordinate with bounded rationality. In our framework, the team structure is represented via a weighted graph, and the agents use log-linear learning. We formulate the design of the graph's weight matrix as a convex optimization problem whose objective is to maximize the probability of learning a Nash equilibrium while minimizing a connectivity cost. Despite its convexity, solving this optimization problem is computationally challenging, as the objective function involves the summation over the action profile space, which grows exponentially with the number of agents. Leveraging the underlying symmetry and convexity properties of the problem, when there are no sparsity constraints, we prove that there exists an optimal solution corresponding to a uniformly weighted graph, simplifying to a one-dimensional convex optimization problem. Additionally, we show that the optimal weight decreases monotonically with the agent's rationality, implying that when the agents become more rational the optimal team requires less connectivity.
Cyber Insurance Design for Load Variation and Load Curtailment in Distribution Grids
Authors: Shijie Pan, Subhash Lakshminarayana, Charalambos Konstantinou
Date: 2025-04-05 00:00:00

A growing number of renewable energy resources (RES) is continuously integrated into power systems contributing towards the green energy and net zero transition. However, the uncertainties of RES generation and load variations often lead to potentially high operational costs. Furthermore, added threats of cyber-attacks such as load-altering attacks (LAAs) via distributed energy resource/load interfaces can lead to substantial load variations. In this paper, we propose a cyber insurance framework to mitigate excessive expenses in load variation conditions while considering a renewable-rich grid. We investigate how operational costs and load curtailments can be influenced due to load variations by solving a bi-level optimization problem and performing Monte Carlo simulations. We use the semi-Markov process (SMP) to estimate the probability of extreme situations that the cyber insurance covers, whose premium and coverage are designed based on its value at risk and tail value at risk. A modified IEEE-118 test bus system considering PV generations, battery storage, and energy market interaction, along with a load curtailment strategy, is used to evaluate the proposed framework. Results show that load variations of up to 30% can lead to doubling the daily operational cost, demonstrating the feasibility of using a cyber insurance policy to hedge against financial risk.