pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Intelligent Mobile AI-Generated Content Services via Interactive Prompt Engineering and Dynamic Service Provisioning
Authors: Yinqiu Liu, Ruichen Zhang, Jiacheng Wang, Dusit Niyato, Xianbin Wang, Dong In Kim, Hongyang Du
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Reinforcement Learning, Large Language Model, Prompt Engineering, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning

Due to massive computational demands of large generative models, AI-Generated Content (AIGC) can organize collaborative Mobile AIGC Service Providers (MASPs) at network edges to provide ubiquitous and customized content generation for resource-constrained users. However, such a paradigm faces two significant challenges: 1) raw prompts (i.e., the task description from users) often lead to poor generation quality due to users' lack of experience with specific AIGC models, and 2) static service provisioning fails to efficiently utilize computational and communication resources given the heterogeneity of AIGC tasks. To address these challenges, we propose an intelligent mobile AIGC service scheme. Firstly, we develop an interactive prompt engineering mechanism that leverages a Large Language Model (LLM) to generate customized prompt corpora and employs Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) for policy imitation through small-scale expert demonstrations. Secondly, we formulate a dynamic mobile AIGC service provisioning problem that jointly optimizes the number of inference trials and transmission power allocation. Then, we propose the Diffusion-Enhanced Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (D3PG) algorithm to solve the problem. By incorporating the diffusion process into Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) architecture, the environment exploration capability can be improved, thus adapting to varying mobile AIGC scenarios. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our prompt engineering approach improves single-round generation success probability by 6.3 times, while D3PG increases the user service experience by 67.8% compared to baseline DRL approaches.
Integrating Language Models for Enhanced Network State Monitoring in DRL-Based SFC Provisioning
Authors: Parisa Fard Moshiri, Murat Arda Onsu, Poonam Lohan, Burak Kantarci, Emil Janulewicz
Date: 2025-02-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Deep Reinforcement Learning

Efficient Service Function Chain (SFC) provisioning and Virtual Network Function (VNF) placement are critical for enhancing network performance in modern architectures such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). While Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) aids decision-making in dynamic network environments, its reliance on structured inputs and predefined rules limits adaptability in unforeseen scenarios. Additionally, incorrect actions by a DRL agent may require numerous training iterations to correct, potentially reinforcing suboptimal policies and degrading performance. This paper integrates DRL with Language Models (LMs), specifically Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and DistilBERT, to enhance network management. By feeding final VNF allocations from DRL into the LM, the system can process and respond to queries related to SFCs, DCs, and VNFs, enabling real-time insights into resource utilization, bottleneck detection, and future demand planning. The LMs are fine-tuned to our domain-specific dataset using Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA). Results show that BERT outperforms DistilBERT with a lower test loss (0.28 compared to 0.36) and higher confidence (0.83 compared to 0.74), though BERT requires approximately 46% more processing time.
Leveraging Uncertainty Estimation for Efficient LLM Routing
Authors: Tuo Zhang, Asal Mehradfar, Dimitrios Dimitriadis, Salman Avestimehr
Date: 2025-02-16 00:00:00
Tasks: GSM8K, MMLU

Deploying large language models (LLMs) in edge-cloud environments requires an efficient routing strategy to balance cost and response quality. Traditional approaches prioritize either human-preference data or accuracy metrics from benchmark datasets as routing criteria, but these methods suffer from rigidity and subjectivity. Moreover, existing routing frameworks primarily focus on accuracy and cost, neglecting response quality from a human preference perspective. In this work, we propose the Confidence-Driven LLM Router, a novel framework that leverages uncertainty estimation to optimize routing decisions. To comprehensively assess routing performance, we evaluate both system cost efficiency and response quality. In particular, we introduce the novel use of LLM-as-a-Judge to simulate human rating preferences, providing the first systematic assessment of response quality across different routing strategies. Extensive experiments on MT-Bench, GSM8K, and MMLU demonstrate that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art routing methods, achieving superior response quality while maintaining cost efficiency.
From Layers to States: A State Space Model Perspective to Deep Neural Network Layer Dynamics
Authors: Qinshuo Liu, Weiqin Zhao, Wei Huang, Yanwen Fang, Lequan Yu, Guodong Li
Date: 2025-02-12 00:00:00
Tasks: image-classification, Image Classification, State Space Models

The depth of neural networks is a critical factor for their capability, with deeper models often demonstrating superior performance. Motivated by this, significant efforts have been made to enhance layer aggregation - reusing information from previous layers to better extract features at the current layer, to improve the representational power of deep neural networks. However, previous works have primarily addressed this problem from a discrete-state perspective which is not suitable as the number of network layers grows. This paper novelly treats the outputs from layers as states of a continuous process and considers leveraging the state space model (SSM) to design the aggregation of layers in very deep neural networks. Moreover, inspired by its advancements in modeling long sequences, the Selective State Space Models (S6) is employed to design a new module called Selective State Space Model Layer Aggregation (S6LA). This module aims to combine traditional CNN or transformer architectures within a sequential framework, enhancing the representational capabilities of state-of-the-art vision networks. Extensive experiments show that S6LA delivers substantial improvements in both image classification and detection tasks, highlighting the potential of integrating SSMs with contemporary deep learning techniques.
Evolutionary Power-Aware Routing in VANETs using Monte-Carlo Simulation
Authors: J. Toutouh, S. Nesmachnow, E. Alba
Date: 2025-02-01 00:00:00

This work addresses the reduction of power consumption of the AODV routing protocol in vehicular networks as an optimization problem. Nowadays, network designers focus on energy-aware communication protocols, specially to deploy wireless networks. Here, we introduce an automatic method to search for energy-efficient AODV configurations by using an evolutionary algorithm and parallel Monte-Carlo simulations to improve the accuracy of the evaluation of tentative solutions. The experimental results demonstrate that significant power consumption improvements over the standard configuration can be attained, with no noteworthy loss in the quality of service.
Biases in Edge Language Models: Detection, Analysis, and Mitigation
Authors: Vinamra Sharma, Danilo Pietro Pau, José Cano
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Fairness, Raspberry Pi 4

The integration of large language models (LLMs) on low-power edge devices such as Raspberry Pi, known as edge language models (ELMs), has introduced opportunities for more personalized, secure, and low-latency language intelligence that is accessible to all. However, the resource constraints inherent in edge devices and the lack of robust ethical safeguards in language models raise significant concerns about fairness, accountability, and transparency in model output generation. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of text-based bias across language model deployments on edge, cloud, and desktop environments, aiming to evaluate how deployment settings influence model fairness. Specifically, we examined an optimized Llama-2 model running on a Raspberry Pi 4; GPT 4o-mini, Gemini-1.5-flash, and Grok-beta models running on cloud servers; and Gemma2 and Mistral models running on a MacOS desktop machine. Our results demonstrate that Llama-2 running on Raspberry Pi 4 is 43.23% and 21.89% more prone to showing bias over time compared to models running on the desktop and cloud-based environments. We also propose the implementation of a feedback loop, a mechanism that iteratively adjusts model behavior based on previous outputs, where predefined constraint weights are applied layer-by-layer during inference, allowing the model to correct bias patterns, resulting in 79.28% reduction in model bias.
KernelBench: Can LLMs Write Efficient GPU Kernels?
Authors: Anne Ouyang, Simon Guo, Simran Arora, Alex L. Zhang, William Hu, Christopher Ré, Azalia Mirhoseini
Date: 2025-02-14 00:00:00
Tasks: GPU

Efficient GPU kernels are crucial for building performant machine learning architectures, but writing them is a time-consuming challenge that requires significant expertise; therefore, we explore using language models (LMs) to automate kernel generation. We introduce KernelBench, an open-source framework for evaluating LMs' ability to write fast and correct kernels on a suite of 250 carefully selected PyTorch ML workloads. KernelBench represents a real-world engineering environment and making progress on the introduced benchmark directly translates to faster practical kernels. We introduce a new evaluation metric fast_p, which measures the percentage of generated kernels that are functionally correct and offer a speedup greater than an adjustable threshold p over baseline. Our experiments across various state-of-the-art models and test-time methods show that frontier reasoning models perform the best out of the box but still fall short overall, matching the PyTorch baseline in less than 20% of the cases. While we show that results can improve by leveraging execution and profiling feedback during iterative refinement, KernelBench remains a challenging benchmark, with its difficulty increasing as we raise speedup threshold p.
Lifetime Analysis of Circular $k$-out-of-$n$: G Balanced Systems in a Shock Environment
Authors: Seung Min Baik, Yongkyu Cho
Date: 2025-02-13 00:00:00

This paper examines the lifetime distributions of circular $k$-out-of-$n$: G balanced systems operating in a shock environment, providing a unified framework for both discrete- and continuous-time perspectives. The system remains functioning only if at least $k$ operating units satisfy a predefined balance condition (BC). Building on this concept, we demonstrate that the shock numbers to failure (SNTF) follow a discrete phase-type distribution by modeling the system's stochastic dynamics with a finite Markov chain and applying BC-based state space consolidation. Additionally, we develop a computationally efficient method for directly computing multi-step transition probabilities of the underlying Markov chain. Next, assuming the inter-arrival times between shocks follow a phase-type distribution, we establish that the continuous-time system lifetime, or the time to system failure (TTF), also follows a phase-type distribution with different parameters. Extensive numerical studies illustrate the impact of key parameters-such as the number of units, minimum requirement of the number of operating units, individual unit reliability, choice of balance condition, and inter-shock time distribution-on the SNTF, TTF, and their variability.
Building A Proof-Oriented Programmer That Is 64% Better Than GPT-4o Under Data Scarcity
Authors: Dylan Zhang, Justin Wang, Tianran Sun
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Data Augmentation

Existing LMs struggle with proof-oriented programming due to data scarcity, which manifest in two key ways: (1) a lack of sufficient corpora for proof-oriented programming languages such as F*, and (2) the absence of large-scale, project-level proof-oriented implementations that can teach the model the intricate reasoning process when performing proof-oriented programming. We present the first on synthetic data augmentation for project level proof oriented programming for both generation and repair. Our method addresses data scarcity by synthesizing basic proof-oriented programming problems for proficiency in that language; incorporating diverse coding data for reasoning capability elicitation and creating new proofs and repair data within existing repositories. This approach enables language models to both synthesize and repair proofs for function- and repository-level code. We show that our fine-tuned 14B parameter model, PoPilot, can exceed the performance of the models that outperforms GPT-4o in project-level proof-oriented programming by 64% relative margin, and can improve GPT-4o's performance by 54% by repairing its outputs over GPT-4o's self-repair.
Learning Getting-Up Policies for Real-World Humanoid Robots
Authors: Xialin He, Runpei Dong, Zixuan Chen, Saurabh Gupta
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00

Automatic fall recovery is a crucial prerequisite before humanoid robots can be reliably deployed. Hand-designing controllers for getting up is difficult because of the varied configurations a humanoid can end up in after a fall and the challenging terrains humanoid robots are expected to operate on. This paper develops a learning framework to produce controllers that enable humanoid robots to get up from varying configurations on varying terrains. Unlike previous successful applications of learning to humanoid locomotion, the getting-up task involves complex contact patterns (which necessitates accurately modeling of the collision geometry) and sparser rewards. We address these challenges through a two-phase approach that induces a curriculum. The first stage focuses on discovering a good getting-up trajectory under minimal constraints on smoothness or speed / torque limits. The second stage then refines the discovered motions into deployable (i.e. smooth and slow) motions that are robust to variations in initial configuration and terrains. We find these innovations enable a real-world G1 humanoid robot to get up from two main situations that we considered: a) lying face up and b) lying face down, both tested on flat, deformable, slippery surfaces and slopes (e.g., sloppy grass and snowfield). This is one of the first successful demonstrations of learned getting-up policies for human-sized humanoid robots in the real world.
A Monocular Event-Camera Motion Capture System
Authors: Leonard Bauersfeld, Davide Scaramuzza
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Object

Motion capture systems are a widespread tool in research to record ground-truth poses of objects. Commercial systems use reflective markers attached to the object and then triangulate pose of the object from multiple camera views. Consequently, the object must be visible to multiple cameras which makes such multi-view motion capture systems unsuited for deployments in narrow, confined spaces (e.g. ballast tanks of ships). In this technical report we describe a monocular event-camera motion capture system which overcomes this limitation and is ideally suited for narrow spaces. Instead of passive markers it relies on active, blinking LED markers such that each marker can be uniquely identified from the blinking frequency. The markers are placed at known locations on the tracking object. We then solve the PnP (perspective-n-points) problem to obtain the position and orientation of the object. The developed system has millimeter accuracy, millisecond latency and we demonstrate that its state estimate can be used to fly a small, agile quadrotor.
pySLAM: An Open-Source, Modular, and Extensible Framework for SLAM
Authors: Luigi Freda
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Depth Estimation, Depth Prediction, Visual Odometry

pySLAM is an open-source Python framework for Visual SLAM, supporting monocular, stereo, and RGB-D cameras. It provides a flexible interface for integrating both classical and modern local features, making it adaptable to various SLAM tasks. The framework includes different loop closure methods, a volumetric reconstruction pipeline, and support for depth prediction models. Additionally, it offers a suite of tools for visual odometry and SLAM applications. Designed for both beginners and experienced researchers, pySLAM encourages community contributions, fostering collaborative development in the field of Visual SLAM.
VLP: Vision-Language Preference Learning for Embodied Manipulation
Authors: Runze Liu, Chenjia Bai, Jiafei Lyu, Shengjie Sun, Yali Du, Xiu Li
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Reinforcement Learning (RL)

Reward engineering is one of the key challenges in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Preference-based RL effectively addresses this issue by learning from human feedback. However, it is both time-consuming and expensive to collect human preference labels. In this paper, we propose a novel \textbf{V}ision-\textbf{L}anguage \textbf{P}reference learning framework, named \textbf{VLP}, which learns a vision-language preference model to provide preference feedback for embodied manipulation tasks. To achieve this, we define three types of language-conditioned preferences and construct a vision-language preference dataset, which contains versatile implicit preference orders without human annotations. The preference model learns to extract language-related features, and then serves as a preference annotator in various downstream tasks. The policy can be learned according to the annotated preferences via reward learning or direct policy optimization. Extensive empirical results on simulated embodied manipulation tasks demonstrate that our method provides accurate preferences and generalizes to unseen tasks and unseen language instructions, outperforming the baselines by a large margin.
Stonefish: Supporting Machine Learning Research in Marine Robotics
Authors: Michele Grimaldi, Patryk Cieslak, Eduardo Ochoa, Vibhav Bharti, Hayat Rajani, Ignacio Carlucho, Maria Koskinopoulou, Yvan R. Petillot, Nuno Gracias
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Optical Flow Estimation

Simulations are highly valuable in marine robotics, offering a cost-effective and controlled environment for testing in the challenging conditions of underwater and surface operations. Given the high costs and logistical difficulties of real-world trials, simulators capable of capturing the operational conditions of subsea environments have become key in developing and refining algorithms for remotely-operated and autonomous underwater vehicles. This paper highlights recent enhancements to the Stonefish simulator, an advanced open-source platform supporting development and testing of marine robotics solutions. Key updates include a suite of additional sensors, such as an event-based camera, a thermal camera, and an optical flow camera, as well as, visual light communication, support for tethered operations, improved thruster modelling, more flexible hydrodynamics, and enhanced sonar accuracy. These developments and an automated annotation tool significantly bolster Stonefish's role in marine robotics research, especially in the field of machine learning, where training data with a known ground truth is hard or impossible to collect.
Does Knowledge About Perceptual Uncertainty Help an Agent in Automated Driving?
Authors: Natalie Grabowsky, Annika Mütze, Joshua Wendland, Nils Jansen, Matthias Rottmann
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Agents in real-world scenarios like automated driving deal with uncertainty in their environment, in particular due to perceptual uncertainty. Although, reinforcement learning is dedicated to autonomous decision-making under uncertainty these algorithms are typically not informed about the uncertainty currently contained in their environment. On the other hand, uncertainty estimation for perception itself is typically directly evaluated in the perception domain, e.g., in terms of false positive detection rates or calibration errors based on camera images. Its use for deciding on goal-oriented actions remains largely unstudied. In this paper, we investigate how an agent's behavior is influenced by an uncertain perception and how this behavior changes if information about this uncertainty is available. Therefore, we consider a proxy task, where the agent is rewarded for driving a route as fast as possible without colliding with other road users. For controlled experiments, we introduce uncertainty in the observation space by perturbing the perception of the given agent while informing the latter. Our experiments show that an unreliable observation space modeled by a perturbed perception leads to a defensive driving behavior of the agent. Furthermore, when adding the information about the current uncertainty directly to the observation space, the agent adapts to the specific situation and in general accomplishes its task faster while, at the same time, accounting for risks.
FUNCTO: Function-Centric One-Shot Imitation Learning for Tool Manipulation
Authors: Chao Tang, Anxing Xiao, Yuhong Deng, Tianrun Hu, Wenlong Dong, Hanbo Zhang, David Hsu, Hong Zhang
Date: 2025-02-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Imitation Learning

Learning tool use from a single human demonstration video offers a highly intuitive and efficient approach to robot teaching. While humans can effortlessly generalize a demonstrated tool manipulation skill to diverse tools that support the same function (e.g., pouring with a mug versus a teapot), current one-shot imitation learning (OSIL) methods struggle to achieve this. A key challenge lies in establishing functional correspondences between demonstration and test tools, considering significant geometric variations among tools with the same function (i.e., intra-function variations). To address this challenge, we propose FUNCTO (Function-Centric OSIL for Tool Manipulation), an OSIL method that establishes function-centric correspondences with a 3D functional keypoint representation, enabling robots to generalize tool manipulation skills from a single human demonstration video to novel tools with the same function despite significant intra-function variations. With this formulation, we factorize FUNCTO into three stages: (1) functional keypoint extraction, (2) function-centric correspondence establishment, and (3) functional keypoint-based action planning. We evaluate FUNCTO against exiting modular OSIL methods and end-to-end behavioral cloning methods through real-robot experiments on diverse tool manipulation tasks. The results demonstrate the superiority of FUNCTO when generalizing to novel tools with intra-function geometric variations. More details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/functo.