Global Optimality of Single-Timescale Actor-Critic under Continuous State-Action Space: A Study on Linear Quadratic Regulator

Actor-critic methods have achieved state-of-the-art performance in various challenging tasks. However, theoretical understandings of their performance remain elusive and challenging. Existing studies mostly focus on practically uncommon variants such as double-loop or two-timescale stepsize actor-critic algorithms for simplicity. These results certify local convergence on finite state- or action-space only. We push the boundary to investigate the classic single-sample single-timescale actor-critic on continuous (infinite) state-action space, where we employ the canonical linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem as a case study. We show that the popular single-timescale actor-critic can attain an epsilon-optimal solution with an order of epsilon to -2 sample complexity for solving LQR on the demanding continuous state-action space. Our work provides new insights into the performance of single-timescale actor-critic, which further bridges the gap between theory and practice.

VIPO: Value Function Inconsistency Penalized Offline Reinforcement Learning

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) learns effective policies from pre-collected datasets, offering a practical solution for applications where online interactions are risky or costly. Model-based approaches are particularly advantageous for offline RL, owing to their data efficiency and generalizability. However, due to inherent model errors, model-based methods often artificially introduce conservatism guided by heuristic uncertainty estimation, which can be unreliable. In this paper, we introduce VIPO, a novel model-based offline RL algorithm that incorporates self-supervised feedback from value estimation to enhance model training. Specifically, the model is learned by additionally minimizing the inconsistency between the value learned directly from the offline data and the one estimated from the model. We perform comprehensive evaluations from multiple perspectives to show that VIPO can learn a highly accurate model efficiently and consistently outperform existing methods. It offers a general framework that can be readily integrated into existing model-based offline RL algorithms to systematically enhance model accuracy. As a result, VIPO achieves state-of-the-art performance on almost all tasks in both D4RL and NeoRL benchmarks.

Leveraging Diffusion Model and Image Foundation Model for Improved Correspondence Matching in Coronary Angiography

Accurate correspondence matching in coronary angiography images is crucial for reconstructing 3D coronary artery structures, which is essential for precise diagnosis and treatment planning of coronary artery disease (CAD). Traditional matching methods for natural images often fail to generalize to X-ray images due to inherent differences such as lack of texture, lower contrast, and overlapping structures, compounded by insufficient training data. To address these challenges, we propose a novel pipeline that generates realistic paired coronary angiography images using a diffusion model conditioned on 2D projections of 3D reconstructed meshes from Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA), providing high-quality synthetic data for training. Additionally, we employ large-scale image foundation models to guide feature aggregation, enhancing correspondence matching accuracy by focusing on semantically relevant regions and keypoints. Our approach demonstrates superior matching performance on synthetic datasets and effectively generalizes to real-world datasets, offering a practical solution for this task. Furthermore, our work investigates the efficacy of different foundation models in correspondence matching, providing novel insights into leveraging advanced image foundation models for medical imaging applications.

DiffDenoise: Self-Supervised Medical Image Denoising with Conditional Diffusion Models

Many self-supervised denoising approaches have been proposed in recent years. However, these methods tend to overly smooth images, resulting in the loss of fine structures that are essential for medical applications. In this paper, we propose DiffDenoise, a powerful self-supervised denoising approach tailored for medical images, designed to preserve high-frequency details. Our approach comprises three stages. First, we train a diffusion model on noisy images, using the outputs of a pretrained Blind-Spot Network as conditioning inputs. Next, we introduce a novel stabilized reverse sampling technique, which generates clean images by averaging diffusion sampling outputs initialized with a pair of symmetric noises. Finally, we train a supervised denoising network using noisy images paired with the denoised outputs generated by the diffusion model. Our results demonstrate that DiffDenoise outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods in both synthetic and real-world medical image denoising tasks. We provide both a theoretical foundation and practical insights, demonstrating the method's effectiveness across various medical imaging modalities and anatomical structures.

Adapting Vision Foundation Models for Real-time Ultrasound Image Segmentation

We propose a novel approach that adapts hierarchical vision foundation models for real-time ultrasound image segmentation. Existing ultrasound segmentation methods often struggle with adaptability to new tasks, relying on costly manual annotations, while real-time approaches generally fail to match state-of-the-art performance. To overcome these limitations, we introduce an adaptive framework that leverages the vision foundation model Hiera to extract multi-scale features, interleaved with DINOv2 representations to enhance visual expressiveness. These enriched features are then decoded to produce precise and robust segmentation. We conduct extensive evaluations on six public datasets and one in-house dataset, covering both cardiac and thyroid ultrasound segmentation. Experiments show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods across multiple datasets and excels with limited supervision, surpassing nnUNet by over 20\% on average in the 1\% and 10\% data settings. Our method achieves $\sim$77 FPS inference speed with TensorRT on a single GPU, enabling real-time clinical applications.

AcL: Action Learner for Fault-Tolerant Quadruped Locomotion Control

Quadrupedal robots can learn versatile locomotion skills but remain vulnerable when one or more joints lose power. In contrast, dogs and cats can adopt limping gaits when injured, demonstrating their remarkable ability to adapt to physical conditions. Inspired by such adaptability, this paper presents Action Learner (AcL), a novel teacher-student reinforcement learning framework that enables quadrupeds to autonomously adapt their gait for stable walking under multiple joint faults. Unlike conventional teacher-student approaches that enforce strict imitation, AcL leverages teacher policies to generate style rewards, guiding the student policy without requiring precise replication. We train multiple teacher policies, each corresponding to a different fault condition, and subsequently distill them into a single student policy with an encoder-decoder architecture. While prior works primarily address single-joint faults, AcL enables quadrupeds to walk with up to four faulty joints across one or two legs, autonomously switching between different limping gaits when faults occur. We validate AcL on a real Go2 quadruped robot under single- and double-joint faults, demonstrating fault-tolerant, stable walking, smooth gait transitions between normal and lamb gaits, and robustness against external disturbances.

Robust Fault-Tolerant Control and Agile Trajectory Planning for Modular Aerial Robotic Systems

Modular Aerial Robotic Systems (MARS) consist of multiple drone units that can self-reconfigure to adapt to various mission requirements and fault conditions. However, existing fault-tolerant control methods exhibit significant oscillations during docking and separation, impacting system stability. To address this issue, we propose a novel fault-tolerant control reallocation method that adapts to arbitrary number of modular robots and their assembly formations. The algorithm redistributes the expected collective force and torque required for MARS to individual unit according to their moment arm relative to the center of MARS mass. Furthermore, We propose an agile trajectory planning method for MARS of arbitrary configurations, which is collision-avoiding and dynamically feasible. Our work represents the first comprehensive approach to enable fault-tolerant and collision avoidance flight for MARS. We validate our method through extensive simulations, demonstrating improved fault tolerance, enhanced trajectory tracking accuracy, and greater robustness in cluttered environments. The videos and source code of this work are available at https://github.com/RuiHuangNUS/MARS-FTCC/

Robust Self-Reconfiguration for Fault-Tolerant Control of Modular Aerial Robot Systems

Modular Aerial Robotic Systems (MARS) consist of multiple drone units assembled into a single, integrated rigid flying platform. With inherent redundancy, MARS can self-reconfigure into different configurations to mitigate rotor or unit failures and maintain stable flight. However, existing works on MARS self-reconfiguration often overlook the practical controllability of intermediate structures formed during the reassembly process, which limits their applicability. In this paper, we address this gap by considering the control-constrained dynamic model of MARS and proposing a robust and efficient self-reconstruction algorithm that maximizes the controllability margin at each intermediate stage. Specifically, we develop algorithms to compute optimal, controllable disassembly and assembly sequences, enabling robust self-reconfiguration. Finally, we validate our method in several challenging fault-tolerant self-reconfiguration scenarios, demonstrating significant improvements in both controllability and trajectory tracking while reducing the number of assembly steps. The videos and source code of this work are available at https://github.com/RuiHuangNUS/MARS-Reconfig/

DnD Filter: Differentiable State Estimation for Dynamic Systems using Diffusion Models

This paper proposes the DnD Filter, a differentiable filter that utilizes diffusion models for state estimation of dynamic systems. Unlike conventional differentiable filters, which often impose restrictive assumptions on process noise (e.g., Gaussianity), DnD Filter enables a nonlinear state update without such constraints by conditioning a diffusion model on both the predicted state and observational data, capitalizing on its ability to approximate complex distributions. We validate its effectiveness on both a simulated task and a real-world visual odometry task, where DnD Filter consistently outperforms existing baselines. Specifically, it achieves a 25\% improvement in estimation accuracy on the visual odometry task compared to state-of-the-art differentiable filters, and even surpasses differentiable smoothers that utilize future measurements. To the best of our knowledge, DnD Filter represents the first successful attempt to leverage diffusion models for state estimation, offering a flexible and powerful framework for nonlinear estimation under noisy measurements.

Large Language Models for Bioinformatics

With the rapid advancements in large language model (LLM) technology and the emergence of bioinformatics-specific language models (BioLMs), there is a growing need for a comprehensive analysis of the current landscape, computational characteristics, and diverse applications. This survey aims to address this need by providing a thorough review of BioLMs, focusing on their evolution, classification, and distinguishing features, alongside a detailed examination of training methodologies, datasets, and evaluation frameworks. We explore the wide-ranging applications of BioLMs in critical areas such as disease diagnosis, drug discovery, and vaccine development, highlighting their impact and transformative potential in bioinformatics. We identify key challenges and limitations inherent in BioLMs, including data privacy and security concerns, interpretability issues, biases in training data and model outputs, and domain adaptation complexities. Finally, we highlight emerging trends and future directions, offering valuable insights to guide researchers and clinicians toward advancing BioLMs for increasingly sophisticated biological and clinical applications.