Neural operators struggle to learn complex PDEs in pedestrian mobility: Hughes model case study

This paper investigates the limitations of neural operators in learning solutions for a Hughes model, a first-order hyperbolic conservation law system for crowd dynamics. The model couples a Fokker-Planck equation representing pedestrian density with a Hamilton-Jacobi-type (eikonal) equation. This Hughes model belongs to the class of nonlinear hyperbolic systems that often exhibit complex solution structures, including shocks and discontinuities. In this study, we assess the performance of three state-of-the-art neural operators (Fourier Neural Operator, Wavelet Neural Operator, and Multiwavelet Neural Operator) in various challenging scenarios. Specifically, we consider (1) discontinuous and Gaussian initial conditions and (2) diverse boundary conditions, while also examining the impact of different numerical schemes. Our results show that these neural operators perform well in easy scenarios with fewer discontinuities in the initial condition, yet they struggle in complex scenarios with multiple initial discontinuities and dynamic boundary conditions, even when trained specifically on such complex samples. The predicted solutions often appear smoother, resulting in a reduction in total variation and a loss of important physical features. This smoothing behavior is similar to issues discussed by Daganzo (1995), where models that introduce artificial diffusion were shown to miss essential features such as shock waves in hyperbolic systems. These results suggest that current neural operator architectures may introduce unintended regularization effects that limit their ability to capture transport dynamics governed by discontinuities. They also raise concerns about generalizing these methods to traffic applications where shock preservation is essential.

Stability Via Adversarial Training of Neural Network Stochastic Control of Mean-Field Type

In this paper, we present an approach to neural network mean-field-type control and its stochastic stability analysis by means of adversarial inputs (aka adversarial attacks). This is a class of data-driven mean-field-type control where the distribution of the variables such as the system states and control inputs are incorporated into the problem. Besides, we present a methodology to validate the feasibility of the approximations of the solutions via neural networks and evaluate their stability. Moreover, we enhance the stability by enlarging the training set with adversarial inputs to obtain a more robust neural network. Finally, a worked-out example based on the linear-quadratic mean-field type control problem (LQ-MTC) is presented to illustrate our methodology.