An Augmented Surprise-guided Sequential Learning Framework for Predicting the Melt Pool Geometry

Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) has reshaped the manufacturing industry, offering benefits like intricate design, minimal waste, rapid prototyping, material versatility, and customized solutions. However, its full industry adoption faces hurdles, particularly in achieving consistent product quality. A crucial aspect for MAM's success is understanding the relationship between process parameters and melt pool characteristics. Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into MAM is essential. Traditional machine learning (ML) methods, while effective, depend on large datasets to capture complex relationships, a significant challenge in MAM due to the extensive time and resources required for dataset creation. Our study introduces a novel surprise-guided sequential learning framework, SurpriseAF-BO, signaling a significant shift in MAM. This framework uses an iterative, adaptive learning process, modeling the dynamics between process parameters and melt pool characteristics with limited data, a key benefit in MAM's cyber manufacturing context. Compared to traditional ML models, our sequential learning method shows enhanced predictive accuracy for melt pool dimensions. Further improving our approach, we integrated a Conditional Tabular Generative Adversarial Network (CTGAN) into our framework, forming the CT-SurpriseAF-BO. This produces synthetic data resembling real experimental data, improving learning effectiveness. This enhancement boosts predictive precision without requiring additional physical experiments. Our study demonstrates the power of advanced data-driven techniques in cyber manufacturing and the substantial impact of sequential AI and ML, particularly in overcoming MAM's traditional challenges.

A Universal Cooperative Decision-Making Framework for Connected Autonomous Vehicles with Generic Road Topologies

Cooperative decision-making of Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) presents a longstanding challenge due to its inherent nonlinearity, non-convexity, and discrete characteristics, compounded by the diverse road topologies encountered in real-world traffic scenarios. The majority of current methodologies are only applicable to a single and specific scenario, predicated on scenario-specific assumptions. Consequently, their application in real-world environments is restricted by the innumerable nature of traffic scenarios. In this study, we propose a unified optimization approach that exhibits the potential to address cooperative decision-making problems related to traffic scenarios with generic road topologies. This development is grounded in the premise that the topologies of various traffic scenarios can be universally represented as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). Particularly, the reference paths and time profiles for all involved CAVs are determined in a fully cooperative manner, taking into account factors such as velocities, accelerations, conflict resolutions, and overall traffic efficiency. The cooperative decision-making of CAVs is approximated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem building on the DAGs of road topologies. This favorably facilitates the use of standard numerical solvers and the global optimality can be attained through the optimization. Case studies corresponding to different multi-lane traffic scenarios featuring diverse topologies are scheduled as the test itineraries, and the efficacy of our proposed methodology is corroborated.

Mapping Information in Feature Extraction Transformation for Chirp Signal

Chirp signals have established diverse applications caused by the capable of producing time-dependent linear frequencies. Most feature extraction transformation methods for chirp signals focus on enhancing the performance of transform methods but neglecting the information derived from the transformation process. Consequently, they may fail to fully exploit the information from observations, resulting in decreased performance under conditions of low signal-to-noise ratio and limited observations. In this work, we develop a novel post-processing method called mapping information model to addressing this challenge. The model establishes a link between the observation space and feature space in feature extraction transform, enabling interference suppression and obtain more accurate information by iteratively resampling and assigning weights in both spaces. Analysis of the iteration process reveals a continual increase in weight of signal samples and a gradual stability in weight of noise samples. The demonstration of the noise suppression in the iteration process and feature enhancement supports the effectiveness of the mapping information model. Furthermore, numerical simulations also affirm the high efficiency of the proposed model by showcasing enhanced signal detection and estimation performances without requiring additional observations. This superior model allows amplifying performance within feature extraction transformation for chirp signal processing under low SNR and limited observation conditions, opens up new opportunities for areas such as communication, biomedicine, and remote sensing.

Using Large Language Models to Assess Tutors' Performance in Reacting to Students Making Math Errors

Research suggests that tutors should adopt a strategic approach when addressing math errors made by low-efficacy students. Rather than drawing direct attention to the error, tutors should guide the students to identify and correct their mistakes on their own. While tutor lessons have introduced this pedagogical skill, human evaluation of tutors applying this strategy is arduous and time-consuming. Large language models (LLMs) show promise in providing real-time assessment to tutors during their actual tutoring sessions, yet little is known regarding their accuracy in this context. In this study, we investigate the capacity of generative AI to evaluate real-life tutors' performance in responding to students making math errors. By analyzing 50 real-life tutoring dialogues, we find both GPT-3.5-Turbo and GPT-4 demonstrate proficiency in assessing the criteria related to reacting to students making errors. However, both models exhibit limitations in recognizing instances where the student made an error. Notably, GPT-4 tends to overidentify instances of students making errors, often attributing student uncertainty or inferring potential errors where human evaluators did not. Future work will focus on enhancing generalizability by assessing a larger dataset of dialogues and evaluating learning transfer. Specifically, we will analyze the performance of tutors in real-life scenarios when responding to students' math errors before and after lesson completion on this crucial tutoring skill.

Evaluation of automated driving system safety metrics with logged vehicle trajectory data

Real-time safety metrics are important for the automated driving system (ADS) to assess the risk of driving situations and to assist the decision-making. Although a number of real-time safety metrics have been proposed in the literature, systematic performance evaluation of these safety metrics has been lacking. As different behavioral assumptions are adopted in different safety metrics, it is difficult to compare the safety metrics and evaluate their performance. To overcome this challenge, in this study, we propose an evaluation framework utilizing logged vehicle trajectory data, in that vehicle trajectories for both subject vehicle (SV) and background vehicles (BVs) are obtained and the prediction errors caused by behavioral assumptions can be eliminated. Specifically, we examine whether the SV is in a collision unavoidable situation at each moment, given all near-future trajectories of BVs. In this way, we level the ground for a fair comparison of different safety metrics, as a good safety metric should always alarm in advance to the collision unavoidable moment. When trajectory data from a large number of trips are available, we can systematically evaluate and compare different metrics' statistical performance. In the case study, three representative real-time safety metrics, including the time-to-collision (TTC), the PEGASUS Criticality Metric (PCM), and the Model Predictive Instantaneous Safety Metric (MPrISM), are evaluated using a large-scale simulated trajectory dataset. The proposed evaluation framework is important for researchers, practitioners, and regulators to characterize different metrics, and to select appropriate metrics for different applications. Moreover, by conducting failure analysis on moments when a safety metric failed, we can identify its potential weaknesses which are valuable for its potential refinements and improvements.

MARG: Multi-Agent Review Generation for Scientific Papers

We study the ability of LLMs to generate feedback for scientific papers and develop MARG, a feedback generation approach using multiple LLM instances that engage in internal discussion. By distributing paper text across agents, MARG can consume the full text of papers beyond the input length limitations of the base LLM, and by specializing agents and incorporating sub-tasks tailored to different comment types (experiments, clarity, impact) it improves the helpfulness and specificity of feedback. In a user study, baseline methods using GPT-4 were rated as producing generic or very generic comments more than half the time, and only 1.7 comments per paper were rated as good overall in the best baseline. Our system substantially improves the ability of GPT-4 to generate specific and helpful feedback, reducing the rate of generic comments from 60% to 29% and generating 3.7 good comments per paper (a 2.2x improvement).

Message-Passing Receiver for OCDM over Multi-Lag Multi-Doppler Channels

As a new candidate waveform for the next generation wireless communications, orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM) has attracted growing attention for its ability to achieve full diversity in uncoded transmission, and its robustness to narrow-band interference or impulsive noise. Under high mobility channels with multiple lags and multiple Doppler-shifts (MLMD), the signal suffers doubly selective (DS) fadings in time and frequency domain, and data symbols modulated on orthogonal chirps are interfered by each other. To address the problem of symbol detection of OCDM over MLMD channel, under the assumption that path attenuation factors, delays, and Doppler shifts of the channel are available, we first derive the closed-form channel matrix in Fresnel domain, and then propose a low-complexity method to approximate it as a sparse matrix. Based on the approximated Fresnel-domain channel, we propose a message passing (MP) based detector to estimate the transmit symbols iteratively. Finally, under two MLMD channels (an underspread channel for terrestrial vehicular communication, and an overspread channel for narrow-band underwater acoustic communications), Monte Carlo simulation results and analysis are provided to validate its advantages as a promising detector for OCDM.

Amplifying robotics capacities with a human touch: An immersive low-latency panoramic remote system

AI and robotics technologies have witnessed remarkable advancements in the past decade, revolutionizing work patterns and opportunities in various domains. The application of these technologies has propelled society towards an era of symbiosis between humans and machines. To facilitate efficient communication between humans and intelligent robots, we propose the "Avatar" system, an immersive low-latency panoramic human-robot interaction platform. We have designed and tested a prototype of a rugged mobile platform integrated with edge computing units, panoramic video capture devices, power batteries, robot arms, and network communication equipment. Under favorable network conditions, we achieved a low-latency high-definition panoramic visual experience with a delay of 357ms. Operators can utilize VR headsets and controllers for real-time immersive control of robots and devices. The system enables remote control over vast physical distances, spanning campuses, provinces, countries, and even continents (New York to Shenzhen). Additionally, the system incorporates visual SLAM technology for map and trajectory recording, providing autonomous navigation capabilities. We believe that this intuitive system platform can enhance efficiency and situational experience in human-robot collaboration, and with further advancements in related technologies, it will become a versatile tool for efficient and symbiotic cooperation between AI and humans.

Modelling Species Distributions with Deep Learning to Predict Plant Extinction Risk and Assess Climate Change Impacts

The post-2020 global biodiversity framework needs ambitious, research-based targets. Estimating the accelerated extinction risk due to climate change is critical. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) measures the extinction risk of species. Automatic methods have been developed to provide information on the IUCN status of under-assessed taxa. However, these compensatory methods are based on current species characteristics, mainly geographical, which precludes their use in future projections. Here, we evaluate a novel method for classifying the IUCN status of species benefiting from the generalisation power of species distribution models based on deep learning. Our method matches state-of-the-art classification performance while relying on flexible SDM-based features that capture species' environmental preferences. Cross-validation yields average accuracies of 0.61 for status classification and 0.78 for binary classification. Climate change will reshape future species distributions. Under the species-environment equilibrium hypothesis, SDM projections approximate plausible future outcomes. Two extremes of species dispersal capacity are considered: unlimited or null. The projected species distributions are translated into features feeding our IUCN classification method. Finally, trends in threatened species are analysed over time and i) by continent and as a function of average ii) latitude or iii) altitude. The proportion of threatened species is increasing globally, with critical rates in Africa, Asia and South America. Furthermore, the proportion of threatened species is predicted to peak around the two Tropics, at the Equator, in the lowlands and at altitudes of 800-1,500 m.

Predicting Traffic Flow with Federated Learning and Graph Neural with Asynchronous Computations Network

Real-time traffic flow prediction holds significant importance within the domain of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The task of achieving a balance between prediction precision and computational efficiency presents a significant challenge. In this article, we present a novel deep-learning method called Federated Learning and Asynchronous Graph Convolutional Network (FLAGCN). Our framework incorporates the principles of asynchronous graph convolutional networks with federated learning to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of real-time traffic flow prediction. The FLAGCN model employs a spatial-temporal graph convolution technique to asynchronously address spatio-temporal dependencies within traffic data effectively. To efficiently handle the computational requirements associated with this deep learning model, this study used a graph federated learning technique known as GraphFL. This approach is designed to facilitate the training process. The experimental results obtained from conducting tests on two distinct traffic datasets demonstrate that the utilization of FLAGCN leads to the optimization of both training and inference durations while maintaining a high level of prediction accuracy. FLAGCN outperforms existing models with significant improvements by achieving up to approximately 6.85% reduction in RMSE, 20.45% reduction in MAPE, compared to the best-performing existing models.