90,013 research outputs found
From random walks to distances on unweighted graphs
Large unweighted directed graphs are commonly used to capture relations
between entities. A fundamental problem in the analysis of such networks is to
properly define the similarity or dissimilarity between any two vertices.
Despite the significance of this problem, statistical characterization of the
proposed metrics has been limited. We introduce and develop a class of
techniques for analyzing random walks on graphs using stochastic calculus.
Using these techniques we generalize results on the degeneracy of hitting times
and analyze a metric based on the Laplace transformed hitting time (LTHT). The
metric serves as a natural, provably well-behaved alternative to the expected
hitting time. We establish a general correspondence between hitting times of
the Brownian motion and analogous hitting times on the graph. We show that the
LTHT is consistent with respect to the underlying metric of a geometric graph,
preserves clustering tendency, and remains robust against random addition of
non-geometric edges. Tests on simulated and real-world data show that the LTHT
matches theoretical predictions and outperforms alternatives.Comment: To appear in NIPS 201
Multi-Task Policy Search for Robotics
© 2014 IEEE.Learning policies that generalize across multiple tasks is an important and challenging research topic in reinforcement learning and robotics. Training individual policies for every single potential task is often impractical, especially for continuous task variations, requiring more principled approaches to share and transfer knowledge among similar tasks. We present a novel approach for learning a nonlinear feedback policy that generalizes across multiple tasks. The key idea is to define a parametrized policy as a function of both the state and the task, which allows learning a single policy that generalizes across multiple known and unknown tasks. Applications of our novel approach to reinforcement and imitation learning in realrobot experiments are shown
Developments in the theory of randomized shortest paths with a comparison of graph node distances
There have lately been several suggestions for parametrized distances on a
graph that generalize the shortest path distance and the commute time or
resistance distance. The need for developing such distances has risen from the
observation that the above-mentioned common distances in many situations fail
to take into account the global structure of the graph. In this article, we
develop the theory of one family of graph node distances, known as the
randomized shortest path dissimilarity, which has its foundation in statistical
physics. We show that the randomized shortest path dissimilarity can be easily
computed in closed form for all pairs of nodes of a graph. Moreover, we come up
with a new definition of a distance measure that we call the free energy
distance. The free energy distance can be seen as an upgrade of the randomized
shortest path dissimilarity as it defines a metric, in addition to which it
satisfies the graph-geodetic property. The derivation and computation of the
free energy distance are also straightforward. We then make a comparison
between a set of generalized distances that interpolate between the shortest
path distance and the commute time, or resistance distance. This comparison
focuses on the applicability of the distances in graph node clustering and
classification. The comparison, in general, shows that the parametrized
distances perform well in the tasks. In particular, we see that the results
obtained with the free energy distance are among the best in all the
experiments.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 3 table
Sub-Optimal Allocation of Time in Sequential Movements
The allocation of limited resources such as time or energy is a core problem that organisms face when planning complex
actions. Most previous research concerning planning of movement has focused on the planning of single, isolated
movements. Here we investigated the allocation of time in a pointing task where human subjects attempted to touch two
targets in a specified order to earn monetary rewards. Subjects were required to complete both movements within a limited time but could freely allocate the available time between the movements. The time constraint presents an allocation
problem to the subjects: the more time spent on one movement, the less time is available for the other. In different
conditions we assigned different rewards to the two tokens. How the subject allocated time between movements affected
their expected gain on each trial. We also varied the angle between the first and second movements and the length of the
second movement. Based on our results, we developed and tested a model of speed-accuracy tradeoff for sequential
movements. Using this model we could predict the time allocation that would maximize the expected gain of each subject
in each experimental condition. We compared human performance with predicted optimal performance. We found that all
subjects allocated time sub-optimally, spending more time than they should on the first movement even when the reward
of the second target was five times larger than the first. We conclude that the movement planning system fails to maximize
expected reward in planning sequences of as few as two movements and discuss possible interpretations drawn from
economic theory
Cooperative learning in multi-agent systems from intermittent measurements
Motivated by the problem of tracking a direction in a decentralized way, we
consider the general problem of cooperative learning in multi-agent systems
with time-varying connectivity and intermittent measurements. We propose a
distributed learning protocol capable of learning an unknown vector from
noisy measurements made independently by autonomous nodes. Our protocol is
completely distributed and able to cope with the time-varying, unpredictable,
and noisy nature of inter-agent communication, and intermittent noisy
measurements of . Our main result bounds the learning speed of our
protocol in terms of the size and combinatorial features of the (time-varying)
networks connecting the nodes
Numerical Investigation of Metrics for Epidemic Processes on Graphs
This study develops the epidemic hitting time (EHT) metric on graphs
measuring the expected time an epidemic starting at node in a fully
susceptible network takes to propagate and reach node . An associated EHT
centrality measure is then compared to degree, betweenness, spectral, and
effective resistance centrality measures through exhaustive numerical
simulations on several real-world network data-sets. We find two surprising
observations: first, EHT centrality is highly correlated with effective
resistance centrality; second, the EHT centrality measure is much more
delocalized compared to degree and spectral centrality, highlighting the role
of peripheral nodes in epidemic spreading on graphs.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, In Proceedings of 2015 Asilomar
Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computer
Opinion fluctuations and disagreement in social networks
We study a tractable opinion dynamics model that generates long-run
disagreements and persistent opinion fluctuations. Our model involves an
inhomogeneous stochastic gossip process of continuous opinion dynamics in a
society consisting of two types of agents: regular agents, who update their
beliefs according to information that they receive from their social neighbors;
and stubborn agents, who never update their opinions. When the society contains
stubborn agents with different opinions, the belief dynamics never lead to a
consensus (among the regular agents). Instead, beliefs in the society fail to
converge almost surely, the belief profile keeps on fluctuating in an ergodic
fashion, and it converges in law to a non-degenerate random vector. The
structure of the network and the location of the stubborn agents within it
shape the opinion dynamics. The expected belief vector evolves according to an
ordinary differential equation coinciding with the Kolmogorov backward equation
of a continuous-time Markov chain with absorbing states corresponding to the
stubborn agents and converges to a harmonic vector, with every regular agent's
value being the weighted average of its neighbors' values, and boundary
conditions corresponding to the stubborn agents'. Expected cross-products of
the agents' beliefs allow for a similar characterization in terms of coupled
Markov chains on the network. We prove that, in large-scale societies which are
highly fluid, meaning that the product of the mixing time of the Markov chain
on the graph describing the social network and the relative size of the
linkages to stubborn agents vanishes as the population size grows large, a
condition of \emph{homogeneous influence} emerges, whereby the stationary
beliefs' marginal distributions of most of the regular agents have
approximately equal first and second moments.Comment: 33 pages, accepted for publication in Mathematics of Operation
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