40,998 research outputs found
Differentiable Algorithm Networks for Composable Robot Learning
This paper introduces the Differentiable Algorithm Network (DAN), a
composable architecture for robot learning systems. A DAN is composed of neural
network modules, each encoding a differentiable robot algorithm and an
associated model; and it is trained end-to-end from data. DAN combines the
strengths of model-driven modular system design and data-driven end-to-end
learning. The algorithms and models act as structural assumptions to reduce the
data requirements for learning; end-to-end learning allows the modules to adapt
to one another and compensate for imperfect models and algorithms, in order to
achieve the best overall system performance. We illustrate the DAN methodology
through a case study on a simulated robot system, which learns to navigate in
complex 3-D environments with only local visual observations and an image of a
partially correct 2-D floor map.Comment: RSS 2019 camera ready. Video is available at
https://youtu.be/4jcYlTSJF4
The C++0x "Concepts" Effort
C++0x is the working title for the revision of the ISO standard of the C++
programming language that was originally planned for release in 2009 but that
was delayed to 2011. The largest language extension in C++0x was "concepts",
that is, a collection of features for constraining template parameters. In
September of 2008, the C++ standards committee voted the concepts extension
into C++0x, but then in July of 2009, the committee voted the concepts
extension back out of C++0x.
This article is my account of the technical challenges and debates within the
"concepts" effort in the years 2003 to 2009. To provide some background, the
article also describes the design space for constrained parametric
polymorphism, or what is colloquially know as constrained generics. While this
article is meant to be generally accessible, the writing is aimed toward
readers with background in functional programming and programming language
theory. This article grew out of a lecture at the Spring School on Generic and
Indexed Programming at the University of Oxford, March 2010
Contraction and stability analysis of steady-states for open quantum systems described by Lindblad differential equations
For discrete-time systems, governed by Kraus maps, the work of D. Petz has
characterized the set of universal contraction metrics. In the present paper,
we use this characterization to derive a set of quadratic Lyapunov functions
for continuous-time systems, governed by Lindblad differential equations, that
have a steady-state with full rank. An extremity of this set is given by the
Bures metric, for which the quadratic Lyapunov function is obtained by
inverting a Sylvester equation. We illustrate the method by providing a strict
Lyapunov function for a Lindblad equation designed to stabilize a quantum
electrodynamic "cat" state by reservoir engineering. In fact we prove that any
Lindblad equation on the Hilbert space of the (truncated) harmonic oscillator,
which has a full-rank equilibrium and which has, among its decoherence
channels, a channel corresponding to the photon loss operator, globally
converges to that equilibrium.Comment: Submitted (10 pages, 1 figure
An information-theoretic on-line update principle for perception-action coupling
Inspired by findings of sensorimotor coupling in humans and animals, there
has recently been a growing interest in the interaction between action and
perception in robotic systems [Bogh et al., 2016]. Here we consider perception
and action as two serial information channels with limited
information-processing capacity. We follow [Genewein et al., 2015] and
formulate a constrained optimization problem that maximizes utility under
limited information-processing capacity in the two channels. As a solution we
obtain an optimal perceptual channel and an optimal action channel that are
coupled such that perceptual information is optimized with respect to
downstream processing in the action module. The main novelty of this study is
that we propose an online optimization procedure to find bounded-optimal
perception and action channels in parameterized serial perception-action
systems. In particular, we implement the perceptual channel as a multi-layer
neural network and the action channel as a multinomial distribution. We
illustrate our method in a NAO robot simulator with a simplified cup lifting
task.Comment: 8 pages, 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots
and Systems (IROS
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