Learning robot policies using a high-level abstraction persona-behaviour simulator

2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksCollecting data in Human-Robot Interaction for training learning agents might be a hard task to accomplish. This is especially true when the target users are older adults with dementia since this usually requires hours of interactions and puts quite a lot of workload on the user. This paper addresses the problem of importing the Personas technique from HRI to create fictional patients’ profiles. We propose a Persona-Behaviour Simulator tool that provides, with high-level abstraction, user’s actions during an HRI task, and we apply it to cognitive training exercises for older adults with dementia. It consists of a Persona Definition that characterizes a patient along four dimensions and a Task Engine that provides information regarding the task complexity. We build a simulated environment where the high-level user’s actions are provided by the simulator and the robot initial policy is learned using a Q-learning algorithm. The results show that the current simulator provides a reasonable initial policy for a defined Persona profile. Moreover, the learned robot assistance has proved to be robust to potential changes in the user’s behaviour. In this way, we can speed up the fine-tuning of the rough policy during the real interactions to tailor the assistance to the given user. We believe the presented approach can be easily extended to account for other types of HRI tasks; for example, when input data is required to train a learning algorithm, but data collection is very expensive or unfeasible. We advocate that simulation is a convenient tool in these cases.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Abstraction in situation calculus action theories

We develop a general framework for agent abstraction based on the situation calculus and the ConGolog agent programming language. We assume that we have a high-level specification and a low-level specification of the agent, both repre- sented as basic action theories. A refinement mapping specifies how each high-level action is implemented by a low- level ConGolog program and how each high-level fluent can be translated into a low-level formula. We define a notion of sound abstraction between such action theories in terms of the existence of a suitable bisimulation between their respective models. Sound abstractions have many useful properties that ensure that we can reason about the agent’s actions (e.g., executability, projection, and planning) at the abstract level, and refine and concretely execute them at the low level. We also characterize the notion of complete abstraction where all actions (including exogenous ones) that the high level thinks can happen can in fact occur at the low level

Abstraction in situation calculus action theories

We develop a general framework for agent abstraction based on the situation calculus and the ConGolog agent programming language. We assume that we have a high-level specification and a low-level specification of the agent, both repre- sented as basic action theories. A refinement mapping specifies how each high-level action is implemented by a low- level ConGolog program and how each high-level fluent can be translated into a low-level formula. We define a notion of sound abstraction between such action theories in terms of the existence of a suitable bisimulation between their respective models. Sound abstractions have many useful properties that ensure that we can reason about the agent’s actions (e.g., executability, projection, and planning) at the abstract level, and refine and concretely execute them at the low level. We also characterize the notion of complete abstraction where all actions (including exogenous ones) that the high level thinks can happen can in fact occur at the low level

Data path analysis for dynamic circuit specialisation

Dynamic Circuit Specialisation (DCS) is a method that exploits the reconfigurability of modern FPGAs to allow the specialisation of FPGA circuits at run-time. Currently, it is only explored as part of Register-transfer level design. However, at the Register-transfer level (RTL), a large part of the design is already locked in. Therefore, maximally exploiting the opportunities of DCS could require a costly redesign. It would be interesting to already have insight in the opportunities for DCS from the higher abstraction level. Moreover, the general design trend in FPGA design is to work on higher abstraction levels and let tool(s) translate this higher level description to RTL. This paper presents the first profiler that, based on the high-level description of an application, estimates the benefits of an implementation using DCS. This allows a designer to determine much earlier in the design cycle whether or not DCS would be interesting. The high-level profiling methodology was implemented and tested on a set of PID designs

Inviwo -- A Visualization System with Usage Abstraction Levels

The complexity of today's visualization applications demands specific visualization systems tailored for the development of these applications. Frequently, such systems utilize levels of abstraction to improve the application development process, for instance by providing a data flow network editor. Unfortunately, these abstractions result in several issues, which need to be circumvented through an abstraction-centered system design. Often, a high level of abstraction hides low level details, which makes it difficult to directly access the underlying computing platform, which would be important to achieve an optimal performance. Therefore, we propose a layer structure developed for modern and sustainable visualization systems allowing developers to interact with all contained abstraction levels. We refer to this interaction capabilities as usage abstraction levels, since we target application developers with various levels of experience. We formulate the requirements for such a system, derive the desired architecture, and present how the concepts have been exemplary realized within the Inviwo visualization system. Furthermore, we address several specific challenges that arise during the realization of such a layered architecture, such as communication between different computing platforms, performance centered encapsulation, as well as layer-independent development by supporting cross layer documentation and debugging capabilities

Conflating Abstraction with Empirical Observation: The False Mind-Matter Dichotomy

\u3e Context • The alleged dichotomy between mind and matter is pervasive. Therefore, the attempt to explain mat- ter in terms of mind (idealism) is often considered a mirror image of that of explaining mind in terms of mat- ter (mainstream physicalism), in the sense of being structurally equivalent despite being reversely arranged. \u3e Problem • I argue that this is an error arising from language artifacts, for dichotomies must reside in the same level of abstraction. \u3e Method • I show that, because matter outside mind is not an empirical observation but rather an explanatory model, the epistemic symmetry between the two is broken. Consequently, matter and mind cannot reside in the same level of abstraction. \u3e Results • It then becomes clear that attempting to explain mind in terms of matter is epistemically more costly than attempting to explain matter in terms of mind. \u3e Implications • The qualities of experience are suggested to be not only epistemically, but also ontologically primary. \u3e Constructivist content • I high- light the primacy of perceptual constructs over explanatory abstraction on both epistemic and ontic levels. \u3e Key words • Idealism, physicalism, pancomputationalism, anti-realism, hard problem of consciousness, epistemic symmetry, explanatory abstraction, levels of abstraction

A Link Quality Model for Generalised Frequency Division Multiplexing

5G systems aim to achieve extremely high data rates, low end-to-end latency and ultra-low power consumption. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the design of 5G physical layer waveforms. One important candidate is Generalised Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM). In order to evaluate its performance and features, system-level studies should be undertaken in a range of scenarios. These studies, however, require highly complex computations if they are performed using bit-level simulators. In this paper, the Mutual Information (MI) based link quality model (PHY abstraction), which has been regularly used to implement system-level studies for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), is applied to GFDM. The performance of the GFDM waveform using this model and the bit-level simulation performance is measured using different channel types. Moreover, a system-level study for a GFDM based LTE-A system in a realistic scenario, using both a bit-level simulator and this abstraction model, has been studied and compared. The results reveal the accuracy of this model using realistic channel data. Based on these results, the PHY abstraction technique can be applied to evaluate the performance of GFDM based systems in an effective manner with low complexity. The maximum difference in the Packet Error Rate (PER) and throughput results in the abstraction case compared to bit-level simulation does not exceed 4% whilst offering a simulation time saving reduction of around 62,000 times.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, accepted in VTC- spring 201

Mathematical Abstraction of Year 9 Students Using Realistic Mathematics Education Based on the Van Hiele Levels of Geometry

Previous research regarding abstraction has not discussed abstraction qualitatively based on van Hiele levels. Thus, it is necessary to study abstraction analysis based on van Hiele levels through Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) approach. The purpose of this research was to analyze mathematical abstraction based on van Hiele levels of geometry (VHLG) through RME and traditional learning approach reviewed from the levels of prior knowledge. This research employed a descriptive qualitative method involving Year 9 junior high school students as the subjects. The instruments were a mathematical abstraction test, van Hiele geometry test, and interview guidelines. The results of the high- and medium-ability students in the classroom using RME approach showed that VHLG was at the Deduction level and the abstraction ability was dominated by Empirical and Reflective Abstraction, whereas the low-ability students are at the level of Abstraction, they had imperfect Empirical and Reflective Abstraction. As for the high-ability students in the traditional learning classroom, the VHLG was at the level of Abstraction; their Reflective Abstraction was at the Representation level. While concerning the low- and medium-ability students, the VHLG was at the Analysis level; they mastered the Reflective Abstraction at the level of Recognition. This study indicates that the RME approach can trigger the development of mathematical abstraction, and accelerate the van Hiele levels of geometry progress