arXiv subjects

Chen Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Chen Wang.

At least 451 records · Page 25Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Salient Sparse Visual Odometry With Pose-Only Supervision

Visual Odometry (VO) is vital for the navigation of autonomous systems, providing accurate position and orientation estimates at reasonable costs. While traditional VO methods excel in some conditions, they struggle with challenges like variable lighting and motion blur. Deep learning-based VO, though more adaptable, can face generalization problems in new environments. Addressing these drawbacks, this paper presents a novel hybrid visual odometry (VO) framework that leverages pose-only supervision, offering a balanced solution between robustness and the need for extensive labeling. We propose two cost-effective and innovative designs: a self-supervised homographic pre-training for enhancing optical flow learning from pose-only labels and a random patch-based salient point detection strategy for more accurate optical flow patch extraction. These designs eliminate the need for dense optical flow labels for training and significantly improve the generalization capability of the system in diverse and challenging environments. Our pose-only supervised method achieves competitive performance on standard datasets and greater robustness and generalization ability in extreme and unseen scenarios, even compared to dense optical flow-supervised state-of-the-art methods.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2024

POMDP-Guided Active Force-Based Search for Robotic Insertion

In robotic insertion tasks where the uncertainty exceeds the allowable tolerance, a good search strategy is essential for successful insertion and significantly influences efficiency. The commonly used blind search method is time-consuming and does not exploit the rich contact information. In this paper, we propose a novel search strategy that actively utilizes the information contained in the contact configuration and shows high efficiency. In particular, we formulate this problem as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) with carefully designed primitives based on an in-depth analysis of the contact configuration's static stability. From the formulated POMDP, we can derive a novel search strategy. Thanks to its simplicity, this search strategy can be incorporated into a Finite-State-Machine (FSM) controller. The behaviors of the FSM controller are realized through a low-level Cartesian Impedance Controller. Our method is based purely on the robot's proprioceptive sensing and does not need visual or tactile sensors. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed strategy and control framework, we conduct extensive comparison experiments in simulation, where we compare our method with the baseline approach. The results demonstrate that our proposed method achieves a higher success rate with a shorter search time and search trajectory length compared to the baseline method. Additionally, we show that our method is robust to various initial displacement errors.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

The central limit theorems for integrable Hamiltonian systems perturbed by white noise

In this paper, we consider the dynamics of integrable stochastic Hamiltonian systems. Utilizing the Nagaev-Guivarc'h method, we obtain several generalized results of the central limit theorem. Making use of this technique and the Birkhoff ergodic theorem, we prove that the invariant tori persist under stochastic perturbations. Moreover, they asymptotically follow a Gaussian distribution, which gives a positive answer to the stability of integrable stochastic Hamiltonian systems over time. Our results hold true for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian noises, and their intensities can be not small.

math.DS↗

arXiv2024

Learning to Optimise Climate Sensor Placement using a Transformer

The optimal placement of sensors for environmental monitoring and disaster management is a challenging problem due to its NP-hard nature. Traditional methods for sensor placement involve exact, approximation, or heuristic approaches, with the latter being the most widely used. However, heuristic methods are limited by expert intuition and experience. Deep learning (DL) has emerged as a promising approach for generating heuristic algorithms automatically. In this paper, we introduce a novel sensor placement approach focused on learning improvement heuristics using deep reinforcement learning (RL) methods. Our approach leverages an RL formulation for learning improvement heuristics, driven by an actor-critic algorithm for training the policy network. We compare our method with several state-of-the-art approaches by conducting comprehensive experiments, demonstrating the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed approach in producing high-quality solutions. Our work presents a promising direction for applying advanced DL and RL techniques to challenging climate sensor placement problems.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Instruction-based Hypergraph Pretraining

Pretraining has been widely explored to augment the adaptability of graph learning models to transfer knowledge from large datasets to a downstream task, such as link prediction or classification. However, the gap between training objectives and the discrepancy between data distributions in pretraining and downstream tasks hinders the transfer of the pretrained knowledge. Inspired by instruction-based prompts widely used in pretrained language models, we introduce instructions into graph pretraining. In this paper, we propose a novel pretraining framework named Instruction-based Hypergraph Pretraining. To overcome the discrepancy between pretraining and downstream tasks, text-based instructions are applied to provide explicit guidance on specific tasks for representation learning. Compared to learnable prompts, whose effectiveness depends on the quality and the diversity of training data, text-based instructions intrinsically encapsulate task information and support the model to generalize beyond the structure seen during pretraining. To capture high-order relations with task information in a context-aware manner, a novel prompting hypergraph convolution layer is devised to integrate instructions into information propagation in hypergraphs. Extensive experiments conducted on three public datasets verify the superiority of IHP in various scenarios.

cs.IR↗

arXiv2024

Inverse Uncertainty Quantification by Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling and Application in Nuclear System Thermal-Hydraulics Codes

Inverse Uncertainty Quantification (IUQ) method has been widely used to quantify the uncertainty of Physical Model Parameters (PMPs) in nuclear Thermal Hydraulics (TH) systems. This paper introduces a novel hierarchical Bayesian model which aims to mitigate two existing challenges in IUQ: the high variability of PMPs under varying experimental conditions, and unknown model discrepancies or outliers causing over-fitting issues. The proposed hierarchical model is compared with the conventional single-level Bayesian model using TRACE code and the measured void fraction data in the BFBT benchmark. A Hamiltonian Monte Carlo Method - No U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) is used for posterior sampling. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical model in providing better estimates of the posterior distributions of PMPs and being less prone to over-fitting. The proposed method also demonstrates a promising approach for generalizing IUQ to larger databases with broad ranges of experimental conditions.

stat.CO↗

arXiv2024

Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling for Time-Dependent Inverse Uncertainty Quantification

This paper introduces a novel hierarchical Bayesian model specifically designed to address challenges in Inverse Uncertainty Quantification (IUQ) for time-dependent problems in nuclear Thermal Hydraulics (TH) systems. The unique characteristics of time-dependent data, such as high dimensionality and correlation in model outputs requires special attention in the IUQ process. By integrating Gaussian Processes (GP) with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we efficiently construct surrogate models that effectively handle the complexity of dynamic TH systems. Additionally, we incorporate Neural Network (NN) models for time series regression, enhancing the computational accuracy and facilitating derivative calculations for efficient posterior sampling using the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo Method - No U-Turn Sampler (NUTS). We demonstrate the effectiveness of this hierarchical Bayesian approach using the transient experiments in the PSBT benchmark. Our results show improved estimates of Physical Model Parameters' posterior distributions and a reduced tendency for over-fitting, compared to conventional single-level Bayesian models. This approach offers a promising framework for extending IUQ to more complex, time-dependent problems.

stat.AP↗

arXiv2024

iSLAM: Imperative SLAM

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) stands as one of the critical challenges in robot navigation. A SLAM system often consists of a front-end component for motion estimation and a back-end system for eliminating estimation drifts. Recent advancements suggest that data-driven methods are highly effective for front-end tasks, while geometry-based methods continue to be essential in the back-end processes. However, such a decoupled paradigm between the data-driven front-end and geometry-based back-end can lead to sub-optimal performance, consequently reducing the system's capabilities and generalization potential. To solve this problem, we proposed a novel self-supervised imperative learning framework, named imperative SLAM (iSLAM), which fosters reciprocal correction between the front-end and back-end, thus enhancing performance without necessitating any external supervision. Specifically, we formulate the SLAM problem as a bilevel optimization so that the front-end and back-end are bidirectionally connected. As a result, the front-end model can learn global geometric knowledge obtained through pose graph optimization by back-propagating the residuals from the back-end component. We showcase the effectiveness of this new framework through an application of stereo-inertial SLAM. The experiments show that the iSLAM training strategy achieves an accuracy improvement of 22% on average over a baseline model. To the best of our knowledge, iSLAM is the first SLAM system showing that the front-end and back-end components can mutually correct each other in a self-supervised manner.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Neural Markov Random Field for Stereo Matching

Stereo matching is a core task for many computer vision and robotics applications. Despite their dominance in traditional stereo methods, the hand-crafted Markov Random Field (MRF) models lack sufficient modeling accuracy compared to end-to-end deep models. While deep learning representations have greatly improved the unary terms of the MRF models, the overall accuracy is still severely limited by the hand-crafted pairwise terms and message passing. To address these issues, we propose a neural MRF model, where both potential functions and message passing are designed using data-driven neural networks. Our fully data-driven model is built on the foundation of variational inference theory, to prevent convergence issues and retain stereo MRF's graph inductive bias. To make the inference tractable and scale well to high-resolution images, we also propose a Disparity Proposal Network (DPN) to adaptively prune the search space of disparity. The proposed approach ranks $1^{st}$ on both KITTI 2012 and 2015 leaderboards among all published methods while running faster than 100 ms. This approach significantly outperforms prior global methods, e.g., lowering D1 metric by more than 50% on KITTI 2015. In addition, our method exhibits strong cross-domain generalization and can recover sharp edges. The codes at https://github.com/aeolusguan/NMRF

cs.CV↗

arXiv2024

Observation of discrete charge states of a coherent two-level system in a superconducting qubit

We report observations of discrete charge states of a coherent dielectric two-level system (TLS) that is strongly coupled to an offset-charge-sensitive superconducting transmon qubit. We measure an offset charge of 0.072$e$ associated with the two TLS eigenstates, which have a transition frequency of 2.9 GHz and a relaxation time exceeding 3 ms. Combining measurements in the strong dispersive and resonant regime, we quantify both transverse and longitudinal couplings of the TLS-qubit interaction. We further perform joint tracking of TLS transitions and quasiparticle tunneling dynamics but find no intrinsic correlations. This study demonstrates microwave-frequency TLS as a source of low-frequency charge noise.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

BEHAVIOR-1K: A Human-Centered, Embodied AI Benchmark with 1,000 Everyday Activities and Realistic Simulation

We present BEHAVIOR-1K, a comprehensive simulation benchmark for human-centered robotics. BEHAVIOR-1K includes two components, guided and motivated by the results of an extensive survey on "what do you want robots to do for you?". The first is the definition of 1,000 everyday activities, grounded in 50 scenes (houses, gardens, restaurants, offices, etc.) with more than 9,000 objects annotated with rich physical and semantic properties. The second is OMNIGIBSON, a novel simulation environment that supports these activities via realistic physics simulation and rendering of rigid bodies, deformable bodies, and liquids. Our experiments indicate that the activities in BEHAVIOR-1K are long-horizon and dependent on complex manipulation skills, both of which remain a challenge for even state-of-the-art robot learning solutions. To calibrate the simulation-to-reality gap of BEHAVIOR-1K, we provide an initial study on transferring solutions learned with a mobile manipulator in a simulated apartment to its real-world counterpart. We hope that BEHAVIOR-1K's human-grounded nature, diversity, and realism make it valuable for embodied AI and robot learning research. Project website: https://behavior.stanford.edu.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Dispersive Non-reciprocity between a Qubit and a Cavity

The dispersive interaction between a qubit and a cavity is ubiquitous in circuit and cavity quantum electrodynamics. It describes the frequency shift of one quantum mode in response to excitations in the other, and in closed systems is necessarily bidirectional, i.e.~reciprocal. Here, we present an experimental study of a non-reciprocal dispersive-type interaction between a transmon qubit and a superconducting cavity, arising from a common coupling to dissipative intermediary modes with broken time reversal symmetry. We characterize the qubit-cavity dynamics, including asymmetric frequency pulls and photon shot-noise dephasing, under varying degrees of non-reciprocity by tuning the magnetic field bias of a ferrite component in situ. Furthermore, we show that the qubit-cavity dynamics is well-described in a wide parameter regime by a simple non-reciprocal master-equation model, which provides a compact description of the non-reciprocal interaction without requiring a full understanding of the complex dynamics of the intermediary system. Our result provides an example of quantum non-reciprocal phenomena beyond the typical paradigms of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and cascaded systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Revised BDS Test

In this paper, we focus on the BDS test, which is a nonparametric test of independence. Specifically, the null hypothesis $H_{0}$ of it is that $\{u_{t}\}$ is i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed), where $\{u_{t}\}$ is a random sequence. The BDS test is widely used in economics and finance, but it has a weakness that cannot be ignored: over-rejecting $H_{0}$ even if the length $T$ of $\{u_{t}\}$ is as large as $(100,2000)$. To improve the over-rejection problem of BDS test, considering that the correlation integral is the foundation of BDS test, we not only accurately describe the expectation of the correlation integral under $H_{0}$, but also calculate all terms of the asymptotic variance of the correlation integral whose order is $O(T^{-1})$ and $O(T^{-2})$, which is essential to improve the finite sample performance of BDS test. Based on this, we propose a revised BDS (RBDS) test and prove its asymptotic normality under $H_{0}$. The RBDS test not only inherits all the advantages of the BDS test, but also effectively corrects the over-rejection problem of the BDS test, which can be fully confirmed by the simulation results we presented. Moreover, based on the simulation results, we find that similar to BDS test, RBDS test would also be affected by the parameter estimations of the ARCH-type model, resulting in size distortion, but this phenomenon can be alleviated by the logarithmic transformation preprocessing of the estimate residuals of the model. Besides, through some actual datasets that have been demonstrated to fit well with ARCH-type models, we also compared the performance of BDS test and RBDS test in evaluating the goodness-of-fit of the model in empirical problem, and the results reflect that, under the same condition, the performance of the RBDS test is more encouraging.

math.ST↗

arXiv2024

Formal Definitions and Performance Comparison of Consistency Models for Parallel File Systems

The semantics of HPC storage systems are defined by the consistency models to which they abide. Storage consistency models have been less studied than their counterparts in memory systems, with the exception of the POSIX standard and its strict consistency model. The use of POSIX consistency imposes a performance penalty that becomes more significant as the scale of parallel file systems increases and the access time to storage devices, such as node-local solid storage devices, decreases. While some efforts have been made to adopt relaxed storage consistency models, these models are often defined informally and ambiguously as by-products of a particular implementation. In this work, we establish a connection between memory consistency models and storage consistency models and revisit the key design choices of storage consistency models from a high-level perspective. Further, we propose a formal and unified framework for defining storage consistency models and a layered implementation that can be used to easily evaluate their relative performance for different I/O workloads. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive performance comparison of two relaxed consistency models on a range of commonly-seen parallel I/O workloads, such as checkpoint/restart of scientific applications and random reads of deep learning applications. We demonstrate that for certain I/O scenarios, a weaker consistency model can significantly improve the I/O performance. For instance, in small random reads that typically found in deep learning applications, session consistency achieved an 5x improvement in I/O bandwidth compared to commit consistency, even at small scales.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2024

Coherence-enhanced thermodynamic performance in a periodically-driven inelastic heat engine

Quantum thermodynamics with microscopic inelastic scattering processes has been intensively investigated in recent years. Here, we apply quantum master equation combined with full counting statistics approach to investigate the role of quantum coherence on the periodically-driven inelastic heat engine. We demonstrate that the inelastic quantum heat engine exhibits dramatic advantage of thermodynamic performance compared to their elastic counterpart. Moreover, it is found that inelastic currents, {output work}, and the efficiency can be enhanced by quantum coherence. In particular, the geometric effect proves crucial in achieving maximal values of generated output work and energy conversion efficiency. The Berry curvature boosted by quantum coherence unveils the underlying mechanism of periodically-driven inelastic heat engine. Our findings may provide some insights for further understanding and optimizing periodically-driven heat engines via quantum coherence resource and inelastic scattering processes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Parallel Approximate Maximum Flows in Near-Linear Work and Polylogarithmic Depth

We present a parallel algorithm for the $(1-ε)$-approximate maximum flow problem in capacitated, undirected graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, achieving $O(ε^{-3}\text{polylog} n)$ depth and $O(m ε^{-3} \text{polylog} n)$ work in the PRAM model. Although near-linear time sequential algorithms for this problem have been known for almost a decade, no parallel algorithms that simultaneously achieved polylogarithmic depth and near-linear work were known. At the heart of our result is a polylogarithmic depth, near-linear work recursive algorithm for computing congestion approximators. Our algorithm involves a recursive step to obtain a low-quality congestion approximator followed by a "boosting" step to improve its quality which prevents a multiplicative blow-up in error. Similar to Peng [SODA'16], our boosting step builds upon the hierarchical decomposition scheme of Räcke, Shah, and Täubig [SODA'14]. A direct implementation of this approach, however, leads only to an algorithm with $n^{o(1)}$ depth and $m^{1+o(1)}$ work. To get around this, we introduce a new hierarchical decomposition scheme, in which we only need to solve maximum flows on subgraphs obtained by contracting vertices, as opposed to vertex-induced subgraphs used in Räcke, Shah, and Täubig [SODA'14]. In particular, we are able to directly extract congestion approximators for the subgraphs from a congestion approximator for the entire graph, thereby avoiding additional recursion on those subgraphs. Along the way, we also develop a parallel flow-decomposition algorithm that is crucial to achieving polylogarithmic depth and may be of independent interest.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Collaborative Semantic Alignment in Recommendation Systems

Traditional recommender systems primarily leverage identity-based (ID) representations for users and items, while the advent of pre-trained language models (PLMs) has introduced rich semantic modeling of item descriptions. However, PLMs often overlook the vital collaborative filtering signals, leading to challenges in merging collaborative and semantic representation spaces and fine-tuning semantic representations for better alignment with warm-start conditions. Our work introduces CARec, a cutting-edge model that integrates collaborative filtering with semantic representations, ensuring the alignment of these representations within the semantic space while retaining key semantics. Our experiments across four real-world datasets show significant performance improvements. CARec's collaborative alignment approach also extends its applicability to cold-start scenarios, where it demonstrates notable enhancements in recommendation accuracy. The code will be available upon paper acceptance.

cs.IR↗

arXiv2024

Review-Incorporated Model-Agnostic Profile Injection Attacks on Recommender Systems

Recent studies have shown that recommender systems (RSs) are highly vulnerable to data poisoning attacks. Understanding attack tactics helps improve the robustness of RSs. We intend to develop efficient attack methods that use limited resources to generate high-quality fake user profiles to achieve 1) transferability among black-box RSs 2) and imperceptibility among detectors. In order to achieve these goals, we introduce textual reviews of products to enhance the generation quality of the profiles. Specifically, we propose a novel attack framework named R-Trojan, which formulates the attack objectives as an optimization problem and adopts a tailored transformer-based generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve it so that high-quality attack profiles can be produced. Comprehensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that R-Trojan greatly outperforms state-of-the-art attack methods on various victim RSs under black-box settings and show its good imperceptibility.

cs.CR↗