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Jigen Peng

Publications and source records attributed to Jigen Peng.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A Bio-Plausible Visual Neural Network for Locust-Inspired Collision Perception

Locust visual systems have long served as an important biological paradigm for studying looming perception and collision avoidance. Numerous computational models have successfully reproduced the selective responses of Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) neurons to approaching objects, thereby emulating the fundamental functionality of the biological system. However, existing models remain limited in biological plausibility and robustness when operating in complex and dynamic visual environments. To address these limitations, we propose a biologically plausible neural network for locust-inspired looming detection. The proposed framework incorporates a spatially isotropic sampling strategy that mimics the ommatidial organization of the locust compound eye, a population-voting mechanism inspired by population coding in biological neural systems, and leaky integrate-and-fire neuronal dynamics to replace conventional sigmoid-based membrane activation. Systematic experiments on synthetic stimuli, laboratory sequences, and real-world driving scenarios demonstrate that the proposed model improves robustness under challenging visual conditions while preserving computational efficiency and enhancing biological fidelity. These results highlight the potential of biologically grounded neural computation for robust and efficient collision perception.

cs.NE

MITE-Net: SWaP-Optimized 4K Video Tiny Target Perception for Embodied Edge SAR

Real-time tiny target perception in high-resolution imagery is critical for embodied Search-and-Rescue (SAR) missions. However, strict Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constraints on edge devices like UAVs create a bottleneck: traditional image downsampling causes severe feature loss, while slice-based processing incurs prohibitive latency. To address this gap, this paper introduces a comprehensive framework encompassing a novel architecture, specialized datasets, and hardware-level benchmarks. First, we propose MITE-Net, a SWaP-optimized cascaded architecture, which couples a bio-inspired, learning-free Tiny Target Motion-Based Region Proposal Network (TTM-RPN) with a sub-0.14M-parameter R-CNN-like head. Second, to standardize 4K tiny target evaluation, we construct the SAR-Tiny Datasets by relabeling two challenging UAV datasets: SeaDroneSee-Tiny (dynamic maritime scenes, tiny targets predominantly of 64-256 pixels ) and UAVID-Tiny (cluttered urban scenes, extremely tiny targets, less than 64 pixels). Third, we benchmark against state-of-the-art YOLO models on an edge device, NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier, where MITE-Net directly processes 4K maritime imagery, achieving a 100\% search success rate at 30.33 FPS. Consuming merely 3.19 W (9.51 FPS/W), MITE-Net vastly outperforms YOLO baselines in target recall and energy efficiency. Conversely, UAVID-Tiny evaluations expose a compound structural limitation: the learning-free bionic front-end struggles against urban backgrounds, while the ultra-lightweight head lacks representational capacity for complex features. Ultimately, this work delivers an efficient onboard perception paradigm and a rigorous baseline guiding future end-to-end SAR architectures.

cs.CV

An Event-Driven Framework for Fly-Inspired Visual Motion Detection

Fast and reliable motion detection is essential for machine vision and autonomous systems operating in dynamic environments. This work integrates emerging event-based sensing with biologically structured neural computation to establish an efficient computational paradigm for visual motion detection. The proposed framework is built upon a recently developed fly-inspired neural network that emulates motion-processing circuits in the optic lobe. Owing to its feed-forward and training-free architecture, the neural model requires only a small number of interpretable parameters and is well suited for real-time implementation. Event cameras provide low-latency, low-power, and high-dynamic-range visual sensing by asynchronously transmitting brightness-change events. However, their performance can be degraded by event noise, including temporal noise and junction-leakage-induced activity, particularly under low-light conditions. Moreover, effective integration between event-based visual representations and biologically inspired neural processing remains under-explored. To address these challenges, we propose an event-driven computational framework that combines time-surface encoding for front-end event representation with a fly optic-lobe-inspired neural network for foreground motion-direction estimation. A bottom-up attention mechanism is further incorporated to suppress background motion and enhance the saliency of foreground targets. The proposed method is evaluated via real-world datasets of ground-vehicle detection and compared with a baseline frame-based model and an optimization-based approach. Experimental results demonstrate that the framework effectively combines the temporal advantages of event-driven vision with the efficiency and interpretability of bio-inspired neural processing.

cs.CV

A primal-dual splitting algorithm for monotone inclusions with applications

In this paper, we study a broad class of structured monotone inclusion problems in real Hilbert spaces. We propose a novel primal-dual splitting algorithm for solving such inclusions, which accommodates multiple monotone operators and cocoercive terms, as well as a composite monotone operator involving the linear map. The algorithm combines forward evaluations for the cocoercive components with backward resolvent steps for the monotone operators and employs a dual update for the linear composition term. It generalizes and unifies several existing methods, while requiring only a single resolvent or operator evaluation per iteration. We prove weak convergence of the iterates under standard assumptions on monotonicity and cocoercivity. Furthermore, we establish strong convergence under a mild regularity condition, such as uniform monotonicity. Numerical experiments on image deblurring and denoising problems demonstrate the efficiency and flexibility of the proposed algorithm.

math.OC

Nonlinear forward-backward-half forward splitting with momentum for monotone inclusions

In this work, we propose a new splitting algorithm for solving structured monotone inclusion problems composed of a maximally monotone operator, a maximally monotone and Lipschitz continuous operator and a cocoercive operator. Our method augments the forward-backward-half forward splitting algorithm with a nonlinear momentum term. Under appropriate conditions on the step-size, we prove the weak convergence of the proposed algorithm. A linear convergence rate is also obtained under the strong monotonicity assumption. Furthermore, we investigate a stochastic variance-reduced forward-backward-half forward splitting algorithm with momentum for solving finite-sum monotone inclusion problems. Weak almost sure convergence and linear convergence are also established under standard condition. Preliminary numerical experiments on synthetic datasets and real-world quadratic programming problems in portfolio optimization demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.

math.OC

On $\alpha$-monotone operators and their resolvent in Banach spaces

This paper introduces a new definition of $\alpha$-monotone operators in real 2-uniformly convex and smooth Banach spaces. Based on this new definition, we establish several novel structural and analytical properties of such operators, which not only extend classical results from Hilbert spaces but also reveal new insights into the geometry of Banach spaces. In particular, we examine the resolvent of $\alpha$-maximal monotone operators and demonstrate how its behavior is consistent with, and generalizes, the well-known firmly nonexpansive property in the Hilbert space setting. Building upon this theoretical framework, we further investigate algorithmic applications. Specifically, we analyze the forward-reflected-backward splitting algorithm under the new $\alpha$-monotonicity assumption and prove its strong convergence as well as its $R$-linear convergence rate in real 2-uniformly convex and smooth Banach spaces.

math.FA

H\"{o}lder property of the resolvent of a monotone operator in Banach spaces

Let $E$ be a Banach space, and let $J: E \to E^{*}$ denote the normalized duality mapping. In this paper, we establish an upper bound for $\|Jx - Jy\|$ in $q$-uniformly smooth Banach spaces, where the bound is expressed in terms of a relatively simple function of $\|x - y\|$. Subsequently, we derive the H\"{o}lder property of mappings of firmly nonexpansive type in 2-uniformly convex and $q$-uniformly smooth Banach spaces ($1<q\leq 2$). As an application, we apply this result to the resolvent of a monotone operator in Banach spaces.

math.FA

Dynamic Neural Field Modeling of Visual Contrast for Perceiving Incoherent Looming

Amari's Dynamic Neural Field (DNF) framework provides a brain-inspired approach to modeling the average activation of neuronal groups. Leveraging a single field, DNF has become a promising foundation for low-energy looming perception module in robotic applications. However, the previous DNF methods face significant challenges in detecting incoherent or inconsistent looming features--conditions commonly encountered in real-world scenarios, such as collision detection in rainy weather. Insights from the visual systems of fruit flies and locusts reveal encoding ON/OFF visual contrast plays a critical role in enhancing looming selectivity. Additionally, lateral excitation mechanism potentially refines the responses of loom-sensitive neurons to both coherent and incoherent stimuli. Together, these offer valuable guidance for improving looming perception models. Building on these biological evidence, we extend the previous single-field DNF framework by incorporating the modeling of ON/OFF visual contrast, each governed by a dedicated DNF. Lateral excitation within each ON/OFF-contrast field is formulated using a normalized Gaussian kernel, and their outputs are integrated in the Summation field to generate collision alerts. Experimental evaluations show that the proposed model effectively addresses incoherent looming detection challenges and significantly outperforms state-of-the-art locust-inspired models. It demonstrates robust performance across diverse stimuli, including synthetic rain effects, underscoring its potential for reliable looming perception in complex, noisy environments with inconsistent visual cues.

cs.NE

vSTMD: Visual Motion Detection for Extremely Tiny Target at Various Velocities

Visual motion detection for extremely tiny (ET-) targets is challenging, due to their category-independent nature and the scarcity of visual cues, which often incapacitate mainstream feature-based models. Natural architectures with rich interpretability offer a promising alternative, where STMD architectures derived from insect visual STMD (Small Target Motion Detector) pathways have demonstrated their effectiveness. However, previous STMD models are constrained to a narrow velocity range, hindering their efficacy in real-world scenarios where targets exhibit diverse and unstable dynamics. To address this limitation, we present vSTMD, a learning-free model for motion detection of ET-targets at various velocities. Our key innovations include: (1) a cross-Inhibition Dynamic Potential (cIDP) that serves as a self-adaptive mechanism efficiently capturing motion cues across a wide velocity spectrum, and (2) the first Collaborative Directional Gradient Calculation (CDGC) strategy, which enhances orienting accuracy and robustness while reducing computational overhead to one-eighth of previously isolated strategies. Evaluated on the real-world dataset RIST, the proposed vSTMD and its feedback-facilitated variant vSTMD-F achieve relative $F_{1}$ gains of $30\%$ and $58\%$ over state-of-the-art (SOTA) STMD approaches, respectively. Furthermore, both models demonstrate competitive orientation estimation performance compared to SOTA deep learning-driven methods. Experiments also reveal the superiority of the natural architecture for ET-object motion detection - vSTMD is $60\times$ faster than contemporary data-driven methods, making it highly suitable for real-time applications in dynamic scenarios and complex backgrounds. Code is available at https://github.com/MingshuoXu/vSTMD.

cs.CV

A Bio-Inspired Research Paradigm of Collision Perception Neurons Enabling Neuro-Robotic Integration: The LGMD Case

Compared to human vision, locust visual systems excel at rapid and precise collision detection, despite relying on only hundreds of thousands of neurons organized through a few neuropils. This efficiency makes them an attractive model system for developing artificial collision-detecting systems. Specifically, researchers have identified collision-selective neurons in the locust's optic lobe, called lobula giant movement detectors (LGMDs), which respond specifically to approaching objects. Research upon LGMD neurons began in the early 1970s. Initially, due to their large size, these neurons were identified as motion detectors, but their role as looming detectors was recognized over time. Since then, progress in neuroscience, computational modeling of LGMD's visual neural circuits, and LGMD-based robotics have advanced in tandem, each field supporting and driving the others. Today, with a deeper understanding of LGMD neurons, LGMD-based models have significantly improved collision-free navigation in mobile robots including ground and aerial robots. This review highlights recent developments in LGMD research from the perspectives of neuroscience, computational modeling, and robotics. It emphasizes a biologically plausible research paradigm, where insights from neuroscience inform real-world applications, which would in turn validate and advance neuroscience. With strong support from extensive research and growing application demand, this paradigm has reached a mature stage and demonstrates versatility across different areas of neuroscience research, thereby enhancing our understanding of the interconnections between neuroscience, computational modeling, and robotics. Furthermore, this paradigm would shed light upon the modeling and robotic research into other motion-sensitive neurons or neural circuits.

cs.NE

Spatio-Temporal Feedback Control of Small Target Motion Detection Visual System

Feedback is crucial to motion perception in animals' visual systems where its spatial and temporal dynamics are often shaped by movement patterns of surrounding environments. However, such spatio-temporal feedback has not been deeply explored in designing neural networks to detect small moving targets that cover only one or a few pixels in image while presenting extremely limited visual features. In this paper, we address small target motion detection problem by developing a visual system with spatio-temporal feedback loop, and further reveal its important roles in suppressing false positive background movement while enhancing network responses to small targets. Specifically, the proposed visual system is composed of two complementary subnetworks. The first subnetwork is designed to extract spatial and temporal motion patterns of cluttered backgrounds by neuronal ensemble coding. The second subnetwork is developed to capture small target motion information and integrate the spatio-temporal feedback signal from the first subnetwork to inhibit background false positives. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed spatio-temporal feedback visual system is more competitive than existing methods in discriminating small moving targets from complex dynamic environment.

cs.CV

Profiling Visual Dynamic Complexity Using a Bio-Robotic Approach

Visual dynamic complexity is a ubiquitous, hidden attribute of the visual world that every dynamic vision system is faced with. However, it is implicit and intractable which has never been quantitatively described due to the difficulty in defending temporal features correlated to spatial image complexity. To fill this vacancy, we propose a novel bio-robotic approach to profile visual dynamic complexity which can be used as a new metric. Here we apply a state-of-the-art brain-inspired motion detection neural network model to explicitly profile such complexity associated with spatial-temporal frequency (SF-TF) of visual scene. This model is for the first time implemented in an autonomous micro-mobile robot which navigates freely in an arena with visual walls displaying moving sine-wave grating or cluttered natural scene. The neural dynamic response can make reasonable prediction on surrounding complexity since it can be mapped monotonically to varying SF-TF of visual scene. The experiments show this approach is flexible to different visual scenes for profiling the dynamic complexity. We also use this metric as a predictor to investigate the boundary of another collision detection visual system performing in changing environment with increasing dynamic complexity. This research demonstrates a new paradigm of using biologically plausible visual processing scheme to estimate dynamic complexity of visual scene from both spatial and temporal perspectives, which could be beneficial to predicting input complexity when evaluating dynamic vision systems.

cs.RO

Attention and Prediction Guided Motion Detection for Low-Contrast Small Moving Targets

Small target motion detection within complex natural environments is an extremely challenging task for autonomous robots. Surprisingly, the visual systems of insects have evolved to be highly efficient in detecting mates and tracking prey, even though targets occupy as small as a few degrees of their visual fields. The excellent sensitivity to small target motion relies on a class of specialized neurons called small target motion detectors (STMDs). However, existing STMD-based models are heavily dependent on visual contrast and perform poorly in complex natural environments where small targets generally exhibit extremely low contrast against neighbouring backgrounds. In this paper, we develop an attention and prediction guided visual system to overcome this limitation. The developed visual system comprises three main subsystems, namely, an attention module, an STMD-based neural network, and a prediction module. The attention module searches for potential small targets in the predicted areas of the input image and enhances their contrast against complex background. The STMD-based neural network receives the contrast-enhanced image and discriminates small moving targets from background false positives. The prediction module foresees future positions of the detected targets and generates a prediction map for the attention module. The three subsystems are connected in a recurrent architecture allowing information to be processed sequentially to activate specific areas for small target detection. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed visual system for detecting small, low-contrast moving targets against complex natural environments.

cs.CV

Convergence analysis of a relaxed inertial alternating minimization algorithm with applications

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is a popular method for solving convex separable minimization problems with linear equality constraints. The generalization of the two-block ADMM to the three-block ADMM is not trivial since the three-block ADMM is not convergence in general. Many variants of three-block ADMM have been developed with guarantee convergence. Besides the ADMM, the alternating minimization algorithm (AMA) is also an important algorithm for solving the convex separable minimization problem with linear equality constraints. The AMA is first proposed by Tseng, and it is equivalent to the forward-backward splitting algorithm applied to the corresponding dual problem. In this paper, we design a variant of three-block AMA, which is derived by employing an inertial extension of the three-operator splitting algorithm to the dual problem. Compared with three-block ADMM, the first subproblem of the proposed algorithm only minimizing the Lagrangian function. As a by-product, we obtain a relaxed algorithm of Davis and Yin. Under mild conditions on the parameters, we establish the convergence of the proposed algorithm in infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Finally, we conduct numerical experiments on the stable principal component pursuit (SPCP) to verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

math.OC

Adaptive iterative singular value thresholding algorithm to low-rank matrix recovery

The problem of recovering a low-rank matrix from the linear constraints, known as affine matrix rank minimization problem, has been attracting extensive attention in recent years. In general, affine matrix rank minimization problem is a NP-hard. In our latest work, a non-convex fraction function is studied to approximate the rank function in affine matrix rank minimization problem and translate the NP-hard affine matrix rank minimization problem into a transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. A scheme of iterative singular value thresholding algorithm is generated to solve the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. However, one of the drawbacks for our iterative singular value thresholding algorithm is that the parameter $a$, which influences the behaviour of non-convex fraction function in the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem, needs to be determined manually in every simulation. In fact, how to determine the optimal parameter $a$ is not an easy problem. Here instead, in this paper, we will generate an adaptive iterative singular value thresholding algorithm to solve the regularized transformed affine matrix rank minimization problem. When doing so, our new algorithm will be intelligent both for the choice of the regularized parameter $\lambda$ and the parameter $a$.

math.OC

A Time-Delay Feedback Neural Network for Discriminating Small, Fast-Moving Targets in Complex Dynamic Environments

Discriminating small moving objects within complex visual environments is a significant challenge for autonomous micro robots that are generally limited in computational power. By exploiting their highly evolved visual systems, flying insects can effectively detect mates and track prey during rapid pursuits, even though the small targets equate to only a few pixels in their visual field. The high degree of sensitivity to small target movement is supported by a class of specialized neurons called small target motion detectors (STMDs). Existing STMD-based computational models normally comprise four sequentially arranged neural layers interconnected via feedforward loops to extract information on small target motion from raw visual inputs. However, feedback, another important regulatory circuit for motion perception, has not been investigated in the STMD pathway and its functional roles for small target motion detection are not clear. In this paper, we propose an STMD-based neural network with feedback connection (Feedback STMD), where the network output is temporally delayed, then fed back to the lower layers to mediate neural responses. We compare the properties of the model with and without the time-delay feedback loop, and find it shows preference for high-velocity objects. Extensive experiments suggest that the Feedback STMD achieves superior detection performance for fast-moving small targets, while significantly suppressing background false positive movements which display lower velocities. The proposed feedback model provides an effective solution in robotic visual systems for detecting fast-moving small targets that are always salient and potentially threatening.

cs.CV

Nonconvex fraction function recovery sparse signal by convex optimization algorithm

In this paper, we will generate a convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm to solve the problem $(FP^{\lambda}_{a})$. Two schemes of convex iterative FP thresholding algorithms are generated. One is convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 1 and the other is convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 2. A global convergence theorem is proved for the convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 1. Under an adaptive rule, the convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 2 will be adaptive both for the choice of the regularized parameter $\lambda$ and parameter $a$. These are the advantages for our two schemes of convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm compared with our previous proposed two schemes of iterative FP thresholding algorithm. At last, we provide a series of numerical simulations to test the performance of the convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 2, and the simulation results show that our convex iterative FP thresholding algorithm-Scheme 2 performs very well in recovering a sparse signal.

math.OC

A Robust Visual System for Small Target Motion Detection Against Cluttered Moving Backgrounds

Monitoring small objects against cluttered moving backgrounds is a huge challenge to future robotic vision systems. As a source of inspiration, insects are quite apt at searching for mates and tracking prey -- which always appear as small dim speckles in the visual field. The exquisite sensitivity of insects for small target motion, as revealed recently, is coming from a class of specific neurons called small target motion detectors (STMDs). Although a few STMD-based models have been proposed, these existing models only use motion information for small target detection and cannot discriminate small targets from small-target-like background features (named as fake features). To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel visual system model (STMD+) for small target motion detection, which is composed of four subsystems -- ommatidia, motion pathway, contrast pathway and mushroom body. Compared to existing STMD-based models, the additional contrast pathway extracts directional contrast from luminance signals to eliminate false positive background motion. The directional contrast and the extracted motion information by the motion pathway are integrated in the mushroom body for small target discrimination. Extensive experiments showed the significant and consistent improvements of the proposed visual system model over existing STMD-based models against fake features.

cs.CV