arXiv subjects

Rohit Sonker

Publications and source records attributed to Rohit Sonker.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bayesian Optimization with Rich Auxiliary Information via LLMs

Bayesian Optimization (BO) is widely used for optimizing expensive black-box functions, yet many real-world optimization problems contain substantially richer information than function evaluations alone. Examples include training curves in hyperparameter optimization, expert notes and images in scientific experimentation, and prior knowledge about where optima may lie. We show that large language models (LLMs) can effectively leverage such rich auxiliary information to guide optimization. Motivated by these findings, we develop three methods for incorporating auxiliary information into BO using LLMs. Across hyperparameter optimization benchmarks and a real-world nuclear fusion optimization task, our methods consistently outperform both standard BO and existing LLM-based optimization approaches. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of LLMs for leveraging rich auxiliary information in BO.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Offline Reinforcement Learning for Rotation Profile Control in Tokamaks

Tokamaks remain leading candidates for achieving practical fusion energy, yet many important control problems inside these devices are still difficult or unsolved. One such challenge is controlling the plasma rotation profile, which strongly influences stability, confinement, and transport. While the average rotation can be controlled, controlling the full profile is challenging due to high dimensionality, response to multiple actuators and dependence on plasma condition. Learning-based control methods, such as reinforcement learning (RL), provide a potential solution to this challenging problem with ability to model complex interactions leading to effective multi-input multi-output control. However, learning such policies is challenging due to the lack of accurate simulators that can model the rotation profile dynamics. In this work, we investigate the use of offline RL and offline model-based RL algorithms for rotation profile control, training them solely on historical data from the DIII-D tokamak. Our final method uses probabilistic models of plasma dynamics to generate rollouts for RL training. We deploy this policy on the DIII-D Tokamak and observe promising real-world results. We conclude by highlighting key challenges and insights from training and deploying an RL policy on a complex physical device while using only limited past data.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Offline Reinforcement Learning for Plasma Control in Nuclear Fusion: Codebase and Benchmark

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) offers a promising route for developing plasma controllers from historical tokamak data, since online trial-and-error on real devices is costly and risky. However, progress in this direction remains difficult to measure due to the lack of a standardized offline RL benchmark for realistic multi-actuator, long-horizon plasma control problems in nuclear fusion. We introduce RL4F, an Offline Reinforcement Learning Benchmark for Plasma Control in Nuclear Fusion, providing closed-loop evaluation environments and baseline comparisons across four full-profile tracking tasks: rotation, density, temperature, and pressure. The dynamics function underlying the evaluation environment is built from historical discharge data from DIII-D, a real-world Tokamak. We evaluate a broad set of imitation learning and offline RL baselines under a unified protocol. We find that offline model-based RL methods obtain the best average performance on most objectives, although no single method dominates all tasks, highlighting the importance of dynamics modeling in complex, long-horizon plasma control tasks. To foster further research, we open-source the codebase, datasets, and evaluation framework, providing a benchmark not only for the fusion community but also for algorithm development in offline RL.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Interpreting AI for Fusion: an application to Plasma Profile Analysis for Tearing Mode Stability

AI models have demonstrated strong predictive capabilities for various tokamak instabilities--including tearing modes (TM), ELMs, and disruptive event--but their opaque nature raises concerns about safety and trustworthiness when applied to fusion power plants. Here, we present a physics-based interpretation framework using a TM prediction model as a first demonstration that is validated through a dedicated DIII-D TM avoidance experiment. By applying Shapley analysis, we identify how profiles such as rotation, temperature, and density contribute to the model's prediction of TM stability. Our analysis shows that in our experimental scenario, a large density profile is lightly destabilizing, but core electron temperature and rotation peaking play the primary role in TM stability. This work offers a generalizable ML-based event prediction methodology, from training to physics-driven interpretability, bridging the gap between physics understanding and opaque ML models.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Multi-Timescale Dynamics Model Bayesian Optimization for Plasma Stabilization in Tokamaks

Machine learning algorithms often struggle to control complex real-world systems. In the case of nuclear fusion, these challenges are exacerbated, as the dynamics are notoriously complex, data is poor, hardware is subject to failures, and experiments often affect dynamics beyond the experiment's duration. Existing tools like reinforcement learning, supervised learning, and Bayesian optimization address some of these challenges but fail to provide a comprehensive solution. To overcome these limitations, we present a multi-scale Bayesian optimization approach that integrates a high-frequency data-driven dynamics model with a low-frequency Gaussian process. By updating the Gaussian process between experiments, the method rapidly adapts to new data, refining the predictions of the less reliable dynamical model. We validate our approach by controlling tearing instabilities in the DIII-D nuclear fusion plant. Offline testing on historical data shows that our method significantly outperforms several baselines. Results on live experiments on the DIII-D tokamak, conducted under high-performance plasma scenarios prone to instabilities, shows a 50% success rate, marking a 117% improvement over historical outcomes.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Hidden Parameter Recurrent State Space Models For Changing Dynamics Scenarios

Recurrent State-space models (RSSMs) are highly expressive models for learning patterns in time series data and system identification. However, these models assume that the dynamics are fixed and unchanging, which is rarely the case in real-world scenarios. Many control applications often exhibit tasks with similar but not identical dynamics which can be modeled as a latent variable. We introduce the Hidden Parameter Recurrent State Space Models (HiP-RSSMs), a framework that parametrizes a family of related dynamical systems with a low-dimensional set of latent factors. We present a simple and effective way of learning and performing inference over this Gaussian graphical model that avoids approximations like variational inference. We show that HiP-RSSMs outperforms RSSMs and competing multi-task models on several challenging robotic benchmarks both on real-world systems and simulations.

cs.LG↗