Ryan Allen | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Lights Out: A Nighttime UAV Localization Framework Using Thermal Imagery and Semantic 3D Maps

Reliable backup localization for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in GNSS-denied nighttime conditions remains an open challenge due to the severe modality gap between daytime RGB maps and nighttime thermal imagery. This work presents a semantic reprojection framework for map-relative nighttime UAV localization by aligning segmented thermal observations with a globally referenced, semantically labeled 3D map constructed from daytime RGB data. Rather than relying on appearance-based correspondence, localization is formulated in a shared semantic domain and solved via a symmetric bidirectional reprojection objective with confusion-aware weighting to improve robustness under segmentation uncertainty. The approach is evaluated offline across 6.5 km of nighttime, real-world UAV flight trajectories in urban and semi-structured environments. Relative to RTK GNSS ground truth, the system achieves a bias-corrected RMSE2D of 2.18 m and a median RMSE2D of 1.52 m. Results show that localization performance is strongly correlated with the availability of semantic edge evidence and that large-error events are spatially localized to semantically ambiguous areas rather than uniformly distributed. These findings indicate that semantic reprojection offers a promising pathway toward globally referenced nighttime UAV localization using thermal imagery alone.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

Intelligence Without Integrity: Why Capable LLMs May Undermine Reliability

As LLMs become embedded in research workflows and organizational decision processes, their effect on analytical reliability remains uncertain. We distinguish two dimensions of analytical reliability -- intelligence (the capacity to reach correct conclusions) and integrity (the stability of conclusions when analytically irrelevant cues about desired outcomes are introduced) -- and ask whether frontier LLMs possess both. Whether these dimensions trade off is theoretically ambiguous: the sophistication enabling accurate analysis may also enable responsiveness to non-evidential cues, or alternatively, greater capability may confer protection through better calibration and discernment. Using synthetically generated data with embedded ground truth, we evaluate fourteen models on a task simulating empirical analysis of hospital merger effects. We find that intelligence and integrity trade off: frontier models most likely to reach correct conclusions under neutral conditions are often most susceptible to shifting conclusions under motivated framing. We extend work on sycophancy by introducing goal-conditioned analytical sycophancy: sensitivity of inference to cues about desired outcomes, even when no belief is asserted and evidence is held constant. Unlike simple prompt sensitivity, models shift conclusions away from objective evidence in response to analytically irrelevant framing. This finding has important implications for empirical research and organizations. Selecting tools based on capability benchmarks may inadvertently select against the stability needed for reliable and replicable analysis.

econ.GN↗