LatticeNet: Fast Point Cloud Segmentation Using Permutohedral Lattices Radu Alexandru Rosu Peer Sch utt Jan Quenzel Sven Behnke Abstract -- Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown outstanding performance in the task of semantically segmenting images. However, applying the same methods on 3D data still poses challenges due to the heavy memory requirements and the lack of structured data. Here, we propose LatticeNet, a novel approach for 3D semantic segmentation, which takes as input raw point clouds. A PointNet describes the local geometry which we embed into a sparse permutohedral lattice. The lattice allows for fast convolutions while keeping a low memory footprint. Further, we introduce DeformSlice, a novel learned data-dependent interpolation for projecting lattice features back onto the point cloud. We present results of 3D segmentation on various datasets where our method achieves state-of-the-art performance. I NTRODUCTION Environment understanding is a crucial ability for autonomous agents.

Machine Learning (ML) has been applied to enable many life-assisting appli-cations, such as abnormality detection and emdergency request for the soli-tary elderly. However, in most cases machine learning algorithms depend on the layout of the target Internet of Things (IoT) sensor network. Hence, to deploy an application across Heterogeneous Sensor Networks (HSNs), i.e. sensor networks with different sensors type or layouts, it is required to repeat the process of data collection and ML algorithm training. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework leveraging deep learning for graphs to enable using the same activity recognition system across HSNs deployed in differ-ent smart homes. Using our framework, we were able to transfer activity classifiers trained with activity labels on a source HSN to a target HSN, reaching about 75% of the baseline accuracy on the target HSN without us-ing target activity labels. Moreover, our model can quickly adapt to unseen sensor layouts, which makes it highly suitable for the gradual deployment of real-world ML-based applications. In addition, we show that our framework is resilient to suboptimal graph representations of HSNs.

While policy-based reinforcement learning (RL) achieves tremendous successes in practice, it is significantly less understood in theory, especially compared with value-based RL. In particular, it remains elusive how to design a provably efficient policy optimization algorithm that incorporates exploration. To bridge such a gap, this paper proposes an Optimistic variant of the Proximal Policy Optimization algorithm (OPPO), which follows an "optimistic version" of the policy gradient direction. This paper proves that, in the problem of episodic Markov decision process with linear function approximation, unknown transition, and adversarial reward with full-information feedback, OPPO achieves $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{d^3 H^3 T})$ regret. Here $d$ is the feature dimension, $H$ is the episode horizon, and $T$ is the total number of steps. To the best of our knowledge, OPPO is the first provably efficient policy optimization algorithm that explores.

Deep generative neural networks (DGNNs) have achieved realistic and high-quality data generation. In particular, the adversarial training scheme has been applied to many DGNNs and has exhibited powerful performance. Despite of recent advances in generative networks, identifying the image generation mechanism still remains challenging. In this paper, we present an explorative sampling algorithm to analyze generation mechanism of DGNNs. Our method efficiently obtains samples with identical attributes from a query image in a perspective of the trained model. We define generative boundaries which determine the activation of nodes in the internal layer and probe inside the model with this information. To handle a large number of boundaries, we obtain the essential set of boundaries using optimization. By gathering samples within the region surrounded by generative boundaries, we can empirically reveal the characteristics of the internal layers of DGNNs. We also demonstrate that our algorithm can find more homogeneous, the model specific samples compared to the variations of {\epsilon}-based sampling method.

Model misspecification is a long-standing enigma of the Bayesian inference framework as posteriors tend to get overly concentrated on ill-informed parameter values towards the large sample limit. Tempering of the likelihood has been established as a safer way to do updates from prior to posterior in the presence of model misspecification. At one extreme tempering can ignore the data altogether and at the other extreme it provides the standard Bayes' update when no misspecification is assumed to be present. However, it is an open issue how to best recognize misspecification and choose a suitable level of tempering without access to the true generating model. Here we show how probabilistic classifiers can be employed to resolve this issue. By training a probabilistic classifier to discriminate between simulated and observed data provides an estimate of the ratio between the model likelihood and the likelihood of the data under the unobserved true generative process, within the discriminatory abilities of the classifier. The expectation of the logarithm of a ratio with respect to the data generating process gives an estimation of the negative Kullback-Leibler divergence between the statistical generative model and the true generative distribution. Using a set of canonical examples we show that this divergence provides a useful misspecification diagnostic, a model comparison tool, and a method to inform a generalised Bayesian update in the presence of misspecification for likelihood-based models.

While Bayesian neural networks have many appealing characteristics, current priors do not easily allow users to specify basic properties such as expected lengthscale or amplitude variance. In this work, we introduce Poisson Process Radial Basis Function Networks, a novel prior that is able to encode amplitude stationarity and input-dependent lengthscale. We prove that our novel formulation allows for a decoupled specification of these properties, and that the estimated regression function is consistent as the number of observations tends to infinity. We demonstrate its behavior on synthetic and real examples.

Information extraction is an important task in NLP, enabling the automatic extraction of data for relational database filling. Historically, research and data was produced for English text, followed in subsequent years by datasets in Arabic, Chinese (ACE/OntoNotes), Dutch, Spanish, German (CoNLL evaluations), and many others. The natural tendency has been to treat each language as a different dataset and build optimized models for each. In this paper we investigate a single Named Entity Recognition model, based on a multilingual BERT, that is trained jointly on many languages simultaneously, and is able to decode these languages with better accuracy than models trained only on one language. To improve the initial model, we study the use of regularization strategies such as multitask learning and partial gradient updates. In addition to being a single model that can tackle multiple languages (including code switch), the model could be used to make zero-shot predictions on a new language, even ones for which training data is not available, out of the box. The results show that this model not only performs competitively with monolingual models, but it also achieves state-of-the-art results on the CoNLL02 Dutch and Spanish datasets, OntoNotes Arabic and Chinese datasets. Moreover, it performs reasonably well on unseen languages, achieving state-of-the-art for zero-shot on three CoNLL languages.

Two general routes have been followed to develop artificial agents that are sensitive to human values---a top-down approach to encode values into the agents, and a bottom-up approach to learn from human actions, whether from real-world interactions or stories. Although both approaches have made exciting scientific progress, they may face challenges when applied to the current development practices of AI systems, which require the under-standing of the specific domains and specific stakeholders involved. In this work, we bring together perspectives from the human-computer interaction (HCI) community, where designing technologies sensitive to user values has been a longstanding focus. We highlight several well-established areas focusing on developing empirical methods for inquiring user values. Based on these methods, we propose participatory design fictions to study user values involved in AI systems and present preliminary results from a case study. With this paper, we invite the consideration of user-centered value inquiry and value learning.

Does progress in simulation translate to progress in robotics? Specifically, if method A outperforms method B in simulation, how likely is the trend to hold in reality on a robot? We examine this question for embodied (PointGoal) navigation, developing engineering tools and a research paradigm for evaluating a simulator by its sim2real predictivity, revealing surprising findings about prior work. First, we develop Habitat-PyRobot Bridge (HaPy), a library for seamless execution of identical code on a simulated agent and a physical robot. Habitat-to-Locobot transfer with HaPy involves just one line change in config, essentially treating reality as just another simulator! Second, we investigate sim2real predictivity of Habitat-Sim for PointGoal navigation. We 3D-scan a physical lab space to create a virtualized replica, and run parallel tests of 9 different models in reality and simulation. We present a new metric called Sim-vs-Real Correlation Coefficient (SRCC) to quantify sim2real predictivity. Our analysis reveals several important findings. We find that SRCC for Habitat as used for the CVPR19 challenge is low (0.18 for the success metric), which suggests that performance improvements for this simulator-based challenge would not transfer well to a physical robot. We find that this gap is largely due to AI agents learning to 'cheat' by exploiting simulator imperfections: specifically, the way Habitat allows for 'sliding' along walls on collision. Essentially, the virtual robot is capable of cutting corners, leading to unrealistic shortcuts through non-navigable spaces. Naturally, such exploits do not work in the real world where the robot stops on contact with walls. Our experiments show that it is possible to optimize simulation parameters to enable robots trained in imperfect simulators to generalize learned skills to reality (e.g. improving $SRCC_{Succ}$ from 0.18 to 0.844).

Reinforcement learning, evolutionary algorithms and imitation learning are three principal methods to deal with continuous control tasks. Reinforcement learning is sample efficient, yet sensitive to hyper-parameters setting and needs efficient exploration; Evolutionary algorithms are stable, but with low sample efficiency; Imitation learning is both sample efficient and stable, however it requires the guidance of expert data. In this paper, we propose Recruitment-imitation Mechanism (RIM) for evolutionary reinforcement learning, a scalable framework that combines advantages of the three methods mentioned above. The core of this framework is a dual-actors and single critic reinforcement learning agent. This agent can recruit high-fitness actors from the population of evolutionary algorithms, which instructs itself to learn from experience replay buffer. At the same time, low-fitness actors in the evolutionary population can imitate behavior patterns of the reinforcement learning agent and improve their adaptability. Reinforcement and imitation learners in this framework can be replaced with any off-policy actor-critic reinforcement learner or data-driven imitation learner. We evaluate RIM on a series of benchmarks for continuous control tasks in Mujoco. The experimental results show that RIM outperforms prior evolutionary or reinforcement learning methods. The performance of RIM's components is significantly better than components of previous evolutionary reinforcement learning algorithm, and the recruitment using soft update enables reinforcement learning agent to learn faster than that using hard update.