Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Energy


Graph neural networks informed locally by thermodynamics

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Computational simulation is a discipline that has been around for 80 years or so and that has emerged as a cornerstone tool across various scientific disciplines, facilitating the prediction of physical phenomena and enabling engineers to refine designs before costly experimental setups are pursued. Traditionally, these simulations have relied heavily on mathematical formulations, often expressed through partial differential equations (PDEs), to model complex systems in fields such as structural mechanics or fluid dynamics [1]. However, with the advent of the information era--the so-called fourth paradigm of science [2]--, a shift towards data-driven approaches, particularly deep learning algorithms, has garnered attention due to their ability to address the limitations of traditional methods, including handling nonlinear dynamics under real-time restrictions [3]. Deep learning algorithms, while powerful, are often computationally demanding and require extensive datasets, posing challenges in terms of scalability and generalization [4]. To address these challenges, recent research has explored novel architectures, such as geometric deep learning, which leverage problem structures to enhance performance and reduce data consumption [5-8]. This paradigm shift, which imposes specific constraints related to problem symmetries, has opened new avenues for learning from irregular and unstructured data representations, such as graphs [9]. At the same time, traditional mesh-based representations have long been favoured in modelling complex physical systems, offering adaptability and accuracy across various domains, from aerodynamics [10] to structural mechanics [11]. Despite their advantages, mesh representations have received relatively little attention in the realm of machine learning, where grid-based approaches dominate due to their compatibility with convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures [12]. Nonetheless, recent efforts have explored the potential of adaptive mesh representations in predicting the dynamics of physical systems, showcasing their ability to allocate computational resources optimally and adaptively change discretization during simulations [13].


Improving Earth-like planet detection in radial velocity using deep learning

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Many novel methods have been proposed to mitigate stellar activity for exoplanet detection as the presence of stellar activity in radial velocity (RV) measurements is the current major limitation. Unlike traditional methods that model stellar activity in the RV domain, more methods are moving in the direction of disentangling stellar activity at the spectral level. The goal of this paper is to present a novel convolutional neural network-based algorithm that efficiently models stellar activity signals at the spectral level, enhancing the detection of Earth-like planets. We trained a convolutional neural network to build the correlation between the change in the spectral line profile and the corresponding RV, full width at half maximum (FWHM) and bisector span (BIS) values derived from the classical cross-correlation function. This algorithm has been tested on three intensively observed stars: Alpha Centauri B (HD128621), Tau ceti (HD10700), and the Sun. By injecting simulated planetary signals at the spectral level, we demonstrate that our machine learning algorithm can achieve, for HD128621 and HD10700, a detection threshold of 0.5 m/s in semi-amplitude for planets with periods ranging from 10 to 300 days. This threshold would correspond to the detection of a $\sim$4$\mathrm{M}_{\oplus}$ in the habitable zone of those stars. On the HARPS-N solar dataset, our algorithm is even more efficient at mitigating stellar activity signals and can reach a threshold of 0.2 m/s, which would correspond to a 2.2$\mathrm{M}_{\oplus}$ planet on the orbit of the Earth. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that such low detection thresholds are reported for the Sun, but also for other stars, and therefore this highlights the efficiency of our convolutional neural network-based algorithm at mitigating stellar activity in RV measurements.


Epanechnikov Variational Autoencoder

arXiv.org Machine Learning

In this paper, we bridge Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) [17] and kernel density estimations (KDEs) [25 ],[23] by approximating the posterior by KDEs and deriving an upper bound of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence in the evidence lower bound (ELBO). The flexibility of KDEs makes the optimization of posteriors in VAEs possible, which not only addresses the limitations of Gaussian latent space in vanilla VAE but also provides a new perspective of estimating the KL-divergence in ELBO. Under appropriate conditions [ 9],[3 ], we show that the Epanechnikov kernel is the optimal choice in minimizing the derived upper bound of KL-divergence asymptotically. Compared with Gaussian kernel, Epanechnikov kernel has compact support which should make the generated sample less noisy and blurry. The implementation of Epanechnikov kernel in ELBO is straightforward as it lies in the "location-scale" family of distributions where the reparametrization tricks can be directly employed. A series of experiments on benchmark datasets such as MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CelebA further demonstrate the superiority of Epanechnikov Variational Autoenocoder (EVAE) over vanilla VAE in the quality of reconstructed images, as measured by the FID score and Sharpness[27].


Efficient modeling of sub-kilometer surface wind with Gaussian processes and neural networks

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Accurately representing surface weather at the sub-kilometer scale is crucial for optimal decision-making in a wide range of applications. This motivates the use of statistical techniques to provide accurate and calibrated probabilistic predictions at a lower cost compared to numerical simulations. Wind represents a particularly challenging variable to model due to its high spatial and temporal variability. This paper presents a novel approach that integrates Gaussian processes (GPs) and neural networks to model surface wind gusts, leveraging multiple data sources, including numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, digital elevation models (DEM), and in-situ measurements. Results demonstrate the added value of modeling the multivariate covariance structure of the variable of interest, as opposed to only applying a univariate probabilistic regression approach. Modeling the covariance enables the optimal integration of observed measurements from ground stations, which is shown to reduce the continuous ranked probability score compared to the baseline. Moreover, it allows the direct generation of realistic fields that are also marginally calibrated, aided by scalable techniques such as Random Fourier Features (RFF) and pathwise conditioning. We discuss the effect of different modeling choices, as well as different degrees of approximation, and present our results for a case study.


BenchNav: Simulation Platform for Benchmarking Off-road Navigation Algorithms with Probabilistic Traversability

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

As robotic navigation techniques in perception and planning advance, mobile robots increasingly venture into off-road environments involving complex traversability. However, selecting suitable planning methods remains a challenge due to their algorithmic diversity, as each offers unique benefits. To aid in algorithm design, we introduce BenchNav, an open-source PyTorch-based simulation platform for benchmarking off-road navigation with uncertain traversability. Built upon Gymnasium, BenchNav provides three key features: 1) a data generation pipeline for preparing synthetic natural environments, 2) built-in machine learning models for traversability prediction, and 3) consistent execution of path and motion planning across different algorithms. We show BenchNav's versatility through simulation examples in off-road environments, employing three representative planning algorithms from different domains. https://github.com/masafumiendo/benchnav


Green AI in Action: Strategic Model Selection for Ensembles in Production

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into software systems has significantly enhanced their capabilities while escalating energy demands. Ensemble learning, combining predictions from multiple models to form a single prediction, intensifies this problem due to cumulative energy consumption. This paper presents a novel approach to model selection that addresses the challenge of balancing the accuracy of AI models with their energy consumption in a live AI ensemble system. We explore how reducing the number of models or improving the efficiency of model usage within an ensemble during inference can reduce energy demands without substantially sacrificing accuracy. This study introduces and evaluates two model selection strategies, Static and Dynamic, for optimizing ensemble learning systems performance while minimizing energy usage. Our results demonstrate that the Static strategy improves the F1 score beyond the baseline, reducing average energy usage from 100\% from the full ensemble to 6\2%. The Dynamic strategy further enhances F1 scores, using on average 76\% compared to 100% of the full ensemble. Moreover, we propose an approach that balances accuracy with resource consumption, significantly reducing energy usage without substantially impacting accuracy. This method decreased the average energy usage of the Static strategy from approximately 62\% to 14\%, and for the Dynamic strategy, from around 76\% to 57\%. Our field study of Green AI using an operational AI system developed by a large professional services provider shows the practical applicability of adopting energy-conscious model selection strategies in live production environments.


Reinforcement Learning Enabled Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading for Dairy Farms

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Farm businesses are increasingly adopting renewables to enhance energy efficiency and reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the grid. This shift aims to decrease dairy farms' dependence on traditional electricity grids by enabling the sale of surplus renewable energy in Peer-to-Peer markets. However, the dynamic nature of farm communities poses challenges, requiring specialized algorithms for P2P energy trading. To address this, the Multi-Agent Peer-to-Peer Dairy Farm Energy Simulator (MAPDES) has been developed, providing a platform to experiment with Reinforcement Learning techniques. The simulations demonstrate significant cost savings, including a 43% reduction in electricity expenses, a 42% decrease in peak demand, and a 1.91% increase in energy sales compared to baseline scenarios lacking peer-to-peer energy trading or renewable energy sources.


Data Assimilation with Machine Learning Surrogate Models: A Case Study with FourCastNet

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Modern data-driven surrogate models for weather forecasting provide accurate short-term predictions but inaccurate and nonphysical long-term forecasts. This paper investigates online weather prediction using machine learning surrogates supplemented with partial and noisy observations. We empirically demonstrate and theoretically justify that, despite the long-time instability of the surrogates and the sparsity of the observations, filtering estimates can remain accurate in the long-time horizon. As a case study, we integrate FourCastNet, a state-of-the-art weather surrogate model, within a variational data assimilation framework using partial, noisy ERA5 data. Our results show that filtering estimates remain accurate over a year-long assimilation window and provide effective initial conditions for forecasting tasks, including extreme event prediction.


Diffusion-RSCC: Diffusion Probabilistic Model for Change Captioning in Remote Sensing Images

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Remote sensing image change captioning (RSICC) aims at generating human-like language to describe the semantic changes between bi-temporal remote sensing image pairs. It provides valuable insights into environmental dynamics and land management. Unlike conventional change captioning task, RSICC involves not only retrieving relevant information across different modalities and generating fluent captions, but also mitigating the impact of pixel-level differences on terrain change localization. The pixel problem due to long time span decreases the accuracy of generated caption. Inspired by the remarkable generative power of diffusion model, we propose a probabilistic diffusion model for RSICC to solve the aforementioned problems. In training process, we construct a noise predictor conditioned on cross modal features to learn the distribution from the real caption distribution to the standard Gaussian distribution under the Markov chain. Meanwhile, a cross-mode fusion and a stacking self-attention module are designed for noise predictor in the reverse process. In testing phase, the well-trained noise predictor helps to estimate the mean value of the distribution and generate change captions step by step. Extensive experiments on the LEVIR-CC dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our Diffusion-RSCC and its individual components. The quantitative results showcase superior performance over existing methods across both traditional and newly augmented metrics. The code and materials will be available online at https://github.com/Fay-Y/Diffusion-RSCC.


The future of cosmological likelihood-based inference: accelerated high-dimensional parameter estimation and model comparison

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

We advocate for a new paradigm of cosmological likelihood-based inference, leveraging recent developments in machine learning and its underlying technology, to accelerate Bayesian inference in high-dimensional settings. Specifically, we combine (i) emulation, where a machine learning model is trained to mimic cosmological observables, e.g. CosmoPower-JAX; (ii) differentiable and probabilistic programming, e.g. JAX and NumPyro, respectively; (iii) scalable Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling techniques that exploit gradients, e.g. Hamiltonian Monte Carlo; and (iv) decoupled and scalable Bayesian model selection techniques that compute the Bayesian evidence purely from posterior samples, e.g. the learned harmonic mean implemented in harmonic. This paradigm allows us to carry out a complete Bayesian analysis, including both parameter estimation and model selection, in a fraction of the time of traditional approaches. First, we demonstrate the application of this paradigm on a simulated cosmic shear analysis for a Stage IV survey in 37- and 39-dimensional parameter spaces, comparing $\Lambda$CDM and a dynamical dark energy model ($w_0w_a$CDM). We recover posterior contours and evidence estimates that are in excellent agreement with those computed by the traditional nested sampling approach while reducing the computational cost from 8 months on 48 CPU cores to 2 days on 12 GPUs. Second, we consider a joint analysis between three simulated next-generation surveys, each performing a 3x2pt analysis, resulting in 157- and 159-dimensional parameter spaces. Standard nested sampling techniques are simply not feasible in this high-dimensional setting, requiring a projected 12 years of compute time on 48 CPU cores; on the other hand, the proposed approach only requires 8 days of compute time on 24 GPUs. All packages used in our analyses are publicly available.