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Differentiable Optimization for Deep Learning-Enhanced DC Approximation of AC Optimal Power Flow

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The growing scale of power systems and the increasing uncertainty introduced by renewable energy sources necessitates novel optimization techniques that are significantly faster and more accurate than existing methods. The AC Optimal Power Flow (AC-OPF) problem, a core component of power grid optimization, is often approximated using linearized DC Optimal Power Flow (DC-OPF) models for computational tractability, albeit at the cost of suboptimal and inefficient decisions. To address these limitations, we propose a novel deep learning-based framework for network equivalency that enhances DC-OPF to more closely mimic the behavior of AC-OPF. The approach utilizes recent advances in differentiable optimization, incorporating a neural network trained to predict adjusted nodal shunt conductances and branch susceptances in order to account for nonlinear power flow behavior. The model can be trained end-to-end using modern deep learning frameworks by leveraging the implicit function theorem. Results demonstrate the framework's ability to significantly improve prediction accuracy.


Intelligent Systems and Robotics: Revolutionizing Engineering Industries

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

-- A mix of intelligent systems and robotics is making engineering industries much more efficient, precise and able to adapt. How artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and autonomous robotic technologies are changing manufacturing, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering is discussed in this paper. Based on recent findings and a sugges ted way to evaluate intelligent robotic systems in industry, we give an overview of how their use impacts productivity, safety an d operational costs. Experience and case studies confirm the benefits this area brings and the problems that have yet to be sol ved. The findings indicate that intelligent robotics involves more than a technology change; it introduces important new methods in engineering . I. INTRODUCTION Because of rapid advancements in technology, engineering industries have changed a lot.


Perturbation-mitigated USV Navigation with Distributionally Robust Reinforcement Learning

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The robustness of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) is crucial when facing unknown and complex marine environments, especially when heteroscedastic observational noise poses significant challenges to sensor-based navigation tasks. Recently, Distributional Reinforcement Learning (DistRL) has shown promising results in some challenging autonomous navigation tasks without prior environmental information. However, these methods overlook situations where noise patterns vary across different environmental conditions, hindering safe navigation and disrupting the learning of value functions. To address the problem, we propose DRIQN to integrate Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) with implicit quantile networks to optimize worst-case performance under natural environmental conditions. Leveraging explicit subgroup modeling in the replay buffer, DRIQN incorporates heterogeneous noise sources and target robustness-critical scenarios. Experimental results based on the risk-sensitive environment demonstrate that DRIQN significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving +13.51\% success rate, -12.28\% collision rate and +35.46\% for time saving, +27.99\% for energy saving, compared with the runner-up.


XFlowMP: Task-Conditioned Motion Fields for Generative Robot Planning with Schrodinger Bridges

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Generative robotic motion planning requires not only the synthesis of smooth and collision-free trajectories but also feasibility across diverse tasks and dynamic constraints. Prior planning methods, both traditional and generative, often struggle to incorporate high-level semantics with low-level constraints, especially the nexus between task configurations and motion controllability. In this work, we present XFlowMP, a task-conditioned generative motion planner that models robot trajectory evolution as entropic flows bridging stochastic noises and expert demonstrations via Schrodinger bridges given the inquiry task configuration. Specifically, our method leverages Schrodinger bridges as a conditional flow matching coupled with a score function to learn motion fields with high-order dynamics while encoding start-goal configurations, enabling the generation of collision-free and dynamically-feasible motions. Through evaluations, XFlowMP achieves up to 53.79% lower maximum mean discrepancy, 36.36% smoother motions, and 39.88% lower energy consumption while comparing to the next-best baseline on the RobotPointMass benchmark, and also reducing short-horizon planning time by 11.72%. On long-horizon motions in the LASA Handwriting dataset, our method maintains the trajectories with 1.26% lower maximum mean discrepancy, 3.96% smoother, and 31.97% lower energy. We further demonstrate the practicality of our method on the Kinova Gen3 manipulator, executing planning motions and confirming its robustness in real-world settings.


DREAMer-VXS: A Latent World Model for Sample-Efficient AGV Exploration in Stochastic, Unobserved Environments

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The paradigm of learning-based robotics holds immense promise, yet its translation to real-world applications is critically hindered by the sample inefficiency and brittleness of conventional model-free reinforcement learning algorithms. In this work, we address these challenges by introducing DREAMer-VXS, a model-based framework for Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) exploration that learns to plan from imagined latent trajectories. Our approach centers on learning a comprehensive world model from partial and high-dimensional LiDAR observations. This world model is composed of a Convolutional Variational Autoencoder (VAE), which learns a compact representation of the environment's structure, and a Recurrent State-Space Model (RSSM), which models complex temporal dynamics. By leveraging this learned model as a high-speed simulator, the agent can train its navigation policy almost entirely in imagination. This methodology decouples policy learning from real-world interaction, culminating in a 90% reduction in required environmental interactions to achieve expert-level performance when compared to state-of-the-art model-free SAC baselines. The agent's behavior is guided by an actor-critic policy optimized with a composite reward function that balances task objectives with an intrinsic curiosity bonus, promoting systematic exploration of unknown spaces. We demonstrate through extensive simulated experiments that DREAMer-VXS not only learns orders of magnitude faster but also develops more generalizable and robust policies, achieving a 45% increase in exploration efficiency in unseen environments and superior resilience to dynamic obstacles.


The darkest fabric ever made is now a dress

Popular Science

A bird's ultrablack feathers inspired this versatile material. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. There is black, and then there is The shade defined as a black that reflects less than 0.5 percent of the light that hits it, is used on everything from telescopes to cameras. This uniquely dark color is not easy to produce and may appear less black when it is viewed at an angle. To find a better way to reproduce this cool color, a team at Cornell University looked to nature.


Species in Chernobyl disaster zone is mutating to feed on nuclear radiation

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Trump's MRI scan results released by White House Real estate experts sound alarm over toxic mortgage trap and wave of demolitions across America: Heading to'extinction' Is this the END of Ozempic? Trump deploys 250 agents to New Orleans for'Swamp Sweep' as terrified immigrants shutter restaurants The Kennedy brother who put a pillow over Marilyn Monroe's face as she screamed... and a deathbed phone call promised to'shock the whole world' - by author JAMES PATTERSON Billionaire power couple have given away so much of their fortune they've been taken off Forbes list of America's highest earners Mom who spent 10 years'gentle parenting' admits it was a mistake: 'My kids are anxious, insecure and entitled' Nashville neighbors can see what's REALLY going on with Nicole Kidman. Tina Turner's husband, 69, finds love again with 60-year-old American widow as they're seen on designer shopping spree in Milan Record cold for 235 million Americans starting in just HOURS as polar vortex brings'most extreme cold on Earth' The single injection that means you could come off statins for LIFE: Experts hail'fabulous' breakthrough that permanently cuts cholesterol... and may mean an end to difficult statin side-effects Doctor and his wife are executed in garage of their $1.3m home... then body'connected to crime' is found in burning car 70 miles away There's always been whispers about Tupac's sexuality... now for first time, friends and the boys he kissed share flamboyant tales of eyeshadow, nail varnish and his secret'longings' Even I was once overweight. So trust me, this 30 DAY detox plan will get you thin WITHOUT Ozempic... but if you want to stay skinny, you'll have to make one major sacrifice: JILLIAN MICHAELS Trader Joe's fans go wild for a product that has'finally' returned to stores... 'I dream about it' Lululemon's cancelled founder pokes fun at company's recent losses: 'Becoming The Gap with cheap acrylic sweaters' Nearly 40 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, scientists have discovered a form of life that's thriving on the radiation that's been left behind. A strange black fungus called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, found growing on abandoned reactor walls, hasn't just learned to survive the deadly fallout, but several strains now grow faster when radiation is present and even move towards it.


Amazon slashed Birdfy smart bird feeder cameras to their lowest prices ever for Cyber Monday

Popular Science

These smart bird feeders use connected cameras to capture up-close images and videos of visiting birds. We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Birds are difficult to photograph. They move quickly, arrive sporadically, and have an uncanny knack for avoiding the camera. Birdfy's smart bird feeders make it easy to capture photos and videos of your feathered friends with a connected camera.


Probabilistic Digital Twin for Misspecified Structural Dynamical Systems via Latent Force Modeling and Bayesian Neural Networks

arXiv.org Machine Learning

This work presents a probabilistic digital twin framework for response prediction in dynamical systems governed by misspecified physics. The approach integrates Gaussian Process Latent Force Models (GPLFM) and Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs) to enable end-to-end uncertainty-aware inference and prediction. In the diagnosis phase, model-form errors (MFEs) are treated as latent input forces to a nominal linear dynamical system and jointly estimated with system states using GPLFM from sensor measurements. A BNN is then trained on posterior samples to learn a probabilistic nonlinear mapping from system states to MFEs, while capturing diagnostic uncertainty. For prognosis, this mapping is used to generate pseudo-measurements, enabling state prediction via Kalman filtering. The framework allows for systematic propagation of uncertainty from diagnosis to prediction, a key capability for trustworthy digital twins. The framework is demonstrated using four nonlinear examples: a single degree of freedom (DOF) oscillator, a multi-DOF system, and two established benchmarks -- the Bouc-Wen hysteretic system and the Silverbox experimental dataset -- highlighting its predictive accuracy and robustness to model misspecification.


On the Effect of Regularization on Nonparametric Mean-Variance Regression

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Uncertainty quantification is vital for decision-making and risk assessment in machine learning. Mean-variance regression models, which predict both a mean and residual noise for each data point, provide a simple approach to uncertainty quantification. However, overparameterized mean-variance models struggle with signal-to-noise ambiguity, deciding whether prediction targets should be attributed to signal (mean) or noise (variance). At one extreme, models fit all training targets perfectly with zero residual noise, while at the other, they provide constant, uninformative predictions and explain the targets as noise. We observe a sharp phase transition between these extremes, driven by model regularization. Empirical studies with varying regularization levels illustrate this transition, revealing substantial variability across repeated runs. To explain this behavior, we develop a statistical field theory framework, which captures the observed phase transition in alignment with experimental results. This analysis reduces the regularization hyperparameter search space from two dimensions to one, significantly lowering computational costs. Experiments on UCI datasets and the large-scale ClimSim dataset demonstrate robust calibration performance, effectively quantifying predictive uncertainty.