Model-free Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms work well in sequential decision-making problems when experience can be collected cheaply and model-based RL is effective when system dynamics can be modeled accurately. However, both of these assumptions can be violated in real world problems such as robotics, where querying the system can be prohibitively expensive and real-world dynamics can be difficult to model accurately. Although sim-to-real approaches such as domain randomization attempt to mitigate the effects of biased simulation, they can still suffer from optimization challenges such as local minima and hand-designed distributions for randomization, making it difficult to learn an accurate global value function or policy that directly transfers to the real world. In contrast to RL, Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithms use a simulator to optimize a simple policy class online, constructing a closed-loop controller that can effectively contend with real-world dynamics. MPC performance is usually limited by factors such as model bias and the limited horizon of optimization. In this work, we present a novel theoretical connection between information theoretic MPC and entropy regularized RL and develop a Q-learning algorithm that can leverage biased models. We validate the proposed algorithm on sim-to-sim control tasks to demonstrate the improvements over optimal control and reinforcement learning from scratch. Our approach paves the way for deploying reinforcement learning algorithms on real-robots in a systematic manner.

Machine failures decrease up-time and can lead to extra repair costs or even to human casualties and environmental pollution. Recent condition monitoring techniques use artificial intelligence in an effort to avoid time-consuming manual analysis and handcrafted feature extraction. Many of these only analyze a single machine and require a large historical data set. In practice, this can be difficult and expensive to collect. However, some industrial condition monitoring applications involve a fleet of similar operating machines. In most of these applications, it is safe to assume healthy conditions for the majority of machines. Deviating machine behavior is then an indicator for a machine fault. This work proposes an unsupervised, generic, anomaly detection framework for fleet-based condition monitoring. It uses generic building blocks and offers three key advantages. First, a historical data set is not required due to online fleet-based comparisons. Second, it allows incorporating domain expertise by user-defined comparison measures. Finally, contrary to most black-box artificial intelligence techniques, easy interpretability allows a domain expert to validate the predictions made by the framework. Two use-cases on an electrical machine fleet demonstrate the applicability of the framework to detect a voltage unbalance by means of electrical and vibration signatures.

The motivation of this study is to leverage recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research to unlock novel solutions to important scientific problems encountered in computational science. To address the human intelligence limitations in discovering reduced-order models, we propose to supplement human thinking with artificial intelligence. Our three-pronged strategy consists of learning (i) models expressed in analytical form, (ii) which are evaluated a posteriori, and iii) using exclusively integral quantities from the reference solution as prior knowledge. In point (i), we pursue interpretable models expressed symbolically as opposed to black-box neural networks, the latter only being used during learning to efficiently parameterize the large search space of possible models. In point (ii), learned models are dynamically evaluated a posteriori in the computational solver instead of based on a priori information from preprocessed high-fidelity data, thereby accounting for the specificity of the solver at hand such as its numerics. Finally in point (iii), the exploration of new models is solely guided by predefined integral quantities, e.g., averaged quantities of engineering interest in Reynolds-averaged or large-eddy simulations (LES). We use a coupled deep reinforcement learning framework and computational solver to concurrently achieve these objectives. The combination of reinforcement learning with objectives (i), (ii) and (iii) differentiate our work from previous modeling attempts based on machine learning. In this report, we provide a high-level description of the model discovery framework with reinforcement learning. The method is detailed for the application of discovering missing terms in differential equations. An elementary instantiation of the method is described that discovers missing terms in the Burgers' equation.

The neural network (NN)-based direct uncertainty quantification (UQ) methods have achieved the state of the art performance since the first inauguration, known as the lower-upper-bound estimation (LUBE) method. However, currently-available cost functions for uncertainty guided NN training are not always converging and all converged NNs are not generating optimized prediction intervals (PIs). Moreover, several groups have proposed different quality criteria for PIs. These raise a question about their relative effectiveness. Most of the existing cost functions of uncertainty guided NN training are not customizable and the convergence of training is uncertain. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a highly customizable smooth cost function for developing NNs to construct optimal PIs. The optimized average width of PIs, PI-failure distances and the PI coverage probability (PICP) are computed for the test dataset. The performance of the proposed method is examined for the wind power generation and the electricity demand data. Results show that the proposed method reduces variation in the quality of PIs, accelerates the training, and improves convergence probability from 99.2% to 99.8%.

Shared mobility, advanced plastic recycling and protein production are also going to be key to future prosperity. Renault's proposed robotised vehicle for shared urban mobility on show at the 100th Automobile ... [ ] Barcelona trade fair in 2019. The provider of tech-enabled research has produced its "20 for 20" list of "the technologies and trends that will transform the way we live, work, and play over the next decade". "From robotic surgery to self-driving cars, 5G will be critical to advances in the internet of things," Lux says. "5G has officially left the realm of research and entered reality, with more than 2,200 patents being filed this year."

Throughout the last 650,000 years, there have been seven ice ages. The most recent, around 7,000 years ago, marked the beginning of the modern climate era and human civilization. This current shift in the earth's environment is significant, as it's more than 95 percent likely induced by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. The gases released by these resources trap heat in the atmosphere and cause the global temperature to rise. Not only will this increase lead to more intense heat waves, but it will destroy ice caps and warm ocean waters, affecting natural habitats.

The recent increase in the availability of system condition monitoring data has lead to increases in the use of data-driven approaches for fault diagnostics. The accuracy of the fault detection and classification using these approaches is generally good when abundant labelled data on healthy and faulty system conditions exists and the diagnosis problem is formulated as a supervised learning task, i.e. supervised fault diagnosis. It is, however, relatively common in real situations that only a small fraction of the system condition monitoring data are labeled as healthy and the rest is unlabeled due to the uncertainty of the number and type of faults that may occur. In this case, supervised fault diagnosis performs poorly. Fault diagnosis with an unknown number and nature of faults is an open set learning problem where the knowledge of the faulty system is incomplete during training and the number and extent of the faults, of different types, can evolve during testing. In this paper, we propose to formulate the open set diagnostics problem as a semi-supervised learning problem and we demonstrate how it can be solved using a knowledge-induced learning approach with adaptive sampling variational autoencoders (KIL-AdaVAE) in combination with a one-class classifier. The fault detection and segmentation capability of the proposed method is demonstrated on a simulated case study using the Advanced Geared Turbofan 30000 (AGTF30) dynamical model under real flight conditions and induced faults of 17 fault types. The performance of the method is compared to the different learning strategies (supervised learning, supervised learning with embedding and semi-supervised learning) and deep learning algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to significantly outperform all other tested methods in terms of fault detection and fault segmentation.

Accurate short-term load forecasting is essential for efficient operation of the power sector. Predicting load at a fine granularity such as individual households or buildings is challenging due to higher volatility and uncertainty in the load. In aggregate loads such as at grids level, the inherent stochasticity and fluctuations are averaged-out, the problem becomes substantially easier. We propose an approach for short-term load forecasting at individual consumers (households) level, called {\em Forecasting using Matrix Factorization} (\textsc{FMF}). \textsc{FMF} does not use any consumers' demographic or activity patterns information. Therefore, it can be applied to any locality with the readily available smart meters and weather data. We perform extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets and demonstrate that \textsc{FMF} significantly outperforms the computationally expensive state-of-the-art methods for this problem. We achieve up to $26.5 \%$ and $24.4 \%$ improvement in \textsc{RMSE} over Regression Tree and Support Vector Machine, respectively and up to $36 \%$ and $73.2 \%$ improvement in \textsc{MAPE} over Random Forest and Long Short-Term Memory neural network, respectively.

Sequential decision-making under uncertainty for optimal life-cycle control of deteriorating engineering systems and infrastructure entails two fundamental classes of decisions. The first class pertains to the various structural interventions, which can directly modify the existing properties of the system, while the second class refers to prescribing appropriate inspection and monitoring schemes, which are essential for updating our existing knowledge about the system states. The latter have to rely on quantifiable measures of efficiency, determined on the basis of objective criteria that, among others, consider the Value of Information (VoI) of different observational strategies, and the Value of Structural Health Monitoring (VoSHM) over the entire system life-cycle. In this work, we present general solutions for quantifying the VoI and VoSHM in partially observable stochastic domains, and although our definitions and methodology are general, we are particularly emphasizing and describing the role of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) in solving this problem, due to their advantageous theoretical and practical attributes in estimating arbitrarily well globally optimal policies. POMDP formulations are articulated for different structural environments having shared intervention actions but diversified inspection and monitoring options, thus enabling VoI and VoSHM estimation through their differentiated stochastic optimal control policies. POMDP solutions are derived using point-based solvers, which can efficiently approximate the POMDP value functions through Bellman backups at selected reachable points of the belief space. The suggested methodology is applied on stationary and non-stationary deteriorating environments, with both infinite and finite planning horizons, featuring single- or multi-component engineering systems.

Nighttime satellite imagery has been applied in a wide range of fields. However, our limited understanding of how observed light intensity is formed and whether it can be simulated greatly hinders its further application. This study explores the potential of conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGAN) in translating multispectral imagery to nighttime imagery. A popular cGAN framework, pix2pix, was adopted and modified to facilitate this translation using gridded training image pairs derived from Landsat 8 and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The results of this study prove the possibility of multispectral-to-nighttime translation and further indicate that, with the additional social media data, the generated nighttime imagery can be very similar to the ground-truth imagery. This study fills the gap in understanding the composition of satellite observed nighttime light and provides new paradigms to solve the emerging problems in nighttime remote sensing fields, including nighttime series construction, light desaturation, and multi-sensor calibration.