Learning Graphical Models
MMM: Clustering Multivariate Longitudinal Mixed-type Data
Amato, Francesco, Jacques, Julien
Multivariate longitudinal data of mixed-type are increasingly collected in many science domains. However, algorithms to cluster this kind of data remain scarce, due to the challenge to simultaneously model the within- and between-time dependence structures for multivariate data of mixed kind. We introduce the Mixture of Mixed-Matrices (MMM) model: reorganizing the data in a three-way structure and assuming that the non-continuous variables are observations of underlying latent continuous variables, the model relies on a mixture of matrix-variate normal distributions to perform clustering in the latent dimension. The MMM model is thus able to handle continuous, ordinal, binary, nominal and count data and to concurrently model the heterogeneity, the association among the responses and the temporal dependence structure in a parsimonious way and without assuming conditional independence. The inference is carried out through an MCMC-EM algorithm, which is detailed. An evaluation of the model through synthetic data shows its inference abilities. A real-world application on financial data is presented.
Some Robustness Properties of Label Cleaning
We demonstrate that learning procedures that rely on aggregated labels, e.g., label information distilled from noisy responses, enjoy robustness properties impossible without data cleaning. This robustness appears in several ways. In the context of risk consistency -- when one takes the standard approach in machine learning of minimizing a surrogate (typically convex) loss in place of a desired task loss (such as the zero-one mis-classification error) -- procedures using label aggregation obtain stronger consistency guarantees than those even possible using raw labels. And while classical statistical scenarios of fitting perfectly-specified models suggest that incorporating all possible information -- modeling uncertainty in labels -- is statistically efficient, consistency fails for ``standard'' approaches as soon as a loss to be minimized is even slightly mis-specified. Yet procedures leveraging aggregated information still converge to optimal classifiers, highlighting how incorporating a fuller view of the data analysis pipeline, from collection to model-fitting to prediction time, can yield a more robust methodology by refining noisy signals.
Approaches to Analysis and Design of AI-Based Autonomous Vehicles
Yan, Tao, Zhang, Zheyu, Jiang, Jingjing, Chen, Wen-Hua
Artificial intelligence (AI) models are becoming key components in an autonomous vehicle (AV), especially in handling complicated perception tasks. However, closing the loop through AI-based feedback may pose significant risks on reliability of autonomous driving due to very limited understanding about the mechanism of AI-driven perception processes. To overcome it, this paper aims to develop tools for modeling, analysis, and synthesis for a class of AI-based AV; in particular, their closed-loop properties, e.g., stability, robustness, and performance, are rigorously studied in the statistical sense. First, we provide a novel modeling means for the AI-driven perception processes by looking at their error characteristics. Specifically, three fundamental AI-induced perception uncertainties are recognized and modeled by Markov chains, Gaussian processes, and bounded disturbances, respectively. By means of that, the closed-loop stochastic stability (SS) is established in the sense of mean square, and then, an SS control synthesis method is presented within the framework of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Besides the SS properties, the robustness and performance of AI-based AVs are discussed in terms of a stochastic guaranteed cost, and criteria are given to test the robustness level of an AV when in the presence of AI-induced uncertainties. Furthermore, the stochastic optimal guaranteed cost control is investigated, and an efficient design procedure is developed innovatively based on LMI techniques and convex optimization. Finally, to illustrate the effectiveness, the developed results are applied to an example of car following control, along with extensive simulation.
TabStruct: Measuring Structural Fidelity of Tabular Data
Jiang, Xiangjian, Simidjievski, Nikola, Jamnik, Mateja
Evaluating tabular generators remains a challenging problem, as the unique causal structural prior of heterogeneous tabular data does not lend itself to intuitive human inspection. Recent work has introduced structural fidelity as a tabular-specific evaluation dimension to assess whether synthetic data complies with the causal structures of real data. However, existing benchmarks often neglect the interplay between structural fidelity and conventional evaluation dimensions, thus failing to provide a holistic understanding of model performance. Moreover, they are typically limited to toy datasets, as quantifying existing structural fidelity metrics requires access to ground-truth causal structures, which are rarely available for real-world datasets. In this paper, we propose a novel evaluation framework that jointly considers structural fidelity and conventional evaluation dimensions. We introduce a new evaluation metric, $\textbf{global utility}$, which enables the assessment of structural fidelity even in the absence of ground-truth causal structures. In addition, we present $\textbf{TabStruct}$, a comprehensive evaluation benchmark offering large-scale quantitative analysis on 13 tabular generators from nine distinct categories, across 29 datasets. Our results demonstrate that global utility provides a task-independent, domain-agnostic lens for tabular generator performance. We release the TabStruct benchmark suite, including all datasets, evaluation pipelines, and raw results. Code is available at https://github.com/SilenceX12138/TabStruct.
MEMBOT: Memory-Based Robot in Intermittent POMDP
Robotic systems deployed in real-world environments often operate under conditions of partial and often intermittent observability, where sensor inputs may be noisy, occluded, or entirely unavailable due to failures or environmental constraints. Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) approaches that assume full state observability are ill-equipped for such challenges. In this work, we introduce MEMBOT, a modular memory-based architecture designed to address intermittent partial observability in robotic control tasks. MEMBOT decouples belief inference from policy learning through a two-phase training process: an offline multi-task learning pretraining stage that learns a robust task-agnostic latent belief encoder using a reconstruction losses, followed by fine-tuning of task-specific policies using behavior cloning. The belief encoder, implemented as a state-space model (SSM) and a LSTM, integrates temporal sequences of observations and actions to infer latent state representations that persist even when observations are dropped. We train and evaluate MEMBOT on 10 robotic manipulation benchmark tasks from MetaWorld and Robomimic under varying rates of observation dropout. Results show that MEMBOT consistently outperforms both memoryless and naively recurrent baselines, maintaining up to 80% of peak performance under 50% observation availability. These findings highlight the effectiveness of explicit belief modeling in achieving robust, transferable, and data-efficient policies for real-world partially observable robotic systems.
Critical Nodes Identification in Complex Networks: A Survey
Chen, Duxin, Chen, Jiawen, Zhang, Xiaoyu, Jia, Qinghan, Liu, Xiaolu, Sun, Ye, Lv, Linyuan, Yu, Wenwu
Complex networks have become essential tools for understanding diverse phenomena in social systems, traffic systems, biomolecular systems, and financial systems. Identifying critical nodes is a central theme in contemporary research, serving as a vital bridge between theoretical foundations and practical applications. Nevertheless, the intrinsic complexity and structural heterogeneity characterizing real-world networks, with particular emphasis on dynamic and higher-order networks, present substantial obstacles to the development of universal frameworks for critical node identification. This paper provides a comprehensive review of critical node identification techniques, categorizing them into seven main classes: centrality, critical nodes deletion problem, influence maximization, network control, artificial intelligence, higher-order and dynamic methods. Our review bridges the gaps in existing surveys by systematically classifying methods based on their methodological foundations and practical implications, and by highlighting their strengths, limitations, and applicability across different network types. Our work enhances the understanding of critical node research by identifying key challenges, such as algorithmic universality, real-time evaluation in dynamic networks, analysis of higher-order structures, and computational efficiency in large-scale networks. The structured synthesis consolidates current progress and highlights open questions, particularly in modeling temporal dynamics, advancing efficient algorithms, integrating machine learning approaches, and developing scalable and interpretable metrics for complex systems.
Gait-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning with Multi-Phase Curriculum for Humanoid Locomotion
Peng, Tianhu, Bao, Lingfan, Zhou, Chengxu
We present a unified gait-conditioned reinforcement learning framework that enables humanoid robots to perform standing, walking, running, and smooth transitions within a single recurrent policy. A compact reward routing mechanism dynamically activates gait-specific objectives based on a one-hot gait ID, mitigating reward interference and supporting stable multi-gait learning. Human-inspired reward terms promote biomechanically natural motions, such as straight-knee stance and coordinated arm-leg swing, without requiring motion capture data. A structured curriculum progressively introduces gait complexity and expands command space over multiple phases. In simulation, the policy successfully achieves robust standing, walking, running, and gait transitions. On the real Unitree G1 humanoid, we validate standing, walking, and walk-to-stand transitions, demonstrating stable and coordinated locomotion. This work provides a scalable, reference-free solution toward versatile and naturalistic humanoid control across diverse modes and environments.
Memory Unscented Particle Filter for 6-DOF Tactile Localization
Vezzani, Giulia, Pattacini, Ugo, Battistelli, Giorgio, Chisci, Luigi, Natale, Lorenzo
This paper addresses 6-DOF (degree-of-freedom) tactile localization, i.e. the pose estimation of tridimensional objects given tactile measurements. This estimation problem is fundamental for the operation of autonomous robots that are often required to manipulate and grasp objects whose pose is a-priori unknown. The nature of tactile measurements, the strict time requirements for real-time operation and the multimodality of the involved probability distributions pose remarkable challenges and call for advanced nonlinear filtering techniques. Following a Bayesian approach, this paper proposes a novel and effective algorithm, named Memory Unscented Particle Filter (MUPF), which solves the 6-DOF localization problem recursively in real-time by only exploiting contact point measurements. MUPF combines a modified particle filter that incorporates a sliding memory of past measurements to better handle multimodal distributions, along with the unscented Kalman filter that moves the particles towards regions of the search space that are more likely with the measurements. The performance of the proposed MUPF algorithm has been assessed both in simulation and on a real robotic system equipped with tactile sensors (i.e., the iCub humanoid robot). The experiments show that the algorithm provides accurate and reliable localization even with a low number of particles and, hence, is compatible with real-time requirements.
Adaptive-GraphSketch: Real-Time Edge Anomaly Detection via Multi-Layer Tensor Sketching and Temporal Decay
Ekle, Ocheme Anthony, Eberle, William
Anomaly detection in dynamic graphs is essential for identifying malicious activities, fraud, and unexpected behaviors in real-world systems such as cybersecurity and power grids. However, existing approaches struggle with scalability, probabilistic interpretability, and adaptability to evolving traffic patterns. In this paper, we propose ADAPTIVE-GRAPHSKETCH, a lightweight and scalable framework for real-time anomaly detection in streaming edge data. Our method integrates temporal multi-tensor sketching with Count-Min Sketch using Conservative Update (CMS-CU) to compactly track edge frequency patterns with bounded memory, while mitigating hash collision issues. We incorporate Bayesian inference for probabilistic anomaly scoring and apply Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) for adaptive thresholding tuned to burst intensity. Extensive experiments on four real-world intrusion detection datasets demonstrate that ADAPTIVE-GRAPHSKETCH outperforms state-of-the-art baselines such as ANOEDGE-G/L, MIDAS-R, and F-FADE, achieving up to 6.5% AUC gain on CIC-IDS2018 and up to 15.6% on CIC-DDoS2019, while processing 20 million edges in under 3.4 seconds using only 10 hash functions. Our results show that ADAPTIVE-GRAPHSKETCH is practical and effective for fast, accurate anomaly detection in large-scale streaming graphs. Keywords: Anomaly Detection, Streaming, Real-time, Dynamic Graphs, Edge Streams, Tensor Sketching
FR-Net: Learning Robust Quadrupedal Fall Recovery on Challenging Terrains through Mass-Contact Prediction
Lu, Yidan, Dong, Yinzhao, Zhang, Jiahui, Ma, Ji, Lu, Peng
Fall recovery for legged robots remains challenging, particularly on complex terrains where traditional controllers fail due to incomplete terrain perception and uncertain interactions. We present \textbf{FR-Net}, a learning-based framework that enables quadrupedal robots to recover from arbitrary fall poses across diverse environments. Central to our approach is a Mass-Contact Predictor network that estimates the robot's mass distribution and contact states from limited sensory inputs, facilitating effective recovery strategies. Our carefully designed reward functions ensure safe recovery even on steep stairs without dangerous rolling motions common to existing methods. Trained entirely in simulation using privileged learning, our framework guides policy learning without requiring explicit terrain data during deployment. We demonstrate the generalization capabilities of \textbf{FR-Net} across different quadrupedal platforms in simulation and validate its performance through extensive real-world experiments on the Go2 robot in 10 challenging scenarios. Our results indicate that explicit mass-contact prediction is key to robust fall recovery, offering a promising direction for generalizable quadrupedal skills.