The contribution of this paper is a generalized formulation of correctional learning using optimal transport, which is about how to optimally transport one mass distribution to another. Correctional learning is a framework developed to enhance the accuracy of parameter estimation processes by means of a teacher-student approach. In this framework, an expert agent, referred to as the teacher, modifies the data used by a learning agent, known as the student, to improve its estimation process. The objective of the teacher is to alter the data such that the student's estimation error is minimized, subject to a fixed intervention budget. Compared to existing formulations of correctional learning, our novel optimal transport approach provides several benefits. It allows for the estimation of more complex characteristics as well as the consideration of multiple intervention policies for the teacher. We evaluate our approach on two theoretical examples, and on a human-robot interaction application in which the teacher's role is to improve the robots performance in an inverse reinforcement learning setting.

We propose an adaptive multi-agent clustering recognition system that can be self-supervised driven, based on a temporal sequences continuous learning mechanism with adaptability. The system is designed to use some different functional agents to build up a connection structure to improve adaptability to cope with environmental diverse demands, by predicting the input of the agent to drive the agent to achieve the act of clustering recognition of sequences using the traditional algorithmic approach. Finally, the feasibility experiments of video behavior clustering demonstrate the feasibility of the system to cope with dynamic situations. Our work is placed here\footnote{https://github.com/qian-git/MAMMALS}.

Agent-based modelling constitutes a versatile approach to representing and simulating complex systems. Studying large-scale systems is challenging because of the computational time required for the simulation runs: scaling is at least linear in system size (number of agents). Given the inherently modular nature of MABSs, parallel computing is a natural approach to overcoming this challenge. However, because of the shared information and communication between agents, parellelization is not simple. We present a protocol for shared-memory, parallel execution of MABSs. This approach is useful for models that can be formulated in terms of sequential computations, and that involve updates that are localized, in the sense of involving small numbers of agents. The protocol has a bottom-up and asynchronous nature, allowing it to deal with heterogeneous computation in an adaptive, yet graceful manner. We illustrate the potential performance gains on exemplar cultural dynamics and disease spreading MABSs.

We formulate an efficient approximation for multi-agent batch reinforcement learning, the approximated multi-agent fitted Q iteration (AMAFQI). We present a detailed derivation of our approach. We propose an iterative policy search and show that it yields a greedy policy with respect to multiple approximations of the centralized, learned Q-function. In each iteration and policy evaluation, AMAFQI requires a number of computations that scales linearly with the number of agents whereas the analogous number of computations increase exponentially for the fitted Q iteration (FQI), a commonly used approaches in batch reinforcement learning. This property of AMAFQI is fundamental for the design of a tractable multi-agent approach. We evaluate the performance of AMAFQI and compare it to FQI in numerical simulations. The simulations illustrate the significant computation time reduction when using AMAFQI instead of FQI in multi-agent problems and corroborate the similar performance of both approaches.

We present a novel definition of an algorithm and its corresponding algorithm language called CoLweb. The merit of CoLweb [1] is that it makes algorithm design so versatile. That is, it forces us to a high-level, proof-carrying, distributed-style approach to algorithm design for both non-distributed computing and distributed one. We argue that this approach simplifies algorithm design. In addition, it unifies other approaches including recursive logical/functional algorithms, imperative algorithms, object-oriented imperative algorithms, neural-nets, interaction nets, proof-carrying code, etc. As an application, we refine Horn clause definitions into two kinds: blind-univerally-quantified (BUQ) ones and parallel-universally-quantified (PUQ) ones. BUQ definitions corresponds to the traditional ones such as those in Prolog where knowledgebase is $not$ expanding and its proof procedure is based on the backward chaining. On the other hand, in PUQ definitions, knowledgebase is $expanding$ and its proof procedure leads to forward chaining and {\it automatic memoization}.

Predicting the future motion of road agents is a critical task in an autonomous driving pipeline. In this work, we address the problem of generating a set of scene-level, or joint, future trajectory predictions in multi-agent driving scenarios. To this end, we propose FJMP, a Factorized Joint Motion Prediction framework for multi-agent interactive driving scenarios. FJMP models the future scene interaction dynamics as a sparse directed interaction graph, where edges denote explicit interactions between agents. We then prune the graph into a directed acyclic graph (DAG) and decompose the joint prediction task into a sequence of marginal and conditional predictions according to the partial ordering of the DAG, where joint future trajectories are decoded using a directed acyclic graph neural network (DAGNN). We conduct experiments on the INTERACTION and Argoverse 2 datasets and demonstrate that FJMP produces more accurate and scene-consistent joint trajectory predictions than non-factorized approaches, especially on the most interactive and kinematically interesting agents. FJMP ranks 1st on the multi-agent test leaderboard of the INTERACTION dataset.

We introduce a method for generating realistic pedestrian trajectories and full-body animations that can be controlled to meet user-defined goals. We draw on recent advances in guided diffusion modeling to achieve test-time controllability of trajectories, which is normally only associated with rule-based systems. Our guided diffusion model allows users to constrain trajectories through target waypoints, speed, and specified social groups while accounting for the surrounding environment context. This trajectory diffusion model is integrated with a novel physics-based humanoid controller to form a closed-loop, full-body pedestrian animation system capable of placing large crowds in a simulated environment with varying terrains. We further propose utilizing the value function learned during RL training of the animation controller to guide diffusion to produce trajectories better suited for particular scenarios such as collision avoidance and traversing uneven terrain. Video results are available on the project page at https://nv-tlabs.github.io/trace-pace .

With autonomous aerial vehicles enacting safety-critical missions, such as the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover's landing on Mars, the tasks of automatically identifying and reasoning about potentially hazardous landing sites is paramount. This paper presents a coupled perception-planning solution which addresses the hazard detection, optimal landing trajectory generation, and contingency planning challenges encountered when landing in uncertain environments. Specifically, we develop and combine two novel algorithms, Hazard-Aware Landing Site Selection (HALSS) and Adaptive Deferred-Decision Trajectory Optimization (Adaptive-DDTO), to address the perception and planning challenges, respectively. The HALSS framework processes point cloud information to identify feasible safe landing zones, while Adaptive-DDTO is a multi-target contingency planner that adaptively replans as new perception information is received. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach using a simulated Martian environment and show that our coupled perception-planning method achieves greater landing success whilst being more fuel efficient compared to a nonadaptive DDTO approach.

Task allocation plays a vital role in multi-robot autonomous cleaning systems, where multiple robots work together to clean a large area. However, most current studies mainly focus on deterministic, single-task allocation for cleaning robots, without considering hybrid tasks in uncertain working environments. Moreover, there is a lack of datasets and benchmarks for relevant research. In this paper, to address these problems, we formulate multi-robot hybrid-task allocation under the uncertain cleaning environment as a robust optimization problem. Firstly, we propose a novel robust mixed-integer linear programming model with practical constraints including the task order constraint for different tasks and the ability constraints of hybrid robots. Secondly, we establish a dataset of \emph{100} instances made from floor plans, each of which has 2D manually-labeled images and a 3D model. Thirdly, we provide comprehensive results on the collected dataset using three traditional optimization approaches and a deep reinforcement learning-based solver. The evaluation results show that our solution meets the needs of multi-robot cleaning task allocation and the robust solver can protect the system from worst-case scenarios with little additional cost. The benchmark will be available at {https://github.com/iamwangyabin/Multi-robot-Cleaning-Task-Allocation}.

This article presents an architecture for multi-agent task allocation and task execution, through the unification of a market-inspired task-auctioning system with Behavior Trees for managing and executing lower level behaviors. We consider the scenario with multi-stage tasks, such as 'pick and place', whose arrival times are not known a priori. In such a scenario, a coordinating architecture is expected to be reactive to newly arrived tasks and the resulting rerouting of agents should be dependent on the stage of completion of their current multi-stage tasks. In the novel architecture proposed in this article, a central auctioning system gathers bids (cost-estimates for completing currently available tasks) from all agents, and solves a combinatorial problem to optimally assign tasks to agents. For every agent, it's participation in the auctioning system and execution of an assigned multi-stage task is managed using behavior trees, which switch among several well-defined behaviors in response to changing scenarios. The auctioning system is run at a fixed rate, allowing for newly added tasks to be incorporated into the auctioning system, which makes the solution reactive and allows for the rerouting of some agents (subject to the states of the behavior trees). We demonstrate that the proposed architecture is especially well-suited for multi-stage tasks, where high costs are incurred when rerouting agents who have completed one or more stages of their current tasks. The scalability analysis of the proposed architecture reveals that it scales well with the number of agents and number of tasks. The proposed framework is experimentally validated in multiple scenarios in a lab environment. A video of a demonstration can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/ZdEkoOOlB2g}.