--Dictionary learning is a versatile method to produce an overcomplete set of vectors, called atoms, to represent a given input with only a few atoms. In the literature, it has been used primarily for tasks that explore its powerful representation capabilities, such as for image reconstruction. In this work, we present a first approach to make dictionary learning work for shape recognition, considering specifically geometrical shapes. As we demonstrate, the choice of the underlying optimization method has a significant impact on recognition quality. Experimental results confirm that dictionary learning may be an interesting method for shape recognition tasks. Dictionary Learning or Sparse Dictionary Learning (SDL) was proposed by Olshausen and Field [1], motivated by their study of the receptive fields of simple cells in mammalian primary visual cortex.

In this paper, we develop a systematic framework for the time-sequential compression of dynamic probabilistic occupancy grids. Our approach leverages ideas from signal compression theory to formulate an optimization problem that searches for a multi-resolution hierarchical encoder that balances the quality of the compressed map (distortion) with its description size, the latter of which relates to the bandwidth required to reliably transmit the map to other agents or to store map estimates in on-board memory. The resulting optimization problem allows for multi-resolution map compressions to be obtained that satisfy available communication or memory resources, and does not require knowledge of the occupancy map dynamics. We develop an algorithm to solve our problem, and demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework in simulation on both static (i.e., non-time varying) and dynamic (time-varying) occupancy maps.

On-demand ride-pooling has emerged as a popular urban transportation solution, addressing the efficiency limitations of traditional ride-hailing services by grouping multiple riding requests with spatiotemporal proximity into a single vehicle. Although numerous algorithms have been developed for the Ride-pool Assignment Problem (RAP) -- a core component of ride-pooling systems, there is a lack of open-source implementations, making it difficult to benchmark these algorithms on a common dataset and objective. In this paper, we present the implementation details of a ride-pool simulator that encompasses several key ride-pool assignment algorithms, along with associated components such as vehicle routing and rebalancing. We also open-source a highly optimized and modular C++ codebase, designed to facilitate the extension of new algorithms and features. Additionally, we introduce a family of swapping-based local-search heuristics to enhance existing ride-pool assignment algorithms, achieving a better balance between performance and computational efficiency. Extensive experiments on a large-scale, real-world dataset from Manhattan, NYC reveal that while all selected algorithms perform comparably, the newly proposed Multi-Round Linear Assignment with Cyclic Exchange (LA-MR-CE) algorithm achieves a state-of-the-art service rate with significantly reduced computational time. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis suggests that a performance barrier exists for all myopic ride-pool assignment algorithms due to the system's capacity bottleneck, and incorporating future information could be key to overcoming this limitation.

Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) automatically builds machine learning (ML) models on data. The de facto standard for evaluating new AutoML frameworks for tabular data is the AutoML Benchmark (AMLB). AMLB proposed to evaluate AutoML frameworks using 1-and 4-hour time budgets across 104 tasks. We argue that shorter time constraints should be considered for the benchmark because of their practical value, such as when models need to be retrained with high frequency, and to make AMLB more accessible. This work considers two ways in which to reduce the overall computation used in the benchmark: smaller time constraints and the use of early stopping. We conduct evaluations of 11 AutoML frameworks on 104 tasks with different time constraints and find the relative ranking of AutoML frameworks is fairly consistent across time constraints, but that using early-stopping leads to a greater variety in model performance. In Machine Learning (ML), manually creating good models is time-consuming and knowledge-intensive. Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) employs efficient automated search methods to create models for new data, often reducing the computational costs in the process Hutter et al. (2019); Hollmann et al. (2022). The AutoML Benchmark (AMLB, Gijsbers et al. 2024) has become the standard for the evaluation of AutoML frameworks on tabular data, greatly increasing reproducibility and comparability in AutoML research. We identified that the time budgets proposed by Gijsbers et al. (2024) were based on what seemed "practically reasonable" at the time, as signified by many frameworks' default time budget of one hour. While the authors motivate evaluating methods on two time budgets as a proxy for anytime performance, they do not motivate the particular choice of 1 hour and 4 hours. AutoML frameworks behave under different time constraints. We conduct similar experiments and analyses for frameworks with early-stopping, offering insights into its potential to reduce energy consumption in AutoML systems. However, we often see that the original benchmarking suite or time constraints (1 hour and 4 hour) are not used as proposed.

Bipartite ranking is a fundamental supervised learning problem, with the goal of learning a ranking over instances with maximal area under the ROC curve (AUC) against a single binary target label. However, one may often observe multiple binary target labels, e.g., from distinct human annotators. How can one synthesize such labels into a single coherent ranking? In this work, we formally analyze two approaches to this problem -- loss aggregation and label aggregation -- by characterizing their Bayes-optimal solutions. Based on this, we show that while both methods can yield Pareto-optimal solutions, loss aggregation can exhibit label dictatorship: one can inadvertently (and undesirably) favor one label over others. This suggests that label aggregation can be preferable to loss aggregation, which we empirically verify.

Bayesian optimization (BO) is a widely used algorithm for solving expensive black-box optimization problems. However, its performance decreases significantly on high-dimensional problems due to the inherent high-dimensionality of the acquisition function. In the proposed algorithm, we adaptively dropout the variables of the acquisition function along the iterations. By gradually reducing the dimension of the acquisition function, the proposed approach has less and less difficulty to optimize the acquisition function. Numerical experiments demonstrate that AdaDropout effectively tackle high-dimensional challenges and improve solution quality where standard Bayesian optimization methods often struggle. Moreover, it achieves superior results when compared with state-of-the-art high-dimensional Bayesian optimization approaches. This work provides a simple yet efficient solution for high-dimensional expensive optimization.

-- Reconfigurable robots that can change their physical configuration post-fabrication have demonstrate their potential in adapting to different environments or tasks. However, it is challenging to determine how to optimally adjust reconfigurable parameters for a given task, especially when the controller depends on the robot's configuration. In this paper, we address this problem using a tendon-driven reconfigurable manipulator composed of multiple serially connected origami-inspired modules as an example. Under tendon actuation, these modules can achieve different shapes and motions, governed by joint stiffnesses (reconfiguration parameters) and the tendon displacements (control inputs). We leverage recent advances in co-optimization of design and control for robotic system to treat reconfiguration parameters as design variables and optimize them using reinforcement learning techniques. We first establish a forward model based on the minimum potential energy method to predict the shape of the manipulator under tendon actuations. Through co-optimization, we obtain optimized joint stiffness and the corresponding optimal control policy to enable the manipulator to accomplish the task that would be infeasible with fixed reconfiguration parameters (i.e., fixed joint stiffness). We envision the co-optimization framework can be extended to other reconfigurable robotic systems, enabling them to optimally adapt their configuration and behavior for diverse tasks and environments. Traditionally, the design and control of robotic systems have been treated as separate processes: a robot's physical structure is first designed, and then a controller is developed to operate it.

The classical g-g diagram, representing the achievable acceleration space for a vehicle, is commonly used as a constraint in trajectory planning and control due to its computational simplicity. To address non-planar road geometries, this concept can be extended to incorporate g-g constraints as a function of vehicle speed and vertical acceleration, commonly referred to as g-g-g-v diagrams. However, the estimation of g-g-g-v diagrams is an open problem. Existing simulation-based approaches struggle to isolate non-transient, open-loop stable states across all combinations of speed and acceleration, while optimization-based methods often require simplified vehicle equations and have potential convergence issues. In this paper, we present a novel, open-source, quasi-steady-state black box simulation approach that applies a virtual inertial force in the longitudinal direction. The method emulates the load conditions associated with a specified longitudinal acceleration while maintaining constant vehicle speed, enabling open-loop steering ramps in a purely QSS manner. Appropriate regulation of the ramp steer rate inherently mitigates transient vehicle dynamics when determining the maximum feasible lateral acceleration. Moreover, treating the vehicle model as a black box eliminates model mismatch issues, allowing the use of high-fidelity or proprietary vehicle dynamics models typically unsuited for optimization approaches. An open-source version of the proposed method is available at: https://github.com/TUM-AVS/GGGVDiagrams

Sports video analysis is a key domain in computer vision, enabling detailed spatial understanding through multi-view correspondences. In this work, we introduce SoccerNet-v3D and ISSIA-3D, two enhanced and scalable datasets designed for 3D scene understanding in soccer broadcast analysis. These datasets extend SoccerNet-v3 and ISSIA by incorporating field-line-based camera calibration and multi-view synchronization, enabling 3D object localization through triangulation. We propose a monocular 3D ball localization task built upon the triangulation of ground-truth 2D ball annotations, along with several calibration and reprojection metrics to assess annotation quality on demand. Additionally, we present a single-image 3D ball localization method as a baseline, leveraging camera calibration and ball size priors to estimate the ball's position from a monocular viewpoint. To further refine 2D annotations, we introduce a bounding box optimization technique that ensures alignment with the 3D scene representation. Our proposed datasets establish new benchmarks for 3D soccer scene understanding, enhancing both spatial and temporal analysis in sports analytics. Finally, we provide code to facilitate access to our annotations and the generation pipelines for the datasets.

--Wearable devices like exoskeletons are designed to reduce excessive loads on specific joints of the body. Specifically, single-or two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) upper-body industrial exoskeletons typically focus on compensating for the strain on the elbow and shoulder joints. However, during daily activities, there is no assurance that external loads are correctly aligned with the supported joints. Optimizing work processes to ensure that external loads are primarily (to the extent that they can be compensated by the exoskeleton) directed onto the supported joints can significantly enhance the overall usability of these devices and the ergonomics of their users. Collaborative robots (cobots) can play a role in this optimization, complementing the collaborative aspects of human work. In this study, we propose an adaptive and coordinated control system for the human-cobot-exoskeleton interaction. This system adjusts the task coordinates to maximize the utilization of the supported joints. When the torque limits of the exoskeleton are exceeded, the framework continuously adapts the task frame, redistributing excessive loads to non-supported body joints to prevent overloading the supported ones. We validated our approach in an equivalent industrial painting task involving a single-DOF elbow exoskeleton, a cobot, and four subjects, each tested in four different initial arm configurations with five distinct optimisation weight matrices and two different payloads. Personal use of this material is permitted. ANUAL operations such as packaging [1], assembly [2] and painting [3] are essential in many industries, though they can place a significant strain on the physical health of human workers.