Flexible instruction-guided 6-DoF grasping is a significant yet challenging task for real-world robotic systems. Existing methods utilize the contextual understanding capabilities of the large language models (LLMs) to establish mappings between expressions and targets, allowing robots to comprehend users' intentions in the instructions. However, the LLM's knowledge about objects' physical properties remains underexplored despite its tight relevance to grasping. In this work, we propose GraspCoT, a 6-DoF grasp detection framework that integrates a Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning mechanism oriented to physical properties, guided by auxiliary question-answering (QA) tasks. Particularly, we design a set of QA templates to enable hierarchical reasoning that includes three stages: target parsing, physical property analysis, and grasp action selection. Moreover, GraspCoT presents a unified multimodal LLM architecture, which encodes multi-view observations of 3D scenes into 3D-aware visual tokens, and then jointly embeds these visual tokens with CoT-derived textual tokens within LLMs to generate grasp pose predictions. Furthermore, we present IntentGrasp, a large-scale benchmark that fills the gap in public datasets for multi-object grasp detection under diverse and indirect verbal commands. Extensive experiments on IntentGrasp demonstrate the superiority of our method, with additional validation in real-world robotic applications confirming its practicality. Codes and data will be released.

Text-driven Human-Object Interaction (Text-to-HOI) generation is an emerging field with applications in animation, video games, virtual reality, and robotics. A key challenge in HOI generation is maintaining interaction consistency in long sequences. Existing Text-to-Motion-based approaches, such as discrete motion tokenization, cannot be directly applied to HOI generation due to limited data in this domain and the complexity of the modality. To address the problem of interaction consistency in long sequences, we propose an autoregressive diffusion model (ARDHOI) that predicts the next continuous token. Specifically, we introduce a Contrastive Variational Autoencoder (cVAE) to learn a physically plausible space of continuous HOI tokens, thereby ensuring that generated human-object motions are realistic and natural. For generating sequences autoregressively, we develop a Mamba-based context encoder to capture and maintain consistent sequential actions. Additionally, we implement an MLP-based denoiser to generate the subsequent token conditioned on the encoded context. Our model has been evaluated on the OMOMO and BEHAVE datasets, where it outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of both performance and inference speed. This makes ARDHOI a robust and efficient solution for text-driven HOI tasks

Adaptive traffic signal control (ATSC) can effectively reduce vehicle travel times by dynamically adjusting signal timings but poses a critical challenge in real-world scenarios due to the complexity of real-time decision-making in dynamic and uncertain traffic conditions. The burgeoning field of intelligent transportation systems, bolstered by artificial intelligence techniques and extensive data availability, offers new prospects for the implementation of ATSC. In this study, we introduce a parallel hybrid action space reinforcement learning model (PH-DDPG) that optimizes traffic signal phase and duration of traffic signals simultaneously, eliminating the need for sequential decision-making seen in traditional two-stage models. Our model features a task-specific parallel hybrid action space tailored for adaptive traffic control, which directly outputs discrete phase selections and their associated continuous duration parameters concurrently, thereby inherently addressing dynamic traffic adaptation through unified parametric optimization. %Our model features a unique parallel hybrid action space that allows for the simultaneous output of each action and its optimal parameters, streamlining the decision-making process. Furthermore, to ascertain the robustness and effectiveness of this approach, we executed ablation studies focusing on the utilization of a random action parameter mask within the critic network, which decouples the parameter space for individual actions, facilitating the use of preferable parameters for each action. The results from these studies confirm the efficacy of this method, distinctly enhancing real-world applicability

Extracting a small subset of crucial rationales from the full input is a key problem in explainability research. The most widely used fundamental criterion for rationale extraction is the maximum mutual information (MMI) criterion. In this paper, we first demonstrate that MMI suffers from diminishing marginal returns. Once part of the rationale has been identified, finding the remaining portions contributes only marginally to increasing the mutual information, making it difficult to use MMI to locate the rest. In contrast to MMI that aims to reproduce the prediction, we seek to identify the parts of the input that the network can actually utilize. This is achieved by comparing how different rationale candidates match the capability space of the weight matrix. The weight matrix of a neural network is typically low-rank, meaning that the linear combinations of its column vectors can only cover part of the directions in a high-dimensional space (high-dimension: the dimensions of an input vector). If an input is fully utilized by the network, {it generally matches these directions (e.g., a portion of a hypersphere), resulting in a representation with a high norm. Conversely, if an input primarily falls outside (orthogonal to) these directions}, its representation norm will approach zero, behaving like noise that the network cannot effectively utilize. Building on this, we propose using the norms of rationale candidates as an alternative objective to MMI. Through experiments on four text classification datasets and one graph classification dataset using three network architectures (GRUs, BERT, and GCN), we show that our method outperforms MMI and its improved variants in identifying better rationales. We also compare our method with a representative LLM (llama-3.1-8b-instruct) and find that our simple method gets comparable results to it and can sometimes even outperform it.

In the context of the rising share of new energy generation, accurately generating new energy output scenarios is crucial for day-ahead power system scheduling. Deep learning-based scenario generation methods can address this need, but their black-box nature raises concerns about interpretability. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces a method for day-ahead new energy scenario generation based on an improved conditional generative diffusion model. This method is built on the theoretical framework of Markov chains and variational inference. It first transforms historical data into pure noise through a diffusion process, then uses conditional information to guide the denoising process, ultimately generating scenarios that satisfy the conditional distribution. Additionally, the noise table is improved to a cosine form, enhancing the quality of the generated scenarios. When applied to actual wind and solar output data, the results demonstrate that this method effectively generates new energy output scenarios with good adaptability.

Semi-supervised clustering is a basic problem in various applications. Most existing methods require knowledge of the ideal cluster number, which is often difficult to obtain in practice. Besides, satisfying the must-link constraints is another major challenge for these methods. In this work, we view the semi-supervised clustering task as a partitioning problem on a graph associated with the given dataset, where the similarity matrix includes a scaling parameter to reflect the must-link constraints. Utilizing a relaxation technique, we formulate the graph partitioning problem into a continuous optimization model that does not require the exact cluster number, but only an overestimate of it. We then propose a block coordinate descent algorithm to efficiently solve this model, and establish its convergence result. Based on the obtained solution, we can construct the clusters that theoretically meet the must-link constraints under mild assumptions. Furthermore, we verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed method through comprehensive numerical experiments.

--Independent microgrids are crucial for supplying electricity by combining distributed energy resources and loads in scenarios like isolated islands and field combat. Fast and accurate assessments of microgrid vulnerability against intentional attacks or natural disasters are essential for effective risk prevention and design optimization. However, conventional Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) methods are computationally expensive and time-consuming, while existing machine learning-based approaches often lack accuracy and explainability. T o address these challenges, this study proposes a fast and explainable vulnerability assessment framework that integrates MCS with a graph attention network enhanced by self-attention pooling (GA T -S). MCS generates training data, while the GA T - S model learns the structural and electrical characteristics of the microgrid and further assesses its vulnerability intelligently. The GA T -S improves explainability and computational efficiency by dynamically assigning attention weights to critical nodes. Comprehensive experimental evaluations across various micro-grid configurations demonstrate that the proposed framework provides accurate vulnerability assessments, achieving a mean squared error as low as 0.001, real-time responsiveness within 1 second, and delivering explainable results. An independent microgrid, like a battlefield or island mi-crogrid, operates separately from the main grid, supplying electricity to a localized area by integrating distributed energy resources and loads via interconnected buses, transformers, and lines. Assessing the vulnerability of independent micro-grids is essential to ensure its normal power supply capacity against disruptions, particularly in scenarios like deliberate attacks and natural disasters. Chenhui Lin is with the State Key Laboratory of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

With the development of large language models, their ability to follow simple instructions has significantly improved. However, adhering to complex instructions remains a major challenge. Current approaches to generating complex instructions are often irrelevant to the current instruction requirements or suffer from limited scalability and diversity. Moreover, methods such as back-translation, while effective for simple instruction generation, fail to leverage the rich contents and structures in large web corpora. In this paper, we propose a novel automatic iterative refinement framework to generate complex instructions with constraints, which not only better reflects the requirements of real scenarios but also significantly enhances LLMs' ability to follow complex instructions. The AIR framework consists of two stages: (1)Generate an initial instruction from a document; (2)Iteratively refine instructions with LLM-as-judge guidance by comparing the model's output with the document to incorporate valuable constraints. Finally, we construct the AIR-10K dataset with 10K complex instructions and demonstrate that instructions generated with our approach significantly improve the model's ability to follow complex instructions, outperforming existing methods for instruction generation.

Applications such as adversarially robust training and Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization (WDRO) can be naturally formulated as min-sum-max optimization problems. While this formulation can be rewritten as an equivalent min-max problem, the summation of max terms introduces computational challenges, including increased complexity and memory demands, which must be addressed. These challenges are particularly evident in WDRO, where existing tractable algorithms often rely on restrictive assumptions on the objective function, limiting their applicability to state-of-the-art machine learning problems such as the training of deep neural networks. This study introduces a novel stochastic smoothing framework based on the \mbox{log-sum-exp} function, efficiently approximating the max operator in min-sum-max problems. By leveraging the Clarke regularity of the max operator, we develop an iterative smoothing algorithm that addresses these computational difficulties and guarantees almost surely convergence to a Clarke/directional stationary point. We further prove that the proposed algorithm finds an $\epsilon$-scaled Clarke stationary point of the original problem, with a worst-case iteration complexity of $\widetilde{O}(\epsilon^{-3})$. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that our approach outperforms or is competitive with state-of-the-art methods in solving the newsvendor problem, deep learning regression, and adversarially robust deep learning. The results highlight that our method yields more accurate and robust solutions in these challenging problem settings.

Mobile phone agents can assist people in automating daily tasks on their phones, which have emerged as a pivotal research spotlight. However, existing procedure-oriented agents struggle with cross-app instructions, due to the following challenges: (1) complex task relationships, (2) diverse app environment, and (3) error propagation and information loss in multi-step execution. Drawing inspiration from object-oriented programming principles, we recognize that object-oriented solutions is more suitable for cross-app instruction. To address these challenges, we propose a self-evolving multi-agent framework named MobileSteward, which integrates multiple app-oriented StaffAgents coordinated by a centralized StewardAgent. We design three specialized modules in MobileSteward: (1) Dynamic Recruitment generates a scheduling graph guided by information flow to explicitly associate tasks among apps. (2) Assigned Execution assigns the task to app-oriented StaffAgents, each equipped with app-specialized expertise to address the diversity between apps. (3) Adjusted Evaluation conducts evaluation to provide reflection tips or deliver key information, which alleviates error propagation and information loss during multi-step execution. To continuously improve the performance of MobileSteward, we develop a Memory-based Self-evolution mechanism, which summarizes the experience from successful execution, to improve the performance of MobileSteward. We establish the first English Cross-APP Benchmark (CAPBench) in the real-world environment to evaluate the agents' capabilities of solving complex cross-app instructions. Experimental results demonstrate that MobileSteward achieves the best performance compared to both single-agent and multi-agent frameworks, highlighting the superiority of MobileSteward in better handling user instructions with diverse complexity.