It is challenging to control a soft robot, where reinforcement learning methods have been applied with promising results. However, due to the poor sample efficiency, reinforcement learning methods require a large collection of training data, which limits their applications. In this paper, we propose a Q-learning controller for a physical soft robot, in which pre-trained models using data from a rough simulator are applied to improve the performance of the controller. We implement the method on our soft robot, i.e., Honeycomb Pneumatic Network (HPN) arm. The experiments show that the usage of pre-trained models can not only reduce the amount of the real-world training data, but also greatly improve its accuracy and convergence rate.

Kernel PCA is a powerful feature extractor which recently has seen a reformulation in the context of Restricted Kernel Machines (RKMs). These RKMs allow for a representation of kernel PCA in terms of hidden and visible units similar to Restricted Boltzmann Machines. This connection has led to insights on how to use kernel PCA in a generative procedure, called generative kernel PCA. In this paper, the use of generative kernel PCA for exploring latent spaces of datasets is investigated. New points can be generated by gradually moving in the latent space, which allows for an interpretation of the components. Firstly, examples of this feature space exploration on three datasets are shown with one of them leading to an interpretable representation of ECG signals. Afterwards, the use of the tool in combination with novelty detection is shown, where the latent space around novel patterns in the data is explored. This helps in the interpretation of why certain points are considered as novel.

We provide a bridge between generative modeling in the Machine Learning community and simulated physical processes in High Energy Particle Physics by applying a novel Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) architecture to the production of jet images -- 2D representations of energy depositions from particles interacting with a calorimeter. We propose a simple architecture, the Location-Aware Generative Adversarial Network, that learns to produce realistic radiation patterns from simulated high energy particle collisions. The pixel intensities of GAN-generated images faithfully span over many orders of magnitude and exhibit the desired low-dimensional physical properties (i.e., jet mass, n-subjettiness, etc.). We shed light on limitations, and provide a novel empirical validation of image quality and validity of GAN-produced simulations of the natural world. This work provides a base for further explorations of GANs for use in faster simulation in High Energy Particle Physics.

Building on the notion of a particle physics detector as a camera and the collimated streams of high energy particles, or jets, it measures as an image, we investigate the potential of machine learning techniques based on deep learning architectures to identify highly boosted W bosons. Modern deep learning algorithms trained on jet images can out-perform standard physically-motivated feature driven approaches to jet tagging. We develop techniques for visualizing how these features are learned by the network and what additional information is used to improve performance. This interplay between physically-motivated feature driven tools and supervised learning algorithms is general and can be used to significantly increase the sensitivity to discover new particles and new forces, and gain a deeper understanding of the physics within jets.