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This paper considers how heterogeneous multi-agent teams can leverage their different capabilities to mutually improve individual agent performance. We present Capability-Augmenting Tasks (CATs), which encode how agents can augment their capabilities based on interactions with other teammates. Our framework integrates CAT into the semantics of Metric Temporal Logic (MTL), which defines individual spatio-temporal tasks for all agents. A centralized Mixed-Integer Program (MIP) is used to synthesize trajectories for all agents. We compare the expressivity of our approach to a baseline of Capability Temporal Logic Plus (CaTL+). Case studies demonstrate that our approach allows for simpler specifications and improves individual performance when agents leverage the capabilities of their teammates.

We study the Out-of-Distribution (OOD) generalization in machine learning and propose a general framework that provides information-theoretic generalization bounds. Our framework interpolates freely between Integral Probability Metric (IPM) and $f$-divergence, which naturally recovers some known results (including Wasserstein- and KL-bounds), as well as yields new generalization bounds. Moreover, we show that our framework admits an optimal transport interpretation. When evaluated in two concrete examples, the proposed bounds either strictly improve upon existing bounds in some cases or recover the best among existing OOD generalization bounds.

Imitation learning methods have demonstrated considerable success in teaching autonomous systems complex tasks through expert demonstrations. However, a limitation of these methods is their lack of interpretability, particularly in understanding the specific task the learning agent aims to accomplish. In this paper, we propose a novel imitation learning method that combines Signal Temporal Logic (STL) inference and control synthesis, enabling the explicit representation of the task as an STL formula. This approach not only provides a clear understanding of the task but also allows for the incorporation of human knowledge and adaptation to new scenarios through manual adjustments of the STL formulae. Additionally, we employ a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)-inspired training approach for both the inference and the control policy, effectively narrowing the gap between the expert and learned policies. The effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated through two case studies, showcasing its practical applicability and adaptability., Comment: Submitted to L4DC 2024 (under review)

In this paper, we consider the problem of learning a neural network controller for a system required to satisfy a Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specification. We exploit STL quantitative semantics to define a notion of robust satisfaction. Guaranteeing the correctness of a neural network controller, i.e., ensuring the satisfaction of the specification by the controlled system, is a difficult problem that received a lot of attention recently. We provide a general procedure to construct a set of trainable High Order Control Barrier Functions (HOCBFs) enforcing the satisfaction of formulas in a fragment of STL. We use the BarrierNet, implemented by a differentiable Quadratic Program (dQP) with HOCBF constraints, as the last layer of the neural network controller, to guarantee the satisfaction of the STL formulas. We train the HOCBFs together with other neural network parameters to further improve the robustness of the controller. Simulation results demonstrate that our approach ensures satisfaction and outperforms existing algorithms., Comment: Submitted to CDC 2023

In this paper, we propose a learning-based framework to simultaneously learn the communication and distributed control policies for a heterogeneous multi-agent system (MAS) under complex mission requirements from Capability Temporal Logic plus (CaTL+) specifications. Both policies are trained, implemented, and deployed using a novel neural network model called CatlNet. Taking advantage of the robustness measure of CaTL+, we train CatlNet centrally to maximize it where network parameters are shared among all agents, allowing CatlNet to scale to large teams easily. CatlNet can then be deployed distributedly. A plan repair algorithm is also introduced to guide CatlNet's training and improve both training efficiency and the overall performance of CatlNet. The CatlNet approach is tested in simulation and results show that, after training, CatlNet can steer the decentralized MAS system online to satisfy a CaTL+ specification with a high success rate.

We consider the problem of controlling a heterogeneous multi-agent system required to satisfy temporal logic requirements. Capability Temporal Logic (CaTL) was recently proposed to formalize such specifications for deploying a team of autonomous agents with different capabilities and cooperation requirements. In this paper, we extend CaTL to a new logic CaTL+, which is more expressive than CaTL and has semantics over a continuous workspace shared by all agents. We define two novel robustness metrics for CaTL+: the traditional robustness and the exponential robustness. The latter is sound, differentiable almost everywhere and eliminates masking, which is one of the main limitations of the traditional robustness metric. We formulate a control synthesis problem to maximize CaTL+ robustness and propose a two-step optimization method to solve this problem. Simulation results are included to illustrate the increased expressivity of CaTL+ and the efficacy of the proposed control synthesis approach., Comment: Accepted to ACC 2023

Mobility edge, a critical energy separating localized and extended excitations, is a key concept for understanding quantum localization. Aubry-Andr\'{e} (AA) model, a paradigm for exploring quantum localization, does not naturally allow mobility edges due to self-duality. Using the momentum-state lattice of quantum gas of Cs atoms to synthesize a nonlinear AA model, we provide experimental evidence for mobility edge induced by interactions. By identifying the extended-to-localized transition of different energy eigenstates, we construct a mobility-edge phase diagram. The location of mobility edge in the low- or high-energy region is tunable via repulsive or attractive interactions. Our observation is in good agreement with the theory, and supports an interpretation of such interaction-induced mobility edge via a generalized AA model. Our work also offers new possibilities to engineer quantum transport and phase transitions in disordered systems., Comment: 7+4 pages, 8 figures

We present a computational framework for synthesis of distributed control strategies for a heterogeneous team of robots in a partially observable environment. The goal is to cooperatively satisfy specifications given as Truncated Linear Temporal Logic (TLTL) formulas. Our approach formulates the synthesis problem as a stochastic game and employs a policy graph method to find a control strategy with memory for each agent. We construct the stochastic game on the product between the team transition system and a finite state automaton (FSA) that tracks the satisfaction of the TLTL formula. We use the quantitative semantics of TLTL as the reward of the game, and further reshape it using the FSA to guide and accelerate the learning process. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed solution under demanding task specifications and the effectiveness of reward shaping in significantly accelerating the speed of learning., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted by L4DC 2022

We propose a policy search approach to learn controllers from specifications given as Signal Temporal Logic (STL) formulae. The system model, which is unknown but assumed to be an affine control system, is learned together with the control policy. The model is implemented as two feedforward neural networks (FNNs) - one for the drift, and one for the control directions. To capture the history dependency of STL specifications, we use a recurrent neural network (RNN) to implement the control policy. In contrast to prevalent model-free methods, the learning approach proposed here takes advantage of the learned model and is more efficient. We use control barrier functions (CBFs) with the learned model to improve the safety of the system. We validate our algorithm via simulations and experiments. The results show that our approach can satisfy the given specification within very few system runs, and can be used for on-line control., Comment: Accepted to International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2023

We propose a framework based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) to determine an optimal control strategy for a discrete-time system that is required to satisfy specifications given as Signal Temporal Logic (STL) formulae. RNNs can store information of a system over time, thus, enable us to determine satisfaction of the dynamic temporal requirements specified in STL formulae. Given a STL formula, a dataset of satisfying system executions and corresponding control policies, we can use RNNs to predict a control policy at each time based on the current and previous states of system. We use Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to guarantee the safety of the predicted control policy. We validate our theoretical formulation and demonstrate its performance in an optimal control problem subject to partially unknown safety constraints through simulations., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to IEEE Control Systems Letters (L-CSS) with the option to present it to the ACC 2021

In the real-life environments, due to the sudden appearance of windows, lights, and objects blocking the light source, the visual SLAM system can easily capture the low-contrast images caused by over-exposure or over-darkness. At this time, the direct method of estimating camera motion based on pixel luminance information is infeasible, and it is often difficult to find enough valid feature points without image processing. This paper proposed HE-SLAM, a new method combining histogram equalization and ORB feature extraction, which can be robust in more scenes, especially in stages with low-contrast images. Because HE-SLAM uses histogram equalization to improve the contrast of images, it can extract enough valid feature points in low-contrast images for subsequent feature matching, keyframe selection, bundle adjustment, and loop closure detection. The proposed HE-SLAM has been tested on the popular datasets (such as KITTI and EuRoc), and the real-time performance and robustness of the system are demonstrated by comparing system runtime and the mean square root error (RMSE) of absolute trajectory error (ATE) with state-of-the-art methods like ORB-SLAM2., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 2018 Chinese Automation Congress (CAC)