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At least 739 records · Page 41

Machine learning for Deep Space Network antenna motions detection

Highly stable frequency and timing standards are essential for deep-space missions and radio science. At the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN), these standards are distributed through a network of underground fiber cables to support several Goldstone antennas. Independently developed frequency-measuring instruments generate tremendous quantities of data to monitor and validate the antennas’ stringent frequency requirements. In this paper, we propose a lightweight processing tool capable of detecting disturbances on the frequency signal caused by DSN antenna motions. Our training data is sampled from the movement log of the antenna of interest and the generated data from the fiber optic metrology instrument linked to the antenna. We demonstrate that a convolutional neural network (CNN) model can achieve high accuracies on classifying instances of antenna movements and is an effective predictor when used iteratively on longer, variable stretches of metrology data. The simplicity, low training cost, and high accuracies of our model strongly suggest its efficacy in identifying and troubleshooting frequency disturbances caused by the antenna.

Yi, Lin↗

KamNet: An integrated spatiotemporal deep neural network for rare event searches in KamLAND-Zen

Rare event searches allow us to search for new physics at energy scales inaccessible with other means by leveraging specialized large-mass detectors. Machine learning provides a new tool to maximize the information provided by these detectors. The information is sparse, which forces these algorithms to start from the lowest level data and exploit all symmetries in the detector to produce results. In this work we present KamNet, which harnesses breakthroughs in geometric deep learning and spatiotemporal data analysis to maximize the physics reach of KamLAND-Zen, a kiloton scale spherical liquid scintillator detector searching for 0⁢νβ⁢β. Using a simplified background model for KamLAND, we show that KamNet outperforms a conventional convolutional neural network (CNN) on benchmarking Monte Carlo simulations with an increasing level of robustness. Using simulated data, we then demonstrate KamNet's ability to increase KamLAND-Zen's sensitivity to 0ν⁢ββ and 2⁢ν⁢β⁢β decay to excited states. A key component of this work is the addition of an attention mechanism to elucidate the underlying physics KamNet is using for the background rejection.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Power System Waveform Classification Using Time-Frequency and CNN

Many modern reclosers and circuit breakers have microprocessor relays that record waveforms of system events. In some cases, utilities may record a half-a-dozen event captures for every event. This is thousands of events per year. The industry needs faster, more automated, more conclusive, and easy-to-use systems that can process massive amounts of event recordings without extensive input/support from power system engineers. To address the need for a commercially viable solution that can classify waveform data, energies were directed to develop a universal neural network (NN) structure (deep learning algorithm) that works for a wide variety of system event types. The structure that showed the most promise was one that included the use of spectrograms. The technique has shown positive results in audio engineering, particularly with respect to speech recognition. A waveform signature could be treated as a spoken word like audio waveforms for specific things such as “YES” or “UP”. No two people produce the exact same waveform when speaking each of these words, but audio processing algorithms based on spectrograms and convolutional neural networks (CNN) can still distinguish the word regardless of the speaker. No two circuits produce the exact same waveform for a given event, but the NN can be trained to classify the event type regardless of the circuit or location on the circuit. A Power System Neural Network (PSNN) has been developed to use a CNN to classify events within waveform data for power systems. The waveform is converted to an array of values by way of spectrograms and interpreted as an image. This image is passed into the CNN. The test results on independent simulated test and validation datasets show greater than 99% accuracy. While the results thus far are based on simulated data, the performance of the PSNN is very promising and should work for a wide variety of power system conditions of interest. Ultimately, much of the custom code and tools used today and much of the manual effort expended today may be automated using this PSNN.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Improving Variational Autoencoders for New Physics Detection at the LHC With Normalizing Flows

We investigate how to improve new physics detection strategies exploiting variational autoencoders and normalizing flows for anomaly detection at the Large Hadron Collider. As a working example, we consider the DarkMachines challenge dataset. We show how different design choices (e.g., event representations, anomaly score definitions, network architectures) affect the result on specific benchmark new physics models. Once a baseline is established, we discuss how to improve the anomaly detection accuracy by exploiting normalizing flow layers in the latent space of the variational autoencoder.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Intelligent Electrochemical Sensors for Precise Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds Enabled by Neural Network Analysis

The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a wide spectrum of categories were identified as biomarkers in aquatic environments, playing an important role in marine and freshwater ecology and global atmospheric chemistry. VOCs released from biofuel have also attracted increasing attention. Although the importance has been recognized, the portable detection and analysis methods of VOC in aquatic systems have not yet been well developed and understood. Here, in this work, we innovatively proposed an intelligent electrochemical sensing approach to classify and quantify VOCs in solution. Utilizing the cyclic voltammetry (CV) method with an ionic liquid (IL)-based electrolyte, we analyzed 50 μL samples of various VOC analytes, including acetic acid (AC), acetone, dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, methanol, methyl formate (MF), toluene, and a formaldehyde-methanol mixture, along with deionized water (DI water). The generated voltammograms were subsequently analyzed using our uniquely designed and optimized 1-D convolutional neural network (1D-CNN). This deep-learning algorithm achieved a 99.09% accuracy in VOC classification validated through fivefold cross-validation and demonstrated an impressive 94.4% test accuracy for methanol detection within a 10 μL error range. For quantification, the system accurately categorized methanol volumes ranging from 0 to 50 μL in 10 μL increments, achieving a 98.18% accuracy. A notable linear correlation (R2 = 95.56%) was found between max current density at the oxidation peak and methanol volume, with the limit of detection (LOD) at 9.3 μL. Such a sensing method exhibits potential for portability, high accuracy, and generalization in the classification and quantification, ultimately reshaping the realm of VOC analysis in solution.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A General Spatiotemporal Imputation Framework for Missing Sensor Data

Many applications from precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and transportation networks rely on data collected across space and time over a large geographic area. Missing data poses a significant challenge for any data-driven inference and control tasks. Data imputation or the estimation of missing data can help fill these gaps by utilizing inherent spatial relationships and temporal patterns. A variety of spatiotemporal imputation models have been developed to address missing data in spatiotemporal datasets. However, these classical methods rely on the assumption that the underlying data follows a smooth trend and fail to provide accurate estimates when there is a large number of missing points in the data. Even though there are machine learning driven tensor completion approaches such as convolutional neural network based tensor completion (CoSTCo) that capture the non-linear relationships in the dataset, the transductive nature makes the algorithm less scalable. Thus, existing approaches for estimating the missing information do not effectively capture all dimensions of the spatiotemporal data structure, resulting in erroneous predictions and poor performance. The main contributions of this paper are: (1) We propose a novel inductive framework (G-LSTM) for missing data imputation that integrates a graph neural network with LSTMs to effectively capture both spatial and temporal dependencies. (2) Experimental results on a traffic dataset demonstrate that the proposed GNN integrated with an LSTM framework achieves improved imputation and maintains steady performance even when there are extreme missing conditions in comparison with the state-of-the-art imputation framework (i.e, CoSTCo). (3) The simulation results on a traffic network show up to 69% reduction in mean absolute error and 61% reduction in root mean square error when compared to CoSTCo.

Tharzeen, Aabila↗

A Multi-Branch Decoder Network Approach to Adaptive Temporal Data Selection and Reconstruction for Big Scientific Simulation Data

A key challenge in scientific simulation is that the simulation outputs often require intensive I/O and storage space to store the results for effective post hoc analysis. This article focuses on a quality-aware adaptive temporal data selection and reconstruction problem where the goal is to adaptively select simulation data samples at certain key timesteps in situ and reconstruct the discarded samples with quality assurance during post hoc analysis. This problem is motivated by the limitation of current solutions that a significant amount of simulation data samples are either discarded or aggregated during the sampling process, leading to inaccurate modeling of the simulated phenomena. Two unique challenges exist: 1) the sampling decisions have to be made in situ and adapted to the dynamics of the complex scientific simulation data; 2) the reconstruction error must be strictly bounded to meet the application requirement. To address the above challenges, we develop DeepSample , an error-controlled convolutional neural network framework, that jointly integrates a set of coherent multi-branch deep decoders to effectively reconstruct the simulation data with rigorous quality assurance. The results on two real-world scientific simulation applications show that DeepSample significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods on both sampling efficiency and reconstructed simulation data quality.

Zhang, Yang↗

Machine Learning-Based Identification of the Interface Regions for Coupling Local and Nonlocal Models

Local-nonlocal coupling approaches provide a means to combine the computational efficiency of local models and the accuracy of nonlocal models. However, the coupling process can be challenging, requiring expertise to identify the interface between local and nonlocal regions. Here, this study introduces a machine learning-based approach to automatically detect the regions in which the local and nonlocal models should be used. The method uses loading functions evaluated at grid points to decide the model selection at those points. Training of the networks is based on datasets provided by classes of loading functions for which reference coupling configurations are computed using accurate coupled solutions, where accuracy is measured in terms of the relative error between the solution to the coupling approach and the solution to the nonlocal model. We study two approaches that vary in data structure. The first, the full-domain input data approach, uses the entire load vector and outputs a complete label vector, performing a global classification. The second, a window-based approach, processes loads into windows and addresses the problem as a node-wise classification where each window's central point is classified individually. The classification problems are solved via deep learning algorithms based on convolutional neural networks. The performance of these approaches is studied on one-dimensional numerical examples using F1-scores and accuracy metrics. Notably, the windowing approach achieves an accuracy of 0.96 and an F1-score of 0.97, highlighting its potential to automate coupling processes effectively and enhance computational efficiency in material science applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Graph neural networks for efficient learning of mechanical properties of polycrystals

Herein we present graph neural networks (GNNs) as an efficient and accurate machine learning approach to predict mechanical properties of polycrystalline materials. Here, a GNN was developed based on graph representation of polycrystals incorporating only fundamental features of grains including their crystallographic orientation, size, and grain neighbor connectivity information. We tested our method on modeling stiffness and yield strength of α -Ti microstructures, varying in their crystallographic texture. We find the GNN predicts both properties with high accuracy with mean relative errors of ~1% for unseen microstructures from a given set of textures and < 2% for microstructures of unseen texture, even when presented with limited training data. This accuracy is comparable to methods that require high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) microstructure data, such as 3D convolutional neural networks (3D-CNNs) and models that depend on the computation of spatial statistics. The present results show that graph-based deep learning is a promising framework for property prediction, especially considering the high cost associated with obtaining high-resolution 3D microstructure data and the general scarcity of experimental materials datasets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Inpainting radar missing data regions with deep learning

Abstract. Missing and low-quality data regions are a frequent problem for weather radars. They stem from a variety of sources: beam blockage, instrument failure, near-ground blind zones, and many others. Filling in missing data regions is often useful for estimating local atmospheric properties and the application of high-level data processing schemes without the need for preprocessing and error-handling steps – feature detection and tracking, for instance. Interpolation schemes are typically used for this task, though they tend to produce unrealistically spatially smoothed results that are not representative of the atmospheric turbulence and variability that are usually resolved by weather radars. Recently, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have achieved impressive results in the area of photo inpainting. Here, they are demonstrated as a tool for infilling radar missing data regions. These neural networks are capable of extending large-scale cloud and precipitation features that border missing data regions into the regions while hallucinating plausible small-scale variability. In other words, they can inpaint missing data with accurate large-scale features and plausible local small-scale features. This method is demonstrated on a scanning C-band and vertically pointing Ka-band radar that were deployed as part of the Cloud Aerosol and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign. Three missing data scenarios are explored: infilling low-level blind zones and short outage periods for the Ka-band radar and infilling beam blockage areas for the C-band radar. Two deep-learning-based approaches are tested, a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a GAN that optimize pixel-level error or combined pixel-level error and adversarial loss respectively. Both deep-learning approaches significantly outperform traditional inpainting schemes under several pixel-level and perceptual quality metrics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Graph neural networks for mechanical property prediction of 2D fiber composites

This work investigates the ability of graph neural networks (GNNs) to homogenize 2D fiber composite microstructures. We use different inhomogeneity and anisotropy indices to motivate and show that the Volume Elements (VEs) used in ML methods should ideally be far from their Representative Volume Element (RVE) size limit and, consequently, are notably anisotropic. Hence, training only the isotropic limit properties may not be acceptable. Another aspect is the need to normalize elastic stiffness values for ML, especially when high elastic contrast ratios are encountered between composite phases or in the material set. We introduce a normalization technique based on the mean-field method (MFM) to handle such high contrast ratios and train for the entire stiffness tensor. We show that the proposed GNN approaches exhibit high accuracy and efficiency compared to traditional methods and convolutional neural networks, utilizing unstructured graphs constructed from microstructure topology. Our model successfully predicts the stiffness tensor, peak strength under bulk damage, and brittle fracture initiation strength across diverse microstructure configurations while maintaining high accuracy even for extreme material contrasts and volume fractions. We also present a method to improve prediction accuracy for small dataset sizes using Voronoi partitioning.

Brittle strength↗

Bayesian Optimized Deep Ensemble for Uncertainty Quantification of Deep Neural Networks: a System Safety Case Study on Sodium Fast Reactor Thermal Stratification Modeling

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are increasingly important to scientific computing and engineering system simulations. Accurate uncertainty quantification (UQ) for DNNs is critical in safety-sensitive engineering domains. Traditional Deep Ensemble (DE) methods, while easy to implement, frequently suffer from poorly calibrated uncertainty estimates and limited predictive accuracy due to reliance on fixed architectures with varied weight initializations. To address these issues, we introduce a workflow that combines Bayesian Optimization (BO) and DE. The workflow is modular, scalable, and integrates parallel BO initialized with Sobol sequences to individually optimize the hyperparameters of each ensemble member. This method enhances ensemble diversity, improves predictive accuracy, and provides reliable uncertainty estimates. We evaluate the proposed BODE approach in a sodium fast reactor thermal stratification modeling case study, where we used a densely connected convolutional neural network to predict turbulent viscosity during the reactor transient with consideration of data noise. We benchmark its performance against several optimization approaches, including baseline deep ensemble, evolutionary algorithm-optimized ensemble, ensemble formed via random search combined with greedy selection, and a BO ensemble using random initialization. Here, our results demonstrate superior performance of the developed BODE approach. In noise-free scenarios, BODE notably reduces incorrect aleatoric uncertainty and significantly enhances predictive accuracy. Under conditions of 5% and 10% Gaussian noise, BODE adaptively quantifies uncertainty proportional to data noise, achieving up to an 80% reduction in root mean square error compared to baseline methods and producing well-calibrated prediction intervals.

Bayesian optimization↗

GeoThermalCloud: Cloud Fusion of Big Data and Multi-Physics Models using Machine Learning for Discovery, Exploration, and Development of Hidden Geothermal Resources

The primary goals of this project are exploring hidden geothermal resources in the U.S.A. and designing profitable enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Many processes and parameters control geothermal exploration and energy production from geothermal fields. Diverse datasets (e.g., geology, geochemistry, geophysics, satellite, airborne geophysics) are available to help characterize subsurface geothermal conditions. Sparse and multi-scale characteristics of these datasets prohibit properly leveraging these datasets for geothermal exploration and profitable EGS design. Recent advancements in machine learning (ML) promise to resolve these issues. The tremendous challenges and risks of geothermal exploration and production bring the demand for novel ML methods and tools that can (1) analyze large field datasets, (2) assimilate model simulations (large inputs and outputs), (3) process sparse datasets, (4) perform transfer learning (between sites with different exploratory levels), (5) extract hidden geothermal signatures in the field and simulation data, (6) label geothermal resources and processes, (7) identify high-value data acquisition targets, and (8) guide geothermal exploration and production by selecting optimal exploration, production, and drilling strategies. To address these necessities, ML-based geothermal resources exploration and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) design tools have been developed. The exploration tool is called GeoThermalCloud and EGS design tool is called GeoDT-ML. GeoThermalCloud (https://github.com/SmartTensors/GeoThermalCloud.jl) utilizes a LANL unsupervised ML platform called SmartTensors (https://tensors.lanl.gov/) to automate data analyses and interpretations by extracting hidden signatures to identify geothermal prospects. Also, it enables the identification of critical measurements needed to identify geothermal resource signatures. Alternatively, GeoDT-ML (https://github.com/SmartTensors/GeoThermalCloud.jl/tree/master/EGS) is an ML-based alternative to GeoDT (https://github.com/GeoDesignTool/GeoDT.git), a fast, simplified multi-physics solver to evaluate EGS project designs in uncertain geologic systems. GeoDT-ML leverages recent advances in deep learning and high-performance computing. It is a faster and simpler version of GeoDT. To make this project a success, we used capabilities of LANL, PNNL, Google, Stanford, and Julia Computing. We analyzed eight datasets of the U.S.A. using GeothermalCloud and demonstrated potential highly prospective geothermal resources and identified key factors defining highly prospective sites. The first data set includes 44 locations in southwest New Mexico and 18 geological, hydrogeological, geophysical, geothermal, geochemical attributes. We defined low- and medium-temperature hydrothermal systems and discovered a new highly prospective site. The second data set analyzed 18 shallow water chemistry attributes at 14,342 locations in the Great Basin. It demarcated modestly, moderately, and highly prospective sites including key attributes for each type of prospectivity. The third data set analyzed Utah FORGE data including satellite (InSAR), geophysical (gravity, seismic), geochemical, and geothermal attributes. Here, we performed prospectivity analysis to identify future drilling locations using geological, geochemical, and geophysical attributes. Maps of temperature at depth and heat flow are constructed based on the available data. Prospectivity maps were generated, and drilling locations were proposed for future geothermal field exploration. The fourth data set analyzed 21 attributes at 120 locations in Tularosa Basin, New Mexico; data comes from past play fairway analyses in this region. ML analyses identified geothermal signatures associated with modestly, moderately, and highly hydrothermal systems. We also defined dominant attributes and spatial distribution of the geothermal signatures. The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth datasets include Tohatchi Springs, New Mexico, Hawaii, Brady site, Nevada, and EGS Collab, respectively. Moreover, we coupled GeothermalCloud and magnetotellurics data to pinpoint drilling locations for developing geothermal projects in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. GeothermalCloud found potential prospective locations for geothermal resources near White Sands Missile Range and McGregor Range at Fort Bliss. Magnetotellurics data determined the potential depth (~1800m) of geothermal prospects at McGregor Range based on apparent resistivity structures/layers in the subsurface. The McGregor Range consists of three resistivity layers and two resistivity structures. Magnetotellurics data also helps identify that the western portion of the McGregor Range has thick and low-resistivity earth materials. The low resistivity to the west is most likely for a fault system. Assuming temperature is consistent with a geothermal reservoir, the west-central part of the McGregor Range has the highest geothermal potential because of the increase in porosity and associated permeability attributed to the interpreted fault system. Also, we devised a coupling strategy between a process model and GeothermalCloud to characterize hydrogeological conditions and geothermal conditions, respectively. The process model characterizes hydrogeological and geothermal conditions on highly prospective geothermal sites provided by GeothermalCloud. We developed a physics-informed neural network (PINN) version of the Burns equation that can be easily coupled with GeothermalCloud. Furthermore, we performed an optimal design decision maximizing the economic value of an EGS power plant. This study optimized the range of well spacing between injection and production wells maximizing net present value in dollars (NPV). For this task, we used the GeoDT to simulate the Utah FORGE EGS development cycle from the initial well design to the end of production. Next, we accomplished another crucial task, which is predicting permeability of geothermal reservoirs. Predicting permeability of geothermal reservoirs is a non-trivial task because of huge computational runtime of simulation and lack of measurements. To avoid these limitations, we used easy-to-measure chemical concentrations in the subsurface as measurement data and convolutional neural network based ML model of a high-fidelity model. Next, we predicted permeability using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. We found that Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation predicts permeability with a high certainty if the prediction zone in the simulation area has chemical concentration data. Finally, we analyzed the DOE funded INGENIOUS and GeoDAWN projects data. For discovering hidden geothermal systems in the Great Basin, the INGENIOUS project accumulated old data, collected new data, and released them in 2022. The dataset includes a total of 24 geological, geophysical, and geochemical attributes. Data resolution and scale significantly vary prohibiting an appropriate usage. To avoid such limitations, we brought all data in the same resolution and scale by applying the inverse distance weighting interpolation technique for predicting data in unsampled locations. Subsequently, we analyzed LiDAR data of the GeoDAWN project. We received data in tiles format. The DOE’s overarching goal is to use ML on LiDAR data for finding favorable geological structures (e.g., step up faults in Brady, Nevada). To serve the purpose, we need to label favorable geologic structures that correspond to LiDAR data. We wrote an algorithm to label the LiDAR data with the favorable geologic structures.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

NeMO-Net The Neural Multi-Modal Observation Training Network for Global Coral Reef Assessment

In the past decade, coral reefs worldwide have experienced unprecedented stresses due to climate change, ocean acidification, and anthropomorphic pressures, instigating massive bleaching and die-off of these fragile and diverse ecosystems. Furthermore, remote sensing of these shallow marine habitats is hindered by ocean wave distortion, refraction and optical attenuation, leading invariably to data products that are often of low resolution and signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. However, recent advances in UAV and Fluid Lensing technology have allowed us to capture multispectral 3D imagery of these systems at sub-cm scales from above the water surface, giving us an unprecedented view of their growth and decay. Exploiting the fine-scaled features of these datasets, machine learning methods such as MAP, PCA, and SVM can not only accurately classify the living cover and morphology of these reef systems (below 8 error), but are also able to map the spectral space between airborne and satellite imagery, augmenting and improving the classification accuracy of previously low-resolution datasets.We are currently implementing NeMO-Net, the first open-source deep convolutional neural network (CNN) and interactive active learning and training software to accurately assess the present and past dynamics of coral reef ecosystems through determination of percent living cover and morphology. NeMO-Net will be built upon the QGIS platform to ingest UAV, airborne and satellite datasets from various sources and sensor capabilities, and through data-fusion determine the coral reef ecosystem makeup globally at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. To achieve this, we will exploit virtual data augmentation, the use of semi-supervised learning, and active learning through a tablet platform allowing for users to manually train uncertain or difficult to classify datasets. The project will make use of Pythons extensive libraries for machine learning, as well as extending integration to GPU and High-End Computing Capability (HECC) on the Pleiades supercomputing cluster, located at NASA Ames. The project is being supported by NASAs Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST-16) Program.

Remote Sensin↗

NeMO-Net: The Neural Multi-Modal Observation and Training Network for Global Coral Reef Assessment

In the past decade, coral reefs worldwide have experienced unprecedented stresses due to climate change, ocean acidification, and anthropomorphic pressures, instigating massive bleaching and die-off of these fragile and diverse ecosystems. Furthermore, remote sensing of these shallow marine habitats is hindered by ocean wave distortion, refraction and optical attenuation, leading invariably to data products that are often of low resolution and signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. However, recent advances in UAV and Fluid Lensing technology have allowed us to capture multispectral 3D imagery of these systems at sub-cm scales from above the water surface, giving us an unprecedented view of their growth and decay. Exploiting the fine-scaled features of these datasets, machine learning methods such as MAP, PCA, and SVM can not only accurately classify the living cover and morphology of these reef systems (below 8 percent error), but are also able to map the spectral space between airborne and satellite imagery, augmenting and improving the classification accuracy of previously low-resolution datasets. We are currently implementing NeMO-Net, the first open-source deep convolutional neural network (CNN) and interactive active learning and training software to accurately assess the present and past dynamics of coral reef ecosystems through determination of percent living cover and morphology. NeMO-Net will be built upon the QGIS platform to ingest UAV, airborne and satellite datasets from various sources and sensor capabilities, and through data-fusion determine the coral reef ecosystem makeup globally at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. To achieve this, we will exploit virtual data augmentation, the use of semi-supervised learning, and active learning through a tablet platform allowing for users to manually train uncertain or difficult to classify datasets. The project will make use of Pythons extensive libraries for machine learning, as well as extending integration to GPU and High-End Computing Capability (HECC) on the Pleiades supercomputing cluster, located at NASA Ames. The project is being supported by NASAs Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST-16) Program.

NeMO-Net↗

Neural network based fast prediction of β N limits in HL-2M

Artificial neural networks (NNs) are trained, based on the numerical database, to predict the no-wall and ideal-wall β N limits, due to onset of the n = 1 ( n is the toroidal mode number) ideal external kink instability, for the HL-2M tokamak. The database is constructed by toroidal computations utilizing both the equilibrium code CHEASE (Lütjens et al 1992 Comput. Phys. Commun. 69 287) and the stability code MARS-F (Liu et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas 7 3681). The stability results show that (1) the plasma elongation generally enhances both β N limits, for either positive or negative triangularity plasmas; (2) the effect is more pronounced for positive triangularity plasmas; (3) the computed no-wall β N limit linearly scales with the plasma internal inductance, with the proportionality coefficient ranging between 1 and 5 for HL-2M; (4) the no-wall limit substantially decreases with increasing pressure peaking factor. Furthermore, both the NN model and the convolutional neural network (CNN) model are trained and tested, producing consistent results. The trained NNs predict both the no-wall and ideal-wall limits with as high as 95% accuracy, compared to those directly computed by the stability code. Additional test cases, produced by the Tokamak Simulation Code (Jardin et al 1993 Nucl. Fusion 33 371), also show reasonable performance of the trained NNs, with the relative error being within 10%. The constructed database provides effective references for the future HL-2M operations. The trained NNs can be used as a real-time monitor for disruption prevention in the HL-2M experiments, or serve as part of the integrated modeling tools for ideal kink stability analysis.

Physics↗

A gradient-based deep neural network model for simulating multiphase flow in porous media

We report simulation of multiphase flow in porous media is crucial for the effective management of subsurface energy and environment-related activities. The numerical simulators used for modeling such processes rely on spatial and temporal discretization of the governing mass and energy balance partial-differential equations (PDEs) into algebraic systems via finite-difference/volume/element methods. These simulators usually require dedicated software development and maintenance, and suffer low efficiency from a runtime and memory standpoint for problems with multi-scale heterogeneity, coupled-physics processes or fluids with complex phase behavior. Therefore, developing cost-effective, data-driven models can become a practical choice, and in this work, we choose deep learning approaches as they can handle high dimensional data and accurately predict state variables with strong nonlinearity. In this paper, we describe a gradient-based deep neural network (GDNN) constrained by the physics related to multiphase flow in porous media. We tackle the nonlinearity of flow in porous media induced by rock heterogeneity, fluid properties, and fluid-rock interactions by decomposing the nonlinear PDEs into a dictionary of elementary differential operators. We use a combination of operators to handle rock spatial heterogeneity and fluid flow by advection. Since the augmented differential operators are inherently related to the physics of fluid flow, we treat them as first principles prior knowledge to regularize the GDNN training. We use the example of pressure management at geologic CO 2 storage sites, where CO 2 is injected in saline aquifers and brine is produced, and apply GDNN to construct a predictive model that is trained with physics-based simulation data and emulates the physics process. We demonstrate that GDNN can effectively predict the nonlinear patterns of subsurface responses, including the temporal and spatial evolution of the pressure and saturation plumes. We also successfully extend the GDNN to convolutional neural network (CNN), namely gradient-based CNN (GCNN), and validate its capability to improve the prediction accuracy. GDNN has great potential to tackle challenging problems that are governed by highly nonlinear physics and enable the development of data-driven models with higher fidelity.

42 ENGINEERING↗

From Simulation to Reality With Random Noise

The challenging environment of autonomous vehicle (AV) navigation necessitates certain functions be performed by deep neural networks. Optimizing these models involves collecting vast quantities of domain-specific training data and ensuring that the dataset is representative of expected conditions. High-fidelity simulation plays a vital role in making this process feasible, allowing a wide range of scenarios to be explored at low cost. However, learning from simulation introduces subtle biases into models, which can degrade real-world performance in unpredictable ways. This effect can be mitigated with learning schemes specialized to bridge distributional shifts (transfer learning). Given the complex nature of these methods, the underlying models, and their environments, meaningfully evaluating performance is notstraight forward. Many unrelated factors can effect an improvement in generalization accuracy, but a full ablation analysis is often difficult. To tease out signal from noise, it is necessary to understand how transfer learning performance is affected by noise itself. The goals of this paper are (i) to establish a domain randomization baseline for a simple classification transfer learning task and (ii) to validate the RRAV testbed as a platform for further research in sim-to-real learning. We generate imagery from a simulation of NASA Ames Research Center and train a small convolutional neural network (ConvNet) to classify position relative to a centerline. Further models are trained with different types of noise progressively added to the data. The models are deployed aboard the on-site test vehicle to test real-world performance. In our experiments, we find that such naive domain randomization raises sim-to-real accuracy from 64% to 79%, while training directly on real data yields an 89% accuracy ceiling. These results suggest that the isolated mechanism of domain randomization can significantly improve generalization.

simulation↗