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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 91 records · Page 5

Heterogeneous Machine Learning on High Performance Computing for End to End Driving of Autonomous Vehicles

Current artificial intelligence techniques for end to end driving of autonomous vehicles typically rely on a single form of learning or training processes along with a corresponding dataset or simulation environment. Relatively speaking, success has been shown for a variety of learning modalities in which it can be shown that the machine can successfully “drive” a vehicle. However, the realm of real-world driving extends significantly beyond the realm of limited test environments for machine training. This creates an enormous gap in capability between these two realms. With their superior neural network structures and learning capabilities, humans can be easily trained within a short period of time to proceed from limited test environments to real world driving. For machines though, this gap is guarded by at least two challenges: 1) machine learning techniques remain brittle and unable to generalize to a wide range of scenarios, and 2) effective training data that enhances generalization and generates the desired driving behavior. Further, each challenge can be computationally intensive on its own thereby exasperating the gap. Moreover, is has not yet been shown that a single form of learning or training is capable of addressing a large range of scenarios. As a result, solving the first challenge does not inherently solve the second and vice versa. The work described here discusses an approach to address the first challenge that would also provide a foundation for solving the second. Our approach utilizes a combination of conditional imitation learning with a static dataset, reinforcement learning with a simulation environment, and high-performance computing to train a neural network. As a result, this reduces the “time to solution” from to the existing techniques for autonomous driving and provides an extensible framework to address the second key challenge.

autonomous vehicles↗

Community Fabric: Visualizing communities and structure in dynamic networks

We present Community Fabric, a novel visualization technique for simultaneously visualizing communities and structure within dynamic networks. In dynamic networks, the structure of the network is continuously evolving throughout time and these underlying topological shifts tend to lead to communal changes. Community Fabric helps the viewer more easily interpret and understand the interplay of structural change and community evolution in dynamic graphs. To achieve this, we take a new approach, hybridizing two popular network and community visualizations. Community Fabric combines the likes of the Biofabric static network visualization method with traditional community alluvial flow diagrams to visualize communities in a dynamic network while also displaying the underlying network structure. Our approach improves upon existing state-of-the-art techniques in several key areas. We describe the methodologies of Community Fabric, implement the visualization using modern web-based tools, and apply our approach to three example data sets.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Elastomeric vitrimers from designer polyhydroxyalkanoates with recyclability and biodegradability

Cross-linked elastomers are stretchable materials that typically are not recyclable or biodegradable. Medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) are soft and ductile, making these bio-based polymers good candidates for biodegradable elastomers. Elasticity is commonly imparted by a cross-linked network structure, and covalent adaptable networks have emerged as a solution to prepare recyclable thermosets via triggered rearrangement of dynamic covalent bonds. Here, we develop biodegradable and recyclable elastomers by chemically installing the covalent adaptable network within biologically produced mcl-PHAs. Specifically, an engineered strain of Pseudomonas putida was used to produce mcl-PHAs containing pendent terminal alkenes as chemical handles for postfunctionalization. Thiol-ene chemistry was used to incorporate boronic ester (BE) cross-links, resulting in PHA-based vitrimers. mcl-PHAs cross-linked with BE at low density (<6 mole %) affords a soft, elastomeric material that demonstrates thermal reprocessability, biodegradability, and denetworking at end of life. The mechanical properties show potential for applications including adhesives and soft, biodegradable robotics and electronics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

BUTTER-E - Energy Consumption Data for the BUTTER Empirical Deep Learning Dataset

The BUTTER-E - Energy Consumption Data for the BUTTER Empirical Deep Learning Dataset adds node-level energy consumption data from watt-meters to the primary sweep of the BUTTER - Empirical Deep Learning Dataset. This dataset contains energy consumption and performance data from 63,527 individual experimental runs spanning 30,582 distinct configurations: 13 datasets, 20 sizes (number of trainable parameters), 8 network "shapes", and 14 depths on both CPU and GPU hardware collected using node-level watt-meters. This dataset reveals the complex relationship between dataset size, network structure, and energy use, and highlights the impact of cache effects. BUTTER-E is intended to be joined with the BUTTER dataset (see "BUTTER - Empirical Deep Learning Dataset on OEDI" resource below) which characterizes the performance of 483k distinct fully connected neural networks but does not include energy measurements.

Array↗

RAMP - A fault tolerant distributed microcomputer structure for aircraft navigation and control

Design methodologies for realizing future high authority autoflight control systems are being investigated, taking into account also the study of distributed microcomputer architectures. Attention is given to the redundant asynchronous microprocessor (RAMP) structure. RAMP comprises a connected network of microcomputers which has as input command and sensor information, and which generates servo information to drive actuators, and thrust linkages. Tolerance to hardware failures is achieved by static redundancy. Results of a failed microcomputer are simply rejected. This is done in lieu of dynamic redundancy wherein the distributed computer system performs real time fault detection and reconfiguration of the system. Attention is given to the RAMP network structure and operation, flight control with parallel asynchronous computers, and intermittent fault tolerance.

Dunn, W. R.↗

Experiments on neural network architectures for fuzzy logic

The use of fuzzy logic to model and manage uncertainty in a rule-based system places high computational demands on an inference engine. In an earlier paper, the authors introduced a trainable neural network structure for fuzzy logic. These networks can learn and extrapolate complex relationships between possibility distributions for the antecedents and consequents in the rules. Here, the power of these networks is further explored. The insensitivity of the output to noisy input distributions (which are likely if the clauses are generated from real data) is demonstrated as well as the ability of the networks to internalize multiple conjunctive clause and disjunctive clause rules. Since different rules with the same variables can be encoded in a single network, this approach to fuzzy logic inference provides a natural mechanism for rule conflict resolution.

Keller, James M.↗

Protein conformational switch discerned via network centrality properties

Network analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for examining structural biology systems. The spatial organization of the components of a biomolecular structure has been rendered as a graph representation and analyses have been performed to deduce the biophysical and mechanistic properties of these components. For proteins, the analysis of protein structure networks (PSNs), especially via network centrality measurements and cluster coefficients, has led to identifying amino acid residues that play key functional roles and classifying amino acid residues in general. Whether these network properties examined in various studies are sensitive to subtle (yet biologically significant) conformational changes remained to be addressed. Here, we focused on four types of network centrality properties (betweenness, closeness, degree, and eigenvector centralities) for conformational changes upon ligand binding of a sensor protein (constitutive androstane receptor) and an allosteric enzyme (ribonucleotide reductase). We found that eigenvector centrality is sensitive and can distinguish salient structural features between protein conformational states while other centrality measures, especially closeness centrality, are less sensitive and rather generic with respect to the structural specificity. We also demonstrated that an ensembleinformed, modified PSN with static edges removed (which we term PSN*) has enhanced sensitivity at discerning structural changes.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Nonlinear thermodynamic computing out of equilibrium

We present the design for a thermodynamic computer that can perform arbitrary nonlinear calculations in or out of equilibrium. Simple thermodynamic circuits, fluctuating degrees of freedom in contact with a thermal bath and confined by a quartic potential, display an activity that is a nonlinear function of their input. Such circuits can therefore be regarded as thermodynamic neurons, and can serve as the building blocks of networked structures that act as thermodynamic neural networks, universal function approximators whose operation is powered by thermal fluctuations. We simulate a digital model of a thermodynamic neural network, and show that its parameters can be adjusted by genetic algorithm to perform nonlinear calculations at specified observation times, regardless of whether the system has attained thermal equilibrium. This work expands the field of thermodynamic computing beyond the regime of thermal equilibrium, enabling fully nonlinear computations, analogous to those performed by classical neural networks, at specified observation times.

Whitelam, Stephen [Lawrence Berkeley National Labo↗

Novel Fault Location Method for Power Systems Based on Attention Mechanism and Double Structure GRU Neural Network

Fault location is one of the most essential techniques to maintain the stable operation of power systems. A fast and accurate fault location allows operators to restore power grids faster and avoid economic losses. Conventional methods rely on expert knowledge to extract the necessary features (e.g. DWT, DFT). For large systems, more coupling effects of transmission lines require more complex feature engineering, and incomplete features can easily introduce large errors. To overcome this, a deep learning approach without manual feature extraction is introduced to the fault location model under big data application. Towards this end, in the proposed method, the attention mechanism, the Bi-GRU and a dual structure network are applied to analyze the current data from different perspectives. Complete information for the fault features is extracted for the fault location. Based on a time series model and benefit from the ability to internally acquire the information architecture of faulty line, the established model is adaptive to the power grids with very complex topologies. Simulation results indicate that the proposed double-structure model reduces the maximum error and is less affected by noise. In comparison with different structures and different models, the proposed method shows better performance in IEEE 39-bus system.

42 ENGINEERING↗

RivGraph: Automatic extraction and analysis of river and delta channel network topology

River networks sustain life and landscapes by carrying and distributing water, sediment, and nutrients throughout ecosystems and communities. At the largest scale, river networks drain continents through tree-like tributary networks. At typically smaller scales, river deltas and braided rivers form loopy, complex distributary river networks via avulsions and bifurcations.In order to model flows through these networks or analyze network structure, the topology, or connectivity, of the network must be resolved. Additionally, morphologic properties of each river channel as well as the direction of flow through the channel inform how fluxes travel through the network’s channels. Riv Graphis a Python package that automates the extraction and characterization of river channel networks from a user-provided binary image, or mask, of a channel network (Fig. 1). Masks may be derived from (typically remotely-sensed) imagery, simulations, or even hand-drawn. RivGraph will create explicit representations of the channel network by resolving river centerlines as links, and junctions as nodes. Flow directions are solved for each link of the network without using auxiliary data, e.g., a digital elevation model (DEM). Morphologic properties are computed as well, including link lengths, widths, sinuosities, branching angles,and braiding indices. If provided,RivGraph will preserve georeferencing information of the mask and will export results as ESRI shapefiles, GeoJSONs, and GeoTIFFs for easy import into GIS software.RivGraph can also return extracted networks as networkx objects for convenient interfacing with the full-featured networkx package (Hagberg et al., 2008). Finally, RivGraph offers a suite of topologic metrics that were specifically designed for river channel network analysis (Tejedor et al., 2015b).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Model-free distributed learning

Model-free learning for synchronous and asynchronous quasi-static networks is presented. The network weights are continuously perturbed, while the time-varying performance index is measured and correlated with the perturbation signals; the correlation output determines the changes in the weights. The perturbation may be either via noise sources or orthogonal signals. The invariance to detailed network structure mitigates large variability between supposedly identical networks as well as implementation defects. This local, regular, and completely distributed mechanism requires no central control and involves only a few global signals. Thus it allows for integrated on-chip learning in large analog and optical networks.

Dembo, Amir↗

Statistical generic design of glass and optimization: Selective review on oxide glasses

Designing a single glass composition for a multidimensional property space is challenging, and the difficulty increases with the number of design criteria. Traditionally, the task is accomplished using multiple statistical models that describe the relationships between composition (C) and property (P) values, i.e., C-P models. Recently, the structure (S)-property (P) statistical modeling has emerged as a complementary approach. The S-P modeling approach has also been shown to be a preferred method for modeling glass properties, particularly when a small data set is available, such as in single-component studies, or when strong nonlinearities exist between composition and properties. The combined model package, C-S-P, implements the concept of generic glass design, i.e., designing glass for performance by first selecting a specific or optimized set of glass network structural groups using S-P models and then transferring the designed structures (genes) to a particular composition using C-S models. This article reviews a set of supporting cases from the previous C-S-P modeling studies of phosphate, silicate, and borosilicate glasses, which are relevant for many critical commercial applications. The methodology for developing the statistical C-S-P database is presented, enabling the application of P?S?C to achieve a generic glass design and optimization, targeting multiple design criteria for both performance and processing properties simultaneously.

Network structure↗

Effect of penetrant–polymer interactions and shape on the motion of molecular penetrants in dense polymer networks

The diffusion of dilute molecular penetrants within polymers plays a crucial role in the advancement of material engineering for applications such as coatings and membrane separations. The potential of highly cross-linked polymer networks in these applications stems from their capacity to adjust the size and shape selectivity through subtle changes in network structures. In this paper, we use molecular dynamics simulation to understand the role of penetrant shape (aspect ratios) and its interaction with polymer networks on its diffusivity. We characterize both local penetrant hopping and the long-time diffusive motion for penetrants and consider different aspect ratios and penetrant–network interaction strengths at a variety of cross-link densities and temperatures. The shape affects the coupling of penetrant motion to the cross-link density- and temperature-dependent structural relaxation of networks and also affects the way a penetrant experiences the confinement from the network meshes. The attractive interaction between the penetrant and network primarily affects the former since only the system of dilute limit is of present interest. These results offer fundamental insights into the intricate interplay between penetrant characteristics and polymer network properties and also suggest future directions for manipulating polymer design to enhance the separation efficiency.

Chemistry↗