Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Constrained learning”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records

Neural learning of constrained nonlinear transformations

Two issues that are fundamental to developing autonomous intelligent robots, namely, rudimentary learning capability and dexterous manipulation, are examined. A powerful neural learning formalism is introduced for addressing a large class of nonlinear mapping problems, including redundant manipulator inverse kinematics, commonly encountered during the design of real-time adaptive control mechanisms. Artificial neural networks with terminal attractor dynamics are used. The rapid network convergence resulting from the infinite local stability of these attractors allows the development of fast neural learning algorithms. Approaches to manipulator inverse kinematics are reviewed, the neurodynamics model is discussed, and the neural learning algorithm is presented.

Barhen, Jacob↗

Generalizing Atoms in Constraint Logic

This paper studies the generalization of atomic formulas, or atoms, that are augmented with constraints on or among their terms. The atoms may also be viewed as definite clauses whose antecedents express the constraints. Atoms are generalized relative to a body of background information about the constraints. This paper first examines generalization of atoms with only monadic constraints. The paper develops an algorithm for the generalization task and discusses algorithm complexity. It then extends the algorithm to apply to atoms with constraints of arbitrary arity. The paper also presents semantic properties of the generalizations computed by the algorithms, making the algorithms applicable to such problems as abduction, induction, and knowledge base verification. The paper emphasizes the application to induction and presents a pac-learning result for constrained atoms.

Page, C. David, Jr.↗

Linear Subpixel Learning Algorithm for Land Cover Classification from WELD using High Performance Computing

In this work, we use a Fully Constrained Least Squares Subpixel Learning Algorithm to unmix global WELD (Web Enabled Landsat Data) to obtain fractions or abundances of substrate (S), vegetation (V) and dark objects (D) classes. Because of the sheer nature of data and compute needs, we leveraged the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) high performance computing architecture to optimize and scale our algorithm for large-scale processing. Subsequently, the S-V-D abundance maps were characterized into 4 classes namely, forest, farmland, water and urban areas (with NPP-VIIRS-national polar orbiting partnership visible infrared imaging radiometer suite nighttime lights data) over California, USA using Random Forest classifier. Validation of these land cover maps with NLCD (National Land Cover Database) 2011 products and NAFD (North American Forest Dynamics) static forest cover maps showed that an overall classification accuracy of over 91 percent was achieved, which is a 6 percent improvement in unmixing based classification relative to per-pixel-based classification. As such, abundance maps continue to offer an useful alternative to high-spatial resolution data derived classification maps for forest inventory analysis, multi-class mapping for eco-climatic models and applications, fast multi-temporal trend analysis and for societal and policy-relevant applications needed at the watershed scale.

Subpixel↗

Hybrid Motion Planning with Multiple Destinations

In our initial proposal, we laid plans for developing a hybrid motion planning system that combines the concepts of visibility-based motion planning, artificial potential field based motion planning, evolutionary constrained optimization, and reinforcement learning. Our goal was, and still is, to produce a hybrid motion planning system that outperforms the best traditional motion planning systems on problems with dynamic environments. The proposed hybrid system will be in two parts the first is a global motion planning system and the second is a local motion planning system. The global system will take global information about the environment, such as the placement of the obstacles and goals, and produce feasible paths through those obstacles. We envision a system that combines the evolutionary-based optimization and visibility-based motion planning to achieve this end.

Clouse, Jeffery↗

An Inverse Chance-constrained Approach to the Calibration of Robust Models

This paper proposes a strategy to calibrate computational models according to uncertain input-output data. To this end, uncertainty in the data is first quantified by creating adversarial data sets. Samples drawn from such sets are then mapped from the input-output space to the parameter space using an inverse mapping. This mapping minimizes the collective output spread of an ensemble of point predictions while satisfying a set of individual data-matching requirements. The distribution of the resulting parameter points, which often exhibits strong parameter dependencies, is then modeled using sliced-normals. The chance-constrained formulation used to learn this distribution enables the analyst to trade-off a greater likelihood for most of the data against a lower likelihood for some of the data thereby relaxing the conservatism of the calibrated model. This formulation not only neglects the worst-performing quantiles of each adversarial distribution but also eliminates the potentially serious effects that outliers might have on the resulting model. This calibration approach not only has a considerably lower computational cost than the standard forward approach but it also allows for the identification of suitable distribution classes, which in turn yield better calibrated models.

Calibration↗

Salience Assignment for Multiple-Instance Regression

We present a Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL) algorithm for determining the salience of each item in each bag with respect to the bag's real-valued label. We use an alternating-projections constrained optimization approach to simultaneously learn a regression model and estimate all salience values. We evaluate this algorithm on a significant real-world problem, crop yield modeling, and demonstrate that it provides more extensive, intuitive, and stable salience models than Primary-Instance Regression, which selects a single relevant item from each bag.

regression↗

Planning and scheduling research at NASA Ames Research Center

Planning and scheduling is the area of artificial intelligence research that focuses on the determination of a series of operations to achieve some set of (possibly) interacting goals and the placement of those operations in a timeline that allows them to be accomplished given available resources. Work in this area at the NASA Ames Research Center ranging from basic research in constrain-based reasoning and machine learning, to the development of efficient scheduling tools, to the application of such tools to complex agency problems is described.

Friedland, Peter↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-35322-DND

This talk discusses emerging methods that seek to fuse and integrate physics-based modeling with machine learning. With the recent rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence, there has been a huge surge in data-driven approaches to solve computational science and engineering problems. However, neglecting a priori knowledge of established physical laws and relying solely on data-driven methods can yield unreliable, less interpretable, and/or non-physical results, especially when data is sparse or predictions are required outside of the training data domain. This two part talk presents two distinct approaches for accelerating predictions with machine learning that are grounded and constrained by relevant physics and their application to problems at NASA.

Julian Cuevas Paniagua↗

Understanding Heating in Active Region Cores through Machine Learning. I. Numerical Modeling and Predicted Observables

To adequately constrain the frequency of energy deposition in active region cores in the solar corona, systematic comparisons between detailed models and observational data are needed. In this paper, we describe a pipeline for forward modeling active region emission using magnetic field extrapolations and field-aligned hydrodynamic models. We use this pipeline to predict time-dependent emission from active region NOAA 1158 for low-, intermediate-, and high-frequency nanoflares. In each pixel of our predicted multi-wavelength, time-dependent images, we compute two commonly used diagnostics: the emission measure slope and the time lag. We find that signatures of the heating frequency persist in both of these diagnostics. In particular, our results show that the distribution of emission measure slopes narrows and the mean decreases with decreasing heating frequency and that the range of emission measure slopes is consistent with past observational and modeling work. Furthermore, we find that the time lag becomes increasingly spatially coherent with decreasing heating frequency while the distribution of time lags across the whole active region becomes more broad with increasing heating frequency. In a follow-up paper, we train a random forest classifier on these predicted diagnostics and use this model to classify real observations of NOAA 1158 in terms of the underlying heating frequency.

UV radiation↗

KBGIS-2: A knowledge-based geographic information system

The architecture and working of a recently implemented knowledge-based geographic information system (KBGIS-2) that was designed to satisfy several general criteria for the geographic information system are described. The system has four major functions that include query-answering, learning, and editing. The main query finds constrained locations for spatial objects that are describable in a predicate-calculus based spatial objects language. The main search procedures include a family of constraint-satisfaction procedures that use a spatial object knowledge base to search efficiently for complex spatial objects in large, multilayered spatial data bases. These data bases are represented in quadtree form. The search strategy is designed to reduce the computational cost of search in the average case. The learning capabilities of the system include the addition of new locations of complex spatial objects to the knowledge base as queries are answered, and the ability to learn inductively definitions of new spatial objects from examples. The new definitions are added to the knowledge base by the system. The system is currently performing all its designated tasks successfully, although currently implemented on inadequate hardware. Future reports will detail the performance characteristics of the system, and various new extensions are planned in order to enhance the power of KBGIS-2.

Smith, T.↗

KBGIS-II: A knowledge-based geographic information system

The architecture and working of a recently implemented Knowledge-Based Geographic Information System (KBGIS-II), designed to satisfy several general criteria for the GIS, is described. The system has four major functions including query-answering, learning and editing. The main query finds constrained locations for spatial objects that are describable in a predicate-calculus based spatial object language. The main search procedures include a family of constraint-satisfaction procedures that use a spatial object knowledge base to search efficiently for complex spatial objects in large, multilayered spatial data bases. These data bases are represented in quadtree form. The search strategy is designed to reduce the computational cost of search in the average case. The learning capabilities of the system include the addition of new locations of complex spatial objects to the knowledge base as queries are answered, and the ability to learn inductively definitions of new spatial objects from examples. The new definitions are added to the knowledge base by the system. The system is performing all its designated tasks successfully. Future reports will relate performance characteristics of the system.

Smith, Terence↗

Deep Learning Models for Planetary Seismicity Detection

Research in planetary seismology is fundamentally constrained by a lack of data. Seismo-logical science products of future missions can typically only be informed by theoretical signal/noise characteristics of the environment or likely Earth-analogues. Although objectives can be re-assessed after some initial data-collection upon lander arrival, transfer of high-resolution data back to Earth is costly on lander power usage. Over the last several years, development of GPU computing techniques and open-source high-level APIs have led to rapid advances in deep learning within the fields of computer vision, natural language processing, and collaborative filtering. These techniques are actively being adapted in seismology for a variety of tasks, including: earthquake detection, seismic phase discrimination, and ground-motion prediction. Until the recent detection of mars quakes during the Mars InSight mission, the only other measurements of seismicity recorded outside of Earth was on the Moon during the Apollo missions between 1969 to 1977. These unique data sets have been periodically revisited using new seismological methods, including ambient noise interferometry and Hidden Markov Models. Our objective is to develop a deep learning seismic detector and use it to catalog moonquakes from the Apollo 17 Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE) and compare the results with those obtained by other methods. Additionally, we will assess the accuracy tradeoff between using a training set of lunar data and one composed of Earth seismicity. In this document, we present preliminary results using a prototype classifier trained on a small set of earthquakes that was able to obtain detections for LSPE moonquakes with a greater accuracy than a recent study using Hidden Markov Models.

Civilini, F.↗

Application of adjoint operators to neural learning

A technique for the efficient analytical computation of such parameters of the neural architecture as synaptic weights and neural gain is presented as a single solution of a set of adjoint equations. The learning model discussed concentrates on the adiabatic approximation only. A problem of interest is represented by a system of N coupled equations, and then adjoint operators are introduced. A neural network is formalized as an adaptive dynamical system whose temporal evolution is governed by a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations. An approach based on the minimization of a constrained neuromorphic energylike function is applied, and the complete learning dynamics are obtained as a result of the calculations.

Barhen, J.↗

Automated Knowledge Discovery From Simulators

A computational method, SimLearn, has been devised to facilitate efficient knowledge discovery from simulators. Simulators are complex computer programs used in science and engineering to model diverse phenomena such as fluid flow, gravitational interactions, coupled mechanical systems, and nuclear, chemical, and biological processes. SimLearn uses active-learning techniques to efficiently address the "landscape characterization problem." In particular, SimLearn tries to determine which regions in "input space" lead to a given output from the simulator, where "input space" refers to an abstraction of all the variables going into the simulator, e.g., initial conditions, parameters, and interaction equations. Landscape characterization can be viewed as an attempt to invert the forward mapping of the simulator and recover the inputs that produce a particular output. Given that a single simulation run can take days or weeks to complete even on a large computing cluster, SimLearn attempts to reduce costs by reducing the number of simulations needed to effect discoveries. Unlike conventional data-mining methods that are applied to static predefined datasets, SimLearn involves an iterative process in which a most informative dataset is constructed dynamically by using the simulator as an oracle. On each iteration, the algorithm models the knowledge it has gained through previous simulation trials and then chooses which simulation trials to run next. Running these trials through the simulator produces new data in the form of input-output pairs. The overall process is embodied in an algorithm that combines support vector machines (SVMs) with active learning. SVMs use learning from examples (the examples are the input-output pairs generated by running the simulator) and a principle called maximum margin to derive predictors that generalize well to new inputs. In SimLearn, the SVM plays the role of modeling the knowledge that has been gained through previous simulation trials. Active learning is used to determine which new input points would be most informative if their output were known. The selected input points are run through the simulator to generate new information that can be used to refine the SVM. The process is then repeated. SimLearn carefully balances exploration (semi-randomly searching around the input space) versus exploitation (using the current state of knowledge to conduct a tightly focused search). During each iteration, SimLearn uses not one, but an ensemble of SVMs. Each SVM in the ensemble is characterized by different hyper-parameters that control various aspects of the learned predictor - for example, whether the predictor is constrained to be very smooth (nearby points in input space lead to similar output predictions) or whether the predictor is allowed to be "bumpy." The various SVMs will have different preferences about which input points they would like to run through the simulator next. SimLearn includes a formal mechanism for balancing the ensemble SVM preferences so that a single choice can be made for the next set of trials.

Burl, Michael↗

Machine Learning Techniques in Optimal Design

Many important applications can be formalized as constrained optimization tasks. For example, we are studying the engineering domain of two-dimensional (2-D) structural design. In this task, the goal is to design a structure of minimum weight that bears a set of loads. A solution to a design problem in which there is a single load (L) and two stationary support points (S1 and S2) consists of four members, E1, E2, E3, and E4 that connect the load to the support points is discussed. In principle, optimal solutions to problems of this kind can be found by numerical optimization techniques. However, in practice [Vanderplaats, 1984] these methods are slow and they can produce different local solutions whose quality (ratio to the global optimum) varies with the choice of starting points. Hence, their applicability to real-world problems is severely restricted. To overcome these limitations, we propose to augment numerical optimization by first performing a symbolic compilation stage to produce: (a) objective functions that are faster to evaluate and that depend less on the choice of the starting point and (b) selection rules that associate problem instances to a set of recommended solutions. These goals are accomplished by successive specializations of the problem class and of the associated objective functions. In the end, this process reduces the problem to a collection of independent functions that are fast to evaluate, that can be differentiated symbolically, and that represent smaller regions of the overall search space. However, the specialization process can produce a large number of sub-problems. This is overcome by deriving inductively selection rules which associate problems to small sets of specialized independent sub-problems. Each set of candidate solutions is chosen to minimize a cost function which expresses the tradeoff between the quality of the solution that can be obtained from the sub-problem and the time it takes to produce it. The overall solution to the problem, is then obtained by solving in parallel each of the sub-problems in the set and computing the one with the minimum cost. In addition to speeding up the optimization process, our use of learning methods also relieves the expert from the burden of identifying rules that exactly pinpoint optimal candidate sub-problems. In real engineering tasks it is usually too costly to the engineers to derive such rules. Therefore, this paper also contributes to a further step towards the solution of the knowledge acquisition bottleneck [Feigenbaum, 1977] which has somewhat impaired the construction of rulebased expert systems.

Cerbone, Giuseppe↗

Chance-Constrained System Identification of Nonlinear Discrete Systems with Safety and Stability Guarantees

This paper presents a discrete-time nonlinear system identification method while satisfying the stability and safety properties of the system with high probability. An Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) is used with a Gaussian assumption on the function reconstruction error. A quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP) is developed with probabilistic safety and stability constraints that are only required to be satisfied at sampled points inside the invariant region. The proposed method is validated using two simulation examples: a two degrees-of-freedom (DoF) robot manipulator with constraints on joint angles whose trajectories are guaranteed to remain inside a safe set and on motion trajectories data of a hand-drawn shape.

Iman Salehi↗