Environment-Adaptable Printed-Circuit Board Positioning Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Design automation is undergoing a new generation of changes caused by artificial intelligence technologies represented by deep learning and reinforcement learning. Notably, the advantages of deep reinforcement learning in addressing solution optimisation and decision-making tasks with cognitive automation functionality have garnered attention in design. In the context of surrogate model-driven engineering design optimisation, this paper addresses current research challenges such as reliance on domain knowledge for local development, shortcomings in the self-learning and adaptive capabilities of optimisation algorithms for global exploration, etc. Centred around the deep reinforcement learning model, Deep Q-learning, and complemented by self-organising maps and neural network technologies, we propose a methodology considering multi-fidelity simulation data for design space exploration. This approach effectively reduces sampling costs and enables the optimisation model to learn the optimal direction for high-precision predictions and achieve rapid, accurate optimisation. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is comprehensively validated through four typical optimisation scenarios and a case study involving the optimisation of a wheeled robot's suspension swing arm structure. This work will be a crucial reference for applying deep reinforcement learning in simulation-driven engineering design optimisation.

Time-driven feature-aware jointly deep reinforcement learning for financial signal representation and algorithmic trading

The intersection management system can increase traffic capacity, vehicle safety, and the smoothness of all vehicle movement. Platoons of connected vehicles (CVs) use communication technologies to share information with each other and with infrastructures. In this paper, we proposed a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) model that applies to vehicle platooning at an isolated signalized intersection with partial detection. Moreover, we identified hyperparameters and tested the system with different numbers of vehicles (1, 2, and 3) in the platoon. To compare the effectiveness of the proposed model, we implemented two benchmark options, actuated traffic signal control (ATSC) and max pressure (MP). The experimental results demonstrated that the DRL model has many outstanding advantages compared to other models. Through the learning process, the average waiting time of vehicles in the DRL method was improved by 20% and 28% compared with the ATSC and MP options. The results also suggested that the DRL model is effective when the CV penetration rate is over 20%.

Recent studies show that Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) models are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, which attack DRL models by adding small perturbations to the observations. However, some attacks assume full availability of the victim model, and some require a huge amount of computation, making them less feasible for real world applications. In this work, we make further explorations of the vulnerabilities of DRL by studying other aspects of attacks on DRL using realistic and efficient attacks. First, we adapt and propose efficient black-box attacks when we do not have access to DRL model parameters. Second, to address the high computational demands of existing attacks, we introduce efficient online sequential attacks that exploit temporal consistency across consecutive steps. Third, we explore the possibility of an attacker perturbing other aspects in the DRL setting, such as the environment dynamics. Finally, to account for imperfections in how an attacker would inject perturbations in the physical world, we devise a method for generating a robust physical perturbations to be printed. The attack is evaluated on a real-world robot under various conditions. We conduct extensive experiments both in simulation such as Atari games, robotics and autonomous driving, and on real-world robotics, to compare the effectiveness of the proposed attacks with baseline approaches. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to apply adversarial attacks on DRL systems to physical robots.

Intrusion detection has been a vast-surveyed topic for many decades as network attacks are tremendously growing. This has heightened the need for security in networks as web-based communication systems are advanced nowadays. The proposed work introduces an intelligent semi-supervised intrusion detection system based on different algorithms to classify the network attacks accurately. Initially, the pre-processing is accomplished using null value dropping and standard scaler normalization. After pre-processing, an enhanced Deep Reinforcement Learning (EDRL) model is employed to extract high-level representations and learn complex patterns from data by means of interaction with the environment. The enhancement of deep reinforcement learning is made by associating a deep autoencoder (AE) and an improved flamingo search algorithm (IFSA) to approximate the Q-function and optimal policy selection. After feature representations, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, which discriminates the input into normal and attack instances, is employed for classification. The presented model is simulated in the Python platform and evaluated using the UNSW-NB15, CICIDS2017, and NSL-KDD datasets. The overall classification accuracy is 99.6%, 99.93%, and 99.42% using UNSW-NB15, CICIDS2017, and NSL-KDD datasets, which is higher than the existing detection frameworks.

This paper investigates stock portfolios by application of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) Models to achieve an optimal tactical asset allocation. The research problem is described as an optimization scenario that seeks to maximize the portfolio risk adjusted returns for a given portfolio asset allocation. The problem is set up with an initial capital investment which is invested in a set of assets. The initial strategic allocation is determined, which in our case is the equal weight allocation, and all of the capital is invested in the set of assets. At each point in time, the assets are reallocated according to the allocation which will increase the portfolio value. Two DRL models are implemented. The performance of the DRL models is compared with the uniform weights portfolio. The results show that, generally, two DRL models have higher cumulative returns.

Irrigation decision-making using Reinforcement Learning (RL) performs well in changing environment, but easily falls into sub-optimal solutions with high-dimensional data. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has fused RL with Deep Learning (DL) and excels at learning adaptive and long-term irrigation strategies directly from high-dimensional environment data. This paper systematically reviews the applications of DRL in irrigation optimization, covering both pre-trained environments based on crop growth simulators and dynamic environments driven by real-time sensors. We discussed the strengths of classic DRL algorithms, including their ability to handle dynamic and non-linear environments, and reviewed their performance in irrigation multi-objective optimization and decision-making. In addition, we identified constraints in applying DRL in irrigation decision making, which include data scarcity, poor model interpretability, and difficulties in field deployment. It shows DRL can provide a powerful framework for adaptive irrigation, but is constrained by the gap between simulation and real-world complexity. To address these limitations, we discussed approaches in future work, such as developing multi-objective DRL algorithms. These approaches will improve DRL modeling outcomes and provide a technological foundation for smart agriculture and sustainable resource management. • Review the application of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) in agricultural irrigation. • Analyze the performance of DRL algorithms in irrigation decision-making. • Compare DRL models based on different environment in irrigation optimization. • Discuss the further work to improve DRL performance in irrigation optimization.

Infrastructure‐to‐infrastructure (I2I) communication enables the exchange of traffic data between intersections, which brings a new challenge to urban traffic control. This paper proposes a novel deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework for urban traffic signal control within the vehicle‐to‐everything (V2X) ecosystem. The framework incorporates a joint‐state representation integrating traffic data from both I2I and vehicle‐to‐infrastructure (V2I) communications, while considering communication range effects. The reward function is designed to optimize both local intersection conditions and global network performance, facilitating adaptive signal coordination. A simulation case study in Huzhou, China, evaluates the proposed model against conventional pretimed, actuated, nonjoint‐state DRL, and joint‐state reinforcement learning (RL) models. Results demonstrate superior performance of the joint‐state DRL model in episode rewards, average speed, and average time loss, particularly during peak traffic periods. To address data limitations, Monte Carlo cross‐validation (MCCV) is employed, further validating the model’s robustness. Results show consistent performance advantages in average speed and time loss across peak and off‐peak periods, with slight variations compared to joint‐state RL models in certain intervals. The impacts of the communication range are also discussed with the proposed model. Pearson correlation analysis reveals a strong positive correlation between the communication range and convergence time across all traffic periods. Meanwhile, correlations between the communication range and reward, average speed, and average time loss vary by traffic period. Findings highlight the transformative potential of integrating DRL with V2X communication technologies for enhancing traffic signal control in complex urban environments. The proposed model offers a flexible, adaptive approach to traffic management, optimizing flow while maintaining safety standards, with implications for future smart city developments.

1 - Congruence of deep learning in biomedical engineering: future prospects and challenges

Given a project, the team formation problem (TFP) aims to find a team of experts with all the required skills and minimize the team’s communication cost. The TFP has emerged as a prominent research topic due to its substantial influence on team performance and the subsequent impact on organizational success. Previous research mainly concentrates on proposing heuristic or metaheuristic algorithms, yet fails to consider the historical experience of solving previous TFP. In addition, most existing learning-based approaches rely on complex multistage workflows, rather than learning the entire process end-to-end. This article proposes an end-to-end deep reinforcement learning approach that focuses on effectively reusing previous experience to tackle the TFP. First, we apply the Markov decision process to model the team formation process, in which the state is primarily characterized by the currently formed team and the skill requirements of the project. Second, we propose a self-updating deep reinforcement learning (SURL) model, in which the social network information serves as the input for the static encoding module, while the skills’ experts and the skill requirements of the project act as the inputs for the dynamic encoding module. Next, a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm is designed to train the model by fully leveraging the historical experience of team formation. Finally, comprehensive experiments with real-world datasets demonstrate that our proposed model outperforms several commonly used optimization algorithms in terms of the average communication cost.

Learning ability is the basic characteristic of human intelligence. The July 1, 2005 issue of Science published a list of 125 important questions in science. Among them, the question 94 “What are the limits of learning by machines?”. The annotation “Computers can already beat the world’s best chess players, and they have a wealth of information on the Web to draw on. But abstract reasoning is still beyond any machine”. In recent artificial intelligence has made great progresses. In 1997, the rise of the man-machine war, IBM Supercomputer Deep Blue defeated the chess master Garry Kasparov. On February 14, 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer won a practice round against Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. In March 2016, Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo sealed a 4-1 victory over a South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-dol. This paper focuses on the machine learning methods of AlphaGo, including reinforcement learning, deep learning, deep reinforcement learning, analysis of the existing problems and the latest research progress. Deep reinforcement learning is the combination of deep learning and reinforcement learning, which can realize the learning algorithm from the perception to action. Simply said, this is the same as human behavior, input sensing information such as vision, and then, direct output action through the deep neural network. Deep reinforcement learning has the potential to learn a variety of skills for the robot to achieve full autonomy. Even though reinforcement learning is practiced successfully, but feature states need to manually set, for complex scene is a difficult thing, especially easy to cause the dimension disaster, and expression is not good. In 2010, Sascha Lange and Martin Riedmiller proposed deep auto-encoder neural networks in reinforcement learning to extract feature, which is used to control the visual correlation. In 2013, DeepMind proposed deep Q-network (DQN) in NIPS 2013, using convolution neural network to extract features, and then applied in reinforcement learning. They continue to improve and published an improved version of DQN on Nature in 2015, which has aroused widespread concern. In order to break through the limits of learning by machines, cognitive machine learning is proposed, which is the combination of machine learning and brain cognition, so that the machine intelligence is constantly evolving, and gradually reaches the human level of artificial intelligence. A cognitive model entitled Consciousness And Memory (CAM) is proposed by author, which consists of memory, consciousness, high-level cognitive functions, perception and motor. High-level cognitive functions of the brain include learning, language, thinking, decision making, emotion, and so on. Learning is a course to accept the stimulus through the nervous system and obtain new behavior, habits and accumulation experience. According to the current research progress of brain science and cognitive science, cognitive machine learning may be interested in learning emergence, procedural memory knowledge learning, learning evolution and so on. For intelligence, so-called evolution is refers to the learning of learning and the structure also follows the change. It is important to record the learning result by structure changing and improve the learning method.

In recent years, the recommendation system and robot learning are undoubtedly the two most popular application fields, and the core algorithms supporting these two fields are deep learning based on perception and reinforcement learning based on exploration learning, respectively. How to combine these two fields to better improve the development of the whole machine learning field is the dream of numerous researchers. The Deep Reinforcement Network (DRN) model successfully embedded reinforcement learning into the recommendation system, which provided a good idea for subsequent researchers. However, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the DRN model is built for news recommendations, meaning that the DRN model is not transferable, which is also the defect of many current recommendation system models. Meanwhile, the agent learning method adopted by the DRN model is primitive and inefficient. Among many models and algorithms that have emerged in recent years, we use the newly proposed deployment efficiency to measure their comprehensive quality and found that few models focus on both efficiency and performance improvement. To fill the gap of model deployment efficiency neglected by many researchers and to create a model of reinforcement learning agents with stronger performance, we have been exploring and trying to complete research on the Gate Attentional Factorization Machines (GAFM) model. Finally, we successfully integrated the GAFM model and reinforcement learning. The Deep Reinforcement Factorization Machines (DRFM) model proposed in this paper is based on the combination of deep learning with high perception ability and reinforcement learning with high exploration ability, centered on improving the deployment efficiency and learning performance of the model. The GAFM model is modified and upgraded using multidisciplinary techniques, and a new model-based random exploration strategy is proposed to update and optimize the recommendation list efficiently. Through parallel contrast experiments on various datasets, it is proved that the DRFM model surpasses the traditional recommendation system model in all aspects. The DRFM model is far superior to other models in terms of performance and robustness, and also significantly improved in terms of deployment efficiency. At the same time, we conduct a comparative analysis with the latest deep reinforcement learning algorithm and prove the unique advantages of the DRFM model.

Study on deep reinforcement learning techniques for building energy consumption forecasting

Aiming at a comprehensive and concise tutorial survey, recap of variational inference and reinforcement learning with Probabilistic Graphical Models are given with detailed derivations. Reviews and comparisons on recent advances in deep reinforcement learning are made from various aspects. We offer detailed derivations to a taxonomy of Probabilistic Graphical Model and Variational Inference methods in deep reinforcement learning, which serves as a complementary material on top of the original contributions.

In video established eye tracking methods, there are both mechanical and electrical based approaches existing. With the emerging spread of gaze tracking technology in the recent years and its significance in daily life routine, the data content acquired from the eye behavior tracing turn into important. Several research works were proposed to track the behavior of gaze while playing videos. Tracking an eye gaze while playing a dynamic videos consisting of numerous frames is a complex problem which needs excessive computational efforts. To handle such a complex task, this research proposes Reinforcement Learning (RL) based gaze behavior prediction model. These techniques are found to be invasive in nature and for visual attention behavior analysis applications, these invasive eye tracking system is not applicable. Hence the non-invasive eye tracking could be developed by determining the point of gaze based on observed image processing techniques. Some of the prevailing techniques include artificial intelligence, deep learning, and reinforcement learning and so on. Though quite a few research works has been admitted in this research area, there are several challenges existing so far. The suggested learning techniques are found to be computationally complex and time consuming. This current research work intends to propose a deep convolutional reinforcement learning (DC-RL) model for predicting the visual attention behavior of a person over dynamic scenes.