Autonomous tactile perception: A combined improved sensing and Bayesian nonparametric approach

In recent years, autonomous robots have increasingly been deployed in unknown environments and required to manipulate or categorize unknown objects. In order to cope with these unfamiliar situations, improvements must be made both in sensing technologies and in the capability to autonomously train perception models. In this paper, we explore this problem in the context of tactile surface identification and categorization. Using a highly-discriminant tactile probe based upon large bandwidth, triple axis accelerometer that is sensitive to surface texture and material properties, we demonstrate that unsupervised learning for surface identification with this tactile probe is feasible. To this end, we derived a Bayesian nonparametric approach based on Pitman–Yor processes to model power-law distributions, an extension of our previous work using Dirichlet processes Dallaire et al. (2011). When tested against a large collection of surfaces and without providing the actual number of surfaces, the tactile probe combined with our proposed approach demonstrated near-perfect recognition in many cases and achieved perfect recognition given the right conditions. We consider that our combined improvements demonstrate the feasibility of effective autonomous tactile perception systems.     

A hybrid algorithm for Bayesian network structure learning with application to multi-label learning

We present a novel hybrid algorithm for Bayesian network structure learning, called H2PC. It first reconstructs the skeleton of a Bayesian network and then performs a Bayesian-scoring greedy hill-climbing search to orient the edges. The algorithm is based on divide-and-conquer constraint-based subroutines to learn the local structure around a target variable. We conduct two series of experimental comparisons of H2PC against Max–Min Hill-Climbing (MMHC), which is currently the most powerful state-of-the-art algorithm for Bayesian network structure learning. First, we use eight well-known Bayesian network benchmarks with various data sizes to assess the quality of the learned structure returned by the algorithms. Our extensive experiments show that H2PC outperforms MMHC in terms of goodness of fit to new data and quality of the network structure with respect to the true dependence structure of the data. Second, we investigate H2PC’s ability to solve the multi-label learning problem. We provide theoretical results to characterize and identify graphically the so-called minimal label powersets that appear as irreducible factors in the joint distribution under the faithfulness condition. The multi-label learning problem is then decomposed into a series of multi-class classification problems, where each multi-class variable encodes a label powerset. H2PC is shown to compare favorably to MMHC in terms of global classification accuracy over ten multi-label data sets covering different application domains. Overall, our experiments support the conclusions that local structural learning with H2PC in the form of local neighborhood induction is a theoretically well-motivated and empirically effective learning framework that is well suited to multi-label learning. The source code (in R) of H2PC as well as all data sets used for the empirical tests are publicly available.     

Nonlinear time series forecasting with Bayesian neural networks

The Bayesian learning provides a natural way to model the nonlinear structure as the artificial neural networks due to their capability to cope with the model complexity. In this paper, an evolutionary Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm is proposed to train the Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) for the time series forecasting. This approach called as Genetic MC is based on Gaussian approximation with recursive hyperparameter. Genetic MC integrates MC simulations with the genetic algorithms and the fuzzy membership functions. In the implementations, Genetic MC is compared with the traditional neural networks and time series techniques in terms of their forecasting performances over the weekly sales of a Finance Magazine.     

一种混合的领域概念分类体系自动构建算法

领域概念分类体系自动构建在人工智能、自然语言处理和信息检索等领域具有重要作用,但现有研究较多关注通用知识,面向特定领域的研究较少,且存在领域概念间关系抽取准确率以及自动构建算法效率较低等问题。为此,提出一种混合的领域概念分类体系自动构建算法,该算法主要包括领域概念间关系抽取模块和分类体系构建模块。领域概念间关系抽取模块设计考虑中文自身的特点,采取句法树和基于规则相结合的方法,以提高抽取领域概念间关系的查准率和查全率;分类体系构建模块设计采取改进的BRT算法,从而在降低算法复杂度的同时,提高领域分类体系构建的查准率。在通信、金融和计算机领域的实验结果均表明,与BRT算法相比,该算法的构建效果较好,查准率最高可达到89.3%。     

Implicit Bayesian Inference Using Option Prices

Abstract. A Bayesian approach to option pricing is presented in which posterior inference about the underlying returns process is conducted implicitly via observed option prices. A range of models allowing for conditional leptokurtosis, skewness and time‐varying volatility in returns are considered, with posterior parameter distributions and model probabilities backed out from the option prices. Models are ranked according to several criteria, including out‐of‐sample predictive and hedging performance. The methodology accommodates heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in the option pricing errors, as well as regime shifts across contract groups. The method is applied to intraday option price data on the S&P500 stock index for 1995. While the results provide support for models that accommodate leptokurtosis and skewness, no one model dominates when all criteria are considered.     

基于贝叶斯网络的移动支付风险评估模型

随着信息技术和网络的迅猛发展,支付业务、技术及工具不断创新,移动支付的发展在逐渐加快。移动支付给人们生活带来方便和快捷的同时,也存在着较高的潜在风险,容易遭受非法入侵和恶意攻击。就移动支付风险的分析及风险值的计算理论方面开展工作,在贝叶斯网络的基础上,针对移动支付的主要组成主体,提出移动支付风险评估模型,通过使用该模型进行移动支付风险评估不仅可以对目前移动支付的风险进行评估,还可以根据风险评估结果引导风险控制,对比风险控制前后的风险值判断风险控制的效果,通过案例分析,提出的移动支付风险评估模型可以很好地完成移动支付的风险评估要求。     

基于需求更新的救灾品配送公平与效率协调模型

鉴于需求准确度与救灾品配送效率之间的悖反关系,研究了基于需求更新的救灾品配送效率与公平问题.通过对某市民政局进行调研,了解到台风灾害发生时的需求变化规律,设计一种通过已知需求灾区对未知需求灾区的需求进行贝叶斯更新的需求更新方式,由此建立救灾品配送模型.将该模型应用于某台风救灾实例,通过实例分析表明了该模型的求解速率与精度,并找到了最优"决策点",实现了救灾品配送公平与效率的平衡.     

《数据结构与算法》教学方法改革探讨

《数据结构与算法》是理论与实践并重的计算机专业的核心课程,该课程理论和实践知识体系难度均较大,学生反映课程枯燥难学、兴趣匮乏。针对目前学生的学习过程中遇到的困难,结合应用型人才培养目标、学生及课程的特点,对教学方法进行多方面的探讨,提出案例教学、加强学生课堂参与度、重视理论与实践紧密结合、多种手段辅助教学、以赛促学、上机考试考核制度等教学方法。     

基于WSN的精准养牛业智能决策支持系统设计

准确及时地获取牛群的身体变化情况是保证牛群生存环境舒适度的基本前提。在对养牛业监测系统和无线传感网络深入了解的情况下,开发了以无线传感网络为基础的精准养牛业系统。按照标准生产化的要求,系统的总体架构分为感知层、传输层和应用层。并根据总体架构的层次模型设计了相应的软件和硬件。系统有效地利用贝叶斯网络智能决策支持系统建立模型,结合无线传感网络收集牛酮体的数据,进行相应的环境设置,让牛群的生存环境更加舒适。     

Bayesian estimation of Dirichlet mixture model with variational inference

In statistical modeling, parameter estimation is an essential and challengeable task. Estimation of the parameters in the Dirichlet mixture model (DMM) is analytically intractable, due to the integral expressions of the gamma function and its corresponding derivatives. We introduce a Bayesian estimation strategy to estimate the posterior distribution of the parameters in DMM. By assuming the gamma distribution as the prior to each parameter, we approximate both the prior and the posterior distribution of the parameters with a product of several mutually independent gamma distributions. The extended factorized approximation method is applied to introduce a single lower-bound to the variational objective function and an analytically tractable estimation solution is derived. Moreover, there is only one function that is maximized during iterations and, therefore, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is theoretically guaranteed. With synthesized data, the proposed method shows the advantages over the EM-based method and the previously proposed Bayesian estimation method. With two important multimedia signal processing applications, the good performance of the proposed Bayesian estimation method is demonstrated.