A crucial problem in modern data science is data-driven algorithm design, where the goal is to choose the best algorithm, or algorithm parameters, for a specific application domain. In practice, we often optimize over a parametric algorithm family, searching for parameters with high performance on a collection of typical problem instances. While effective in practice, these procedures generally have not come with provable guarantees. A recent line of work initiated by a seminal paper of Gupta and Roughgarden [34] analyzes application-specific algorithm selection from a theoretical perspective. We progress this research direction in several important settings. We provide upper and lower bounds on regret for algorithm selection in online settings, where problems arrive sequentially and we must choose parameters online. We also consider differentially private algorithm selection, where the goal is to find good parameters for a set of problems without divulging too much sensitive information contained therein.We analyze several important parameterized families of algorithms, including SDP-rounding schemes for problems formulated as integer quadratic programs as well as greedy techniques for several canonical subset selection problems. The cost function that measures an algorithm's performance is often a volatile piecewise Lipschitz function of its parameters, since a small change to the parameters can lead to a cascade of different decisions made by the algorithm. We present general techniques for optimizing the sum or average of piecewise Lipschitz functions when the underlying functions satisfy a sufficient and general condition called dispersion. Intuitively, a set of piecewise Lipschitz functions is dispersed if no small region contains many of the functions' discontinuities.Using dispersion, we improve over the best-known online learning regret bounds for a variety problems, prove regret bounds for problems not previously studied, and provide matching regret lower bounds. In the private optimization setting, we show how to optimize performance while preserving privacy for several important problems, providing matching upper and lower bounds on performance loss due to privacy preservation. Though algorithm selection is our primary motivation, we believe the notion of dispersion may be of independent interest. Therefore, we present our results for the more general problem of optimizing piecewise Lipschitz functions. Finally, we uncover dispersion in domains beyond algorithm selection, namely, auction design and pricing, providing online and privacy guarantees for these problems as well.Private algorithm configuration Kusner et al. [41] develop private Bayesian optimization techniques for tuning algorithm parameters. Their methods implicitly assume that the utility function is differentiable. Meanwhile, the class of functions we consider have discontinuities between pieces, and it is not enough to privately optimize on each piece, since the boundaries themselves are data-dependent.Online optimization Prior work on ...
Abstract-We introduce a new 2D visual tracking algorithm that utilizes an approximate nearest neighbour search to estimate per-frame state updates. We experimentally demonstrate that the new algorithm capable of estimating larger per-frame motions than the standard registration-based algorithms and that it is more robust in a vision-controlled robotic alignment task.
Integrating learned predictions into a prosthetic control system promises to enhance multi-joint prosthesis use by amputees. In this article, we present a preliminary study of different cases where it may be beneficial to use a set of temporally extended predictions--learned and maintained in real time--within an engineered or learned prosthesis controller. Our study demonstrates the first successful combination of actor-critic reinforcement learning with real-time prediction learning. We evaluate this new approach to control learning during the myoelectric operation of a robot limb. Our results suggest that the integration of real-time prediction and control learning may speed control policy acquisition, allow unsupervised adaptation in myoelectric controllers, and facilitate synergies in highly actuated limbs. These experiments also show that temporally extended prediction learning enables anticipatory actuation, opening the way for coordinated motion in assistive robotic devices. Our work therefore provides initial evidence that realtime prediction learning is a practical way to support intuitive joint control in increasingly complex prosthetic systems.
Pointing to indicate direction or position is one of the intuitive communication mechanisms used by humans in all life stages. Our aim is to develop a natural human-robot command interface using pointing gestures for human-robot interaction (HRI). We propose an interface based on the Kinect sensor for selecting by pointing (SEPO) in a 3D real-world situation, where the user points to a target object or location and the interface returns the 3D position coordinates of the target. Through our interface we perform three experimentsto study precision and accuracy of human pointing in typical household scenarios: pointing to a "wall", pointing to a "table", and pointing to a "floor". Our results prove that the proposed SEPO interface enables users to point and select objects with an average 3D position accuracy of 9.6 cm in household situations.
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