Sidney Givigi

Luis Rodrigues, Sidney Givigi

This paper addresses the analysis and design of quadratic neural networks, which have been recently introduced in the literature, and their applications to regression, classification, system identification and control of dynamical systems. These networks offer several advantages, the most important of which are the fact that the architecture is a by-product of the design and is not determined a-priori, their training can be done by solving a convex optimization problem so that the global optimum of the weights is achieved, and the input-output mapping can be expressed analytically by a quadratic form. It also appears from several examples that these networks work extremely well using only a small fraction of the training data. The results in the paper cast regression, classification, system identification, stability and control design as convex optimization problems, which can be solved efficiently with polynomial-time algorithms to a global optimum. Several examples will show the effectiveness of quadratic neural networks in applications.

Mateus Karvat, Bram Adams, Sidney Givigi

Autonomous vehicle (AV) perception models are typically evaluated solely on benchmark performance metrics, with limited attention to code quality, production readiness and long-term maintainability. This creates a significant gap between research excellence and real-world deployment in safety-critical systems subject to international safety standards. To address this gap, we present the first large-scale empirical study of software quality in AV perception repositories, systematically analyzing 178 unique models from the KITTI and NuScenes 3D Object Detection leaderboards. Using static analysis tools (Pylint, Bandit, and Radon), we evaluated code errors, security vulnerabilities, maintainability, and development practices. Our findings revealed that only 7.3% of the studied repositories meet basic production-readiness criteria, defined as having zero critical errors and no high-severity security vulnerabilities. Security issues are highly concentrated, with the top five issues responsible for almost 80% of occurrences, which prompted us to develop a set of actionable guidelines to prevent them. Additionally, the adoption of Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment pipelines was correlated with better code maintainability. Our findings highlight that leaderboard performance does not reflect production readiness and that targeted interventions could substantially improve the quality and safety of AV perception code.

Hudson M. S. Bruno, Esther L. Colombini, Sidney N. Givigi

Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) is a fundamental technology for robotics applications. While VSLAM research has achieved significant advancements, its robustness under challenging situations, such as poor lighting, dynamic environments, motion blur, and sensor failures, remains a challenging issue. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel RGB-D dataset designed for evaluating the robustness of VSLAM systems. The dataset comprises real-world indoor scenes with dynamic objects, motion blur, and varying illumination, as well as emulated camera failures, including lens dirt, condensation, underexposure, and overexposure. Additionally, we offer open-source scripts for injecting camera failures into any images, enabling further customization by the research community. Our experiments demonstrate that ORB-SLAM2, a traditional VSLAM algorithm, and TartanVO, a Deep Learning-based VO algorithm, can experience performance degradation under these challenging conditions. Therefore, this dataset and the camera failure open-source tools provide a valuable resource for developing more robust VSLAM systems capable of handling real-world challenges.

Yazan Youssef, Paulo Ricardo Marques de Araujo, Aboelmagd Noureldin et al.

Efficient scheduling remains a critical challenge in various domains, requiring solutions to complex NP-hard optimization problems to achieve optimal resource allocation and maximize productivity. In this paper, we introduce a framework called Transformer-Based Task Scheduling System (TRATSS), designed to address the intricacies of single agent scheduling in graph-based environments. By integrating the latest advancements in reinforcement learning and transformer architecture, TRATSS provides a novel system that outputs optimized task scheduling decisions while dynamically adapting to evolving task requirements and resource availability. Leveraging the self-attention mechanism in transformers, TRATSS effectively captures complex task dependencies, thereby providing solutions with enhanced resource utilization and task completion efficiency. Experimental evaluations on benchmark datasets demonstrate TRATSS's effectiveness in providing high-quality solutions to scheduling problems that involve multiple action profiles.

Xiaosong Lu, Howard M. Schwartz, Sidney N. Givigi

We extend the potential-based shaping method from Markov decision processes to multi-player general-sum stochastic games. We prove that the Nash equilibria in a stochastic game remains unchanged after potential-based shaping is applied to the environment. The property of policy invariance provides a possible way of speeding convergence when learning to play a stochastic game.