Search

Human-involved interactive environments pose significant challenges for autonomous vehicle decision-making processes due to the complexity and uncertainty of human behavior. It is crucial to develop an explainable and trustworthy decision-making system for autonomous vehicles interacting with pedestrians. Previous studies often used traditional game theory to describe interactions for its interpretability. However, it assumes complete human rationality and unlimited reasoning abilities, which is unrealistic. To solve this limitation and improve model accuracy, this paper proposes a novel framework that integrates the partially observable markov decision process with behavioral game theory to dynamically model AV-pedestrian interactions at the unsignalized intersection. Both the AV and the pedestrian are modeled as dynamic-belief-induced quantal cognitive hierarchy (DB-QCH) models, considering human reasoning limitations and bounded rationality in the decision-making process. In addition, a dynamic belief updating mechanism allows the AV to update its understanding of the opponent's rationality degree in real-time based on observed behaviors and adapt its strategies accordingly. The analysis results indicate that our models effectively simulate vehicle-pedestrian interactions and our proposed AV decision-making approach performs well in safety, efficiency, and smoothness. It closely resembles real-world driving behavior and even achieves more comfortable driving navigation compared to our previous virtual reality experimental data.

The unsourced random access (URA) has emerged as a viable scheme for supporting the massive machine-type communications (mMTC) in the sixth generation (6G) wireless networks. Notably, the tensor-based URA (TURA), with its inherent tensor structure, stands out by simultaneously enhancing performance and reducing computational complexity for the multi-user separation, especially in mMTC networks with a large numer of active devices. However, current TURA scheme lacks the soft decoder, thus precluding the incorporation of existing advanced coding techniques. In order to fully explore the potential of the TURA, this paper investigates the Polarcoded TURA (PTURA) scheme and develops the corresponding iterative Bayesian receiver with feedback (IBR-FB). Specifically, in the IBR-FB, we propose the Grassmannian modulation-aided Bayesian tensor decomposition (GM-BTD) algorithm under the variational Bayesian learning (VBL) framework, which leverages the property of the Grassmannian modulation to facilitate the convergence of the VBL process, and has the ability to generate the required soft information without the knowledge of the number of active devices. Furthermore, based on the soft information produced by the GM-BTD, we design the soft Grassmannian demodulator in the IBR-FB. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PTURA in conjunction with the IBR-FB surpasses the existing state-of-the-art unsourced random access scheme in terms of accuracy and computational complexity., Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

Analogous to the aqueous solution where the pH of the solvent affects its multiple behaviors, the Lewis acidity-basicity of molten salts also greatly influences their thermophysical and thermochemical properties. In the study, we develop ion probes to quantitatively determine the acidity-basicity scale of molten NaCl-xAlCl3 (x = 1.5-2.1) salt using in-situ ultra-violet visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. With the accumulation of acidity-basicity data of NaCl-AlCl3 molten salt for a variety of compositions, the correlation between the acidity-basicity of salt and its measured fundamental properties are derived. To understand the physical and chemical features controlling the acidity-basicity variations, the structures of NaCl-xAlCl3 molten salts with different chemical compositions are investigated in terms of bonded complexes and coordination numbers. The comprehensive understanding of the correlation between composition, acidity-basicity, properties, and structures of molten salt can serve for the full screening and online monitoring of salt melt in extreme environments by simply measuring the salt acidity-basicity as developed in this study.

In this paper, we propose a unified framework based on equivariance for the design of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies in multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems. We first provide definitions of multidimensional equivariance, high-order equivariance, and multidimensional invariance (referred to collectively as tensor equivariance). On this basis, by investigating the design of precoding and user scheduling, which are key techniques in MU-MIMO systems, we delve deeper into revealing tensor equivariance of the mappings from channel information to optimal precoding tensors, precoding auxiliary tensors, and scheduling indicators, respectively. To model mappings with tensor equivariance, we propose a series of plug-and-play tensor equivariant neural network (TENN) modules, where the computation involving intricate parameter sharing patterns is transformed into concise tensor operations. Building upon TENN modules, we propose the unified tensor equivariance framework that can be applicable to various communication tasks, based on which we easily accomplish the design of corresponding AI-assisted precoding and user scheduling schemes. Simulation results demonstrate that the constructed precoding and user scheduling methods achieve near-optimal performance while exhibiting significantly lower computational complexity and generalization to inputs with varying sizes across multiple dimensions. This validates the superiority of TENN modules and the unified framework., Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

Vehicle-to-everything-aided autonomous driving (V2X-AD) has a huge potential to provide a safer driving solution. Despite extensive researches in transportation and communication to support V2X-AD, the actual utilization of these infrastructures and communication resources in enhancing driving performances remains largely unexplored. This highlights the necessity of collaborative autonomous driving: a machine learning approach that optimizes the information sharing strategy to improve the driving performance of each vehicle. This effort necessitates two key foundations: a platform capable of generating data to facilitate the training and testing of V2X-AD, and a comprehensive system that integrates full driving-related functionalities with mechanisms for information sharing. From the platform perspective, we present V2Xverse, a comprehensive simulation platform for collaborative autonomous driving. This platform provides a complete pipeline for collaborative driving. From the system perspective, we introduce CoDriving, a novel end-to-end collaborative driving system that properly integrates V2X communication over the entire autonomous pipeline, promoting driving with shared perceptual information. The core idea is a novel driving-oriented communication strategy. Leveraging this strategy, CoDriving improves driving performance while optimizing communication efficiency. We make comprehensive benchmarks with V2Xverse, analyzing both modular performance and closed-loop driving performance. Experimental results show that CoDriving: i) significantly improves the driving score by 62.49% and drastically reduces the pedestrian collision rate by 53.50% compared to the SOTA end-to-end driving method, and ii) achieves sustaining driving performance superiority over dynamic constraint communication conditions.

This paper investigates the robust design of symbol-level precoding (SLP) for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink transmission with imperfect channel state information (CSI) caused by channel aging. By utilizing the a posteriori channel model based on the widely adopted jointly correlated channel model, the imperfect CSI is modeled as the statistical CSI incorporating the channel mean and channel variance information with spatial correlation. With the signal model in the presence of channel aging, we formulate the signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SINR) balancing and minimum mean square error (MMSE) problems for robust SLP design. The former targets to maximize the minimum SINR across users, while the latter minimizes the mean square error between the received signal and the target constellation point. When it comes to massive MIMO scenarios, the increment in the number of antennas poses a computational complexity challenge, limiting the deployment of SLP schemes. To address such a challenge, we simplify the objective function of the SINR balancing problem and further derive a closed-form SLP scheme. Besides, by approximating the matrix involved in the computation, we modify the proposed algorithm and develop an MMSE-based SLP scheme with lower computation complexity. Simulation results confirm the superiority of the proposed schemes over the state-of-the-art SLP schemes.

Roadside unit (RSU) can significantly improve the safety and robustness of autonomous vehicles through Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication. Currently, the usage of a single RSU mainly focuses on real-time inference and V2X collaboration, while neglecting the potential value of the high-quality data collected by RSU sensors. Integrating the vast amounts of data from numerous RSUs can provide a rich source of data for model training. However, the absence of ground truth annotations and the difficulty of transmitting enormous volumes of data are two inevitable barriers to fully exploiting this hidden value. In this paper, we introduce FedRSU, an innovative federated learning framework for self-supervised scene flow estimation. In FedRSU, we present a recurrent self-supervision training paradigm, where for each RSU, the scene flow prediction of points at every timestamp can be supervised by its subsequent future multi-modality observation. Another key component of FedRSU is federated learning, where multiple devices collaboratively train an ML model while keeping the training data local and private. With the power of the recurrent self-supervised learning paradigm, FL is able to leverage innumerable underutilized data from RSU. To verify the FedRSU framework, we construct a large-scale multi-modality dataset RSU-SF. The dataset consists of 17 RSU clients, covering various scenarios, modalities, and sensor settings. Based on RSU-SF, we show that FedRSU can greatly improve model performance in ITS and provide a comprehensive benchmark under diverse FL scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first real-world LiDAR-camera multi-modal dataset and benchmark for the FL community.

Interaction-aware Autonomous Driving (IAAD) is a rapidly growing field of research that focuses on the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) that are capable of interacting safely and efficiently with human road users. This is a challenging task, as it requires the autonomous vehicle to be able to understand and predict the behaviour of human road users. In this literature review, the current state of IAAD research is surveyed in this work. Commencing with an examination of terminology, attention is drawn to challenges and existing models employed for modelling the behaviour of drivers and pedestrians. Next, a comprehensive review is conducted on various techniques proposed for interaction modelling, encompassing cognitive methods, machine learning approaches, and game-theoretic methods. The conclusion is reached through a discussion of potential advantages and risks associated with IAAD, along with the illumination of pivotal research inquiries necessitating future exploration.

In this paper, we consider symbol-level precoding (SLP) in channel-coded multiuser multi-input single-output (MISO) systems. It is observed that the received SLP signals do not always follow Gaussian distribution, rendering the conventional soft demodulation with the Gaussian assumption unsuitable for the coded SLP systems. It, therefore, calls for novel soft demodulator designs for non-Gaussian distributed SLP signals with accurate log-likelihood ratio (LLR) calculation. To this end, we first investigate the non-Gaussian characteristics of both phase-shift keying (PSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) received signals with existing SLP schemes and categorize the signals into two distinct types. The first type exhibits an approximate-Gaussian distribution with the outliers extending along the constructive interference region (CIR). In contrast, the second type follows some distribution that significantly deviates from the Gaussian distribution. To obtain accurate LLR, we propose the modified Gaussian soft demodulator and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) soft demodulators to deal with two types of signals respectively. Subsequently, to further reduce the computational complexity and pilot overhead, we put forward a novel neural soft demodulator, named pilot feature extraction network (PFEN), leveraging the transformer mechanism in deep learning. Simulation results show that the proposed soft demodulators dramatically improve the throughput of existing SLPs for both PSK and QAM transmission in coded systems.

This paper investigates symbol-level precoding (SLP) for high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) aimed at minimizing the average symbol error rate (SER), leveraging both constructive interference (CI) and noise power to gain superiority in full signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges. We first construct the SER expression with respect to the transmitted signal and the rescaling factor, based on which the problem of average SER minimization subject to total transmit power constraint is further formulated. Given the non-convex nature of the objective, solving the above problem becomes challenging. Due to the differences in constraints between the transmit signal and the rescaling factor, we propose the double-space alternating optimization (DSAO) algorithm to optimize the two variables on orthogonal Stiefel manifold and Euclidean spaces, respectively. To facilitate QAM demodulation instead of affording impractical signaling overhead, we further develop a block transmission scheme to keep the rescaling factor constant within a block. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SLP scheme exhibits a significant performance advantage over existing state-of-the-art SLP schemes.

Score-based methods for learning Bayesain networks(BN) aim to maximizing the global score functions. However, if local variables have direct and indirect dependence simultaneously, the global optimization on score functions misses edges between variables with indirect dependent relationship, of which scores are smaller than those with direct dependent relationship. In this paper, we present an identifiability condition based on a determined subset of parents to identify the underlying DAG. By the identifiability condition, we develop a two-phase algorithm namely optimal-tuning (OT) algorithm to locally amend the global optimization. In the optimal phase, an optimization problem based on first-order Hilbert-Schmidt independence criterion (HSIC) gives an estimated skeleton as the initial determined parents subset. In the tuning phase, the skeleton is locally tuned by deletion, addition and DAG-formalization strategies using the theoretically proved incremental properties of high-order HSIC. Numerical experiments for different synthetic datasets and real-world datasets show that the OT algorithm outperforms existing methods. Especially in Sigmoid Mix model with the size of the graph being ${\rm\bf d=40}$, the structure intervention distance (SID) of the OT algorithm is 329.7 smaller than the one obtained by CAM, which indicates that the graph estimated by the OT algorithm misses fewer edges compared with CAM.Source code of the OT algorithm is available at https://github.com/YafeiannWang/optimal-tune-algorithm.

Cooperative perception can significantly improve the perception performance of autonomous vehicles beyond the limited perception ability of individual vehicles by exchanging information with neighbor agents through V2X communication. However, most existing work assume ideal communication among agents, ignoring the significant and common \textit{interruption issues} caused by imperfect V2X communication, where cooperation agents can not receive cooperative messages successfully and thus fail to achieve cooperative perception, leading to safety risks. To fully reap the benefits of cooperative perception in practice, we propose V2X communication INterruption-aware COoperative Perception (V2X-INCOP), a cooperative perception system robust to communication interruption for V2X communication-aided autonomous driving, which leverages historical cooperation information to recover missing information due to the interruptions and alleviate the impact of the interruption issue. To achieve comprehensive recovery, we design a communication-adaptive multi-scale spatial-temporal prediction model to extract multi-scale spatial-temporal features based on V2X communication conditions and capture the most significant information for the prediction of the missing information. To further improve recovery performance, we adopt a knowledge distillation framework to give explicit and direct supervision to the prediction model and a curriculum learning strategy to stabilize the training of the model. Experiments on three public cooperative perception datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is effective in alleviating the impacts of communication interruption on cooperative perception.