UAV-Assisted Dynamic Avatar Task Migration for Vehicular Metaverse Services: A Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Avatars, as promising digital representations and service assistants of users in Metaverses, can enable drivers and passengers to immerse themselves in 3D virtual services and spaces of UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses. However, avatar tasks include a multitude of human-to-avatar and avatar-to-avatar interactive applications, e.g., augmented reality navigation,which consumes intensive computing resources. It is inefficient and impractical for vehicles to process avatar tasks locally. Fortunately, migrating avatar tasks to the nearest roadside units(RSU)or unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) for execution is a promising solution to decrease computation overhead and reduce task processing latency, while the high mobility of vehicles brings challenges for vehicles to independently perform avatar migration decisions depending on current and future vehicle status. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a novel avatar task migration system based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning(MADRL) to execute immersive vehicular avatar tasks dynamically. Specifically, we first formulate the problem of avatar task migration from vehicles to RSUs/UAVs as a partially observable Markov decision process that can be solved by MADRL algorithms. We then design the multi-agent proximal policy optimization(MAPPO) approach as the MADRL algorithm for the avatar task migration problem. To overcome slow convergence resulting from the curse of dimensionality and non-stationary issues caused by shared parameters in MAPPO, we further propose a transformer-based MAPPO approach via sequential decision-making models for the efficient representation of relationships among agents. Finally, to motivate terrestrial or non-terrestrial edge servers(e.g., RSUs or UAVs) to share computation resources and ensure traceability of the sharing records, we apply smart contracts and blockchain technologies to achieve secure sharing management. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the MAPPO approach by around 2% and effectively reduces approximately 20% of the latency of avatar task execution in UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses.

Structured Sparse Coding With the Group Log-regularizer for Key Frame Extraction

Key frame extraction based on sparse coding can reduce the redundancy of continuous frames and concisely express the entire video.However,how to develop a key frame extraction algorithm that can automatically extract a few frames with a low reconstruction error remains a challenge.In this paper,we propose a novel model of structured sparse-codingbased key frame extraction,wherein a nonconvex group log-regularizer is used with strong sparsity and a low reconstruction error.To automatically extract key frames,a decomposition scheme is designed to separate the sparse coefficient matrix by rows.The rows enforced by the nonconvex group log-regularizer become zero or nonzero,leading to the learning of the structured sparse coefficient matrix.To solve the nonconvex problems due to the log-regularizer,the difference of convex algorithm(DCA)is employed to decompose the log-regularizer into the difference of two convex functions related to the l1 norm,which can be directly obtained through the proximal operator.Therefore,an efficient structured sparse coding algorithm with the group log-regularizer for key frame extraction is developed,which can automatically extract a few frames directly from the video to represent the entire video with a low reconstruction error.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can extract more accurate key frames from most Sum Me videos compared to the stateof-the-art methods.Furthermore,the proposed algorithm can obtain a higher compression with a nearly 18% increase compared to sparse modeling representation selection(SMRS)and an 8% increase compared to SC-det on the VSUMM dataset.

Global minimization of adaptive local image fitting energy for image segmentation

The active contour model based on local image fitting （LIF） energy is an effective method to deal with intensity inhomo- geneities, but it always conflicts with the local minimum problem because LIF has a nonconvex energy function form. At the same time, the parameters of LIF are hard to be chosen for better per- formance. A global minimization of the adaptive LIF energy model is proposed. The regularized length term which constrains the zero level set is introduced to improve the accuracy of the bound- aries, and a global minimization of the active contour model is presented, in addition, based on the statistical information of the intensity histogram, the standard deviation σ with respect to the truncated Gaussian window is automatically computed according to images. Consequently, the proposed method improves the performance and adaptivity to deal with the intensity inhomo- geneities. Experimental results for synthetic and real images show desirable performance and efficiency of the proposed method.

Adaptive Control of MIMO Mechanical Systems with Unknown Actuator Nonlinearities Based on the Nussbaum Gain Approach

This paper investigates MIMO mechanical systems with unknown actuator nonlinearities. A novel Nussbaum analysis tool for MIMO systems is established such that unknown time-varying control coefficients are tackled. In contrast to existing literatures on continuous-time systems, the newly-developed Nussbaum tool focuses on extending the traditional Nussbaum result from one dimensional case to the multiple one. Specifically, not only the multiple unknown input coefficients are extended to the time-varying, but also the limitation of the prior knowledge of coefficients' upper and lower bounds is removed. Furthermore, an adaptive robust controller associated with the proposed tool is presented. The asymptotic tracking of MIMO mechanical systems is guaranteed with the help of the Lyapunov Theorem. Finally, a simulation example is provided to examine the validity of the proposed scheme. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Diverse Deep Matrix Factorization With Hypergraph Regularization for Multi-View Data Representation

Deep matrix factorization(DMF)has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to take in the complex hierarchical information of multi-view data(MDR).However,existing multiview DMF methods mainly explore the consistency of multi-view data,while neglecting the diversity among different views as well as the high-order relationships of data,resulting in the loss of valuable complementary information.In this paper,we design a hypergraph regularized diverse deep matrix factorization(HDDMF)model for multi-view data representation,to jointly utilize multi-view diversity and a high-order manifold in a multilayer factorization framework.A novel diversity enhancement term is designed to exploit the structural complementarity between different views of data.Hypergraph regularization is utilized to preserve the high-order geometry structure of data in each view.An efficient iterative optimization algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model with theoretical convergence analysis.Experimental results on five real-world data sets demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms stateof-the-art multi-view learning approaches.

Learning the continuous-time optimal decision law from discrete-time rewards

The concept of reward is fundamental in reinforcement learning with a wide range of applications in natural and social sciences.Seeking an interpretable reward for decision-making that largely shapes the system's behavior has always been a challenge in reinforcement learning.In this work,we explore a discrete-time reward for reinforcement learning in continuous time and action spaces that represent many phenomena captured by applying physical laws.We find that the discrete-time reward leads to the extraction of the unique continuous-time decision law and improved computational efficiency by dropping the integrator operator that appears in classical results with integral rewards.We apply this finding to solve output-feedback design problems in power systems.The results reveal that our approach removes an intermediate stage of identifying dynamical models.Our work suggests that the discrete-time reward is efficient in search of the desired decision law,which provides a computational tool to understand and modify the behavior of large-scale engineering systems using the optimal learned decision.