Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Commons^™

Rethinking Light Decoder-Based Solvers For Vehicle Routing Problems, Ziwei Huang, Jianan Zhou, Zhiguang Cao, Yixin Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Light decoder-based solvers have gained popularity for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) due to their efficiency and ease of integration with reinforcement learning algorithms. However, they often struggle with generalization to larger problem instances or different VRP variants. This paper revisits light decoder-based approaches, analyzing the implications of their reliance on static embeddings and the inherent challenges that arise. Specifically, we demonstrate that in the light decoder paradigm, the encoder is implicitly tasked with capturing information for all potential decision scenarios during solution construction within a single set of embeddings, resulting in high information density. Furthermore, our empirical analysis reveals …

Rethinking Neural Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Via Neat Weight Embedding, Jinbiao Chen, Zhiguang Cao, Jiahai Wang, Yaoxin Wu, Hanzhang Qin, Zizhen Zhang, Yue-Jiao Gong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent decomposition-based neural multi-objective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) methods struggle to achieve desirable performance. Even equipped with complex learning techniques, they often suffer from significant optimality gaps in weight-specific subproblems. To address this challenge, we propose a neat weight embedding method to learn weight-specific representations, which captures weight-instance interaction for the subproblems and was overlooked by most current methods. We demonstrate the potentials of our method in two instantiations. First, we introduce a succinct addition model to learn weight-specific node embeddings, which surpassed most existing neural methods. Second, we design an enhanced conditional attention model to simultaneously learn the weight embedding …

Nash Bargaining Strategy In Autonomous Decision Making For Multi-Ship Collision Avoidance Based On Route Exchange, Yang Wang, Qiangsheng Ye, Hoong Chuin Lau, Tengfei Wang, Bing Wu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A novel scheme is proposed for the distributed multi-ship collision avoidance (CA) problem with consideration of the autonomous, dynamic nature of the real circumstance. All the ships in the envisioned scenarios can share their decisions or intentions through route exchange, allowing them to make subsequent decisions based on the route planning in each iteration. By leveraging route exchange, the multi-ship CA problem involves iterations for negotiation, and is regarded as a staged cooperative game under conditions of complete information. The concept of closest spatio-temporal distance (CSTD) is introduced to more accurately assess collision risk between ships. A coordinated CA mechanism …

Samgpt: Text-Free Graph Foundation Model For Multi-Domain Pre-Training And Cross-Domain Adaptation, Xingtong Yu, Zechuan Gong, Chang Zhou, Yuan Fang, Hui Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Graphs are able to model interconnected entities in many online services, supporting a wide range of applications on the Web. This raises an important question: How can we train a graph foundational model on multiple source domains and adapt to an unseen target domain? A major obstacle is that graphs from different domains often exhibit divergent characteristics. Some studies leverage large language models to align multiple domains based on textual descriptions associated with the graphs, limiting their applicability to text-attributed graphs. For text-free graphs, a few recent works attempt to align different feature distributions across domains, while generally neglecting structural …

Comadice: Offline Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning With Stationary Distribution Shift Regularization, The Viet Bui, Tien Mai, Hong Thanh Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) has garnered significant attention for its ability to learn effective policies from pre-collected datasets without the need for further environmental interactions. While promising results have been demonstrated in single-agent settings, offline multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) presents additional challenges due to the large joint state-action space and the complexity of multi-agent behaviors. A key issue in offline RL is the distributional shift, which arises when the target policy being optimized deviates from the behavior policy that generated the data. This problem is exacerbated in MARL due to the interdependence between agents' local policies and the expansive joint …

Agentstudio: A Toolkit For Building General Virtual Agents, Longtao Zheng, Zhiyuan Huang, Zhenghai Xue, Xinrun Wang, Bo An, Shuicheng Yan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

General virtual agents need to handle multimodal observations, master complex action spaces, and self-improve in dynamic, open-domain environments. However, existing environments are often domain-specific and require complex setups, which limits agent development and evaluation in real-world settings. As a result, current evaluations lack in-depth analyses that decompose fundamental agent capabilities. We introduce AgentStudio, a trinity of environments, tools, and benchmarks to address these issues. AgentStudio provides a lightweight, interactive environment with highly generic observation and action spaces, e.g., video observations and GUI/API actions. It integrates tools for creating online benchmark tasks, annotating GUI elements, and labeling actions in videos. Based …

On Minimizing Adversarial Counterfactual Error In Adversarial Reinforcement Learning, Roman Belaire, Arunesh Sinha, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) policies are highly susceptible to adversarial noise in observations, which poses significant risks in safety-critical scenarios. The challenge inherent to adversarial perturbations is that by altering the information observed by the agent, the state becomes only partially observable. Existing approaches address this by either enforcing consistent actions across nearby states or maximizing the worst-case value within adversarially perturbed observations. However, the former suffers from performance degradation when attacks succeed, while the latter tends to be overly conservative, leading to suboptimal performance in benign settings. We hypothesize that these limitations stem from their failing to account for …

Semantic Loss-Guided Data-Efficient Supervised Fine-Tuning For Safe Responses In Llms, Yuxiao Lu, Pradeep Varakantham, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large Language Models (LLMs) generating unsafe responses to toxic prompts is a significant issue in their applications. While various efforts aim to address this safety concern, previous approaches often demand substantial human data collection or rely on the less dependable option of using another LLM to generate corrective data. In this paper, we aim to take this problem and overcome limitations of requiring significant high-quality human data. Our method requires only a small set of unsafe responses to toxic prompts, easily obtained from the unsafe LLM itself. By employing a semantic cost combined with a negative Earth Mover Distance (EMD) …

Bootstrapping Language Models With Dpo Implicit Rewards, Changyu Chen, Zichen Liu, Chao Du, Tianyu Pang, Qian Liu, Arunesh Sinha, Pradeep Varakantham, Min Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Human alignment in large language models (LLMs) is an active area of research. A recent groundbreaking work, direct preference optimization (DPO), has greatly simplified the process from past work in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) by bypassing the reward learning stage in RLHF. DPO, after training, provides an implicit reward model. In this work, we make a novel observation that this implicit reward model can by itself be used in a bootstrapping fashion to further align the LLM. Our approach is to use the rewards from a current LLM model to construct a preference dataset, which is then used …

Experimenting With Machine Learning Using Diabetes Datasets, Wyatt Mcdonnell, Hongbiao Zeng

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The purpose of this research is to understand how to implement machine learning in a practical scenario. There were two diabetes datasets[5][6] used for testing the machine learning models. These datasets contain information relevant to a person’s health, as well as whether that subject had diabetes. I used a total of four models, and three of those models were manually programmed. The model which was not manually programmed was used for comparison with a similar model. This research directly compares and shows the factors which affect the efficiency of each machine learning model.

Ai Models By Boodlebox: Purpose-Built Intelligence, Kyle Horn

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Generative AI has transformed the way we interact with technology, enabling dynamic and intelligent conversations through AI-driven bots. This project explores my experience with BoodleBox, a platform that hosts AI chatbots, offering users access to leading AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, DALL·E, and DeepSeek. Through the FHSU Generative AI Initiative, I was granted access to experiment with these models and create my own custom AI bot tailored to specific needs. This poster highlights the process of developing a custom bot, including defining instructions, enforcing rules, and sharing the bot for others to use. Additionally, it discusses the background of …

Multimodal Ai-Driven Biomarker For Early Detection Of Cancer Cachexia, Sabeen Ahmed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer cachexia is a metabolic syndrome characterized by substantial skeletal muscle loss, impacting cancer patients' survival and quality of life. Despite its clinical significance, early detection remains a challenge due to the lack of standardized diagnostic criteria and the reliance on indirect markers. This work presents an AI-driven approach to enhance cachexia detection and monitoring by integrating multiple deep learning methodologies. We explore transformer architectures for time-series analysis to model sequential medical data, enabling disease prediction and progression modeling. To ensure robust and reliable decision-making in clinical settings, we explore Bayesian deep neural networks for uncertainty estimation. Additionally, we introduce …

Robust Spacecraft Autonomy For Deep Space Exploration In Special Euclidean Group Se(3), Matthew Wittal

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Over the past half-century, humanity has gained extensive experience conducting manned spaceflight near Earth. Arguably, "near Earth" could even include the Moon — the most distant destination humans have reached. However, "near" in this work primarily refers low Earth orbit (LEO). One could argue that we have not truly left Earth since the Apollo, as spacecraft in some LEOs remain subject to atmospheric drag thus emphasizing their continued connection to Earth's immediate environment. Reflecting on this, it becomes clear that humanity has largely remained bound to Earth’s immediate vicinity since the Apollo missions reached the Moon. However, that is set …

The Asset Management Optimization Engine: An Ai And Machine Learning Model Approach To Pavement Asset Management, Matt Versdahl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While state Departments of Transportation (DOT) face major funding challenges, the need to find optimal ways to preserve and maintain pavement assets remains. Asset management employs a lowest cost lifecycle method to analyze asset costs and determine the best investment strategies to preserve it throughout its lifecycle. As new technology emerges, so do opportunities to leverage it. DOTs collect a significant amount of performance data on pavement and use it to decide how to keep it in a state of good repair. The literature in this area focuses on engineering techniques applied to treatment strategies. This dissertation research focuses on …

Evaluating A Large Language Model’S Accuracy In Chest X-Ray Interpretation For Acute Thoracic Conditions, Adam M. Ostrovsky

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

BACKGROUND: The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has great ability to impact healthcare. Chest X-rays are essential for diagnosing acute thoracic conditions in the emergency department (ED), but interpretation delays due to radiologist availability can impact clinical decision-making. AI models, including deep learning algorithms, have been explored for diagnostic support, but the potential of large language models (LLMs) in emergency radiology remains largely unexamined.

METHODS: This study assessed ChatGPT's feasibility in interpreting chest X-rays for acute thoracic conditions commonly encountered in the ED. A subset of 1400 images from the NIH Chest X-ray dataset was analyzed, representing seven pathology …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Quality Of Higher Education, Pragati K. Rouniyar

Honors Thesis

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is redefining higher education, captivating scholars with its promise to personalize learning and streamline institutions. However, underneath this assurance exists a network of ethical challenges, disparities in equity, and inquiries regarding academic integrity that require our focus. In pursuit of this goal, this research employs a mixed-methods strategy—through the implementation of surveys and semi-structured interviews—to investigate the transformative effects of AI on higher education, concentrating on its repercussions for teaching techniques, learning results, and institutional processes. This study’s findings indicate that AI can personalize educational experiences to meet individual needs, ease course administrative workload, and assist with …

The Present And Future Of Ai: Ethical Issues And Research Opportunities, Ankita Srivastava, Marco Marabelli, Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, Jeffrey Moriarty, Evan Carey

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Healthcare is currently a fast-changing industry with AI and generative AI (GenAI) playing a prominent role in the transformation of clinical as well as managerial practices. Clinical practices involve AI to diagnose diseases and develop new drugs and compounds, while managerial practices concern AI-supporting processes such as billing patients and insurance companies, handling electronic medical records, and supporting remote connections with patients, increasingly using virtual and augmented reality. Yet, all these opportunities offered by AI come with challenges involving potential ethical issues, such as discrimination, bias, lack of accessibility, and privacy issues. In March 2024, we organized a panel with …

Role Of Eye-Tracking Technology And Software Algorithms In Enhancing Adhd Detection And Diagnosis: A Systematic Literature Review, Lauren E. Perkins

Honors College Theses

This systematic literature review explores the role of eye-tracking technology and software algorithms in enhancing the detection and diagnosis of ADHD. ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting both children and adults, is traditionally diagnosed through behavioral assessments, which may lack objectivity. Recent studies suggest that eye-tracking, specifically focusing on saccades, fixations, and blink rates, offers the potential for more accurate and objective measures of ADHD. The review examines clinical trials, observational studies, and machine learning research to assess the correlation between ADHD and eye movement patterns. Results indicate that individuals with ADHD exhibit distinct eye movement patterns, which can be quantified …

Alterity And Kinship: Co-Writing Posthumanist Speculative Nonfiction With Ai, Jeffrey Bardzell, Maliheh Ghajargar

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

As a response to the climate crisis, scholarly literature has introduced new theoretical perspectives, such as posthumanism, which seek to reimagine the relationships between humans and nonhuman others, including environments, animals, and plants. Reimagining these relationships depends in large part on our ability to engage nonhumans in their otherness, or alterity, but doing so is challenging. Responding to calls throughout posthuman literature for experimental new modes of imaginative encounter with nonhumans, and inspired by speculative traditions from literature to design, we devise a methodology involving “creative experiments” aimed at disrupting, decentering, and disorienting the human-centered thinking that interferes with humans’ …

Adapting To Ai: The Evolving Role Of Faculty In Higher Education, Ronald R. Danault

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the face of higher education, and there are important issues regarding the future of the faculty (Stoerger, 2024). Although there are concerns about the impact of AI on the conventional faculty roles in teaching, assessment, and administration, these tools are now being adopted in learning processes. Rather than dismissing AI as a threat, it acts as a catalyst for reshaping the way faculty members teach with the help of AI and, hence, become facilitators of the learning process (Haoyang & Towne, 2025).

This paper aims to discuss the integration of AI in the higher education …

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence To Strengthen Human Resilience Against Phishing Attacks, Muhammad Mavins

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

Phishing attacks are a major cybersecurity threat, tricking people with fake emails, scam websites, and social engineering tactics. As these attacks become more advanced, traditional security measures are no longer enough to stop them. This paper looks at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help detect and prevent phishing while also making people more aware of these threats. Using machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and behavioral analysis, AI can examine email content, sender behavior, and metadata to spot phishing attempts. AI-powered cybersecurity training can also teach people to recognize and respond to phishing by using personalized phishing tests and …

Investigating Key Structures In Protective Scenes For Llms, Eben M. Weisman

University Honors Theses

This research delves into the realm of "protective scenes" within Large Language Models (LLMs), exploring their impact on bias mitigation, deception, and context preservation. The study investigates the use of roleplay prompting human-like behavior and reasoning in LLMs, focusing on the Character-LLM framework's concept of protective scenes with graduated levels of protection. By combining insights from psychology, cognitive science, and computational analysis, this research aims to develop a framework for understanding how protective scenes influence roleplay performance in LLMs, ultimately contributing to the development of more reliable and ethical AI systems.

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Fashion And Retail Efficiency: A Strategic Analysis, Andrew Burnstine, Raouf Ghattas

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Exploring Emotion Classification Of Indonesian Tweets Using Large Scale Transfer Learning Via Indobert, Connor Shaw, Phillip M. Lacasse, Lance E. Champagne

Faculty Publications

Business, political, and other social structures create strong motivation to understand the attitudes, motivations, feelings, and emotions of a population of interest. Social media is a rich source of self-disclosed information by individuals from all walks of life about virtually every domain of the human experience, but the vast quantity of data is impossible to effectively analyze without advanced natural language processing algorithms. This research creates a transfer learning based emotion classification model for Indonesian language Twitter data. Transfer learning consists of two steps: pre-training and fine tuning. Three variations of Indonesian Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (IndoBERT) are tested …

International Expert Consensus On The Current Status And Future Prospects Of Artificial Intelligence In Metabolic And Bariatric Surgery, Mohammad Kermansaravi, Sonja Chiappetta, Shahab Shahabi Shahmiri, Julian Varas, Chetan Parmar, Yung Lee, Jerry T. Dang, Asim Shabbir, Daniel Hashimoto, Amir Hossein Davarpanah Jazi, Ozanan R. Meireles, Edo Aarts, Hazem Almomani, Aayad Alqahtani, Ali Aminian, Estuardo Behrens, Dieter Birk, Felipe J. Cantu, Ricardo V. Cohen, Maurizio De Luca, Nicola Di Lorenzo, Bruno Dillemans, Mohamad Hayssam Elfawal, Daniel Moritz Felsenreich, Michel Gagner, Hector Gabriel Galvan, Carlos Galvani, Khaled Gawdat, Omar M. Ghanem, Et Al

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of medicine, including surgical science and practice. The evolution of AI from rule-based systems to advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms has opened new avenues for its application in metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS). AI has the potential to enhance various aspects of MBS, including education and training, decision-making, procedure planning, cost and time efficiency, optimization of surgical techniques, outcome and complication prediction, patient education, and access to care. However, concerns persist regarding the reliability of AI-generated decisions and associated ethical considerations. This study aims to establish a consensus on the role …

Enhancement Of Hardware-In-Loop Simulation Ability For Homing Guidance Through Adaptive Field-Of-View Method, Shizheng Wan, Yu Cheng, Xu Zhang, Xuwei Fan

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Considering homing guidance test in the hardware-in-loop simulation, commands of flight simulator and antenna array are likely to exceed their ranges when the target vehicle maneuvers with a large cross range. To solve this problem, the adaptive field-of-view method is proposed to enhance simulation ability in laboratory. Inflight aircraft attitudes and missile-target line-of-sight angles are chosen as state parameters, and the optimal performance function can be established with maximum servo angle of both flight simulator and antenna array. Gradient descent algorithm is applied to acquire the optimal bias angles between the laboratory coordinate system and the launch inertial coordinate …

Research On Robot Path Planning Based On Improved Harris Hawks Algorithm, Yuxin Bai, Zhenya Chen, Ruitao Shi, Weitao Su, Zhuoqiang Ma, Shangjin Yang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In order to improve the convergence accuracy of the HHO algorithm, this paper proposes a GSHHO(gold sine harris hawks optimization) algorithm based on multi-strategies. An infinite iterative chaotic map is used to initialize the population, and an elite reverse learning strategy is used to improve population quality; A convergence factor adjustment strategy is used to recalculate prey energy, balancing the global exploration and local development capabilities of the algorithm; In the development phase of Harris Eagle, the golden sine strategy was introduced to replace the original position update method and improve the local development ability of the algorithm; Experiments …

Fine-Grained Traffic Flow Inference Model Based On Dynamic Back Projection Network, Ming Xu, Guangyao Qi, Geqi Qi

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To solve the problem of large errors in the inference results of existing fine-grained urban flow inference models in complex traffic areas, a fine-grained traffic flow inference model based on dynamic back-projection network is proposed. The multi-dimensional interaction between the input coarse-grained traffic flow and external factors is calculated, and the interaction results are dynamically and adaptively fused with the coarse-grained traffic flow, so that the features can interact and adjust each other to assist model reasoning. Combining deep convolution and self-attention mechanism to learn local information and global information, and improve the understanding of input data by subsequent …

Parallel Task Transmission And Processing Optimization Scheme For Uav-Assisted Internet Of Vehicles, Chao Yang, Ruiqun Zheng, Zhen Li, Hongwei Zhang, Yanqun Tang, Dongze Li

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the increasing of computation demands of internet of vehicles (IoV) users due to the sudden traffic congestion, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are introduced to the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to construct an UAV-assisted IoV network. The UAV limited energy and computing resources lead to the current traditional UAV coverage strategy with one by one less efficiency. We propose a parallel task transmission and processing optimization strategy, considering the line-of-sight communication links and fast moving characteristics of UAV. After receiving the tasks from vehicles in the service point, UAV can fly to the next point and perform task …

Research On Improved A* Algorithm Path Planning Based On Global Key Point Extraction, Guijuan Lin, Zihan Li, Yu Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the limitations of the traditional A* algorithm in large and complex scenes, including traversing a large number of nodes, long computation times, and susceptibility to U-shaped traps, this paper proposes an improved A* algorithm incorporating the jump point search (JPS) concept and image processing techniques to extract key points from the global map. The proposed method preprocesses the global map to identify corner points located one grid diagonally from obstacles, constructs a key point list, and replaces the nodes traditionally traversed by the A* algorithm with these global key points, significantly reducing computational overhead. The neighbor nodes …