Papers for

control engineers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Data driven method speeds up learning nonlinear continuous dynamics

Data-driven Random-feature Approximation of Koopman Generators of Nonlinear Continuous-time Systems

Abstract: Learning continuous-time dynamical systems from data is an active area of research. The Koopman formalism is often used here, because it is a flexible approach that is informative about the system's fundamental properties. The formalism represents dynamical systems through linear operators acting on a suitable function space. A practical difficulty arising in the numerical approximation of Koopman operators is the choice of a ``dictionary'', meaning an effective finite-dimensional representation of the function space. In this paper, we focus on learning dynamical systems in continuous-time, and so we consider numerical approximations of the Koopman generator instead of the Koopman operator. Our main contribution is a data-driven random-feature method to obtain a parsimonious and effective function representation for Galerkin approximation methods such as gEDMD. The representation we construct is data-informed, which allows us to improve upon data-agnostic methods. We empirically demonstrate the suitability of our method for forecasting tasks and system analysis. The numerical experiments show that our approach is accurate, and faster than iterative optimization. Further, we prove convergence of our approximation of the vector field and the resulting trajectories. In addition to the numerical results, we also make theoretical contributions, including a general convergence criterion for the semigroup generated by the gEDMD approximation and a counterexample showing that gEDMD does not generally preserve exponential boundedness. With our contribution, we advance the frontier of efficiently learning continuous-time dynamics from data, towards interpretable and mathematically robust modelling based on the Koopman framework.

Thu 29 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Learning how complex systems change over time from data is hard because the math can be complicated and slow. The paper introduces a new way to pick the right mathematical building blocks, using data itself to guide the choice, which makes the learning process faster and more accurate. The authors show that their method works well for predicting future behavior and analyzing system features. They also prove that their method will reliably approximate the system's underlying dynamics over time. Their work helps make understanding and predicting continuous changing systems more practical and interpretable.
Open → 2610.39897v1

Neural network speeds up solving big control optimization problems

Neural Compression of Long ADMM Trajectory for Multiparametric Quadratic Program

Abstract: Solving large-scale multiparametric quadratic programs (mpQPs) in real time often requires thousands of iterative optimization updates, creating a major computational bottleneck in model predictive control and learning-enabled systems. This paper proposes TQPNet, a self-supervised neural compression framework that learns to compress long ADMM optimization trajectories into a compact neural warm start followed by a few refinement iterations. We derive a low-dimensional ADMM scheme operating on the primal-dual variables $(x,β)$ and show that its iteration admits an equivalent ReLU-layer representation, termed ADMM(ReLU). Building on this insight, TQPNet combines a multilayer perceptron with ReLU activations (MLP(ReLU)) and a small number of unrolled ADMM(ReLU) refinement layers. The network is trained offline using an optimality-condition-informed residual loss, eliminating the need for solver-generated labels. The proposed residual-based framework enables both self-supervised training and online solution certification through adaptive ADMM(ReLU) refinement. Experiments on large-scale mpQPs and real-time MPC applications demonstrate that TQPNet achieves high accuracy, strong generalization, and substantially faster inference than conventional optimization-based methods.

Tue 27 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Solving big optimization problems used in controlling machines and robots can take a long time. The paper introduces a way to teach a neural network to remember the steps of a common algorithm, making it possible to find answers much faster. This approach doesn’t need extra labeled examples because it uses math conditions directly during training. The result is a method that quickly predicts good solutions and improves them with a few fast extra steps, saving time in real applications.
Open → 2610.38079v1

Improving optimization by learning constraints with neural networks

Constraint Learning by Optimizing over Trained Neural Networks: A Pragmatic Tutorial

Abstract: Constraint learning is an emerging paradigm of modeling optimization problems with the help of machine learning. In this paradigm, trained machine learning models are embedded into the optimization model. For example, we can learn constraints empirically from available data, or we can avoid using a nonlinear objective function by learning a simpler approximation for it. Neural networks become a compelling option if the machine learning models must capture more elaborate and nuanced relationships. However, optimization models embedding neural networks may become too large or too slow to solve. In this tutorial, we present practical considerations for an effective and efficient use of constraint learning with neural networks and validate it with a case study highlighting the benefit of smaller and sparser networks.

Mon 26 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Sometimes, when solving problems like scheduling or planning, it’s hard to write down all the rules or goals perfectly. This paper shows how to use neural networks, a type of AI, to learn these rules from data and then include them in the problem we want to solve. The authors explain practical ways to do this efficiently without making the problem too slow or complicated. They also show with an example that smaller and simpler neural networks can still be very helpful for this purpose.
Open → 2610.35505v1

Stable methods improve estimation of unknown forces in dynamic systems

Stable and Calibrated Latent Force ODE Filters

Abstract: Estimating unobserved forces in mechanistic systems is a central task of scientific machine learning. Approximate Gaussian filtering methods that synthesize mechanistic and empirical information have shown remarkable capacity in jointly identifying latent processes together with the system state in a single forward-backward pass. The resulting latent force ODE filter framework channels information from observational data specifically into the unknown parts of the system. This work addresses open questions about calibration and stability of the method. We show that the joint posterior over state and force is the reweighted conventional latent force posterior. This uncovers a crucial dependence of the stability of the method on the prior variance of the system state, which effectively controls the flow of information from observations to the latent force through the mechanistic system. From this insight, we construct an improved algorithm that provides stable and calibrated plug-and-play inference. We demonstrate the improved framework on several simulated experimental settings.

Sat 24 OctMachine Learning
The gist
When machines or natural systems change over time, we often want to guess hidden forces affecting them. The authors study a way to combine known system rules with observed data to estimate these hidden forces more reliably. They found that how the method handles uncertainty strongly affects its stability and accuracy. Using this insight, they made a better version of the method that gives more stable and trustworthy estimates, tested on simulated examples.
Open → 2610.33939v1

LLM improves verification of safety certificates in complex systems

LLM2Cert: LLM Synthesis of Certificates with SMT/Lean Verification

Abstract: Lyapunov functions and barrier certificates give state-space guarantees of stability and safety, but synthesizing and verifying them---especially for nonlinear, high-dimensional systems---remains an open challenge. Existing pipelines verify candidates with numerical solvers (sum-of-squares programs), interval methods, or satisfiability-modulo-theories (SMT) solvers, which often require relaxations, are conservative, or scale poorly with model dimension and nonlinearity. These limitations have also shaped benchmark design: standard test suites are dominated by low-dimensional polynomial systems chosen to suit what solvers can handle rather than what engineering applications require. We address both sides of this challenge. First, we introduce DynaCertBench, a benchmark of 105 instances: 80 non-redundant systems curated from the literature, extended with high-dimensional and control-constrained variants and new nonlinearly coupled systems, comprehensively spanning stability, region-of-attraction, forward-invariance, and safety tasks. Second, we present LLM2Cert, an LLM-driven framework that synthesizes candidate certificates and verifies them against their proof obligations: each obligation is routed to an SMT solver or directly to the Lean Proof-Repair agent. On DynaCertBench, LLM2Cert verifies 81 of 105 instances ($77.1\%$), a $17.1$ percentage point improvement over one-shot proposal without feedback. On the 81 fixed certificates, LLM2Cert verifies 22 that All-SMT leaves unresolved. Code and data are available at https://github.com/FormalCert-AI/llm2cert.

Wed 21 OctArtificial IntelligenceMachine Learning
The gist
Guaranteeing that complex systems remain safe and stable is hard, especially when systems are nonlinear and have many parts. Traditional tools struggle with these challenges or only work well on simpler examples. The authors created a new testing set of tougher examples and built a method that uses large language models (LLMs) to suggest safety proofs and verify them automatically. Their method checks more cases successfully than previous approaches, making it easier to trust complex systems in real-life uses.
Open → 2610.30524v1

Neural networks identify unstable systems with stability guarantees

Neural Closed-Loop Identification of Nonlinear Systems with Stability and Generalization Guarantees

Abstract: Neural networks are expressive models of nonlinear dynamics, but identifying such systems from closed-loop data raises two difficulties: the feedback loop correlates inputs with measurement noise, biasing standard open-loop estimators, and the identified model must be stabilized by the data-collection controller, so that its closed-loop behavior matches the true plant's. We derive a complete parameterization of all nonlinear systems stabilized by a given controller, generalizing the classical dual-Youla parameterization to the nonlinear setting. Building on this characterization, we propose Internal Controller Identification (ICI), a computationally tractable framework for identifying potentially unstable systems while ensuring closed-loop stability by construction; in the linear case, our indirect method reduces to an open-loop identification problem, for which standard consistency results apply. The framework accommodates contextual information, letting a single certified model identify a family of systems, and supports a PAC-Bayesian training objective that, when data are scarce and prior knowledge is available, bounds the identified operator's expected prediction loss. Experiments show that ICI identifies open-loop unstable plants where uncertified baselines diverge, outperforms direct methods under weak excitation and feedback-correlated noise, generalizes zero-shot to environments unseen during training, and, with limited data, avoids the overfitting of empirical risk minimization while providing a non-vacuous generalization bound.

Tue 20 OctMachine Learning
The gist
When machines or systems control themselves, it’s hard to understand their behavior because measuring their parts is tricky and often noisy. The authors show a new way for neural networks to learn about these systems safely, even when the system is unstable or noisy. Their method makes sure the learned model stays stable and predicts well, even with little data or in new situations.
Open → 2610.27970v1

Graph neural networks improve iterative solution of cone programs

Learning SOCP Solver Dynamics with Graph Neural Networks

Abstract: Second-order cone programs (SOCPs) are a fundamental class of convex optimization problems widely applied across engineering domains. Classical interior-point methods are robust and accurate, but their iterative nature can be costly in real-time or repeated-solve settings. This has motivated learning-based solvers that approximate optimizer solutions with neural networks. Recent work has increasingly studied graph neural networks (GNNs) for linear, quadratic, and second-order cone optimization, leveraging their ability to model sparse relational structure among variables, constraints, and objective functions. Most existing GNN-based solvers compress the optimization process into a single forward pass, predicting the optimizer directly without using the intermediate trajectory produced by classical solvers. We introduce SOCPNet, a recursive GNN framework that uses solver trajectories to learn an iterative SOCP solution procedure. A shared GNN model is applied repeatedly, refining the current iterate at each step and enabling inference for a variable number of iterations. Rather than predicting the solution in a single pass, SOCPNet learns from intermediate iterates to progressively refine its estimates using a trajectory-regularized training procedure. We evaluate SOCPNet on multiple datasets spanning standard SOCP problem classes and show that it consistently reduces the final solution error relative to a SOCP-GNN baseline. Finally, we demonstrate how trained SOCPNet models can be used in a hybrid optimization pipeline by warm-starting a classical interior-point solver, reducing solver iterations without loss of accuracy.

Mon 19 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Solving certain math problems called second-order cone programs can take a lot of time, especially when needing quick or repeated answers. The authors propose a new method called SOCPNet that uses graph neural networks to mimic and speed up the step-by-step solving process instead of just guessing the final answer all at once. This approach learns from the sequence of steps a traditional solver takes, improving accuracy over previous methods. Additionally, it can help classical solvers start closer to the solution, saving even more time without losing accuracy.
Open → 2610.26285v1

Evaluation-aware optimizer improves tuning under strict budget limits

REMBGO for Evaluation-Limited Optimization: CEC2022 Benchmarking and EAF-STATCOM Generalization

Abstract: Metaheuristic comparisons are often reported at evaluation budgets far larger than an expensive engineering simulation can afford. This paper presents REMBGO, an evaluation-budget-aware refinement of EMBGO. Its contribution is not any single operator: it is the integration of population preservation, scale-normalized exploration and recovery mechanisms whose parent-relative benefit is concentrated under restricted function-evaluation budgets. REMBGO is evaluated on CEC2022 at a primary, application-aligned budget of 1040 function evaluations, with a surrounding budget ladder reported descriptively to characterise budget dependence rather than as a family of controlled hypotheses. A component-removal study finds no individual mechanism whose removal survives multiplicity correction, consistent with an integrated rather than a single-operator contribution. The algorithm is then applied to EAF--STATCOM controller tuning, and the resulting frozen gain vectors are transferred without retuning to twenty pre-specified unseen stochastic arc realizations ($210$ fixed-gain simulations, all feasible). The selected gain-vector main effect accounts for only $3.6$--$5.8\%$ of the crossed validation variation, against approximately $61.4\%$ for interaction plus residual, and the matched REMBGO--EMBGO paired differences are controller-dependent in sign and not statistically significant. REMBGO is therefore presented as a resource-aware refinement whose benefit must be stated together with the evaluation budget, not as a universally superior optimizer.

Fri 9 OctNeural and Evolutionary Computing
The gist
Optimization methods often assume they can try many options, but in real-world engineering, evaluations are expensive and limited. The authors present REMBGO, which refines an existing method to work better when only a small number of evaluations are allowed. They tested REMBGO on standard benchmark problems and a power controller tuning task, showing that its benefits depend on how many evaluations are possible. REMBGO is not always better but is designed to work well when resources are tight.
Open → 2610.13471v1

Transformer based meta model improves long sequence system prediction

In-Context Learning for System Identification: Probabilistic Formulation, Long-Sequence Handling, and Benchmark Validation

Abstract: Traditional system identification typically involves two steps: initially, training data is processed to estimate a model of the system of interest; then, the model is used to predict outputs for new input queries. In contrast, recent in-context learning approaches learn a meta model that maps directly from training data and query inputs to outputs in a zero-shot fashion, bypassing explicit model estimation. This approach leverages a meta model trained offline, on large sets of synthetically generated data, to emulate the behavior of a system identification algorithm. In this work, we advance this meta-learning framework for system identification in three directions. First, we develop a unified probabilistic meta-identification architecture that combines a Transformer-based encoder-decoder with tailored mechanisms for handling long training sequences, enabling calibrated predictions over long horizons. Second, we show how a pre-trained meta model can act as an uncertainty-aware synthetic data generator for classical system identification, providing task-specific data that regularize parametric models when real data are scarce. Third, we systematically evaluate the framework on standard nonlinear system identification benchmarks and on a challenging out-of-distribution scenario, demonstrating competitive accuracy with state-of-the-art methods and strong generalization, including cases where input-only adaptation is sufficient to handle significant distribution shifts.

Fri 9 OctMachine LearningArtificial Intelligence
The gist
Predicting how systems behave often requires making a model from lots of training data, which can be slow and complicated. The authors study a new approach where a single powerful model is trained ahead of time to directly learn from past examples and new inputs together, without building a separate system model each time. Their method uses a special Transformer design to handle very long sequences of data and can estimate how uncertain its predictions are. They tested their approach on difficult benchmarks and showed it can match traditional methods and even adapt well when conditions change unexpectedly.
Open → 2610.13411v1

Koopman operator methods improve chaotic system prediction accuracy

Understanding Latent-Dimension Scaling in Dynamical-System Learning through Spectral Reliability

Abstract: In deep learning, approximation theory motivates increasing representation size. We ask whether this benefit extends to dynamics learning through autoregressive prediction. We analyze the learned time evolution through the eigenstructure of Koopman operators, using relative residuals to detect spurious eigenpairs arising even as one-step error falls. For bounded Koopman operators, we show that minimal residuals over learned dictionary spaces converge pointwise to their full-space counterparts as these spaces approximate the observable space in $L^2$. Our hypothesis is that Koopman spectral reliability helps explain how consistently rollout error decreases with increasing dimension. We compare two models of a shared Koopman autoencoder trained alternately for reconstruction and latent evolution, using latent-prediction loss (one-step prediction errors in latent coordinates) or spectral-residual loss (relative residuals of candidate eigenpairs). Across six chaotic systems, both models reduced median windowed rollout error from smallest to largest dimension. The spectral-residual model achieved lower medians than the latent-prediction model for all systems and dimensions, and its median fell by a larger factor in every system. Its median decreased monotonically with dimension in four systems, against one for latent prediction. Against four baseline families, its mean valid prediction times were nearly always longer. At the largest dimension under two-stage training, we compared eigenvalue positions with each learned dictionary's residual contours. Spectral-residual eigenvalues concentrated in low-residual regions, whereas latent-prediction eigenvalues also appeared in high-residual regions, consistent with the hypothesis.

Thu 8 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Predicting how complicated systems change over time is hard, especially when the systems behave chaotically. The authors studied ways to represent these systems in simpler, smaller forms that still allow good predictions. They found that models focusing on the reliability of key mathematical features called eigenvalues made better long-term predictions than ones focusing just on one-step errors. This suggests paying attention to these features helps better understand and improve how predictions improve when using bigger, more detailed hidden spaces.
Open → 2610.11866v1

Control unknown changing systems with low regret and fast detection

Logarithmic Regret via Passive Change Detection in Piecewise-Stationary Self-Tuning Regulation

Abstract: We study minimum-variance control of an unknown autoregressive system with exogenous inputs and coefficients that change at unknown times. Under bounded independent disturbances, fixed detection gaps, stability and feasibility conditions, and sufficient time between changes, we prove \(O((C+1)\log((T+1)/δ))\) regret with probability at least \(1-δ\), where \(T\) is the horizon and \(C\) the number of changes. Unlike switching bandits, where unselected arms can change unobserved, admissible plant changes provide information during exploitation: the correct feasible controller leaves only the disturbance in the output, whereas a detectable change raises output energy under the old controller. PIECE-CD explores initially and after alarms, then uses gated recursive least squares for control. Its energy test compares windowed output power with a threshold above the noise floor; the extension to unstable controller mismatches also monitors the reference controller's input proposal. We control false alarms across the horizon and prove logarithmic detection delay. Inputs are clipped to prescribed bounds. Logarithmic regret also holds under an explicit condition ensuring that clipping becomes inactive after a finite burn-in. Under the stated feasibility conditions, the extended detector covers destabilizing changes with detectable excess energy over a fixed window.

Wed 7 OctMachine LearningArtificial Intelligence
The gist
This paper addresses how to control systems whose behavior changes unpredictably over time. The authors propose a method that quickly detects these changes without too many false alarms and adjusts the control accordingly. Their technique keeps errors growing slowly (logarithmically) over time, which means the system adapts nearly as well as if it knew the changes in advance. They do this by monitoring output energy and updating estimates during control, ensuring stable and informed adjustments.
Open → 2610.10250v1

New two-input method rapidly stabilizes complex unstable systems

Rapid Fredholm stabilization of the Kuramoto--Sivashinsky equation with unrestricted, spatially-varying anti-diffusion

Abstract: We develop the first feedback design for rapid stabilization of the Kuramoto--Sivashinsky equation with a spatially varying anti-diffusion coefficient. For constant coefficients, the single-input Fredholm design of Coron and Lü (2015) excludes a discrete set of values at which repeated unstable eigenvalues cause a loss of controllability. We overcome this obstruction by introducing a second boundary input and assigning the two inputs distinct roles. The key idea, inspired by Heymann's Lemma, is to use the boundary value $u(0,t)$ entirely for a pre-feedback that renders the modified plant controllable through the curvature input $u_{xx}(0,t)$. The latter input then stabilizes the plant through a Fredholm backstepping transformation. We show that two inputs suffice for controllability and are necessary when the plant has an unstable double eigenvalue. However, the Fredholm kernel still must be approximated for implementation. Hence, to enable kernel and gain approximation, we prove continuity of the coefficient-to-gain design map on compact admissible design classes. Unlike Volterra-based continuity proofs using successive approximations, our proof uses the modal representation to control the spectral data, the inverse coefficient system, and the tails of the kernel and gain series. This yields a single neural operator approximation of the gain to any prescribed $L^2$ accuracy across the class. Finally, we establish rapid local stabilization of the nonlinear closed-loop system under both the exact gains and sufficiently accurate approximations. We conclude with numerical results that illustrate prescribed decay rates and the computational cost of the approximations. In particular, we train a Fourier neural operator that achieves typical relative gain errors of approximately $0.1\%$ and stabilizes all held-out cases tested, including a plant with an unstable double eigenvalue.

Tue 6 OctMachine Learning
The gist
The Kuramoto--Sivashinsky equation is a mathematical model used to describe certain unstable systems. Previous methods to control it could fail for specific tricky cases where instability repeats. The authors developed a new approach using two separate controls at the system's boundary to stabilize it rapidly, even in those difficult cases. They also showed that their method can be reliably approximated and used neural networks to efficiently implement the control with high accuracy. Their approach is validated through numerical experiments, including handling especially challenging scenarios.
Open → 2610.08764v1

Delay-coordinate reconstruction reveals causal links in random systems

Delay-coordinate reconstruction and conditional-moment causal diagnostics in stochastic systems

Abstract: Partial observation and delay-coordinate reconstruction are rooted in deterministic dynamical-systems theory, whereas there are many systems with intrinsic stochasticity. We propose a conditional-moment interpretation of delay-coordinate reconstruction for stochastic systems, in which a delay vector is used to reconstruct conditional moments of a future distribution rather than a unique future sample path. Two complementary arguments motivate this viewpoint. First, the probability density of a stochastic differential equation obeys a deterministic Fokker-Planck equation and, under certain assumptions, is represented by an infinite deterministic hierarchy of moments. Hence, a finite-moment closure suggests a Takens-like finite-dimensional approximation. Second, a discussion based on the Koopman operator theory clarifies that the time evolution of an observable in the Mori-Zwanzig formalism yields a conditional expectation in stochastic systems. Then, the orthogonal "noise" term in the coefficient-space Mori-Zwanzig equation vanishes in the stochastic cases; this result is consistent with the moment-based argument. As an application of this stochastic delay-reconstruction viewpoint, we revisit convergent cross mapping (CCM) for diagnosing certain causal relationships. Although CCM based on the embedding theorem cannot generally be applied to stochastic systems, it is possible to examine certain types of causal relationships by using conditional moments. Using coupled logistic systems with additive and multiplicative coupling mechanisms, we discuss how causal relationships are embedded in stochastic systems.

Sun 4 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Understanding cause and effect in systems that have random elements is tricky because you can't predict exact outcomes. This paper shows how using past data points together (delay-coordinate reconstruction) can help estimate the likely future behaviors of such systems, not just single outcomes. The authors explain this with math describing probabilities and moments, which gives a way to explore causal connections even when things are noisy and unpredictable. They then use this idea to improve a method for detecting cause and effect in systems influenced by randomness.
Open → 2610.05632v1

Recover full system behavior from partial and sparse observations

Identification and Recovery of Linear Dynamics from Partial Trajectories

Abstract: We study the joint recovery of an unknown system matrix $A\in\mathbb R^{n\times n}$ and a rank-$r$ initial-state matrix $X_0\in\mathbb R^{n\times m}$ from partial observations of the state matrices $A^tX_0$, for $t=0,\ldots,T$. Each trajectory is observed at a fixed set of state coordinates, which may differ across trajectories. We derive necessary conditions for identifiability, including obstructions arising from incomplete spatial coverage and insufficient dynamical span, as well as lower bounds on the number of observations. We then characterize the Jacobian of the measurement map, account for the intrinsic symmetry of the low-rank factorization, and establish a rank-certificate principle yielding generic local identifiability. When the trajectories whose initial states form a basis of $\operatorname{range}(X_0)$ are fully observed, we obtain necessary and sufficient rank conditions for global recovery, together with explicit reconstruction formulas. We formulate the joint recovery problem as a nonlinear least-squares problem over the system matrix $A$ and the low-rank factors of $X_0$, and solve it using Adam. Numerical experiments on synthetic and real-world data evaluate the recovery performance under different spatial sampling rates and observation horizons.

Sat 3 OctInformation Theory
The gist
This work looks at how to figure out the rules that govern a system’s behavior when you only see parts of its activity over time. The authors show what conditions must be met to uniquely identify these rules and the system’s starting states from limited snapshots. They also provide a way to solve this problem using math and test their approach using simulations and real data. This helps when you have incomplete measurements but want to understand the full system.
Open → 2610.04455v1

Policy mirror descent shows sharp convergence for average-reward tasks

Sharp Convergence and Sample Complexity of Policy Mirror Descent for Average-Reward MDPs

Abstract: Policy mirror descent (PMD) has a mature finite-time theory in discounted Markov decision processes (MDPs), but less is known in the average-reward setting, a more natural objective for many control applications. We give a finite-time, finite-sample analysis of PMD in ergodic average-reward MDPs built around a single master recursion that governs convergence for any critic, without external regularization. Its specializations yield linear rates for exact, inexact-tabular, and linear function approximation (LFA) updates, with a superlinear regime for exact PMD. We complement these convergence results with end-to-end sample complexities of order $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^3/\varepsilon^2$ in both tabular ($|S||A|$-dependent) and LFA ($d$-dependent) settings. Our LFA sample complexity sharpens the prior best $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^5$ mixing dependence to $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^3$, and matching information-theoretic lower bounds establish that the critic's $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^3/\varepsilon^2$ sample complexity is unimprovable in both settings.

Fri 2 OctMachine Learning
The gist
Many real-world control problems look for steady long-term rewards, not just immediate gains. The authors studied a method called policy mirror descent that helps computers learn the best actions in these steady scenarios. They found exact conditions when this method quickly finds good strategies and proved how many samples it needs to do so reliably. Their work also matches the best possible limits, meaning the technique is as efficient as theoretically possible.
Open → 2610.04117v1

Understanding linear systems with noisy data from single runs

Learning Linear Systems under Heavy-Tailed Noise: A Non-Asymptotic Analysis from A Single Trajectory

Abstract: We establish non-asymptotic sample complexity bounds for the least-squares estimation of vector autoregressive models for exponentially stable systems with heavy-tailed noise based on a single observed trajectory. By assuming i.i.d. noise, bounded noise covariance, and persistent excitation, we show that the estimation error is $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(r^{1/2}T^{-1/2+1/p})$ under bounded $p$th moment for $p > 2$, where $T$ is the number of samples, $r$ is the noise dimension, and $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\cdot)$ hides logarithmic terms. We also introduce a unifying approach to sample complexity analysis applicable to broad classes of noise distributions and showcase this by deriving error bounds for sub-exponential and sub-Gaussian noise distributions. Finally, we specialize our analysis to autoregressive models with exogenous inputs and show that the dimension factor of the error bound is independent of the model order.

Wed 30 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Measuring how systems change over time can be tricky when the data collected is noisy or unusual. This paper explains how to estimate these changes reliably using a single long observation, even when the noise behaves unpredictably. The authors provide clear bounds on how much data is needed for a good estimate, depending on the noise's characteristics. They also offer a general method that works with different types of noise and extend their findings to models with external inputs.
Open → 2610.00637v1

Continuous-time control finds boundary between learning and no-learning phases

Sharp Critical Minimax Laws and No-Learning Thresholds in Continuous-Time Adaptive Control

Abstract: We study episodic continuous-time control with an unknown vector control gain, scalar state, quadratic action cost, and smooth convex terminal cost. In the scalar Gaussian experiment, let $Δ(H)$ denote the minimax improvement over zero control and set $δ=\sqrt2H^2-1$. We prove the critical law $$ Δ(H)\asymp δ^4\sqrt{\log(1/δ)} \qquad (δ\downarrow0), $$ with a matching lower and upper bound. The lower bound follows from a uniform deficit--energy inequality valid for fully adaptive controls with unbounded amplitudes, while a moving soft-threshold feedback attains the rate. For local parameters $θ=N^{-1/4}h$, $|h|\le H$, we show that the normalized minimax regret over $N$ episodes is within $O(N^{-1/2})$ of a fixed-horizon Gaussian sequential control problem, without an additional dimension factor. The terminal task enters the limit only through $c_g=\operatorname{Var}(g(Z))$. The Gaussian problem exhibits an exact no-learning phase transition: $$ C_d^T(H)=TH^2/2 \iff H^4T\le d^2/2, $$ yielding the asymptotic task boundary $c_gH^4=d^2/2$.

Sun 27 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
This paper studies how to control a system continuously over time when some details of the system are unknown. The authors focus on how well it's possible to adapt control strategies to improve performance compared to doing nothing, especially when the unknown part is small. They identify a precise mathematical rule that describes when learning to improve control is beneficial and when it is not. This helps understand the fundamental limits of adaptive control in situations with uncertainty.
Open → 2609.33154v1

Prediction limits for soft geometric state abstractions in dynamical systems

Prediction Limits and Koopman Closure of Geometry-Induced Soft State Abstractions

Abstract: We study when geometry-induced soft state abstractions admit accurate finite-dimensional linear dynamics. Each state is represented by simplex-valued coordinates obtained from class-specific Kernel Affine Hull Machine (KAHM) reconstruction scores, and a matrix is used to predict the next-state coordinates. Our main result is a computable lower confidence bound on the minimum root-mean-square prediction error over all matrices satisfying a prescribed spectral-norm limit. The bound combines within-class variation of successor coordinates with the deviation of soft coordinates from their one-hot reference labels, and can be evaluated from independent state-successor pairs without fitting a prediction matrix. For fixed coordinates and evaluation distribution, the certificate converges almost surely to a population lower bound as the sample size grows; any tolerance below this limit is eventually certified unattainable. Reconstruction-score margins further control the soft-to-hard assignment error. Under deterministic dynamics and exact coordinate closure, eigenvectors of the closure matrix and its reduced transpose induce Koopman and adjoint Koopman eigenfunctions, respectively. A four-state KAHM construction shows that identical soft coordinates can permit exact closure under one dynamics map yet force positive prediction error under another. Experiments on Duffing, Van der Pol, CartPole, MountainCar, and Acrobot compare direct soft-coordinate prediction with state-space DMD/EDMD baselines and report prediction, representation-variation, and spectral diagnostics. The benchmarks assess fitted models but do not numerically evaluate the exclusion certificate.

Sat 26 SeptArtificial IntelligenceMachine Learning
The gist
This work looks at how to predict the future behavior of complex systems using a special way of representing their states with soft labels rather than hard categories. The authors provide a mathematical way to know the best possible accuracy of these predictions, showing when it’s impossible to do better. They also explore connections to Koopman theory, which helps understand system dynamics through linear models. The methods were tested on several simulated control systems.
Open → 2609.32652v1

Deep recurrent neural network model improves stable physical system predictions

Data-driven discrete-time deep recurrent neural network-based modeling for dissipative systems

Abstract: Physical AI has gained increasing attention for its role in developing AI systems that better understand, predict, and control real-world dynamics. Achieving this requires AI models that not only achieve high prediction accuracy but also preserve fundamental physical properties of dynamical systems. In this paper, we propose a deep discrete-time dissipative recurrent neural network (DissipNet) that explicitly enforces dissipativity, a key property related to stability and energy dissipation, through structural weight constraints and a dedicated training algorithm. By construction, the proposed network is capable of learning dissipative dynamics while preserving their inherent stability, which is formally analyzed using Lyapunov theory. In contrast to Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), which incorporate governing equations into the training loss but do not guarantee preservation of internal analytical properties such as dissipativity or passivity, our approach provides explicit guarantees on stability at the model level. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method through several modeling applications, and compare its performance with a naive recurrent neural network (RNN) and a PINN-based model.

Wed 23 SeptMachine LearningRobotics
The gist
Predicting how physical systems behave over time is important but difficult, especially when you want to keep certain physical properties like stability and energy loss. The authors designed a special type of neural network, called DissipNet, that learns to predict these systems while making sure they behave stably and lose energy as they should. Unlike some other AI methods that guess rules from data but don't guarantee these properties, this new approach uses math to keep them intact. They tested DissipNet on various problems and showed it works better than common neural networks and some physics-based methods.
Open → 2609.27186v1

PAC Bayesian meta learning speeds up identifying limited data systems

PAC-Bayesian Meta-Learning for Few-Shot Identification of Linear Dynamical Systems

Abstract: Identifying linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamical systems is challenging when trajectories are short, noisy, or high-dimensional. Traditional system identification typically treats each system independently and cannot exploit shared structure across related systems. We propose PBML-LTI, a PAC-Bayesian meta-learning framework for few-shot LTI system identification that learns a transferable prior over task-specific dynamics while preserving task heterogeneity. Each task corresponds to an unknown LTI system, and the meta-learner uses training trajectories to learn a data-dependent prior over transition matrices. For a new system with limited data, PBML-LTI performs Bayesian adaptation under this prior to obtain a task-specific posterior, providing accurate estimates and principled uncertainty quantification. A key challenge is temporal dependence, since LTI trajectories violate the i.i.d. assumptions underlying most PAC-Bayes meta-learning analyses. We address this with a martingale PAC-Bayes analysis for dependent trajectory losses and derive a support-query predictive-risk bound that motivates a fit-KL meta-training objective. The bound clarifies the roles of empirical fit, posterior complexity, and prior quality in few-shot adaptation under sequential dependence. We further derive corollaries for transition-matrix recovery and multi-step trajectory prediction, connecting uncertainty-aware meta-identification with finite-sample guarantees for dependent dynamical data.

Mon 21 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Identifying how systems change over time can be tough when data is limited, noisy, or complicated. The authors created a method that learns from many similar systems to quickly understand a new one using only a small amount of data. Their approach also gives a way to measure how confident we are in these understandings. They developed new math tools to handle data that changes over time rather than being random and independent, which helps in making better predictions about system behavior.
Open → 2609.24117v1

Bayesian filtering improves physical system tracking using test-time learning

Bayesian Filtering in Physical Systems via Test-time Trained Flow Matching

Abstract: Bayesian filtering provides a principled framework for online state estimation under uncertainty, yet its application to systems with high-dimensional states and complicated posterior distributions remains challenging. Recent generative models, such as flow matching, have shown potential in Bayesian filtering. However, they still rely on particle-based representations of the posterior, which lose the rich information of the full distribution, or tackle a trajectory-level inverse problem that conflicts with the recursive structure of Bayesian filtering. To address this, we propose a new perspective of directly encoding the evolving distribution into flow matching model weights, namely, the Belief Flow Filter (BFF). It is a generative filtering framework that updates model weights via gradient descent at test time to track the posterior evolution. Thereby, BFF bypasses the scalability issue of particle representations or the flexibility limitation of Gaussian assumptions in conventional filters. We theoretically justify that the BFF design is structurally aligned with Bayesian filtering, and its training objective targets the recursive filtering operator. BFF is empirically verified across 5 different physical systems, including ones with chaotic dynamics and highly sparse, non-linear observations. The results show that BFF attains the best score in 8 of 9 metric-benchmark cells across the three standard 1D and 2D PDE benchmarks, and similarly leads on the extreme single-moving-sensor setting and on a real-world-grounded tokamak plasma estimation task, demonstrating its potential to accurately approximate the Bayesian filtering operator in high-dimensional probability space.

Sun 20 SeptArtificial IntelligenceMachine Learning
The gist
Tracking the state of complex physical systems in real-time is hard, especially when the system’s internal state is very complicated. The authors introduce the Belief Flow Filter (BFF), a new method that updates how a model understands the system’s state as it receives new data, by adjusting the model itself during tracking. This approach avoids common problems of older methods that struggle with complex states or rely on simpler assumptions. Tests on various physical systems, including those with chaotic behaviors and limited observations, show BFF can track states more accurately than existing methods.
Open → 2609.23383v1

Scalable method improves safety checks for neural network controllers

Scalable Incremental Robustness Analysis of Neural Network Feedback Systems

Abstract: Semidefinite programming (SDP) certificates for feedback systems containing deep neural networks (NNs) typically scale with the total number of neurons, whereas small-gain tests are scalable but can be highly conservative. This paper develops a unified and scalable framework for incremental robust stability and performance analysis of feedback interconnections involving high-dimensional NNs and unmodeled dynamics. By combining a structured decomposition of the full-order SDP condition with scalable Lipschitz constant estimation algorithms, we derive reduced verification conditions that certify incremental convergence and incremental $\ell_2$-gain bounds. The dimensions of the resulting control-analysis linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) depend only on the widths of the last two network layers and are \textit{independent of network depth}. The framework preserves the coupling between the plant and the NN, with the incremental small-gain condition recovered as a special case. To further reduce conservatism, we develop a multi-round alternating update scheme that iteratively refines the coupling variables while preserving scalability. Numerical experiments show that the proposed framework achieves state-of-the-art incremental $\ell_2$-gain bounds for large-scale NN feedback systems.

Fri 18 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Controlling machines using neural networks can be tricky because checking their safety often becomes too slow for big networks. The authors created a new method that breaks down complex checks into smaller parts, focusing only on the last layers of the network, making the process much faster. Their approach still keeps important details about how the controller and machine interact. They tested it and found it gives better safety guarantees than older methods on large systems.
Open → 2609.22576v1

Robustness analysis improved for complex infinite dimensional spaces

Robustness Analysis via Horofunction Compactification

Abstract: Robustness analysis plays a central role in the verification and design of computational and hybrid systems, particularly when system behaviour depends continuously on parameters subject to perturbation. Existing domain-theoretic frameworks provide a principled foundation for reasoning about such perturbations via monotone maps on lattices of closed sets. However, these frameworks face significant limitations when the underlying state space is not locally compact, as is the case for the infinite-dimensional spaces that arise in analysis, machine learning, and control theory (e.g., $\ell_p$ and $L_p$ spaces). In these settings, the lattice of closed subsets fails to be continuous, and classical compactifications either sacrifice precision or lack computable structure. We propose Gromov's horofunction compactification as a new tool for robustness analysis over a class of separable metric spaces of practical importance, including separable reflexive Banach spaces. Given a metric space $\mathbb{S}$, we show that its horofunction extension yields a compact metric space together with a Lipschitz embedding, which enables robust approximations of monotone maps via Scott-continuous maps on the compactified domain. For separable spaces, the horofunction compactification is metrizable, which provides a path toward effective domain-theoretic constructions.

Thu 17 SeptLogic in Computer Science
The gist
It's hard to check how systems behave when their parameters change in complicated spaces, like those used in machine learning or control engineering. Existing methods struggle with these spaces because the usual mathematical tools don't work well. The authors use a special technique called horofunction compactification to extend these spaces into a form where robust analysis becomes easier and more precise. This approach allows better approximations and computations in spaces that were hard to handle before.
Open → 2609.21009v1

Learning fractional order dynamics from a single observed system trajectory

Learning Fractional-Order Dynamics from a Single Trajectory

Abstract: Many real-world processes exhibit long-range dependence, where the current state depends on a slowly decaying trace of past states rather than on the most recent state alone. This paper studies system identification for discrete-time fractional-order linear time-invariant systems from a single observed trajectory of length $t$, a setting that captures such non-Markovian dynamics through the Grünwald--Letnikov difference operator. Unlike Markovian systems, fractional-order systems couple estimation across the entire history, making both statistical analysis and practical identification more challenging. We propose \emph{Fractional-Order Ordinary-Least-Squares Grid-Search (FO-GS)}, a simple two-stage estimator that exploits the diagonal structure of the fractional-difference operator to decouple the identification problem row-wise. Under the stability assumption, we establish high-probability, non-asymptotic error bounds for estimating both the fractional order and the system matrix in the heterogeneous setting, with both estimation errors scaling as \(\mathcal{O}(t^{-1/2})\). Through experiments, we show that \emph{FO-GS} outperforms existing baselines in recovering both the fractional order and the underlying system dynamics.

Wed 16 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Some systems remember their whole history instead of just the latest state, making them tricky to understand. The authors study how to figure out how such systems behave by looking at just one long sequence of observations. They created a method called FO-GS that breaks the problem into smaller parts to estimate the system’s memory and rules. They prove their method gets better with more data and performs well in tests compared to older approaches.
Open → 2609.18127v1

Fast extraction of control constraints for uncertain system logic rules

Fast Constraint Extraction for Corrective Control under STL Specifications via Logical Dependency Tracking

Abstract: Ensuring the satisfaction of Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications under uncertainty is challenging, as reachability-based monitoring provides guarantees but does not indicate how to restore satisfaction when it becomes indeterminate. A key difficulty is identifying which uncertain components actually affect global satisfaction, especially for nested formulas. This paper introduces a logical dependency tracking framework that propagates uncertainty through the STL structure and captures the causal contribution of reachable sets to satisfaction. By associating markers to uncertain predicates and propagating them via three-valued semantics, we extract in milliseconds a compact Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) of sufficient constraints, avoiding combinatorial enumeration. As an application, we formulate control correction as a minimum-effort optimization problem. Using zonotopic reachability, the derived constraints are enforced via linear programming, yielding corrections that guarantee STL satisfaction under bounded uncertainty and provide certified probabilistic bounds in the stochastic case. We demonstrate the approach on a nonlinear system with nested STL specifications, showing that dependency tracking enables efficient and formally guaranteed correction. The tracking implementation is available at https://github.com/Antoine-Bst/STL-Three-Valued-Clause-Filtering/.

Tue 8 SeptLogic in Computer ScienceRobotics
The gist
Controlling systems to reliably meet complex timing and logical rules is hard when there’s uncertainty. The authors developed a fast way to figure out which parts of the system’s uncertain inputs actually cause problems in following these rules. They use a technique that tracks how uncertainty flows through the logic, enabling quick identification of conditions that must be met. This lets them efficiently adjust controls to correct the system behavior with strong guarantees that the rules will be satisfied.
Open → 2609.09439v1

PAC Bayesian error bounds improve learning of noisy linear dynamical systems

PAC-Bayesian Bounds for Learning Partially Observed Stochastic Linear Time-Invariant State-Space Systems with Inputs and Sub-Gaussian Noise

Abstract: In this paper we derive a Probably Approximately Correct (PAC)-Bayesian error bound for partially observed linear time-invariant (LTI) stochastic dynamical systems in state-space form with inputs and sub-Gaussian noise. Such bounds are widespread in machine learning, and they are useful for characterizing the predictive power of models learned from finitely many data points. The bound derived in this paper relates the expectation of prediction errors with the prediction error generated by the model on the data used for learning. In addition, we show that it can also be used to derive bounds for the parameter estimation error. In turn, this allows us to provide finite-sample error bounds for the prediction error and parameter estimation error for a wide class of system identification algorithms. Furthermore, as LTI systems are a sub-class of recurrent neural networks (RNNs), these error bounds could be a first step towards PAC-Bayesian bounds for RNNs.

Tue 8 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Predicting how systems change over time can be hard when you can only see part of the system and measurements have noise. The authors derived a way to estimate how accurate predictions will be after learning from limited noisy data. Their approach links the average error on new data to the error on the data used for learning, helping to understand and limit mistakes. This also helps measure how well the underlying system parameters are learned. Since linear time-invariant systems are a simple kind of recurrent neural network, this work could help develop error bounds for more complex models too.
Open → 2609.08740v1

Actionable certificates enable flexible winning strategies in uncertain games

Towards Actionable Strategy Certificates in Stochastic Parity Games

Abstract: We propose a new approach for synthesizing large sets of winning strategies in stochastic parity games (2.5-player games) with quantitative objectives. Instead of computing a single, fully specified winning strategy, we introduce Actionable Strategy Certificates (ASCerts) as a local and permissive representation of a large class of system player winning strategies. To this end, we extend known certificates for stochastic invariants to the setting of games. Our certificates prove that synthesized strategies remain within a safe region of the game with probability at least $λ\in [0,1]$. As such, the certificates enhance the trustworthiness of synthesized strategies. The crux of our approach is to reinterpret and leverage the certificates as concise, local, and permissive representation of (possibly infinitely many) strategies. By carefully combining our certificates for stochastic invariants with strategy templates for almost-sure winning, we obtain a novel local representation of quantitatively winning strategies in stochastic parity games. This enables efficient synthesis, adaptation, and runtime strategy extraction, making ASCerts well suited for logical control in uncertain and adversarial environments. We provide a proof-of-concept implementation and demonstrate the potential of applying ASCerts in runtime adaptation on a case study.

Tue 8 SeptComputer Science and Game Theory
The gist
Winning in complex games with chance and decisions can be tough to guarantee. The authors create a new way to represent many possible winning strategies using small, clear certificates that prove safety with high probability. This approach allows easier strategy creation, adjustment, and use even during play in uncertain and competitive settings. They show how this method works on a real example and provide a basic software tool for it.
Open → 2609.08529v1