In this paper, a complete framework for Autonomous Self Driving is implemented. LIDAR, Camera and IMU sensors are used together. The entire data communication is managed using Robot Operating System which provides a robust platform for implementation of Robotics Projects. Jetson Nano is used to provide powerful on-board processing capabilities. Sensor fusion is performed on the data received from the different sensors to improve the accuracy of the decision making and inferences that we derive from the data. This data is then used to create a localized map of the environment. In this step, the position of the vehicle is obtained with respect to the Mapping done using the sensor data.The different SLAM techniques used for this purpose are Hector Mapping and GMapping which are widely used mapping techniques in ROS. Apart from SLAM that primarily uses LIDAR data, Visual Odometry is implemented using a Monocular Camera. The sensor fused data is then used by Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization for car localization. Using the localized map developed, Path Planning techniques like "TEB planner" and "Dynamic Window Approach" are implemented for autonomous navigation of the vehicle. The last step in the Project is the implantation of Control which is the final decision making block in the pipeline that gives speed and steering data for the navigation that is compatible with Ackermann Kinematics. The implementation of such a control block under a ROS framework using the three sensors, viz, LIDAR, Camera and IMU is a novel approach that is undertaken in this project.

Real-world datasets exhibit imbalances of varying types and degrees. Several techniques based on re-weighting and margin adjustment of loss are often used to enhance the performance of neural networks, particularly on minority classes. In this work, we analyze the class-imbalanced learning problem by examining the loss landscape of neural networks trained with re-weighting and margin-based techniques. Specifically, we examine the spectral density of Hessian of class-wise loss, through which we observe that the network weights converge to a saddle point in the loss landscapes of minority classes. Following this observation, we also find that optimization methods designed to escape from saddle points can be effectively used to improve generalization on minority classes. We further theoretically and empirically demonstrate that Sharpness-Aware Minimization (SAM), a recent technique that encourages convergence to a flat minima, can be effectively used to escape saddle points for minority classes. Using SAM results in a 6.2\% increase in accuracy on the minority classes over the state-of-the-art Vector Scaling Loss, leading to an overall average increase of 4\% across imbalanced datasets. The code is available at: https://github.com/val-iisc/Saddle-LongTail.

Three main points: 1. Data Science (DS) will be increasingly important to heliophysics; 2. Methods of heliophysics science discovery will continually evolve, requiring the use of learning technologies [e.g., machine learning (ML)] that are applied rigorously and that are capable of supporting discovery; and 3. To grow with the pace of data, technology, and workforce changes, heliophysics requires a new approach to the representation of knowledge.

Image classification with small datasets has been an active research area in the recent past. However, as research in this scope is still in its infancy, two key ingredients are missing for ensuring reliable and truthful progress: a systematic and extensive overview of the state of the art, and a common benchmark to allow for objective comparisons between published methods. This article addresses both issues. First, we systematically organize and connect past studies to consolidate a community that is currently fragmented and scattered. Second, we propose a common benchmark that allows for an objective comparison of approaches. It consists of five datasets spanning various domains (e.g., natural images, medical imagery, satellite data) and data types (RGB, grayscale, multispectral). We use this benchmark to re-evaluate the standard cross-entropy baseline and ten existing methods published between 2017 and 2021 at renowned venues. Surprisingly, we find that thorough hyper-parameter tuning on held-out validation data results in a highly competitive baseline and highlights a stunted growth of performance over the years. Indeed, only a single specialized method dating back to 2019 clearly wins our benchmark and outperforms the baseline classifier.

Dataset scaling, also known as normalization, is an essential preprocessing step in a machine learning pipeline. It is aimed at adjusting attributes scales in a way that they all vary within the same range. This transformation is known to improve the performance of classification models, but there are several scaling techniques to choose from, and this choice is not generally done carefully. In this paper, we execute a broad experiment comparing the impact of 5 scaling techniques on the performances of 20 classification algorithms among monolithic and ensemble models, applying them to 82 publicly available datasets with varying imbalance ratios. Results show that the choice of scaling technique matters for classification performance, and the performance difference between the best and the worst scaling technique is relevant and statistically significant in most cases. They also indicate that choosing an inadequate technique can be more detrimental to classification performance than not scaling the data at all. We also show how the performance variation of an ensemble model, considering different scaling techniques, tends to be dictated by that of its base model. Finally, we discuss the relationship between a model's sensitivity to the choice of scaling technique and its performance and provide insights into its applicability on different model deployment scenarios. Full results and source code for the experiments in this paper are available in a GitHub repository.\footnote{https://github.com/amorimlb/scaling\_matters}

The devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic makes it imperative to design automated techniques for a fast and accurate detection. We propose a novel non-invasive tool, using deep learning and imaging, for delineating COVID-19 infection in lungs. The Ensembling Attention-based Multi-scaled Convolution network (EAMC), employing Leave-One-Patient-Out (LOPO) training, exhibits high sensitivity and precision in outlining infected regions along with assessment of severity. The Attention module combines contextual with local information, at multiple scales, for accurate segmentation. Ensemble learning integrates heterogeneity of decision through different base classifiers. The superiority of EAMC, even with severe class imbalance, is established through comparison with existing state-of-the-art learning models over four publicly-available COVID-19 datasets. The results are suggestive of the relevance of deep learning in providing assistive intelligence to medical practitioners, when they are overburdened with patients as in pandemics. Its clinical significance lies in its unprecedented scope in providing low-cost decision-making for patients lacking specialized healthcare at remote locations.

Objective: Imbalances of the electrolyte concentration levels in the body can lead to catastrophic consequences, but accurate and accessible measurements could improve patient outcomes. While blood tests provide accurate measurements, they are invasive and the laboratory analysis can be slow or inaccessible. In contrast, an electrocardiogram (ECG) is a widely adopted tool which is quick and simple to acquire. However, the problem of estimating continuous electrolyte concentrations directly from ECGs is not well-studied. We therefore investigate if regression methods can be used for accurate ECG-based prediction of electrolyte concentrations. Methods: We explore the use of deep neural networks (DNNs) for this task. We analyze the regression performance across four electrolytes, utilizing a novel dataset containing over 290000 ECGs. For improved understanding, we also study the full spectrum from continuous predictions to binary classification of extreme concentration levels. To enhance clinical usefulness, we finally extend to a probabilistic regression approach and evaluate different uncertainty estimates. Results: We find that the performance varies significantly between different electrolytes, which is clinically justified in the interplay of electrolytes and their manifestation in the ECG. We also compare the regression accuracy with that of traditional machine learning models, demonstrating superior performance of DNNs. Conclusion: Discretization can lead to good classification performance, but does not help solve the original problem of predicting continuous concentration levels. While probabilistic regression demonstrates potential practical usefulness, the uncertainty estimates are not particularly well-calibrated. Significance: Our study is a first step towards accurate and reliable ECG-based prediction of electrolyte concentration levels.

Candidate axiom scoring is the task of assessing the acceptability of a candidate axiom against the evidence provided by known facts or data. The ability to score candidate axioms reliably is required for automated schema or ontology induction, but it can also be valuable for ontology and/or knowledge graph validation. Accurate axiom scoring heuristics are often computationally expensive, which is an issue if you wish to use them in iterative search techniques like level-wise generate-and-test or evolutionary algorithms, which require scoring a large number of candidate axioms. We address the problem of developing a predictive model as a substitute for reasoning that predicts the possibility score of candidate class axioms and is quick enough to be employed in such situations. We use a semantic similarity measure taken from an ontology's subsumption structure for this purpose. We show that the approach provided in this work can accurately learn the possibility scores of candidate OWL class axioms and that it can do so for a variety of OWL class axioms.

The rapid growth of machine translation (MT) systems has necessitated comprehensive studies to meta-evaluate evaluation metrics being used, which enables a better selection of metrics that best reflect MT quality. Unfortunately, most of the research focuses on high-resource languages, mainly English, the observations for which may not always apply to other languages. Indian languages, having over a billion speakers, are linguistically different from English, and to date, there has not been a systematic study of evaluating MT systems from English into Indian languages. In this paper, we fill this gap by creating an MQM dataset consisting of 7000 fine-grained annotations, spanning 5 Indian languages and 7 MT systems, and use it to establish correlations between annotator scores and scores obtained using existing automatic metrics. Our results show that pre-trained metrics, such as COMET, have the highest correlations with annotator scores. Additionally, we find that the metrics do not adequately capture fluency-based errors in Indian languages, and there is a need to develop metrics focused on Indian languages. We hope that our dataset and analysis will help promote further research in this area.

The intersection of ground reaction forces in a small, point-like area above the center of mass has been observed in computer simulation models and human walking experiments. This intersection point is often called a virtual pivot point (VPP). With the VPP observed so ubiquitously, it is commonly assumed to provide postural stability for bipedal walking. In this study, we challenge this assumption by questioning if walking without a VPP is possible. Deriving gaits with a neuromuscular reflex model through multi-stage optimization, we found stable walking patterns that show no signs of the VPP-typical intersection of ground reaction forces. We, therefore, conclude that a VPP is not necessary for upright, stable walking. The non-VPP gaits found are stable and successfully rejected step-down perturbations, which indicates that a VPP is not primarily responsible for locomotion robustness or postural stability. However, a collision-based analysis indicates that non-VPP gaits increased the potential for collisions between the vectors of the center of mass velocity and ground reaction forces during walking, suggesting an increased mechanical cost of transport. Although our computer simulation results have yet to be confirmed through experimental studies, they already strongly challenge the existing explanation of the VPP's function and provide an alternative explanation.