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This paper introduces a method of identifying a maximal set of safe strategies from data for stochastic systems with unknown dynamics using barrier certificates. The first step is learning the dynamics of the system via Gaussian Process (GP) regression and obtaining probabilistic errors for this estimate. Then, we develop an algorithm for constructing piecewise stochastic barrier functions to find a maximal permissible strategy set using the learned GP model, which is based on sequentially pruning the worst controls until a maximal set is identified. The permissible strategies are guaranteed to maintain probabilistic safety for the true system. This is especially important for learned systems, because a rich strategy space enables additional data collection and complex behaviors while remaining safe. Case studies on linear and nonlinear systems demonstrate that increasing the size of the dataset for learning grows the permissible strategy set.
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This content will become publicly available on January 23, 2026
Blending physics with data using an efficient Gaussian process regression with soft inequality and monotonicity constraints
In this work, we propose a new Gaussian process (GP) regression framework that enforces the physical constraints in a probabilistic manner. Specifically, we focus on inequality and monotonicity constraints. This GP model is trained by the quantum-inspired Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (QHMC) algorithm, which is an efficient way to sample from a broad class of distributions by allowing a particle to have a random mass matrix with a probability distribution. Integrating the QHMC into the inequality and monotonicity constrained GP regression in the probabilistic sense, our approach enhances the accuracy and reduces the variance in the resulting GP model. Additionally, the probabilistic aspect of the method leads to reduced computational expenses and execution time. Further, we present an adaptive learning algorithm that guides the selection of constraint locations. The accuracy and efficiency of the method are demonstrated in estimating the hyperparameter of high-dimensional GP models under noisy conditions, reconstructing the sparsely observed state of a steady state heat transport problem, and learning a conservative tracer distribution from sparse tracer concentration measurements.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2143915
- PAR ID:
- 10617033
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering
- Volume:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2297-3079
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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