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Published work

12 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Adaptive Domain Decomposition Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Traffic State Estimation with Sparse Sensor Data

Traffic state estimation from sparse fixed sensors is challenging because physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) tend to over-smooth the shockwaves admitted by the Lighthill-Whitham-Richards (LWR) model. This study proposes Adaptive Domain Decomposition Physics-Informed Neural Networks (ADD-PINN), a two-stage residual-guided framework for LWR-based offline speed-field reconstruction. A coarse global PINN is first trained; its spatial residual profile is then used to place subdomain boundaries and initialize child subnetworks in a decomposition-enabled mode, while a data-driven shock indicator can retain a single-domain fallback when localized evidence of transition is weak. The primary offline I-24 MOTION evaluation spans five days, five sensor configurations, and ten seeds per configuration, yielding 1,500 runs in total. Against neural and physics-informed baselines, ADD-PINN attains the lowest relative L2 error in 18 of 25 configurations and in 14 of 15 sparse-sensing cases, while training 2.4 times faster than the extended PINN (XPINN) baseline. An ablation study supports spatial-only decomposition as an effective default for fixed-sensor traffic reconstruction in the evaluated settings. Supplementary Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) experiments serve as a negative control: the shock indicator suppresses decomposition in all 50 runs, and the default single-domain fallback ranks first across all sensor configurations. These results support residual-guided spatial decomposition as an effective PINN-family design for offline reconstruction when sparse fixed sensing coincides with localized transition regions.

preprint2022arXiv

Can Mean Field Control (MFC) Approximate Cooperative Multi Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) with Non-Uniform Interaction?

Mean-Field Control (MFC) is a powerful tool to solve Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) problems. Recent studies have shown that MFC can well-approximate MARL when the population size is large and the agents are exchangeable. Unfortunately, the presumption of exchangeability implies that all agents uniformly interact with one another which is not true in many practical scenarios. In this article, we relax the assumption of exchangeability and model the interaction between agents via an arbitrary doubly stochastic matrix. As a result, in our framework, the mean-field `seen' by different agents are different. We prove that, if the reward of each agent is an affine function of the mean-field seen by that agent, then one can approximate such a non-uniform MARL problem via its associated MFC problem within an error of $e=\mathcal{O}(\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}[\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|} + \sqrt{|\mathcal{U}|}])$ where $N$ is the population size and $|\mathcal{X}|$, $|\mathcal{U}|$ are the sizes of state and action spaces respectively. Finally, we develop a Natural Policy Gradient (NPG) algorithm that can provide a solution to the non-uniform MARL with an error $\mathcal{O}(\max\{e,ε\})$ and a sample complexity of $\mathcal{O}(ε^{-3})$ for any $ε>0$.

preprint2022arXiv

Deep Learning based Coverage and Rate Manifold Estimation in Cellular Networks

This article proposes Convolutional Neural Network-based Auto Encoder (CNN-AE) to predict location-dependent rate and coverage probability of a network from its topology. We train the CNN utilising BS location data of India, Brazil, Germany, and the USA and compare its performance with stochastic geometry (SG) based analytical models. In comparison to the best-fitted SG-based model, CNN-AE improves the coverage and rate prediction errors by a margin of as large as $40\%$ and $25\%$ respectively. As an application, we propose a low complexity, provably convergent algorithm that, using trained CNN-AE, can compute locations of new BSs that need to be deployed in a network in order to satisfy pre-defined spatially heterogeneous performance goals.

preprint2022arXiv

On the Approximation of Cooperative Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) using Mean Field Control (MFC)

Mean field control (MFC) is an effective way to mitigate the curse of dimensionality of cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) problems. This work considers a collection of $N_{\mathrm{pop}}$ heterogeneous agents that can be segregated into $K$ classes such that the $k$-th class contains $N_k$ homogeneous agents. We aim to prove approximation guarantees of the MARL problem for this heterogeneous system by its corresponding MFC problem. We consider three scenarios where the reward and transition dynamics of all agents are respectively taken to be functions of $(1)$ joint state and action distributions across all classes, $(2)$ individual distributions of each class, and $(3)$ marginal distributions of the entire population. We show that, in these cases, the $K$-class MARL problem can be approximated by MFC with errors given as $e_1=\mathcal{O}(\frac{\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|}+\sqrt{|\mathcal{U}|}}{N_{\mathrm{pop}}}\sum_{k}\sqrt{N_k})$, $e_2=\mathcal{O}(\left[\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|}+\sqrt{|\mathcal{U}|}\right]\sum_{k}\frac{1}{\sqrt{N_k}})$ and $e_3=\mathcal{O}\left(\left[\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|}+\sqrt{|\mathcal{U}|}\right]\left[\frac{A}{N_{\mathrm{pop}}}\sum_{k\in[K]}\sqrt{N_k}+\frac{B}{\sqrt{N_{\mathrm{pop}}}}\right]\right)$, respectively, where $A, B$ are some constants and $|\mathcal{X}|,|\mathcal{U}|$ are the sizes of state and action spaces of each agent. Finally, we design a Natural Policy Gradient (NPG) based algorithm that, in the three cases stated above, can converge to an optimal MARL policy within $\mathcal{O}(e_j)$ error with a sample complexity of $\mathcal{O}(e_j^{-3})$, $j\in\{1,2,3\}$, respectively.

preprint2022arXiv

On the Near-Optimality of Local Policies in Large Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

We show that in a cooperative $N$-agent network, one can design locally executable policies for the agents such that the resulting discounted sum of average rewards (value) well approximates the optimal value computed over all (including non-local) policies. Specifically, we prove that, if $|\mathcal{X}|, |\mathcal{U}|$ denote the size of state, and action spaces of individual agents, then for sufficiently small discount factor, the approximation error is given by $\mathcal{O}(e)$ where $e\triangleq \frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\left[\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|}+\sqrt{|\mathcal{U}|}\right]$. Moreover, in a special case where the reward and state transition functions are independent of the action distribution of the population, the error improves to $\mathcal{O}(e)$ where $e\triangleq \frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\sqrt{|\mathcal{X}|}$. Finally, we also devise an algorithm to explicitly construct a local policy. With the help of our approximation results, we further establish that the constructed local policy is within $\mathcal{O}(\max\{e,ε\})$ distance of the optimal policy, and the sample complexity to achieve such a local policy is $\mathcal{O}(ε^{-3})$, for any $ε>0$.

preprint2021arXiv

Mobility-based contact exposure explains the disparity of spread of COVID-19 in urban neighborhoods

The rapid early spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. was experienced very differently by different socioeconomic groups and business industries. In this study, we study aggregate mobility patterns of New York City and Chicago to identify the relationship between the amount of interpersonal contact between people in urban neighborhoods and the disparity in the growth of positive cases among these groups. We introduce an aggregate Contact Exposure Index (CEI) to measure exposure due to this interpersonal contact and combine it with social distancing metrics to show its effect on positive case growth. With the help of structural equations modeling, we find that the effect of exposure on case growth was consistently positive and that it remained consistently higher in lower-income neighborhoods, suggesting a causal path of income on case growth via contact exposure. Using the CEI, schools and restaurants are identified as high-exposure industries, and the estimation suggests that implementing specific mobility restrictions on these point-of-interest categories are most effective. This analysis can be useful in providing insights for government officials targeting specific population groups and businesses to reduce infection spread as reopening efforts continue to expand across the nation.

preprint2020arXiv

Demand-Adaptive Route Planning and Scheduling for Urban Hub-based High-Capacity Mobility-on-Demand Services

In this study, we propose a three-stage framework for the planning and scheduling of high-capacity mobility-on-demand services (e.g., micro transit and flexible transit) at urban activity hubs. The proposed framework consists of (1) the route generation step to and from the activity hub with connectivity to existing transit systems, and (2) the robust route scheduling step which determines the vehicle assignment and route headway under demand uncertainty. Efficient exact and heuristic algorithms are developed for identifying the minimum number of routes that maximize passenger coverage, and a matching scheme is proposed to combine routes to and from the hub into roundtrips optimally. With the generated routes, the robust route scheduling problem is formulated as a two-stage robust optimization problem. Model reformulations are introduced to solve the robust optimization problem into the global optimum. In this regard, the proposed framework presents both algorithmic and analytic solutions for developing the hub-based transit services in response to the varying passenger demand over a short-time period. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, comprehensive numerical experiments are conducted for planning the HHMoD services at the JFK airport in New York City (NYC). The results show the superior performance of the proposed route generation algorithm to maximize the citywide coverage more efficiently. The results also demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the robust route schedules under normal demand conditions and against worst-case-oriented realizations of passenger demand.

preprint2020arXiv

Modeling disease spreading with adaptive behavior considering local and global information dissemination

The study proposes a modeling framework for investigating the disease dynamics with adaptive human behavior during a disease outbreak, considering the impacts of both local observations and global information. One important application scenario is that commuters may adjust their behavior upon observing the symptoms and countermeasures from their physical contacts during travel, thus altering the trajectories of a disease outbreak. We introduce the heterogeneous mean-field (HMF) approach in a multiplex network setting to jointly model the spreading dynamics of the infectious disease in the contact network and the dissemination dynamics of information in the observation network. The disease spreading is captured using the classic susceptible-infectious-susceptible (SIS) process, while an SIS-alike process models the spread of awareness termed as unaware-aware-unaware (UAU). And the use of multiplex network helps capture the interplay between disease spreading and information dissemination, and how the dynamics of one may affect the other. Theoretical analyses suggest that there are three potential equilibrium states, depending on the percolation strength of diseases and information. The dissemination of information may help shape herd immunity among the population, thus suppressing and eradicating the disease outbreak. Finally, numerical experiments using the contact networks among metro travelers are provided to shed light on the disease and information dynamics in the real-world scenarios and gain insights on the resilience of transportation system against the risk of infectious diseases.

preprint2020arXiv

Modeling the spread of infectious disease in urban areas with travel contagion

In this study, we develop the mathematical model to understand the coupling between the spreading dynamics of infectious diseases and the mobility dynamics through urban transportation systems. We first describe the mobility dynamics of the urban population as the process of leaving from home, traveling to and from the activity locations, and engaging in activities. We then embed the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) process over the mobility dynamics and develops the spatial SEIR model with travel contagion (Trans-SEIR), which explicitly accounts for contagions both during travel and during daily activities. We investigate the theoretical properties of the proposed model and show how activity contagion and travel contagion contribute to the average number of secondary infections. In the numerical experiments, we explore how the urban transportation system may alter the fundamental dynamics of the infectious disease, change the number of secondary infections, promote the synchronization of the disease across the city, and affect the peak of the disease outbreaks. The Trans-SEIR model is further applied to the understand the disease dynamics during the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City, where we show how the activity and travel contagion may be distributed and how effective travel control can be implemented with only limited resources. The Trans-SEIR model along with the findings in our study may have significant contributions to improving our understanding of the coupling between urban transportation and disease dynamics, the development of quarantine and control measures of disease system, and promoting the idea of disease-resilient urban transportation networks.

preprint2020arXiv

Non-Compulsory Measures Sufficiently Reduced Human Mobility in Tokyo during the COVID-19 Epidemic

While large scale mobility data has become a popular tool to monitor the mobility patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of non-compulsory measures in Tokyo, Japan on human mobility patterns has been under-studied. Here, we analyze the temporal changes in human mobility behavior, social contact rates, and their correlations with the transmissibility of COVID-19, using mobility data collected from more than 200K anonymized mobile phone users in Tokyo. The analysis concludes that by April 15th (1 week into state of emergency), human mobility behavior decreased by around 50%, resulting in a 70% reduction of social contacts in Tokyo, showing the effectiveness of non-compulsory measures. Furthermore, the reduction in data-driven human mobility metrics showed correlation with the decrease in estimated effective reproduction number of COVID-19 in Tokyo. Such empirical insights could inform policy makers on deciding sufficient levels of mobility reduction to contain the disease.

preprint2020arXiv

Optimal Policies for Recovery of Multiple Systems After Disruptions

We consider a scenario where a system experiences a disruption, and the states (representing health values) of its components continue to reduce over time, unless they are acted upon by a controller. Given this dynamical setting, we consider the problem of finding an optimal control (or switching) sequence to maximize the sum of the weights of the components whose states are brought back to the maximum value. We first provide several characteristics of the optimal policy for the general (fully heterogeneous) version of this problem. We then show that under certain conditions on the rates of repair and deterioration, we can explicitly characterize the optimal control policy as a function of the states. When the deterioration rate (when not being repaired) is larger than or equal to the repair rate, and the deterioration and repair rates as well as the weights are homogeneous across all the components, the optimal control policy is to target the component that has the largest state value at each time step. On the other hand, if the repair rates are sufficiently larger than the deterioration rates, the optimal control policy is to target the component whose state minus the deterioration rate is least in a particular subset of components at each time step.

preprint2020arXiv

Scaling of contact networks for epidemic spreading in urban transit systems

Improved mobility not only contributes to more intensive human activities but also facilitates the spread of communicable disease, thus constituting a major threat to billions of urban commuters. In this study, we present a multi-city investigation of communicable diseases percolating among metro travelers. We use smart card data from three megacities in China to construct individual-level contact networks, based on which the spread of disease is modeled and studied. We observe that, though differing in urban forms, network layouts, and mobility patterns, the metro systems of the three cities share similar contact network structures. This motivates us to develop a universal generation model that captures the distributions of the number of contacts as well as the contact duration among individual travelers. This model explains how the structural properties of the metro contact network are associated with the risk level of communicable diseases. Our results highlight the vulnerability of urban mass transit systems during disease outbreaks and suggest important planning and operation strategies for mitigating the risk of communicable diseases.