Peer Revenue Impact factor: volatile

Papers

Fresh from arXiv, typeset properly. Highlighted words trade on the market.

Electrical Engineering and Systems Science

eess Watch Electrical Engineering and Systems Science (sign in to use)

Sunday 2 August

Systems and Control

Fundamental Limitations of Data-Driven Control: A Statistical Decision Perspective

Substantial research efforts have been devoted to the design of data-driven controllers; however, comparatively less is known about their statistical performance and fundamental limitations. This contribution develops a statistical decision framework for data-driven control, in which a controller is evaluated by its risk, defined as the expected performance degradation relative to the oracle model-based controller, and by its average risk over the parameter space. Within this framework, we propose a collection of design principles for data-driven controllers. We further derive lower bounds on risks by combining the bias-variance decomposition with the Cramér-Rao inequality. In particular, the optimal bias that attains the lower bound for the average risk is determined by calculus of variations, thereby making the bias-variance tradeoff in data-driven control explicit. Moreover, the derived bound reveals a “waterbed” effect in data-driven control: any improvement in risk relative to the lower bound over one region of the parameter space must be compensated by deterioration elsewhere. We illustrate the proposed framework on two canonical data-driven control problems: optimal feedforward control and the linear quadratic regulator benchmark. By comparing several representative data-driven controllers with the derived lower bounds, we sharpen the statistical interpretation of existing methods and reveal quantitative limitations that no controller design can avoid.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jiabao He, Feiran Zhao, Yushan Li, Yue Ju, Florian Dörfler, Håkan Hjalmarsson

Signal Processing

Security in Low-Altitude ISAC with Coupled Communication and Sensing Information Leakage

Secure information transmission in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems deployed in low-altitude wireless networks (LAWN) is particularly challenging due to the open airspace and the broadcast nature of wireless signals reused for both communication and sensing, which give rise to more severe and complex security threats. This paper investigates the joint communication and sensing security of low-altitude ISAC systems where a communication eavesdropper (CEve) cooperates with and assists a sensing eavesdropper (SEve), leading to coupled communication and sensing information leakage. We define a recoverable signal power ratio (RSR) that quantifies the degree of coupling between communication eavesdropping and sensing information leakage. Based on this coupling, we formulate a joint eavesdropping mutual information (MI) that facilitates unified analysis and optimization for the overall security. Subsequently, we design the transmit beamformer that maximizes the weighted sum of legitimate communication and sensing MI under the joint information-leakage constraint. Simulations show that the proposed scheme converges rapidly and effectively exploits the coupling between communication eavesdropping capability and sensing information leakage.
Read the full abstract

All authors Meiding Liu, Yuyuan Fang, Zhengchun Zhou, Qiao Shi, Pingzhi Fan

Signal Processing

Computational Microwave Localization and Material Identification Using Conformal Metasurface Antennas

This paper presents a simple and compact microwave sensing approach using conformal frequency-diverse metasurfaces to jointly localize and identify materials within a pipe. The frequency-diverse metasurfaces consist of an electrically large SIW patterned with metamaterial radiators with diverse resonant frequencies. These antennas can generate spatially distinct patterns that can encode information into simple frequency sweeps. Two such antennas are wrapped around a pipe to localize and identify objects inside, thereby replacing large, complex tomographic antenna arrays with simple frequency sweeps. To do that, a sensing matrix is experimentally populated using targets made of different materials placed in a grid of possible locations. Using computational processing, we show that the system successfully distinguishes among metal, wood, and nylon rods and accurately localizes their positions using unique frequency signatures. The extension of this method to two-object localization is examined. The results highlight a simple, low-cost, and reliable framework for microwave sensing that enables material characterization and localization without large arrays, scanning, or complex hardware.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

Degeneracy-Aware Resource Allocation for Resilient 6G RAN

Heterogeneous 6G radio access networks (RANs) must allocate resources reliably under interference, latency limits, imperfect channel state information (CSI), and architectural diversity. We propose a degeneracy-aware resource allocation (DG-RA) framework that casts multi-architecture orchestration as a probabilistic game and, unlike single-solution optimization, deliberately favors allocations realizable by many structurally distinct yet performance-equivalent strategy profiles. Resilience is quantified across three layers through Degeneracy-Weighted Path Robustness (DWPR), Functional Substitution Score (FSS), and an Algorithmic Resilience Quotient (ARQ). Across centralized (C-RAN), open (O-RAN), virtualized (V-RAN), and hybrid RAN architectures, and benchmarked against a fractional-programming optimizer, DG-RA matches the state-of-the-art throughput and outage at the static operating point, then exploits its equivalence set to recover $\sim$$99\%$ of throughput from a resource-unit failure with a single switch, where a single-solution optimizer needs tens of iterations to re-converge. The results recast degeneracy not as a rate booster but as a precomputed resilience reserve for disruption-tolerant 6G orchestration.
Read the full abstract

Systems and Control · Cross-listed from cs.CE

State space modeling of RLC ladder circuits

Large-scale electrical circuits span a wide range of research topics from highly integrated circuits in microelectronics up to power grids for cities and countries. As the complexity increases significantly by each additional component, we find a need to describe large-scale circuits in a manner easy to understand. In this article, we study cascades of simple circuits consisting of resistors, capacitors and inductors, which we call ladder circuits. Such electrical ladders are common in electronics to design filters and they are also used in other disciplines, for example to describe diffusion or wave phenomena. In particular, we derive linear time-invariant state space models for three simple ladder types and we discuss the specific matrix structures of the large-scale second-order differential equations. Furthermore, we exemplify our findings with simulations to unveil the intrinsic dynamical behavior of each ladder type.
Read the full abstract

Systems and Control

Data-Driven Domain of Attraction Estimation via Convergent Koopman-Zubov Approximation

The computation of a domain of attraction (DOA) around an equilibrium point is a key issue in nonlinear stability analysis, which boils down to the difficult problem of searching for a Zubov function. With an operator-theoretical viewpoint of nonlinear systems, the concept of Zubov–Koopman operator has been introduced. However, due to the lack of convergence guarantee on the infinite-times action of Zubov–Koopman operator, the Zubov function estimate is unamenable to a theoretical bound under data-based learning errors. In this paper, considering a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) with a linear–radial product kernel, the operator is proved to have a spectrum inside the unit circle. Hence, by augmenting this RKHS with constant-valued functions, the Zubov function that characterizes the DOA is obtained as the unique invariant element under the operator's action. This new RKHS formulation allows an efficient kernel-based estimation, which has an at most sectorially bounded error that scales down with the sample size. The proposed approach is tested with numerical examples, showing high accuracy of on-DOA/off-DOA classification of states, with two order-of-magnitude faster computation than neural networks.
Read the full abstract

Audio and Speech Processing

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Personalized and Culturally Adaptive Emotional TTS via Interactive Optimization of Individual Emotion Perception Spaces

The rise of conversational AI has increased interest in emotional Text-to-Speech (TTS). Most systems rely on discrete emotion labels, which fail to capture the nuanced nature of human affect. Recent models employ dimensional representations such as Russell's arousal-valence (A-V) model, offering finer control. However, emotional perception varies across individuals and cultures, which may cause mismatches between modeled and perceived emotions. We propose a personalized and culturally adaptive emotional TTS framework that performs interactive optimization of individualized A-V perception spaces using an Interactive Genetic Algorithm. By adapting emotion representations to each listener, the system produces speech with more perceptually aligned emotional expression than models using averaged A-V values. Evaluations with Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian participants highlight the importance of personalization and cultural adaptation for moving beyond one-size-fits-all emotional TTS.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

Saturation-Aware Predictive Quantization for Low-Power ECG Acquisition: A Benchmark of Taylor, Adaptive-Order, Kalman, and LSTM Predictors

Wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors require energy-efficient analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), yet conventional successive-approximation-register (SAR) ADCs repeatedly resolve slowly varying most significant bits. Predictive quantization (PQ) instead estimates the next sample and quantizes only the residual, thereby reducing the required conversion depth. Its principal failure mode is residual saturation, which occurs when prediction error exceeds the residual ADC range and is irreversibly clipped. We compared four one-step-ahead predictors under a common 10-bit, saturation-aware PQ model with residual widths from 2 to 8 bits. The benchmark included first-order Taylor extrapolation, an adaptive-order predictor, a constant-velocity Kalman filter, and a two-layer long short-term memory (LSTM) network. We used an open-loop protocol in which all predictors received past original samples. This protocol isolates intrinsic prediction performance from recursive reconstruction-error propagation. Saturation rate (SR) was the primary metric, complemented by overflow energy ratio (OER), which weights each event by its squared overflow depth. On a 5,317-sample excerpt from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database Record 101, the Kalman predictor performed best at Br=6. It achieved 30.88 dB SNR, 2.16% SR, and 12.93% OER, compared with 28.39 dB, 2.69%, and 25.29% for Taylor extrapolation. The adaptive-order predictor achieved 29.61 dB SNR and 2.44% SR using three registers, two comparators, and no multiplier. The LSTM reached 29.28 dB SNR and did not outperform the model-based predictors on this limited-data benchmark. Under the evaluated excerpt and open-loop protocol, Br=6 provided a favorable balance between reconstruction fidelity and conversion depth. Closed-loop, multi-subject, and hardware validation are required before system-level energy or deployment claims can be made.
Read the full abstract

All authors Xiyuan Feng, Yuxiang Zhao, Jie Xiong, Dian Lin, Yunlei Zhong, Wei Liu, Zhongheng Ji, Ruiyu Tian, Chenhao Zhuo, Yue Yin

Systems and Control · Cross-listed from cs.GT

MixedComplementarityProblems.jl: A Fast, Batched, Open-Source Interior Point Solver for Mixed Complementarity Problems

Mixed complementarity problems (MCPs) arise as the first-order optimality conditions of nonlinear programs and noncooperative games, and provide a natural formulation for multi-agent trajectory optimization problems that appear throughout robotics. The dominant solver for problems of this form is PATH, which offers strong performance on robotics problems but remains closed-source. We present MixedComplementarityProblems.jl, an open-source, pure Julia implementation of an interior point method for parametric MCPs that: (i) matches PATH's reliability on standard benchmarks, (ii) natively supports batched, parallel processing of many parameter instances, either across CPU threads or on an NVIDIA GPU, and (iii) supports efficient automatic differentiation of solutions with respect to problem parameters. On a multi-agent lane-change trajectory game representative of robotics planning problems, our CPU-multithreaded batched solver clears a batch of parametric instances ~100x faster than sequential calls to PATH. A GPU backend, running the same solver implementation unmodified, also clears these batches far faster than PATH, but does not outperform the multithreaded CPU on this problem; the GPU pulls ahead only once each per-instance KKT system grows large, and we characterize this regime dependence. We describe the solver's interior point formulation, the abstraction that lets a single solver implementation run unmodified across dense, batched-sparse, and single-large linear-algebra backends, and report benchmarks against PATH on both randomly generated quadratic programs and trajectory games.
Read the full abstract

Image and Video Processing · Cross-listed from cs.CV

Swimm3R: Splatting with Medium-aware SfM for Underwater 3D Reconstruction

We propose Swimm3R, a unified framework that combines medium-aware structure-from-motion (SfM) with Underwater Beta Splatting to address scattering- and attenuation-induced failures in underwater 3D reconstruction. Swimm3R distills in-air geometric priors into a feed-forward backbone and uses a physics head to regress underwater image-formation parameters, camera poses, and restored point clouds. Additionally, we introduce Underwater Beta Splatting, which extends Gaussian splatting with Beta primitives and scattering-aware geometric gradients for stable underwater geometry representation. We further establish the Barbados underwater video dataset to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in challenging underwater environments. On this dataset, Swimm3R robustly recovers underwater scene structure under challenging scattering conditions, yielding coherent seafloor geometry. Using these predicted point clouds, the proposed Underwater Beta Splatting improves average PSNR by $1.47$ dB over WaterSplatting while increasing downstream localization performance by $2.0$ and $2.4$ percentage points in RRA@15 and RTA@15, respectively.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

A Wideband Multibeam Planar Quasi-Yagi Array Antenna Based on Parasitic Pixel Strips

This letter presents a low-complexity parasitic pixel strip (PPS) structure for array antenna to generate six radiations with flexible beam control. To realize multibeam operation, three groups of symmetrical strip-shaped pixels are integrated with the feed antenna, the connection state of which can be controlled by PIN diode. Leveraging the reconfigurable parasitic configuration, the coupling path of the antenna can be strategically manipulated, achieving the desired multibeam property. Thus, by utilizing the PPS structure in conjunction with a planar quasi-Yagi antenna, this single antenna can operate at four states with beam direction towards 40{\deg}, -40{\deg}, 0{\deg}, along with a dual-beam at +/-45{\deg}, within the frequency range from 5.0 to 5.6 GHz. Moreover, a prototype of a 1 * 2 array with the PPS structure is also fabricated to achieve six beams with a scan range of 40{\deg}, 20{\deg}, 0{\deg}, -20{\deg}, -40{\deg} and a dual-beam at +/-30{\deg}. Notably, only four PIN diodes are utilized to implement six radiations, verifying that this approach effectively minimizes the excessive use of switches and extends the variety of beams, which provides a low complexity method for multibeam array antenna without complicated beamforming network. These antennas satisfy the benefits of wideband, planner structure, low structural complexity, low cost, and flexible beam control.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jinyang Bi, Fan Qin, Chao Gu, Hailin Zhang

Signal Processing

Flexible Wideband Filtering Monopole Antenna With Stable High Omnidirectionality

This article presents a wideband flexible filtering monopole antenna with symmetric structure for stable high omnidirectionality. It is based on a monopole antenna, which is printed on a single-layer flexible substrate. Two folded parasitic strips with different length are devised on both sides of the driven monopole, giving filtering responses in the higher and lower band without filtering circuits. Since the asymmetric filtering structure adversely affects in-band omnidirectionality, this baseline design is extended with symmetric filtering structure to improve omnidirectionality and bandwidth. In the proposed design, a pair of parasitic strips are devised on the both sides of monopole antenna symmetrically, achieving a radiation null in the higher band. Then, by loading a pair of folded parasitic strips on the both sides of feed line with slotted metal ground, a radiation null is realized in the lower band. Besides, the driven monopole is slotted symmetrically for wideband operation. By adopting a fully symmetric filtering structure, the proposed design effectively suppresses the impact of the parasitic elements on the in-band omnidirectional radiation pattern, thereby achieving high omnidirectionality. Furthermore, the proposed antenna exhibits stable performance under different bending radii. To verify our design concept, an antenna prototype is fabricated. Both the flat and bent antennas are measured. The results show that the proposed antenna has a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 45.6%, an in-band gain about 2 dBi, and an out-of-band radiation suppression more than 11 dB. The measured omnidirectionality has variations less than 0.8 dB without bending and 1 dB with a bending radius of 30 mm. This design offers several advantages including stable high omnidirectionality across a wide bandwidth, flexible conformal capability, and filtering property.
Read the full abstract

All authors Runkai Song, Fan Qin, Chao Gu, Jiangzhou Wang, Wenchi Cheng, Steven Gao

Saturday 1 August

Signal Processing

Does the Heart Show Your Pain? Tackling the X-ITE Pain Challenge with Self-Supervised ECG Representation Learning

Accurate recognition of pain using physiological signals remains a challenging problem due to pain's subjective nature and high inter-individual variability. In this study, we investigate self-supervised representation learning (SSL) methods applied to unimodal electrocardiogram (ECG), complemented by multimodal pretraining, including accelerometer (ACC) signals from the chest. We focus on classifying low versus medium pain levels on the X-ITE Pain dataset. Our results reveal that while ECG-based models show limited classification performance, multimodal pretraining improves learned representations by capturing cross-modal dependencies. Notably, we observe substantial inter-subject variability in model performance, suggesting that pain-related ECG patterns may be subject-specific. Visualizations indicate distinct subject-specific clustering but no clear separation by pain levels, highlighting the complexity of pain detection from ECG alone. We discuss limitations of unimodal input, label noise, and generalization across subjects and propose future directions. This work advances the understanding of physiological signal representation learning for pain recognition and sets the stage for more robust, clinically relevant wearable pain monitoring solutions.
Read the full abstract

Systems and Control · Cross-listed from math.DS

Contraction Analysis of Holomorphic Dynamical Systems via the Intrinsic Kobayashi Metric

This paper studies incremental stability of holomorphic dynamical systems through the infinitesimal Kobayashi metric, an intrinsic pseudometric on complex manifolds invariant under holomorphic transformations and free of the coordinate dependence inherent in auxiliary Riemannian or Hermitian formulations. Contraction is formalized as an upper Dini-derivative inequality on the Kobayashi metric along trajectories; the passage from this differential condition to exponential distance contraction follows the classical Finsler-metric contraction mechanism of Forni and Sepulchre, instantiated here for the case in which the Finsler structure is the Kobayashi metric itself. Since the intrinsic condition is difficult to verify directly, a practical criterion is developed through a smooth Hermitian metric, the complex-Hermitian analogue of the classical real matrix contraction inequality: contraction with respect to such a metric implies intrinsic contraction on forward-invariant compact subsets, the two notions related through explicit local equivalence constants. Building on this, a Nagumo-type invariance result is established for Laplacian-coupled holomorphic networks, giving verifiable conditions for forward invariance in a class of systems not previously treated this way, and the framework extends to feedback-controlled holomorphic systems, with consequences for equilibria and periodic orbits following directly from intrinsic contraction. Numerical experiments on a network of coupled holomorphic oscillators verify the Hermitian condition analytically on a proven invariant set, and reveal that the observed synchronization rate substantially exceeds this guaranteed rate; the gap matches, to three decimal places, a closed-form combination of the node-wise rate and the network graph-Laplacian spectral gap, identified here as a target for a network-aware extension rather than resolved in full.
Read the full abstract

Image and Video Processing · Cross-listed from cs.CV

MBO Scheme for Local Chan–Vese Segmentation

Robust to intensity inhomogeneity, the local Chan–Vese (LCV) model extends the classical Chan–Vese (CV) image segmentation method by incorporating local statistical information around each pixel. Originally, the LCV model was solved using a finite difference scheme, following the approach used for the CV model. As an alternative to the finite difference scheme, a more efficient algorithm based on the Merriman-Bence-Osher (MBO) scheme was later developed for the CV model. In this paper, we derive a similar MBO-based algorithm to solve the LCV model and propose an efficient implementation. The algorithm is developed for both two-phase and multiphase segmentation, and an extension to color images is also discussed. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we apply it to a variety of grayscale and color images, including medical and microscopy images.
Read the full abstract

Systems and Control

Critical Inertia Estimation for the Three U.S. Interconnections

The rapid integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) is reducing system inertia across U.S. power grids, raising concerns about frequency stability following large contingencies. This paper presents a simulation-based assessment of critical inertia, defined as the minimum system inertia required to prevent first-stage under-frequency load shedding (UFLS) after the largest credible contingency, across the three major U.S. interconnections: Eastern Interconnection (EI), WECC, and ERCOT. Reduced-inertia scenarios are created by progressively replacing synchronous generators with IBRs, and dynamic simulations are performed using full-scale PSS/E and PowerWorld models. The results show that ERCOT reaches critical inertia at approximately 58 percent IBR penetration, compared with above 90 percent for WECC and approximately 67 to 68 percent for EI. Current IBR shares in the U.S. portions of EI, WECC, and ERCOT are 16 percent, 33 percent, and 44 percent, respectively, indicating varying proximity to critical inertia thresholds. These findings highlight the importance of full dynamic simulations to accurately estimate critical inertia and guide transmission planning under high renewable penetration scenarios.
Read the full abstract

All authors Jiaojiao Dong, Sneha Fariha, Rocio Uria Martinez, Wen Wang, Yilu Liu

Audio and Speech Processing · Cross-listed from cs.SD

DRONEAUDIONET: Noise Suppression for Drone Audition-based Search and Rescue

Microphones mounted on UAVs enable aerial acoustic scene analysis applications such as search-and-rescue, wildlife monitoring, and industrial inspection. However, drone rotor noise often dominates the mixture signal at SNRs well below -10 dB, making source recovery extremely challenging. Existing enhancement and source separation methods are typically designed for near-balanced mixtures and degrade substantially in drone audition settings. In this work, we propose DRONEAUDIONET, a drone noise suppression method that reframes a source separation model as a drone noise estimator. To better model drone-dominant mixtures, we introduce a learnable mask-scaling mechanism that allows mask magnitudes beyond unity, together with an additive residual correction term for improved drone estimation and source recovery. We train and evaluate our model on a publicly available drone audition dataset and test generalizability on an out-of-domain dataset with unseen drone hardware and flight modes. Results show that DRONEAUDIONET consistently improves downstream sound classification performance, with the largest gains observed for human vocal sounds. Our findings demonstrate the importance of drone-specific modeling for robust aerial acoustic perception and highlight the potential of source separation methods for real-world drone-assisted search-and-rescue.
Read the full abstract

All authors Chitralekha Gupta, Soundarya Ramesh, Yifei Luo, Suranga Nanayakkara

Audio and Speech Processing

REIMU: Efficient Heterogeneous Hierarchical Reasoning for SSL-Based Speech Deepfake Detection

The increasing realism of speech generated by text-to-speech and voice conversion systems poses growing challenges to media integrity and voice authentication. Self-supervised learning (SSL) has substantially advanced speech deepfake detection, where downstream backbones conventionally process SSL representations through a single forward pass. This work investigates the practical effectiveness of recurrent hierarchical reasoning for this task. We term this controlled study REIMU and systematically compare conventional single-pass backbones, weight-shared recurrence, homogeneous HRM, and heterogeneous HRM across four Base-scale SSL frontends. We further examine heterogeneous high- and low-level modules that combine self-attention with linear attention. Experiments on the ASVspoof 2019 and 2021 evaluation sets show that recurrence and hierarchical decomposition do not inherently improve detection, whereas heterogeneous operator assignment provides a more competitive configuration. Notably, the heterogeneous design remains competitive while using 10.8% fewer downstream parameters than the matched baseline, demonstrating its potential for parameter-efficient speech deepfake detection.
Read the full abstract

All authors Kwok-Ho Ng, Tingting Song, Bingwen Feng, Peiya Li

Systems and Control · Cross-listed from physics.class-ph

Conserved Quantities of Optimal Continuous-Thrust Trajectories in A Central Gravitational Field

This paper presents a mathematical derivation for three new conserved quantities in the motion of spacecraft on optimal continuous-thrust trajectories in a central gravitational field. The process presented in this paper is rooted in Noether's theorem that connects the point symmetries of a dynamic system with the associated conservation laws of the system. In the approach presented in this paper, the system's Lagrangian is modified to account for the non-conservative control force. Using this generalized Lagrangian, the action functional to be minimized is written. Then, Killing equations are formulated to find the dynamic symmetries for this system. In this paper a process is laid out for how to solve the Killing equations; Noether's theorem is applied to this solution of the Killing equations to write the conserved quantities of the system. Conserved quantities are presented for both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional trajectories in several different coordinate frames. Numerical simulations and mathematical proofs are used to demonstrate that the computed quantities are conserved.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

Experimental Verification on LoS-MIMO Transmission in 300-GHz Band

In this study, we conducted Line-of-Sight (LoS) 2x2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) transmission experiments in the 300-GHz band to investigate the potential for channel capacity enhancement. A circularly polarized patch antenna, supporting both crossand co-polarization, and a 2x2 MIMO transceiver equipped with a Pre-Correction scheme were developed. Experimental evaluation was carried out under conditions of a stream spacing of 0.3 m and a transmission distance of 1.9 m. As a result, in both coand cross-polarized antenna configurations, the off-diagonal components were suppressed below -20 dB, and 2-stream transmission with 16-QAM modulation achieved a throughput of 13.1 Gbit/s and a spectral efficiency of 6.55 bit/s/Hz. Furthermore, future research directions toward advanced spatial multiplexing based on channel correlation analysis are discussed. These results demonstrate the feasibility of highcapacity fixed wireless links and provide practical design insights for long-distance transmission.
Read the full abstract

All authors Kazuhiko Tamesue, Seiji Nishi, Kunihisa Jitsuno, Toshio Sato, Takuro Sato, Tetsuya Kawanishi

Signal Processing

An Uncertainty-Driven Hybrid Deep Learning Approach for Broad-Coverage RF Modulation Recognition

Automatic RF modulation recognition is of critical importance in spectrum monitoring, electronic warfare, and cognitive radio applications, where low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions and the growing diversity of modulation schemes limit the performance of existing methods. This paper proposes an uncertainty-driven hybrid deep learning architecture for recognizing RF signals over a broad modulation space. The proposed approach carries out a multi-stage classification process by combining spectral information obtained through low-cost FFT-based preprocessing with time-frequency features extracted from short-time Fourier transform (STFT) spectrograms. The architecture comprises a 2D convolutional neural network (2D CNN)-based path for fast, low-latency primary classification, MC Dropout-supported Bayesian uncertainty estimation for assessing classification reliability, and a BiLSTM-based secondary decision mechanism activated under high-uncertainty conditions. The proposed system is evaluated in a controlled simulation environment spanning different SNR levels and modulation classes. Experimental results show that the primary 2D CNN path achieves $83.3\pm0.7\%$ accuracy with an inference time of only 0.138 ms per sample, providing superior performance compared with traditional rule-based and classical machine-learning approaches. Furthermore, the obtained findings reveal the limitations of compact spectral feature representations and classifiers lacking temporal modeling, particularly in disambiguating FSK-based modulations. The uncertainty estimation module offers promising results for detecting low-confidence decisions, and the proposed approach demonstrates the potential of a low-latency and scalable solution for real-time RF modulation recognition.
Read the full abstract

All authors Nurettin Safak, Durdu Can Yerdeyatar, Muhammet Sefa Demirel, Alperen Marasli, Taha Eren Atmaca, Ozgun Ersoy

Systems and Control

Impedance Control via Generalized Output Regulation

Achieving a desired impedance during physical interaction remains a central problem in compliant control. In many practical implementations, admittance control combined with linear position controllers is employed, but this structure typically results in only approximate impedance behavior. This paper establishes a rigorous equivalence between the impedance realization problem and the generalized output regulation theory, and shows that, under the admittance architecture and assuming the inner position controller is restricted to linear combinations of commonly used signals, a unique control law exists that achieves exact compliant control. The resulting controller introduces additional terms with respect to a conventional PD formulation, while preserving a simple structure. Numerical simulations are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach under nominal conditions and in the presence of model uncertainties, and to compare its performance against a standard PD controller. The results demonstrate improved interaction performance and robustness, supporting the theoretical analysis.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

Symbiotic FAS Strategies for 6G UAVs Assisted Backscatter Networks

This paper investigates a fluid antenna system (FAS) enabled symbiotic radio (SR) network featuring a UAV mounted FAS communicating through a wireless power transfer (WPT) signal with a remote cluster head and an ambient tag. To evaluate system reliability, we derive the upper (UB) and lower (LB) bounds for both the composite and backscatter (BcS) outage probabilities, formulate the coexistence outage probability (COP), and present an asymptotic analysis that explicitly characterizes the system's spatial diversity and coding gains. We propose three novel symbiotic strategies; maximum backscatter selection (MBS), joint balanced selection (JBS) and threshold aware priority selection (TAPS) and compare them with the conventional maximum composite gain selection (MCGS) and random selection methods. Under a joint optimization framework, the macroscopic UAV 2D spatial placement and microscopic realization - level port selection were formulated. Since the joint outage Pareto frontier is highly non-convex, the computationally expensive epsilon-constraint method identified the optimal knee-point. While the symbiotic novel TAPS strategy demonstrated identical performance in a single step with linear O(MN) complexity. Moreover, an asymptotic closed form mobility analysis under Jakes' fading model proves that the symbiotic FAS tracking protocol consumes under 10% of the channel coherence time. Simulation results and COP heat maps validate the optimal coexistence performance at the ideal UAV coordinates with 60% reduction in the required transmit power.
Read the full abstract

All authors Nagla Abuzgaia, Abdelhamid Salem, Ahmed Elbarsha, Khaled Rabie

Audio and Speech Processing

Experience-Calibrated Contrastive Decoding for Mitigating Hallucinations in LM-Based Text-to-Speech

Language model-based text-to-speech (LM-based TTS) remains vulnerable to speech hallucinations that deviate from the target text. Existing mitigation mainly relies on architectural changes or additional training, while decoding-time control remains underexplored. We present a conditional information view that distinguishes text-derived alignment information from experience information supplied by acoustic context and learned speech regularities. We hypothesize that an important class of hallucinations begins when alignment support is insufficiently reflected in the selected token at a vulnerable transition. Using predictions from the same speech LM with and without text conditions, we propose Experience-Calibrated Contrastive Decoding (ECCD), a training-free method that strengthens alignment support while preserving useful experience information. ECCD preserves the original expert distribution, applies only positive alignment enhancement, and calibrates its strength using set-level experience compatibility. Across four models, ECCD reduces WER/CER by up to 55.6% in all SeedTTS-Eval settings and 24 of 25 multilingual CV3-Eval settings. A listening test yields a CMOS gain of $+0.644$ while retaining strong speaker similarity. Further analysis shows that alignment influence and decision-level gain vary within linguistic units and are lower at first-error boundaries than at matched correct boundaries. Overall, these extensive experiments and analyses identify conditional information control as a promising decoding-time direction for mitigating speech hallucination.
Read the full abstract

All authors Chenlin Liu, Minghui Fang, Zhonghao Bi, Zekai Su, Rong Wang, Jiqing Han

Audio and Speech Processing

Band-Count Dense Modal Estimation with Fixed-Frequency Differentiable Resonator Refinement

Task B of the 1st DAFx Parameter Estimation Challenge requires estimating the frequencies, decay rates, gains, and number of modes in a dense plate-reverb impulse response. Weak and overlapping modes make sparse peak detection prone to severe undercounting. We train an ExtraTrees regressor on simulator-generated data to predict mode counts in four frequency bands. These counts define dense frequency grids, after which a differentiable all-pole resonator model refines decay and gain while keeping frequency fixed. On two separate synthetic validation sets, the system reduces a local challenge-style error by about 66% relative to the official default peak-picking baseline. The improvement is mainly associated with lower mode-count mismatch, while decay and gain remain the largest error sources. These findings support separating modal-density estimation from continuous parameter fitting.
Read the full abstract

Audio and Speech Processing

Simulation-Based Plate-Reverb Parameter Estimation from a Single Impulse Response

We present a simulation-trained, non-iterative estimator for Task A of the 1st DAFx Parameter Estimation Challenge. Each unnormalized plate-reverb impulse response is summarized by amplitude, spectral, and decay descriptors, and an ensemble of tree regressors estimates the six target parameters in one pass. Across two independent synthetic validation sets, the normalized models outperform the training-set mean and an earlier raw-regression baseline. On a shared set, the final ensemble also outperforms a single run of the official default PSO at substantially lower inference cost. Since the official labels are hidden, parameter accuracy is measured on simulator-matched data, and the released responses support only audio-side consistency checks. The estimator returns point estimates without uncertainty.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

A Machine Learning-based Non-precipitating Clouds Estimation for THz Dual-Frequency Radar

Accurate measurement of non-precipitable clouds is important for early prediction of heavy rainfall disasters caused by extreme weather events. However, microwave cloud radar cannot observe the early stages of cloud development from non-precipitation clouds (cumulus) to cumulonimbus. In this paper, we propose a terahertz dual-frequency cloud radar using 150 GHz and 95 GHz bands to detect cloud particles in cumulus smaller than 10 {\mu}m. Using a dataset generated by the ITU-R radio propagation model, we estimate the liquid water content of non-precipitation clouds and water vapor content in atmospheric gases, respectively, by using a machine learning-based approach. The effectiveness of using the dual wavelength ratio as an explanatory variable is examined.
Read the full abstract

All authors Kazuhiko Tamesue, Zheng Wen, Shotaro Yamaguchi, Hiroyuki Kasai, Wataru Kameyama, Toshio Sato, Yutaka Katsuyama, Takuro Sato, Takeshi Maesaka

Signal Processing

Precoded Non-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing with Subcarrier Index Modulation

In this paper, we propose a novel precoded non-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (NOFDM) with subcarrier index modulation (SIM) to increase spectral efficiency for multicarrier systems. The proposed NOFDM-SIM scheme is constituted by a filterbank multicarrier system under reduced subcarrier spacing, where precoded index modulated symbols are mapped onto the subcarriers. The detrimental effects of inter-carrier interference (ICI) resulting from the non-orthogonality between subcarriers are efficiently mitigated with the aid of eigenvalue-decomposition-based precoding. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed precoded NOFDM-SIM system exhibits a similar peak-to-average power ratio to OFDM and OFDM-SIM counterparts while achieving the bit error ratio limit of zero-ICI OFDM.
Read the full abstract

Signal Processing

Spatially Reconfigurable Antenna Systems for 6G: EM-based Channel Modeling, Measurements, and Orientation Design

Spatially reconfigurable antenna systems (SRASs) are recognized as a key physical-layer technology for sixth-generation (6G) systems. By dynamically adjusting each antenna element's spatial configuration, e.g., position and orientation, SRASs can revamp favorable channel conditions for reliable high-rate data transmission. However, in widely adopted channel models, antennas are typically modeled as ideal isotropic radiators, and the vectorial nature of electromagnetic (EM) propagation is neglected. This oversimplified model precludes full exploitation of the degrees of freedom offered by SRASs for performance enhancement. To address this issue, in this paper, by leveraging the theoretical framework of spherical vector wave expansion, we develop an EM-based channel model tailored for SRAS-enabled multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The proposed EM-based channel model is applicable to antennas with arbitrary structures and intrinsically accounts for the vectorial nature of EM propagation, thereby enabling accurate characterization of EM effects such as polarization mismatch on channel gain. Full-wave simulations and experimental measurements are conducted, and the results show excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Simulation results also reveal that antenna orientation exerts a more pronounced influence on the achievable rate than antenna displacement. Therefore, building upon the derived channel model, a manifold optimization method is proposed to maximize the sum-rate of an SRAS-enabled multiuser-MIMO system by optimizing antenna orientations. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme improves the sum-rate by up to 16.6% and 19.3% compared to systems employing movable antennas and conventional fixed antennas, respectively.
Read the full abstract

All authors Chen Xu, Yizhu Yan, Gengbo Wu, Shu Sun, Xianghao Yu

Systems and Control · Cross-listed from cs.RO

Grasp Execution Without a Planner: Configuration-Space Grasp Distance Fields with Certified Safety & Guaranteed Quality

Mainstream plan-then-track approaches to multifingered grasp execution entail selecting a grasp, planning a collision-free trajectory, and tracking the resulting trajectory via a feedback controller. Pose-estimation error during execution or scene motion can invalidate this open-loop commitment and trigger replanning. We thus present Grasp Distance Fields (GDFs), smooth softmin distances to finite sets of arm-hand grasp configurations. Using their negative gradients as feedback, we jointly select and execute grasps without planning a trajectory. A CBF-CLF quadratic program (QP) enforces self-collision, workspace, object, and obstacle-clearance constraints, while its CLF slack quantifies obstruction of task progress. We bound the softmin approximation error by $\log N/\rho$ and prove forward invariance of the filtered safe set. To handle changes in contact topology, we combine a hysteretic contact-mode transition with a wrench-quality CBF that limits degradation of the realized force-closure margin relative to hold onset. Using our method, a fixed-base manipulator and a Unitree G1 equipped with the same underactuated hand grasp and lift 46 of 50 test objects amid clutter and moving obstacles. The realized grasps also retain a median 94% of their synthesized quality margin, and each QP solve requires 0.09 ms within a 20 ms control interval. Project page: www.clintonenwerem.com/gdf.
Read the full abstract