1. A.C.B de Olivera, M. Siami, and E.D. Sontag. Convergence analysis of overparametrized LQR formulations. Automatica, 2024. Note: Submitted. Preprint in arXiv 2408.15456. [PDF] Keyword(s): learning theory, singularities in optimization, gradient systems, overparametrization, neural networks, overparametrization, gradient descent, input to state stability, feedback control, LQR. Abstract:

   Motivated by the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in control design, this paper takes the first steps towards bridging the gap between results from Direct Gradient methods for the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), and neural networks. More specifically, it looks into the case where one wants to find a Linear Feed-Forward Neural Network (LFFNN) feedback that minimizes a LQR cost. This paper starts by computing the gradient formulas for the parameters of each layer, which are used to derive a key conservation law of the system. This conservation law is then leveraged to prove boundedness and global convergence of solutions to critical points, and invariance of the set of stabilizing networks under the training dynamics. This is followed by an analysis of the case where the LFFNN has a single hidden layer. For this case, the paper proves that the training converges not only to critical points but to the optimal feedback control law for all but a set of measure-zero of the initializations. These theoretical results are followed by an extensive analysis of a simple version of the problem (the ``vector case''), proving the theoretical properties of accelerated convergence and robustness for this simpler example. Finally, the paper presents numerical evidence of faster convergence of the training of general LFFNNs when compared to traditional direct gradient methods, showing that the acceleration of the solution is observable even when the gradient is not explicitly computed but estimated from evaluations of the cost function.




2. J. Hanson, M. Raginsky, and E.D. Sontag. Learning recurrent neural net models of nonlinear systems. Proc. of Machine Learning Research, 144:1-11, 2021. [PDF] Keyword(s): machine learning, empirical risk minimization, recurrent neural networks, dynamical systems, continuous time, system identification, statistical learning theory, generalization bounds. Abstract:

   This paper considers the following learning problem: given sample pairs of input and output signals generated by an unknown nonlinear system (which is not assumed to be causal or time-invariant), one wishes to find a continuous-time recurrent neural net, with activation function tanh, that approximately reproduces the underlying i/o behavior with high confidence. Leveraging earlier work concerned with matching derivatives up to a finite order of the input and output signals the problem is reformulated in familiar system-theoretic language and quantitative guarantees on the sup-norm risk of the learned model are derived, in terms of the number of neurons, the sample size, the number of derivatives being matched, and the regularity properties of the inputs, the outputs, and the unknown i/o map.




3. P. Kuusela, D. Ocone, and E.D. Sontag. Learning Complexity Dimensions for a Continuous-Time Control System. SIAM J. Control Optim., 43(3):872-898, 2004. [PDF] [doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/S0363012901384302] Keyword(s): machine learning, theory of computing and complexity, VC dimension, neural networks. Abstract:

   This paper takes a computational learning theory approach to a problem of linear systems identification. It is assumed that input signals have only a finite number k of frequency components, and systems to be identified have dimension no greater than n. The main result establishes that the sample complexity needed for identification scales polynomially with n and logarithmically with k.

1. A. Macintyre and E.D. Sontag. Finiteness results for sigmoidal neural networks. In STOC '93: Proceedings of the twenty-fifth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing, New York, NY, USA, pages 325-334, 1993. ACM Press. [PDF] [doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/167088.167192] Keyword(s): machine learning, neural networks, theory of computing and complexity, real-analytic functions. Abstract:

   This paper deals with analog circuits. It establishes the finiteness of VC dimension, teaching dimension, and several other measures of sample complexity which arise in learning theory. It also shows that the equivalence of behaviors, and the loading problem, are effectively decidable, modulo a widely believed conjecture in number theory. The results, the first ones that are independent of weight size, apply when the gate function is the "standard sigmoid" commonly used in neural networks research. The proofs rely on very recent developments in the elementary theory of real numbers with exponentiation. (Some weaker conclusions are also given for more general analytic gate functions.) Applications to learnability of sparse polynomials are also mentioned.

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