Endong Tong

Recent advances in Deep Learning (DL) have enhanced Aging-Related Bug (ARB) prediction for mitigating software aging. However, DL-based ARB prediction models face a dual challenge: overcoming overfitting to enhance generalization and managing the high labeling costs associated with extensive data requirements. To address the first issue, we utilize the sparse and binary nature of spiking communication in Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), which inherently provides brain-inspired regularization to effectively alleviate overfitting. Therefore, we propose a Spiking Convolutional Neural Network (SCNN)-based ARB prediction model along with a training framework that handles the model's spatial-temporal dynamics and non-differentiable nature. To reduce labeling costs, we introduce a Bio-inspired and Diversity-aware Active Learning framework (BiDAL), which prioritizes highly informative and diverse samples, enabling more efficient usage of the limited labeling budget. This framework incorporates bio-inspired uncertainty to enhance informativeness measurement along with using a diversity-aware selection strategy based on clustering to prevent redundant labeling. Experiments on three ARB datasets show that ARB-SCNN effectively reduces overfitting, improving generalization performance by 6.65% over other DL-based classifiers. Additionally, BiDAL boosts label efficiency for ARB-SCNN training, outperforming four state-of-the-art active learning methods by 4.77% within limited labeling budgets.

With the rise of intelligent devices within Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS), encompassing applications in traffic signal control, the vulnerability of devices such as On-Board Units and Roadside Units to attacks of data spoofing becomes a critical issue. Congestion attacks pose a significant threat to traffic security, capable of causing traffic jams by manipulating traffic signal control methods on the Internet of Vehicles. One such method is the Controlled Optimization of Phases algorithm, which is susceptible to congestion attacks. In this paper, we propose a security enhancement approach integrating advantage actor-critic reinforcement learning with a long short-term memory network. Our work extends the application of security enhancement methodologies to the context of intelligent traffic systems, that synchronously detects and disposes of attacks, ensuring the physical safety and reliable operation of ICPS. The experimental results and analysis exhibit the efficiency of our approach in terms of processing time and effectiveness.

Recent advances in deep learning (DL) have brought tremendous gains in signal modulation classification. However, DL-based classifiers lack transparency and interpretability, which raises concern about model's reliability and hinders the wide deployment in real-word applications. While explainable methods have recently emerged, little has been done to explain the DL-based signal modulation classifiers. In this work, we propose a novel model-agnostic explainer, Model-Agnostic Signal modulation classification Explainer (MASE), which provides explanations for the predictions of black-box modulation classifiers. With the subsequence-based signal interpretable representation and in-distribution local signal sampling, MASE learns a local linear surrogate model to derive a class activation vector, which assigns importance values to the timesteps of signal instance. Besides, the constellation-based explanation visualization is adopted to spotlight the important signal features relevant to model prediction. We furthermore propose the first generic quantitative explanation evaluation framework for signal modulation classification to automatically measure the faithfulness, sensitivity, robustness, and efficiency of explanations. Extensive experiments are conducted on two real-world datasets with four black-box signal modulation classifiers. The quantitative results indicate MASE outperforms two state-of-the-art methods with 44.7% improvement in faithfulness, 30.6% improvement in robustness, and 44.1% decrease in sensitivity. Through qualitative visualizations, we further demonstrate the explanations of MASE are more human interpretable and provide better understanding into the reliability of black-box model decisions.

Pedestrian detection plays a crucial role in autonomous driving by identifying the position, size, orientation, and dynamic features of pedestrians in images or videos, assisting autonomous vehicles in making better decisions and controls. It’s worth noting that the performance of pedestrian detection models largely depends on the quality and diversity of available training data. Current datasets for autonomous driving have limitations in terms of diversity, scale, and quality. In recent years, numerous studies have proposed the use of data augmentation strategies to expand the coverage of datasets, aiming to maximize the utilization of existing training data. However, these data augmentation methods often overlook the diversity of data scenarios. To overcome this challenge, in this paper, we propose a more comprehensive method for data augmentation, based on image descriptions and diffusion models. This method aims to cover a wider range of scene variations, including different weather conditions and lighting situations. We have designed a classifier to select data samples for augmentation, followed by extracting visual features based on image captions and converting them into high-level semantic information as textual descriptions for the corresponding samples. Finally, we utilize diffusion models to generate new variants. Additionally, we have designed three modification patterns to increase diversity in aspects such as weather conditions, lighting, and pedestrian poses within the data. We conducted extensive experiments on the KITTI dataset and in real-world environments, demonstrating that our proposed method significantly enhances the performance of pedestrian detection models in complex scenarios. This meticulous consideration of data augmentation will notably enhance the applicability and robustness of pedestrian detection models in actual autonomous driving scenarios.

Intelligent traffic signal systems, crucial for intelligent transportation systems, have been widely studied and deployed to enhance vehicle traffic efficiency and reduce air pollution. Unfortunately, intelligent traffic signal systems are at risk of data spoofing attack, causing traffic delays, congestion, and even paralysis. In this paper, we reveal a multivehicle collaborative data spoofing attack to intelligent traffic signal systems and propose a collaborative attack sequence generation model based on multiagent reinforcement learning (RL), aiming to explore efficient and stealthy attacks. Specifically, we first model the spoofing attack based on Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) at single and multiple intersections. This involves constructing the state space, action space, and defining a reward function for the attack. Then, based on the attack modeling, we propose an automated approach for generating collaborative attack sequences using the Multi‐Actor‐Attention‐Critic (MAAC) algorithm, a mainstream multiagent RL algorithm. Experiments conducted on the multimodal traffic simulation (VISSIM) platform demonstrate a 15% increase in delay time (DT) and a 40% reduction in attack ratio (AR) compared to the single‐vehicle attack, confirming the effectiveness and stealthiness of our collaborative attack.

Pedestrian detection models in autonomous driving systems heavily rely on deep neural networks (DNNs) to perceive their surroundings. Recent research has unveiled the vulnerability of DNNs to backdoor attacks, in which malicious actors manipulate the system by embedding specific triggers within the training data. In this paper, we propose a tailored camouflaged backdoor attack method designed for pedestrian detection in autonomous driving systems. Our approach begins with the construction of a set of trigger-embedded images. Subsequently, we employ an image scaling function to seamlessly integrate these trigger-embedded images into the original benign images, thereby creating potentially poisoned training images. Importantly, these potentially poisoned images exhibit minimal discernible differences from the original benign images and are virtually imperceptible to the human eye. We then strategically activate these concealed backdoors in specific scenarios, causing the pedestrian detection models to make incorrect judgments. Our study demonstrates that once our attack successfully embeds the backdoor into the target model, it can deceive the model into failing to detect any pedestrians marked with our trigger patterns. Extensive evaluations conducted on a publicly available pedestrian detection dataset confirm the effectiveness and stealthiness of our camouflaged backdoor attacks.