Contrastive learning is used to train a deep convolutional neural network to identify high-level features in mass spectrometry imaging data. These features enable self-supervised clustering of ion images without manual annotation.

Datasets are an essential component for training effective machine learning models. In particular, surgical robotic datasets have been key to many advances in semiautonomous surgeries, skill assessment, and training. Simulated surgical environments can enhance the data collection process by making it faster, simpler and cheaper than real systems. In addition, combining data from multiple robotic domains can provide rich and diverse training data for transfer learning algorithms. In this paper, we present the DESK (Dexterous Surgical Skill) dataset. It comprises a set of surgical robotic skills collected during a surgical training task using three robotic platforms: the Taurus II robot, Taurus II simulated robot, and the YuMi robot. This dataset was used to test the idea of transferring knowledge across different domains (e.g. from Taurus to YuMi robot) for a surgical gesture classification task with seven gestures. We explored three different scenarios: 1) No transfer, 2) Transfer from simulated Taurus to real Taurus and 3) Transfer from Simulated Taurus to the YuMi robot. We conducted extensive experiments with three supervised learning models and provided baselines in each of these scenarios. Results show that using simulation data during training enhances the performance on the real robot where limited real data is available. In particular, we obtained an accuracy of 55% on the real Taurus data using a model that is trained only on the simulator data. Furthermore, we achieved an accuracy improvement of 34% when 3% of the real data is added into the training process.

Humans generally teach their fellow collaborators to perform tasks through a small number of demonstrations. The learnt task is corrected or extended to meet specific task goals by means of coaching. Adopting a similar framework for teaching robots through demonstrations and coaching makes teaching tasks highly intuitive. Unlike traditional Learning from Demonstration (LfD) approaches which require multiple demonstrations, we present a one-shot learning from demonstration approach to learn tasks. The learnt task is corrected and generalized using two layers of evaluation/modification. First, the robot self-evaluates its performance and corrects the performance to be closer to the demonstrated task. Then, coaching is used as a means to extend the policy learnt to be adaptable to varying task goals. Both the self-evaluation and coaching are implemented using reinforcement learning (RL) methods. Coaching is achieved through human feedback on desired goal and action modification to generalize to specified task goals. The proposed approach is evaluated with a scooping task, by presenting a single demonstration. The self-evaluation framework aims to reduce the resistance to scooping in the media. To reduce the search space for RL, we bootstrap the search using least resistance path obtained using resistive force theory. Coaching is used to generalize the learnt task policy to transfer the desired quantity of material. Thus, the proposed method provides a framework for learning tasks from one demonstration and generalizing it using human feedback through coaching.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is widely used for the label-free molecular mapping of biological samples. The identification of co-localized molecules in MSI data is crucial to the understanding of biochemical pathways. However, complex MSI data are too large for manual annotation but too small for training deep networks. Herein, we introduce a self-supervised clustering approach based on contrastive learning, which shows an excellent performance in clustering of small MSI data. We train a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) using MSI data from a single experiment without manual annotations to effectively learn high-level spatial features from ion images and classify them based on molecular colocalizations. We demonstrate that contrastive learning generates ion image representations that form well-resolved clusters. Subsequent self-labeling is used to fine-tune both the CNN encoder and linear classifier based on confidently classified ion images. This new approach enables autonomous and highthroughput identification of co-localized species in MSI data, which will dramatically expand the application of spatial lipidomics, metabolomics, and proteomics in biological research.

No abstract