Motor imagery refers to the brain’s response during the mental simulation of physical activities, which can be detected through electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. However, EEG signals exhibit a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to various artifacts originating from other physiological sources. To enhance the classification performance of motor imagery tasks by increasing the SNR of EEG signals, several signal decomposition approaches have been proposed. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) has shown promising results in extracting EEG components associated with motor imagery tasks more effectively than traditional linear decomposition algorithms such as Fourier and wavelet methods. Nevertheless, the EMD-based algorithm suffers from a significant challenge known as mode mixing, where frequency components intertwine with the intrinsic mode functions obtained through EMD. This issue severely hampers the accuracy of motor imagery classification. Despite numerous algorithms proposed, mode mixing remains a persistent issue. In this paper, we propose the Deep-EMD algorithm, a deep neural network-based approach to mode mixing problem. We employ two datasets to compare the motor imagery classification and mode mixing improvement achieved by the conventional EMD algorithm. Our experimental results demonstrate that the Deep-EMD algorithm effectively mitigates the mode mixing problem in decomposed EEG components, leading to improved motor imagery classification performance.

This study investigates a novel approach to robotic arm control through integrating spiking neural networks with the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient reinforcement learning algorithm. Specifically, it presents the first application of spiking neural networks-based twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient in 3D robotic manipulation, demonstrating its extension from traditional 2D tasks to complex 3D target-reaching scenarios with improved energy efficiency and stability. Additionally, with the inertial measurement unit data the system successfully mimics human arm movements, achieving a success rate of 0.95 among 50 trials and enabling an intuitive and accurate human–robot interaction system. This pioneering attempt highlights the feasibility of combining the biologically inspired spiking neural networks with the reinforcement learning algorithm to address the real-time challenges in high-dimensional robotic environments and advance the field of human–robot interaction systems.

In modern times, people predominantly use personal vehicles as a means of transportation, and, as this trend has developed, services that enable consumers to rent vehicles instead of buying their own have emerged. These services have grown into an industry, and the demand for predicting rental prices has arisen with the number of consumers. This study addresses the challenge in accurately predicting rental prices using big data with numerous features, and presents the experiments conducted and results obtained by applying various machine learning (ML) algorithms to enhance the prediction accuracy. Our experiment was conducted in two parts: single- and multi-step forecasting. In the single-step forecasting experiment, we employed random forest regression (RFR), multilayer perceptron (MLP), 1D convolutional neural network (1D-CNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to predict car rental prices and compared the results of each model. In the multi-step forecasting experiment, rental prices after 7, 14, 21 and 30 days were predicted using the algorithms applied in single-step forecasting. The prediction performance was improved by applying Bayesian optimization hyperband. The experimental results demonstrate that the LSTM and ARIMA models were effective in predicting car rental prices. Based on these results, useful information could be provided to both rental car companies and consumers.