Towards Improving Robustness Against Common Corruptions in Object
  Detectors Using Adversarial Contrastive Learning
Shashank Kotyan Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas
Neural networks have revolutionized various domains, exhibiting remarkable
accuracy in tasks like natural language processing and computer vision.
However, their vulnerability to slight alterations in input samples poses
challenges, particularly in safety-critical applications like autonomous
driving. Current approaches, such as introducing distortions during training,
fall short in addressing unforeseen corruptions. This paper proposes an
innovative adversarial contrastive learning framework to enhance neural network
robustness simultaneously against adversarial attacks and common corruptions.
By generating instance-wise adversarial examples and optimizing contrastive
loss, our method fosters representations that resist adversarial perturbations
and remain robust in real-world scenarios. Subsequent contrastive learning then
strengthens the similarity between clean samples and their adversarial
counterparts, fostering representations resistant to both adversarial attacks
and common distortions. By focusing on improving performance under adversarial
and real-world conditions, our approach aims to bolster the robustness of
neural networks in safety-critical applications, such as autonomous vehicles
navigating unpredictable weather conditions. We anticipate that this framework
will contribute to advancing the reliability of neural networks in challenging
environments, facilitating their widespread adoption in mission-critical
scenarios.