Paper Detail

FlatManifold: Robust Continual Learning under Severe Label Noise and Domain Shifts via Intrinsic Manifold Flattening

Rai Hisada, Kanji Tanaka

arxiv Score 15.0

Published 2026-07-06 · First seen 2026-07-10

Research Track A

Abstract

In non-stationary streaming environments, simultaneously adapting to complex, non-linear domain shifts via continual learning while mitigating the catastrophic effects of severe, uncalibrated label noise poses a fundamental mathematical challenge. In this paper, we propose \FlatManifold{}, a novel, streamlined robust continual learning framework that utilizes a Nyström manifold flattening map based on the kernel trick and projection onto an orthogonalized Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS). Unlike traditional methods that rely on complex, error-prone sample-filtering pipelines, the proposed approach exploits the intrinsic mathematical robustness of the flattened space itself. By mapping feature distributions onto a fixed orthogonal target topology with a ridge regularizer, the framework naturally smoothes and counteracts the influence of extreme label noise during the optimization process. Concurrently, catastrophic forgetting is prevented via a continual topology brake term that leverages the covariance matrix of past experiences. Extensive evaluation on real-world multi-session robotics datasets demonstrates that even under severe conditions featuring 40\% symmetric label noise, \FlatManifold{} successfully mitigates gradient corruption. Under extreme cross-session domain shifts spanning various seasons and lighting conditions, the proposed framework establishes high generalization capabilities, significantly outperforming standard sequential optimization baselines and proving that structural linearization itself serves as a powerful mathematical barrier against distributed label corruption.

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BibTeX

@article{hisada2026flatmanifold,
  title = {FlatManifold: Robust Continual Learning under Severe Label Noise and Domain Shifts via Intrinsic Manifold Flattening},
  author = {Rai Hisada and Kanji Tanaka},
  year = {2026},
  abstract = {In non-stationary streaming environments, simultaneously adapting to complex, non-linear domain shifts via continual learning while mitigating the catastrophic effects of severe, uncalibrated label noise poses a fundamental mathematical challenge. In this paper, we propose \textbackslash{}FlatManifold\{\}, a novel, streamlined robust continual learning framework that utilizes a Nyström manifold flattening map based on the kernel trick and projection onto an orthogonalized Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS).},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05201},
  keywords = {cs.LG},
  eprint = {2607.05201},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
}

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