TG-PhyNN: An Enhanced Physically-Aware Graph Neural Network framework for forecasting Spatio-Temporal Data

TL;DR

TG-PhyNN is a physics-informed graph neural network framework that enhances spatio-temporal forecasting accuracy by integrating physical laws directly into the GNN training process, outperforming traditional models on real-world datasets.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-step prediction strategy that incorporates physical constraints into GNNs, enabling more accurate and physically consistent forecasts.

Findings

TG-PhyNN outperforms traditional models like GRU, LSTM, GAT on real datasets.

The framework effectively exploits physical principles governing data.

Demonstrates improved reliability in forecasting physical process-driven data.

Abstract

Accurately forecasting dynamic processes on graphs, such as traffic flow or disease spread, remains a challenge. While Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) excel at modeling and forecasting spatio-temporal data, they often lack the ability to directly incorporate underlying physical laws. This work presents TG-PhyNN, a novel Temporal Graph Physics-Informed Neural Network framework. TG-PhyNN leverages the power of GNNs for graph-based modeling while simultaneously incorporating physical constraints as a guiding principle during training. This is achieved through a two-step prediction strategy that enables the calculation of physical equation derivatives within the GNN architecture. Our findings demonstrate that TG-PhyNN significantly outperforms traditional forecasting models (e.g., GRU, LSTM, GAT) on real-world spatio-temporal datasets like PedalMe (traffic flow), COVID-19 spread, and Chickenpox outbreaks. These datasets are all governed by well-defined physical principles, which TG-PhyNN effectively exploits to offer more reliable and accurate forecasts in various domains where physical processes govern the dynamics of data. This paves the way for improved forecasting in areas like traffic flow prediction, disease outbreak prediction, and potentially other fields where physics plays a crucial role.