10,172 research outputs found
Connectionist Theory Refinement: Genetically Searching the Space of Network Topologies
An algorithm that learns from a set of examples should ideally be able to
exploit the available resources of (a) abundant computing power and (b)
domain-specific knowledge to improve its ability to generalize. Connectionist
theory-refinement systems, which use background knowledge to select a neural
network's topology and initial weights, have proven to be effective at
exploiting domain-specific knowledge; however, most do not exploit available
computing power. This weakness occurs because they lack the ability to refine
the topology of the neural networks they produce, thereby limiting
generalization, especially when given impoverished domain theories. We present
the REGENT algorithm which uses (a) domain-specific knowledge to help create an
initial population of knowledge-based neural networks and (b) genetic operators
of crossover and mutation (specifically designed for knowledge-based networks)
to continually search for better network topologies. Experiments on three
real-world domains indicate that our new algorithm is able to significantly
increase generalization compared to a standard connectionist theory-refinement
system, as well as our previous algorithm for growing knowledge-based networks.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file
Large Scale Evolution of Convolutional Neural Networks Using Volunteer Computing
This work presents a new algorithm called evolutionary exploration of
augmenting convolutional topologies (EXACT), which is capable of evolving the
structure of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). EXACT is in part modeled
after the neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT) algorithm, with
notable exceptions to allow it to scale to large scale distributed computing
environments and evolve networks with convolutional filters. In addition to
multithreaded and MPI versions, EXACT has been implemented as part of a BOINC
volunteer computing project, allowing large scale evolution. During a period of
two months, over 4,500 volunteered computers on the Citizen Science Grid
trained over 120,000 CNNs and evolved networks reaching 98.32% test data
accuracy on the MNIST handwritten digits dataset. These results are even
stronger as the backpropagation strategy used to train the CNNs was fairly
rudimentary (ReLU units, L2 regularization and Nesterov momentum) and these
were initial test runs done without refinement of the backpropagation
hyperparameters. Further, the EXACT evolutionary strategy is independent of the
method used to train the CNNs, so they could be further improved by advanced
techniques like elastic distortions, pretraining and dropout. The evolved
networks are also quite interesting, showing "organic" structures and
significant differences from standard human designed architectures.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to the 2017 Genetic and Evolutionary
Computation Conference (GECCO 2017
Multi-criteria Evolution of Neural Network Topologies: Balancing Experience and Performance in Autonomous Systems
Majority of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) implementations in autonomous
systems use a fixed/user-prescribed network topology, leading to sub-optimal
performance and low portability. The existing neuro-evolution of augmenting
topology or NEAT paradigm offers a powerful alternative by allowing the network
topology and the connection weights to be simultaneously optimized through an
evolutionary process. However, most NEAT implementations allow the
consideration of only a single objective. There also persists the question of
how to tractably introduce topological diversification that mitigates
overfitting to training scenarios. To address these gaps, this paper develops a
multi-objective neuro-evolution algorithm. While adopting the basic elements of
NEAT, important modifications are made to the selection, speciation, and
mutation processes. With the backdrop of small-robot path-planning
applications, an experience-gain criterion is derived to encapsulate the amount
of diverse local environment encountered by the system. This criterion
facilitates the evolution of genes that support exploration, thereby seeking to
generalize from a smaller set of mission scenarios than possible with
performance maximization alone. The effectiveness of the single-objective
(optimizing performance) and the multi-objective (optimizing performance and
experience-gain) neuro-evolution approaches are evaluated on two different
small-robot cases, with ANNs obtained by the multi-objective optimization
observed to provide superior performance in unseen scenarios
Cultural Learning in a Dynamic Environment: an Analysis of Both Fitness and Diversity in Populations of Neural Network Agents
Evolutionary learning is a learning model that can be described as the iterative Darwinian process of fitness-based selection and genetic transfer of information leading to populations of higher fitness. Cultural learning describes the process of information transfer between individuals in a population through non-genetic means. Cultural learning has been simulated by combining genetic algorithms and neural networks using a teacher/pupil scenario where highly fit individuals are selected as teachers and instruct the next generation. This paper examines the effects of cultural learning on the evolutionary process of a population of neural networks. In particular, the paper examines the genotypic and phenotypic diversity of a population as well as its fitness. Using these measurements, it is possible to examine the effects of cultural learning on the population's genetic makeup. Furthermore, the paper examines whether cultural learning provides a more robust learning mechanism in the face of environmental changes. Three benchmark tasks have been chosen as the evolutionary task for the population: the bit-parity problem, the game of tic-tac-toe and the game of connect-four. Experiments are conducted with populations employing evolutionary learning alone and populations combining evolutionary and cultural learning in an environment that changes dramatically.Cultural Learning, Dynamic Environments, Diversity, Multi-Agent Systems, Artificial Life
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