26,543 research outputs found
Denoising Autoencoders for fast Combinatorial Black Box Optimization
Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDAs) require flexible probability
models that can be efficiently learned and sampled. Autoencoders (AE) are
generative stochastic networks with these desired properties. We integrate a
special type of AE, the Denoising Autoencoder (DAE), into an EDA and evaluate
the performance of DAE-EDA on several combinatorial optimization problems with
a single objective. We asses the number of fitness evaluations as well as the
required CPU times. We compare the results to the performance to the Bayesian
Optimization Algorithm (BOA) and RBM-EDA, another EDA which is based on a
generative neural network which has proven competitive with BOA. For the
considered problem instances, DAE-EDA is considerably faster than BOA and
RBM-EDA, sometimes by orders of magnitude. The number of fitness evaluations is
higher than for BOA, but competitive with RBM-EDA. These results show that DAEs
can be useful tools for problems with low but non-negligible fitness evaluation
costs.Comment: corrected typos and small inconsistencie
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Combinatorial optimization and metaheuristics
Today, combinatorial optimization is one of the youngest and most active areas of discrete mathematics. It is a branch of optimization in applied mathematics and computer science, related to operational research, algorithm theory and computational complexity theory. It sits at the intersection of several fields, including artificial intelligence, mathematics and software engineering. Its increasing interest arises for the fact that a large number of scientific and industrial problems can be formulated as abstract combinatorial optimization problems, through graphs and/or (integer) linear programs. Some of these problems have polynomial-time (“efficient”) algorithms, while most of them are NP-hard, i.e. it is not proved that they can be solved in polynomial-time. Mainly, it means that it is not possible to guarantee that an exact solution to the problem can be found and one has to settle for an approximate solution with known performance guarantees. Indeed, the goal of approximate methods is to find “quickly” (reasonable run-times), with “high” probability, provable “good” solutions (low error from the real optimal solution). In the last 20 years, a new kind of algorithm commonly called metaheuristics have emerged in this class, which basically try to combine heuristics in high level frameworks aimed at efficiently and effectively exploring the search space. This report briefly outlines the components, concepts, advantages and disadvantages of different metaheuristic approaches from a conceptual point of view, in order to analyze their similarities and differences. The two very significant forces of intensification and diversification, that mainly determine the behavior of a metaheuristic, will be pointed out. The report concludes by exploring the importance of hybridization and integration methods
Local Optimal Sets and Bounded Archiving on Multi-objective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives
The properties of local optimal solutions in multi-objective combinatorial
optimization problems are crucial for the effectiveness of local search
algorithms, particularly when these algorithms are based on Pareto dominance.
Such local search algorithms typically return a set of mutually nondominated
Pareto local optimal (PLO) solutions, that is, a PLO-set. This paper
investigates two aspects of PLO-sets by means of experiments with Pareto local
search (PLS). First, we examine the impact of several problem characteristics
on the properties of PLO-sets for multi-objective NK-landscapes with correlated
objectives. In particular, we report that either increasing the number of
objectives or decreasing the correlation between objectives leads to an
exponential increment on the size of PLO-sets, whereas the variable correlation
has only a minor effect. Second, we study the running time and the quality
reached when using bounding archiving methods to limit the size of the archive
handled by PLS, and thus, the maximum size of the PLO-set found. We argue that
there is a clear relationship between the running time of PLS and the
difficulty of a problem instance.Comment: appears in Parallel Problem Solving from Nature - PPSN XIII,
Ljubljana : Slovenia (2014
Local Optimal Sets and Bounded Archiving on Multi-objective NK-Landscapes with Correlated Objectives
The properties of local optimal solutions in multi-objective combinatorial
optimization problems are crucial for the effectiveness of local search
algorithms, particularly when these algorithms are based on Pareto dominance.
Such local search algorithms typically return a set of mutually nondominated
Pareto local optimal (PLO) solutions, that is, a PLO-set. This paper
investigates two aspects of PLO-sets by means of experiments with Pareto local
search (PLS). First, we examine the impact of several problem characteristics
on the properties of PLO-sets for multi-objective NK-landscapes with correlated
objectives. In particular, we report that either increasing the number of
objectives or decreasing the correlation between objectives leads to an
exponential increment on the size of PLO-sets, whereas the variable correlation
has only a minor effect. Second, we study the running time and the quality
reached when using bounding archiving methods to limit the size of the archive
handled by PLS, and thus, the maximum size of the PLO-set found. We argue that
there is a clear relationship between the running time of PLS and the
difficulty of a problem instance.Comment: appears in Parallel Problem Solving from Nature - PPSN XIII,
Ljubljana : Slovenia (2014
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