Solution of multiobjective optimization problems: coevolutionary algorithm based on evolutionary game theory

When attempting to solve multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs) using evolutionary algorithms, the Pareto genetic algorithm (GA) has now become a standard of sorts. After its introduction, this approach was further developed and led to many applications. All of these approaches are based on Pareto ranking and use the fitness sharing function to keep diversity. On the other hand, the scheme for solving MOPs presented by Nash introduced the notion of Nash equilibrium and aimed at solving MOPs that originated from evolutionary game theory and economics. Since the concept of Nash Equilibrium was introduced, game theorists have attempted to formalize aspects of the evolutionary equilibrium. Nash genetic algorithm (Nash GA) is the idea to bring together genetic algorithms and Nash strategy. The aim of this algorithm is to find the Nash equilibrium through the genetic process. Another central achievement of evolutionary game theory is the introduction of a method by which agents can play optimal strategies in the absence of rationality. Through the process of Darwinian selection, a population of agents can evolve to an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). In this article, we find the ESS as a solution of MOPs using a coevolutionary algorithm based on evolutionary game theory. By applying newly designed coevolutionary algorithms to several MOPs, we can confirm that evolutionary game theory can be embodied by the coevolutionary algorithm and this coevolutionary algorithm can find optimal equilibrium points as solutions for an MOP. We also show the optimization performance of the co-evolutionary algorithm based on evolutionary game theory by applying this model to several MOPs and comparing the solutions with those of previous evolutionary optimization models. This work was presented, in part, at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 24#x2013;26, 2003.     

The preservation of favored building blocks in the struggle for fitness: the puzzle algorithm

The shortest common superstring (SCS) problem, known to be NP-complete, seeks the shortest string that contains all strings from a given set. In this paper, we present a novel coevolutionary algorithm-the Puzzle Algorithm-where a population of building blocks coevolves alongside a population of solutions. We show experimentally that our novel algorithm outperforms a standard genetic algorithm (GA) and a benchmark greedy algorithm on instances of the SCS problem inspired by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing. We next compare our previously presented cooperative coevolutionary algorithm with the Co-Puzzle Algorithm-the puzzle algorithm coupled with cooperative coevolution-showing that the latter proves to be top gun. Finally, we discuss the benefits of using our puzzle approach in the general field of evolutionary algorithms.     

基于AHTPSO的连续属性离散化算法

针对粗糙集不能较好地处理连续型属性的问题,结合粗糙集理论和粒子群算法,提出基于自适应混合禁忌搜索粒子群的连续属性离散化算法。首先,该算法通过对参数的自适应更新操作,从而避免了粒子群出现早熟的现象;然后将粒子群当代得到的全局最优粒子送入禁忌算法中进行优化,有效地提升了算法的局部探索能力;在兼顾决策表系统一致性的同时,将划分的断点初始化为一群随机粒子,通过改进后粒子群的自我迭代得到最佳的离散化划分点。实验结果表明,与其他结合粗糙集的离散化算法相比,该算法具有更高的规则分类精度和较少的离散化断点个数,对连续属性的离散化效果较好。     

Learning Team Strategies: Soccer Case Studies

We use simulated soccer to study multiagent learning. Each team's players (agents) share action set and policy, but may behave differently due to position-dependent inputs. All agents making up a team are rewarded or punished collectively in case of goals. We conduct simulations with varying team sizes, and compare several learning algorithms: TD-Q learning with linear neural networks (TD-Q), Probabilistic Incremental Program Evolution (PIPE), and a PIPE version that learns by coevolution (CO-PIPE). TD-Q is based on learning evaluation functions (EFs) mapping input/action pairs to expected reward. PIPE and CO-PIPE search policy space directly. They use adaptive probability distributions to synthesize programs that calculate action probabilities from current inputs. Our results show that linear TD-Q encounters several difficulties in learning appropriate shared EFs. PIPE and CO-PIPE, however, do not depend on EFs and find good policies faster and more reliably. This suggests that in some multiagent learning scenarios direct search in policy space can offer advantages over EF-based approaches.     

Fuzzy rough set based attribute reduction for information systems with fuzzy decisions

Fuzzy rough set is a generalization of crisp rough set to deal with data sets with real value attributes. A primary use of fuzzy rough set theory is to perform attribute reduction for decision systems with numerical conditional attribute values and crisp (symbolic) decision attributes. In this paper we define inconsistent fuzzy decision system and their reductions, and develop discernibility matrix-based algorithms to find reducts. Finally, two heuristic algorithms are developed and comparison study is provided with the existing algorithms of attribute reduction with fuzzy rough sets. The proposed method in this paper can deal with decision systems with numerical conditional attribute values and fuzzy decision attributes rather than crisp ones. Experimental results imply that our algorithm of attribute reduction with general fuzzy rough sets is feasible and valid.     

Coevolutionary particle swarm optimization using Gaussian distribution for solving constrained optimization problems.

In this correspondence, an approach based on coevolutionary particle swarm optimization to solve constrained optimization problems formulated as min-max problems is presented. In standard or canonical particle swarm optimization (PSO), a uniform probability distribution is used to generate random numbers for the accelerating coefficients of the local and global terms. We propose a Gaussian probability distribution to generate the accelerating coefficients of PSO. Two populations of PSO using Gaussian distribution are used on the optimization algorithm that is tested on a suite of well-known benchmark constrained optimization problems. Results have been compared with the canonical PSO (constriction factor) and with a coevolutionary genetic algorithm. Simulation results show the suitability of the proposed algorithm in terms of effectiveness and robustness.     

连续属性离散化的Imp-Chi2算法

连续属性离散化是机器学习和数据挖掘领域中的一个重要问题,离散化是否合理决定着表达和提取相关信息的准确性。经过研究Chi2系列算法,提出一种新的基于属性重要性的连续属性离散化方法——Imp-Chi2算法,该算法依据属性重要性程度对属性离散化的顺序进行了合理的调整,能够更准确地对连续属性进行离散化。文章通过C4.5和支持向量机分别对离散化后的结果进行了实验,在实验过程中,提出一种训练集类比例抽取方法,避免了训练集随机抽取的不均匀性。实验结果证明了所提算法的有效性。     

Modeling and analysis of nano-sized GMRs based on Co,NiFe and Ni materials

Magnetic simulation method is introduced to analyze giant magnetoresistances(GMRs)in nanoscale for nano-sized biosensors.A spin valve model with special gridding corresponding to the exchange interaction length is proposed to study the influence of easy axes,exchange coefcients,pinning fields and feature widths on magnetization reversals and hysteresis characteristics of nano-sized GMRs with diferent pinned layer and free layer materials of Co,NiFe and Ni.The switching field is found to be almost linear with the pinning field and decrease with the absolute exchange coefcients and the feature widths for the nano-sized GMRs.The increase rate of each depends on the spin valve stacks.Further investigations into variations of the magnetization distribution reveal that the initial magnetization distribution and the magnetization reversal mode depend greatly on easy axes and materials The dependence on easy axes based mainly on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is illustrated in detail.     

Design of fuzzy controller using schema coevolutionary algorithm

Researches on the design of the optimal fuzzy controller have been carried out for many years. Various approaches to fuzzy modeling have been proposed. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm, schema coevolutionary algorithm, for fuzzy modeling. We demonstrate the schema coevolutionary algorithm and compare it with other similar coevolutionary algorithms: virus-evolutionary genetic algorithm and coevolution of Handa. Then, we apply it to design the optimal fuzzy controller. The fuzzy controller is used to control the mobile robot and optimized by the schema coevolutionary algorithm. We verify the efficacy of this algorithm through the experiment and comparison with other algorithms.     

Immune clonal coevolutionary algorithm for dynamic multiobjective optimization

In this paper, a new evolutionary algorithm, called immune clonal coevolutionary algorithm (ICCoA) for dynamic multiobjective optimization (DMO) is proposed. On the basis of the basic principles of artificial immune system, the proposed algorithm adopts the immune clonal selection to solve DMO problems. In addition, the theory of coevolution is incorporated in ICCoA in global operation to preserve the diversity of Pareto-fronts. Moreover, coevolutionary competitive and cooperative operation is designed to enhance the uniformity and the diversity of the solutions. In comparison with NSGA-II, immune clonal algorithm for DMO and direction-based method, the simulation results obtained on 5 difficult test problems and on related performance metrics suggest that ICCoA can achieve better distributed solutions and be very effective in maintaining the uniformity of Pareto-fronts.     

Forest PA: Constructing a decision forest by penalizing attributes used in previous trees

In this paper, we propose a new decision forest algorithm that builds a set of highly accurate decision trees by exploiting the strength of all non-class attributes available in a data set, unlike some existing algorithms that use a subset of the non-class attributes. At the same time to promote strong diversity, the proposed algorithm imposes penalties (disadvantageous weights) to those attributes that participated in the latest tree in order to generate the subsequent trees. Besides, some other weight-related concerns are taken into account so that the trees generated by the proposed algorithm remain individually accurate and retain strong diversity. In order to show the worthiness of the proposed algorithm, we carry out experiments on 20 well known data sets that are publicly available from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is effective in generating highly accurate and more balanced decision forests compared to other prominent decision forest algorithms. Accordingly, the proposed algorithm is expected to be very effective in the domain of expert and intelligent systems.     

A hybrid coevolutionary algorithm for designing fuzzy classifiers

Rule learning is one of the most common tasks in knowledge discovery. In this paper, we investigate the induction of fuzzy classification rules for data mining purposes, and propose a hybrid genetic algorithm for learning approximate fuzzy rules. A novel niching method is employed to promote coevolution within the population, which enables the algorithm to discover multiple rules by means of a coevolutionary scheme in a single run. In order to improve the quality of the learned rules, a local search method was devised to perform fine-tuning on the offspring generated by genetic operators in each generation. After the GA terminates, a fuzzy classifier is built by extracting a rule set from the final population. The proposed algorithm was tested on datasets from the UCI repository, and the experimental results verify its validity in learning rule sets and comparative advantage over conventional methods.     

Knowledge discovery in data sets with graded attributes

We present a knowledge discovery method for graded attributes that is based on an interactive determination of implications (if-then-rules) holding between the attributes of a given data-set. The corresponding algorithm queries the user in an efficient way about implications between the attributes. The result of the process is a representative set of examples for the entire theory and a set of implications from which all implications that hold between the attributes can be deduced. In many instances, the exploration process may be shortened by the usage of the user’s background knowledge. That is, a set of of implications the user knows beforehand. The method was successfully applied in different real-life applications for discrete data. In this paper, we show that attribute exploration with background information can be generalized for graded attributes.     

A fuzzy record-to-record travel algorithm for solving rough set attribute reduction

Attribute reduction can be defined as the process of determining a minimal subset of attributes from an original set of attributes. This paper proposes a new attribute reduction method that is based on a record-to-record travel algorithm for solving rough set attribute reduction problems. This algorithm has a solitary parameter called the DEVIATION, which plays a pivotal role in controlling the acceptance of the worse solutions, after it becomes pre-tuned. In this paper, we focus on a fuzzy-based record-to-record travel algorithm for attribute reduction (FuzzyRRTAR). This algorithm employs an intelligent fuzzy logic controller mechanism to control the value of DEVIATION, which is dynamically changed throughout the search process. The proposed method was tested on standard benchmark data sets. The results show that FuzzyRRTAR is efficient in solving attribute reduction problems when compared with other meta-heuristic approaches.     

基于GA-PSO的粗糙集属性约简算法

属性约简是粗糙集合研究的重要内容之一。为了能够有效地获取决策表中属性最小相对约简,提出了一种基于GA-PSO的属性约简算法。该算法以条件属性对决策属性的支持度为基础,求解核属性,把所有的条件属性(除去核属性)加入粒子群算法的初始种群中,并用遗传算法对不满足适应度条件的粒子进行交叉变异操作。实验结果表明,该算法在加强局部搜索能力的同时保持了该算法全局寻优的特性,能够快速有效地获得最小相对属性集。     

An incremental decision tree algorithm based on rough sets and its application in intrusion detection

As we know, learning in real world is interactive, incremental and dynamical in multiple dimensions, where new data could be appeared at anytime from anywhere and of any type. Therefore, incremental learning is of more and more importance in real world data mining scenarios. Decision trees, due to their characteristics, have been widely used for incremental learning. In this paper, we propose a novel incremental decision tree algorithm based on rough set theory. To improve the computation efficiency of our algorithm, when a new instance arrives, according to the given decision tree adaptation strategies, the algorithm will only modify some existing leaf node in the currently active decision tree or add a new leaf node to the tree, which can avoid the high time complexity of the traditional incremental methods for rebuilding decision trees too many times. Moreover, the rough set based attribute reduction method is used to filter out the redundant attributes from the original set of attributes. And we adopt the two basic notions of rough sets: significance of attributes and dependency of attributes, as the heuristic information for the selection of splitting attributes. Finally, we apply the proposed algorithm to intrusion detection. The experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm can provide competitive solutions to incremental learning.     

基于协同演化遗传算法的文本特征获取方法

信息过滤技术是解决“信息过载”和“信息迷向”问题的有效手段。为高效地确立用户的信息需求模型,提出利用协同演化的遗传算法解决多主题多文本的特征获取问题。协同演化遗传算法根据种群中个体进化速度、效果的不同,采取相互评价、相互学习、群体进化的协同演化策略,使得个体在其它种群、个体的指导下,不断获得较好的基因,从而实现文本特征的抽取。实验验证了方法的有效性。     

Exploring the behavioral patterns of learners in an educational massively multiple online role-playing game (MMORPG)

Massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are very popular among students. Educational MMORPGs, however, are very rare, as are studies on gamers’ behavioral patterns during such games. The current study is an empirical observation and analysis of the behavioral patterns of 100 gamers participating in an educational MMORPG called Talking Island^©. In our study, we recorded and summarized the gaming behaviors demonstrated by these participants over 335 days of observation from December 2009 to October 2010. We coded the recorded behaviors and conducted a frequency analysis, sequential analysis and cluster analysis to explore the behavioral distributions, behavioral-frequency transition and behavior-cluster patterns in the MMORPG. Gender differences in behavioral patterns were also compared and discussed. Based on the results, we discuss the potential and limitations of the game and provide suggestions for future research on and the development of educational MMORPGs.     

多半径邻域粗糙集改进约简算法

属性约简是粗糙集理论中的重要问题。许多学者针对邻域粗糙集提出多种属性约简方法,包括应用最为广泛的启发式算法。在多半径邻域粗糙集的基础上,针对当前启发式约简算法往往会包含一定冗余属性的缺陷,提出一种融合属性权重影响的改进约简运算方法,通过根据各属性权值大小设置阈值使得约简结果能够消除冗余属性。实验选取UCI的数据集与当前几种常用启发式约简算法进行比较分析。实验结果表明,所提出的属性约简方法能够得到更优的约简集合,同时更大程度地保留了决策表本身的知识信息,具有较高的分类能力。     

An organizational coevolutionary algorithm for classification

Taking inspiration from the interacting process among organizations in human societies, a new classification algorithm, organizational coevolutionary algorithm for classification (OCEC), is proposed with the intrinsic properties of classification in mind. The main difference between OCEC and the available classification approaches based on evolutionary algorithms (EAs) is its use of a bottom-up search mechanism. OCEC causes the evolution of sets of examples, and at the end of the evolutionary process, extracts rules from these sets. These sets of examples form organizations. Because organizations are different from the individuals in traditional EAs, three evolutionary operators and a selection mechanism are devised for realizing the evolutionary operations performed on organizations. This method can avoid generating meaningless rules during the evolutionary process. An evolutionary method is also devised for determining the significance of each attribute, on the basis of which, the fitness function for organizations is defined. In experiments, the effectiveness of OCEC is first evaluated by multiplexer problems. Then, OCEC is compared with several well-known classification algorithms on 12 benchmarks from the UCI repository datasets and multiplexer problems. Moreover, OCEC is applied to a practical case, radar target recognition problems. All results show that OCEC achieves a higher predictive accuracy and a lower computational cost. Finally, the scalability of OCEC is studied on synthetic datasets. The number of training examples increases from 100 000 to 10 million, and the number of attributes increases from 9 to 400. The results show that OCEC obtains a good scalability.