Island Based GA for Optimization

University of Guelph

School of Engineering

Hooman Homayounfar

March 2003

Outlines

-Dynamic Optimization Problems

- Current Techniques and Limitations

- Advanced GA

- IGA for Optimization

- Implementation

- Results Analysis and Conclusion

- Future work

Optimization Problems

- Optimization: In the real world, there are many problems (e.g. Traveling Salesman Problem, Playing Chess ) that have numerous possible solutions.Finding the optimum solution, which has the minimum cost, is the main goal of the optimization. In most of the case, searching of the entire solution space is practically impossible.

- Optimization Problems classification: . Static : Constrains remain fixed during the computation and after that. . Dynamic: Constrains vary during the computation or after finding the optimum solution.

Fig 1: Static and dynamic optimizations

Problem Solution Using

Correct the solution

Change in problem

StaticOptimizatio

n DynamicOptimizatio

n

Dynamic optimization

• Definition: Problems constrains and elements are changed after solving the problem.

• Goal: To find the new optimum solution in the best way (the worst way is to solve the problem from the scratch)

Current techniques:

- Using memory: Storing the history of each peak for further exploration.

- Editing the solution: Modifying the last optimum solution.

- GA (adaptive mutation): Increasing the mutation rate after each change.

- Multi-Population GA: Keep tracking of each pick by a sub-population (i.e. an island)

Optimization Problems Applications:

• Vehicle routing• Good delivery• Large scale scheduling and transportation (i.e. Army logistics)

Characteristics of dynamic optimization environments:

• Elements and conditions change by the time.• Optimum solution change by the time.• Computation time is high.

Example:

Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) for Good delivery

Heuristic Techniques ClassificationFor Optimization

Traditional Techniques (e.g. Tabu search, Simulating Annealing, …) Exploiting and tuning of the solution

Evolutionary Algorithm (e.g. Genetic Algorithms) Exploring the search space and blending the solutions

Hybrid Algorithms Exploring good solutions and tuning them for finding the optimum

Learning Algorithms (e.g. Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning) Learning how to generate the good solutions

Limitations and challenging issues

• Local optimums and premature convergence is always a problem. In other words the optimum solution is not guaranteed.

• Optimization of np-hard problems, dealing with huge benchmarks, is very complex and time consuming.

• Dynamic nature of the problems, increases the complexity.

• Each technique has some strengths and some weak points. Usually each one has a good performance on specific benchmarks. There is no comprehensive technique that can solve most of the problems desirably.

Genetic Algorithms, strength and drawbacks

GA : Inspiring from genetic engineering to improve a generation of the chromosomes (i.e. solutions) and result excellent genomes (i.e. solutions).

Generation 1 Generation 2

Chromosome 1

Chromosome 2

Chromosome n

Chromosome 1

Chromosome 2

Chromosome n

Generation m

Chromosome 1

Chromosome 2

Chromosome n

Evolution

XoverMutationReplacementSelection

Solution 1

….

Fig 2: Genetic Algorithm

Why GA for optimization ?

GA is

Able to cover the solution space widely Easy to hybrid with other algorithms (e.g. Local search) Flexible and suitable for dynamic environments

Limitations of basic GA

. Still no guarantee for optimum solution (i.e. premature convergence)

. High computation time

Advanced GA

Adaptive GA: Auto adjusting the GA operators according the evaluation of the chromosomes in each generation

Fig 3: Adaptive GA

Evolution of individuals

GA Parametersadjustment

Initialization

Evaluation of convergence rate

Next generation

Final solution

Parallel GA:

- Independent/Dependent multi-population GA - Synchronized/Synchronized PGA - P2P/Master-slave sup-populations

Advanced GA (Cont.)

SubPopulation 1

SubPopulation 2

SubPopulation n….

Problem

Best solution

Fig 4: Parallel GA

Hybrid GA: Using a greedy algorithm (i.e. Local Search) to improve the quality of individuals in each generation

Fig 5: Hybrid GA

Advanced GA (Cont.)

Evolution of individuals

by GA

Exploitation by heuristic search

Initialization

Evaluation of individuals by GA

Next generation

Final solution

Multi-level GA: Splitting the problem into the small sub-problems and merging the sub-solutions

Fig 6: Multi Level GA

Advanced GA (Cont.)

Original problem

Sub-problem 1

Master Population

Sub-problem 2 Sub-problem 3

PGA

Final solution

Clustering

Merging

Sub-population 1 Sub-population 2 Sub-population 3

Fig 7: Island Based GA

IGA for optimization

What is IGA (Island-based GA) ?

IGA is a multi-population GA in which chromosomes can migrate between the islands (sup-population).

migrationIsland 1

Island 2 Island n

Island 3

IGA for optimization

IGA (Island-based GA) characteristics:

• Customized multi-population (i.e. Islands)

• Synchronized and P2P migration (i.e. ring topology)

• Adaptive operators: - Local operators (mutation, crossover and hybrid rate) - Global operators (migration rate, migration period)

• Selectable hybrid (e.g. GA+LS, GA+TS, GA+SA)

• Using two method crossovers dynamically (i.e. one and two point)

• Auto-controlling “Occurrence” of each chromosomes to prevent the saturation of the population.

Fig 8: Periodically remote chromosomes injection prevents a common convergence

TourCost

Generation no

Pop 1 (without remote injection)

Pop 2 (without remote injection)Pop 1 (with remote injection)Pop 2 (with remote injection)

Injection starts and stops periodically

Calculate the costs

Read the benchmark

Generate the islands

Send the global variables to each island

Run islands in parallel

Receive the best solution so far from

each island

Has the last

islandsent the results ?

Show the results

Initial global variables

No

Stop

Yes

Fig 9: IGA main algorithm

IslandsStart

Fig 10: IGA algorithm for an island

Initial the population

Cross over and mutation

Local search

Migration(send/receive chromosome)

Selection

New population

Evaluation of population& parameters adjustment

Send the best individual to the controller

Advantages of IGA• Due to multi-population characteristic of IGA, the possibility of getting stuck with local optimums is less in IGA than a single-population GA.

• For lowering the computation time, each island may reside on a machine.

• Periodically migration of chromosomes between the islands lowers chance of premature convergence.

• Adaptive operators, improve the performance.

• Using a multi-method algorithm (i.e. hybrid) takes most advantage of the different search techniques.

• Each island can use different operator values (population size, mutation rate and etc). This increases the diversity of the chromosomes and decreases similarity of the islands.

• PGA are more flexible when dealing with dynamic environments.

• IGA has a better performance (i.e. in terms of quality of results) than regular PGA.

Dynamic Benchmark Generator• For simulating a dynamic environment a dynamic generator is needed.

• In a dynamic TSP two types of change can happen: - A change in a distance between the two cities. - A change in number of the cities (add or removing a city)

• In this work the first type is considered as dynamic benchmark generator.• The second type is considered as future work.

Fig 11: Convergence in static (a) and dynamic (b) environments (changes are in the generations 100 and 200)

Static

2900

3400

3900

4400

4900

1 21 41 61 81

Generation (/3)

To

ur C

ost

Dynamic

55000

85000

115000

145000

1 21 41 61 81Generation (/3)

To

ur

Co

st

Dynamic changes

Fig 12: Sharp changes in a dynamic environment

550

650

750

1 21 41 61 81

Generation (/3)

Tour

cos

t

Implementation and results so far

• Using TSP as Benchmark

• Evaluating and tuning the GA operators in static benchmarks, including:

- Local operator: Mutation and Crossover rates - Hybrid operators: Method and rates - Global operators: Rate and period of immigration and no. of islands

• Creating a “Dynamic benchmark generator” that can periodically change the distances between the cities

• Observation of the system reactions (best fitness) to the dynamic changes

Implementation and results so far (Cont.)

• Generalizing the optimum values of the operators from static to the dynamic environment

• Evaluating the performance of the algorithm (results) by a factor (i.e. improvement average cost) that has a consistent values, in addition to “Best cost”, which is random

• A visualized output for evaluation of the algorithm

• Evaluation of adaptive parameters

Evaluation of IGA

For evaluation of IGA two comparisons have been done:

• Comparison of pure and hybrid IGA (quality and Computation time) to verify the preferred algorithm.

• Comparison of IGA with the traditional searching methods, in terms of quality of the results and computation time, to evaluate the performance of the IGA.

Table 1: Comparison of pure IGA and hybrid IGA(No of runs = 5)

Benchmarks=att48 Benchmarks=berlin52

IGA

Method

Optimum

Best Accuracy

Time

(sec)

Optimum

Best Accuracy

Time

(sec)

Pure

Hybrid

32522

32522

37241

34043

0.74

0.77

175

405

7542

7542

9270

8040

0.67

0.71

161

230

Fig 13: Comparison between pure and hybrid IGA

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

1 20 39 58 77 96 115 134Generation

Tour

cost

Pure IGA

Hybrid IGA

Comparison between IGA and other methods

Current Heuristic Methods:

Local Search (LS): A greedy algorithm that considers the best first change in the solution.

Simulating Annealing (SA): An algorithm that refers to the simulation technique in conjunction with an annealing (i.e. cooling) schedule of declining temperature.

Tabu search (TS): An algorithm similar to LS plus using memory to avoid repeating moves.

Fig 14: A comparison among the different search techniques

1=LS 2=SA 3=TS 4=GA 5=HGA 6=PGA 7=IGA

0

500

1000

1500

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Methods

Tour

Cos

t

Bays 29

Att 48

Eil 51

Berlin 52

Eil 76

Fig 15: Search methods processing time comparison

1=LS 2=SA 3=TS 4=GA 5=HGA 6=PGA 7=IGA

0

50

100

150

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Tour Cost

Met

hod Bays 29

Att 48

Eil 51

Berlin 52

Eil 76

Fig 16: No. of Islands evaluation in terms of CPU time (IGA)

Fixed population size for each island

0

200

400

600

800

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

No. of Islands

Tim

e (S

ec)

Fig 17: Evaluation of the population size in IGA

150

190

230

270

0 5 10 15 20 25No. of Islands

Err

Av

g.

With migration Without migration

02468

101214

0 5 10 15 20 25No. of Islands

Imp

Av

g

With migration Without migration

Fig 18: Evaluation of the population size in IGA (2)

Fixed population size for whole islands

0

20

40

60

0 2 4 6 8 10

No. of Islands

Err

Av

gBeys

Beyg

Fixed population size for whole islands

0.63

0.635

0.64

0.645

0 2 4 6 8 10

No. of Islands

Imp

Av

g Beys

Beyg

Results analysis and conclusion

• Multi-population GA ,including IGA, have a better performance compared with single-population GA.

• Using a hill-climbing (i.e. Local search) method with GA (Hybrid GA), improves the results considerably.

• Migration of chromosomes lowers a premature convergence.

• IGA can handle dynamic optimization problems better than plain (single population) GA.

• Optimum values for migration parameters (i.e. rate and period) and also for number of the islands can be obtained for each benchmark.

• Variable crossover (one/two point) is better than fixed crossover. • Independent characteristic of the islands and cooperation among them can handle changes in a dynamic benchmark better.

• IGA has a better performance than traditional search methods (e.g. Local Search, Tabu Search , Simulating Annealing) in term of efficiency (i.e. quality of the results and considerable CPU time).

• Migration in IGA helps to handle large benchmarks better.

Results analysis and conclusion (Cont.)

Future works

Still the results are far from the ideal. More research is needed to overcome the current limitations in the optimization. Some of the efforts that could be made, in this work, are:

• Distributed IGA for faster results on huge benchmarks

• Solving TSP with variable number of cities to be more realistic

• Using AI (e.g. reinforcement learning and self-trainer) for improving the results

• Optimizing the IGA by using different techniques (e.g. using different migration topologies)

• Research on other algorithms beside GA for dynamic optimization

• Working more on adaptive algorithms

• Using multi-agent technology in IGA to come up with current limitations