putting the human back into the loop: the hows … · 10/2/2017 · putting the human back in the...
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PUTTING THE HUMAN BACK INTO THE LOOP: THE HOWS PROJECT
THE HOWS PROJECTProject started February 2017EPSRC-funded 3 year project
Prof Dragan Savic Prof Edward Keedwell
Dr David Walker Dr Matt Johns
PROJECT PARTNERS
PROJECT TEAM
PROJECT AIM“To develop a new approach for designing and managing improved, near-optimal and engineering-intuitive water systemsby incorporating visual analytics, heuristic optimisation and feedback-informed learning.”
PUTTING THE HUMAN BACK IN THE LOOPAutomated optimisation methods tend to remove the expert from the optimisation process
Highly optimal solutions can be generated in terms of their simulated performance, but fall short for practical implementation in the real world
Research suggests expert knowledge and intervention is essential to produce valid solutions for real-world problems
UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART Extensive review of water systems design and operations software used in industry
Visualisation techniques Hydraulic modelling capabilities
Integrated optimisation tools Which platforms are being used
INTERACTIVE 3D VISUALISATION
INTERACTIVE OPTIMISATION PLATFORM
Intuitive 3D water distribution network representation Visualisation of optimisation
What’s in the box?
Intuitive 3D representation
Elevations and pipe sizes visualised simultaneously & intuitively
New innovative techniques for the visualisation of hydraulic and optimisation parameters
3D NETWORK VISUALISATION
INTERACTIVE OPTIMISATION PLATFORM
An attempt to “lift the lid” on the optimization algorithm “black box”
Little work has been conducted into the visualisation of networks that have been subjected to optimisation
Information on the interaction between optimiser and network can yield important insights into network and optimiser performance
The additional visualisation capability of the 3D representation can be used to show information from the optimisation
VISUALISATION OF OPTIMISATION
INTERACTIVE OPTIMISATION PLATFORM
INTERACTIVE OPTIMISATION PLATFORMOptimisation & Machine Learning
SYSTEM OVERVIEWServer - Optimisation and machine learning Flexible Scalable
Client - Interactive visualisation Desktop
Virtual Reality Web Mobile
OPTIMISATION
Use an evolutionary algorithm to solve a computationally expensiveoptimisation problem by generating solutions that an expert might not think about
OPTIMISATION EXAMPLE: DESIGNING CHAIRS
Generate a population of potential solutions to a given problem – a set of random chair designs
EVALUATING SOLUTION QUALITY
y = f(x)Evaluate solution quality with an objective function – a mathematical function which may depend on a model of the real world
SELECT SOME OF THE GOOD SOLUTIONS
COMBINE SOME OF THE SELECTED SOLUTIONS’ ATTRIBUTES
CROSSOVER
CHANGE SOME OF THE NEW SOLUTIONS’ ATTRIBUTES
MUTATION
MUTATION
EVALUATE THE SOLUTIONS AND UPDATE THE POPULATION
WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK DESIGN
Optimise the pipes used in a WDN
Mutation heuristics modify pipe diameters
Evaluate solution quality with EPANET
PUTTING THE HUMAN IN THE LOOP: INTERACTIVE OPTIMISATIONOptimisation produces highly optimal solutions that can be impractical for implementation in the real world
Ask the expert to• Select the solutions they think are best suited to solving the problem• Generate new solutions by mutating existing solutions themselves
Problems with interaction
User fatigue is a problem with interactive optimisation – users become bored with a repetitive task and make choices at random
Use machine learning to supplement the user interactions by understanding how they use the system
UNDERSTANDING ATTITUDES TO OPTIMISATION
Evolutionary optimisation is an active area of research within academia but its uptake is often slow in the water industry
A survey will enable us to understand industry attitudes to optimisation to design a better interactive system
Find the survey online at
http://howsproject.uk
QUESTIONS?
www.howsproject.uk @HOWSProject