Rapid Phenotypic Landscape Exploration Through Hierarchical Spatial Partitioning

Davy Smith, Laurissa Tokarchuk, Geraint Wiggins

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Exploration of the search space through the optimisation of phenotypic diversity is of increasing interest within the field of evolutionary robotics. Novelty search and the more recent MAP-Elites are two state of the art evolutionary algorithms which diversify low dimensional phenotypic traits for divergent exploration. In this paper we introduce a novel alternative for rapid divergent search of the feature space. Unlike previous phenotypic search procedures, our proposed Spatial, Hierarchical, Illuminated Neuro-Evolution (SHINE) algorithm utilises a tree structure for the maintenance and selection of potential candidates. SHINE penalises previous solutions in more crowded areas of the landscape. Our experimental results show that SHINE significantly outperforms novelty search and MAP-Elites in both performance and exploration. We conclude that the SHINE algorithm is a viable method for rapid divergent search of low dimensional, phenotypic landscapes.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationParallel Problem Solving from Nature -- PPSN XIV
EditorsJulia Handl, Emma Hart, Peter R. Lewis, Manuel López-Ibáñez, Gabriela Ochoa, Ben Paechter
PublisherSpringer
Pages911-920
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)978-3-319-45822-9 978-3-319-45823-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2016

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
PublisherSpringer International Publishing

Keywords

  • Algorithm Analysis and Problem Complexity, Algorithm design, Artificial Intelligence (incl. Robotics), Computational Biology/Bioinformatics, Computation by Abstract Devices, Discrete Mathematics in Computer Science, evolutionary robotics, neuroevolution, Pattern Recognition, Phenotypic diversity

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