Evoptool: Evolutionary Optimization Tool

Project profile

Name:	evoptool: Evolutive Optimization Tool.
Field:	Combining Estimation of Distribution Algorithms and other Evolutionary techniques for combinatorial optimization.
Project's head:	M. Matteucci - User:MatteoMatteucci L. Malagò - User:LuigiMalago
People involved:	G. Valentini - User:GabrieleValentini

Short Description

The project focus on the study, implementation, comparison and analysis of different algorithms for combinatorial optimization using techniques and algorithms proposed in Evolutionary Computation. In particular we are interested in the study of Estimation of Distribution Algorithms, a recent meta-heuristic, often presented as an evolution of Genetic Algorithms, where classical crossover and mutation operators, used in genetic algorithms, are replaced with operators that come from statistics, such as sampling and estimation. The focus will be on the implementation of new hybrid algorithms able to combine estimation of distribution algorithms with different approaches available in the evolutionary computation literature, such as genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies, together with other local search techniques.

User Manual

Algorthms

In this tool there are several bla bla bla..

• Genetic Algorithm (GA). Is a search technique used in computing to find exact or approximate solutions to optimization and search problems. They grow a population of abstract representations (chromosomes or genotype) of candidate solutions (individuals or phenotypes) to an optimization problem evolves toward better solutions. In this tool, solutions are represented as binary strings of 0s and 1s, but other encodings are also possible. The evolution usually starts from a population of randomly generated individuals and happens in several generations (selection, crossover, mutation). The new population is then used in the next iteration of the algorithm. Commonly, the algorithm terminates when either a maximum number of generations has been produced, or a satisfactory fitness level has been reached for the population. Nowaday, there are the following GA implemented inside evoptool:
  • SGA.
  • SGA with Binary Tournment.
  • SGA with Population Wise Uniform Crossover.

• Estimation Distribution Algorithm (EDA). Is powerful population-based searcher where the variation operations traditionally implemented via crossover and mutation in EAs are replaced by the process of random sampling from a probability distribution. The distribution is modified generation after generation, using information obtained from the fitter individuals in the population (estimation). The objective of these changes in the distribution is to increase the probability of generating individuals with high fitness. In our tool there are several EDA implemented such:
  • cGA.
  • PBIL.
  • UMDA.
  • MIMIC.
  • COMIT.
    • COMIT with HillClimbing.
    • COMIT with pbill.
  • DEUM.
    • DEUM with probability vector.
    • DEUM with direct sampling from Gibbs distribution.
  • Is-DEUM.
    • Is-DEUM with a Metropolis sampler.
    • Is-DEUM with a Gibbs sampler.
  • sBOA.

• Genetic Estimation Distribution Algorithm (GEDA).
  • '

• Operative Reaserch classical algorithms (OR).
  • .

Documentation

Evoptool is a software with the purpose to compare the performance of several different algorithms from the Evolutive family and, for obvious reasons, with some algorithms from the classical Operation Research family. Evoptool is written in C++ for the GNU/Linux platform and it exploit the Gtk libraries (in this case gtkmm libraries) and GNUplot utility. Inside this tool there are several implemented algorithms and some wrapped ones from already existing applications.

Evoptool running on Ubuntu 9.04.

Software Modules

Evoptool is made up of several different modules (or libraries). This architecture make easy to organize files and better understanding how the application work.

• common - It contains commons classes and ancestors for the algorithm modules and for the optimization function module.
• ga - It contains the implementation of several Genetic Algorithms.
• eda - It contains the implementation of several Estimation Distribution Algorithms.
• geda - It contains the implementation of several gEDAs.
• or - It contains the implementation of some algorithms from the classical Operation Research.
• opt-pbl - It contains the implementation of several objective functions (fitness), that represents different problem instances.
• gui - This module is the main one, it contains all the classes for manage GUI (algorithm decorators). From the other side it implements the multithread mechanism under the GUI, and last but not list it contains the wrapped applications and take care about wrapping.
• misc - It contains general utility classes such rondom seed geerator.
• shared -

Usefull Links

• Evoptool Repository (Need authentication!)
• GNU Scientific Library
• GUI Library Gtkmm
• Boost Library
• Gnuplot Utility
• C++ Library reference