Quantifying Individual and Joint Module Impact in Modular Optimization Frameworks

IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 1–8

Abstract

This study explores the influence of modules on the performance of modular optimization frameworks for continuous single-objective black-box optimization. There is an extensive variety of modules to choose from when designing algorithm variants, however, there is a rather limited understanding of how each module individually influences the algorithm performance and how the modules interact with each other when combined. We use the functional ANOVA (f-ANOVA) framework to quantify the influence of individual modules and module combinations for two algorithms, the modular Covariance Matrix Adaptation (modCMA) and the modular Differential Evolution (modDE). We analyze the performance data from 324 modCMA and 576 modDE variants on the BBOB benchmark collection, for two problem dimensions, and three computational budgets. Note-worthy findings include the identification of important modules that strongly influence the performance of modCMA, such as the weights option and mirrored modules for low dimensional problems, and the base sampler for high dimensional problems. The large individual influence of the lpsr module makes it very important for the performance of modDE, regardless of the problem dimensionality and the computational budget. When comparing modCMA and modDE, modDE undergoes a shift from individual modules being more influential, to module combinations being more influential, while modCMA follows the opposite pattern, with an increase in problem dimensionality and computational budget.

Authors 5

1. Ana Nikolikj

   Jožef Stefan Institute · Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School

   Affiliation as printed

   Jožef Stefan Institute,Computer Systems Department,Ljubliana,Slovenia

2. Ana Kostovska

   Jožef Stefan Institute · Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School

   Affiliation as printed

   Jožef Stefan Institute,Department of Knowledge Technologies,Ljubljana,Slovenia

3. Diederick Vermetten Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University,LIAC,Leiden,Netherlands

4. Carola Doerr

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Sorbonne Université · LIP6

   Affiliation as printed

   Sorbonne Universite, CNRS, LIP6,Paris,France,1000

5. Tome Eftimov

   Jožef Stefan Institute · Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School

   Affiliation as printed

   Jožef Stefan Institute,Computer Systems Department,Ljubliana,Slovenia