Gaussian adaptation revisited - An entropic view on covariance matrix adaptation

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Christian L. Müller - , ETH Zurich (Author)
  • Ivo F. Sbalzarini - , ETH Zurich (Author)

Abstract

We revisit Gaussian Adaptation (GaA), a black-box optimizer for discrete and continuous problems that has been developed in the late 1960's. This largely neglected search heuristic shares several interesting features with the well-known Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) and with Simulated Annealing (SA). GaA samples single candidate solutions from a multivariate normal distribution and continuously adapts its first and second moments (mean and covariance) such as to maximize the entropy of the search distribution. Sample-point selection is controlled by a monotonically decreasing acceptance threshold, reminiscent of the cooling schedule in SA. We describe the theoretical foundations of GaA and analyze some key features of this algorithm. We empirically show that GaA converges log-linearly on the sphere function and analyze its behavior on selected non-convex test functions.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationApplications of Evolutionary Computation - EvoApplicatons 2010
PublisherSpringer-Verlag
Pages432-441
Number of pages10
EditionPART 1
ISBN (print)3642122388, 9783642122385
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

SeriesLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
NumberPART 1
Volume6024 LNCS
ISSN0302-9743

Conference

TitleEvoCOMPLEX, EvoGAMES, EvoIASP, EvoINTELLIGENCE, EvoNUM, and EvoSTOC, EvoApplicatons 2010
Duration7 - 9 April 2010
CityIstanbul
CountryTurkey

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-4414-4340/work/159608324

Keywords

Keywords

  • Black-Box Optimization, Covariance Matrix Adaptation, Entropy, Evolution Strategy, Gaussian Adaptation