Generating functions and the performance of backtracking adaptive search

Backtracking adaptive search is a simplified stochastic optimisation procedure which permits the acceptance of worsening objective function values. Key properties of backtracking adaptive search are defined and obtained using generating functions. Examples are given to illustrate the use of this methodology.      

Expected hitting times for Backtracking Adaptive Search

This article analyses a counting process associated with a stochastic process arising in global optimisation. Backtracking adaptive search (BAS) is a theoretical stochastic global optimisation algorithm modelling the temporary acceptance of solutions of lower quality. BAS generalises the pure adaptive search and hesitant adaptive search algorithms, whose full search duration distributions are known. This article gives the exact expected search duration for backtracking adaptive search.     

Hesitant adaptive search: the distribution of the number of iterations to convergence

Hesitant adaptive search is a stochastic optimisation procedure which accommodates hesitation, or pausing, at objective function values. It lies between pure adaptive search (which strictly improves at each iteration) and simulated annealing with constant temperature (which allows backtracking, or the acceptance of worse function values). In this paper we build on an earlier work and make two contributions; first, we link hesitant adaptive search to standard counting process theory, and second, we use this to derive the exact distribution of the number of iterations of hesitant adaptive search to termination. Received: November 17, 1997 / Accepted: July 9, 1999?Published online December 15, 2000     

Implementing Pure Adaptive Search with Grover's Quantum Algorithm

Pure adaptive search (PAS) is an idealized stochastic algorithm for unconstrained global optimization. The number of PAS iterations required to solve a problem increases only linearly in the domain dimension. However, each iteration requires the generation of a random domain point uniformly distributed in the current improving region. If no regularity conditions are known to hold for the objective function, then this task requires a number of classical function evaluations varying inversely with the proportion of the domain constituted by the improving region, entirely counteracting the PAS apparent speedup. The Grover quantum computational search algorithm provides a way to generate the PAS iterates. We show that the resulting implementation, which we call the Grover adaptive search (GAS), realizes PAS for functions satisfying certain conditions, and we believe that, when quantum computers will be available, GAS will be a practical algorithm.     

Approximation of the distribution of convergence times for stochastic global optimisation

How long should we run a stochastic global optimisation algorithm such as simulated annealing? How should we tune such an algorithm? This paper proposes an approach to the study of these questions through successive approximation of a generic stochastic global optimisation algorithm with a sequence of stochastic processes, culminating in a backtracking adaptive search process. Our emerging understanding of backtracking adaptive search can thus be used to study the original algorithm. The first approximation, the averaged range process, has the same expected number of iterations to convergence as the original process.     

Adaptive Stabilization of Nonlinear Stochastic Systems

The purpose of this paper is to study the problem of asymptotic stabilization in probability of nonlinear stochastic differential systems with unknown parameters. With this aim, we introduce the concept of an adaptive control Lyapunov function for stochastic systems and we use the stochastic version of Artstein's theorem to design an adaptive stabilizer. In this framework the problem of adaptive stabilization of a nonlinear stochastic system is reduced to the problem of asymptotic stabilization in probability of a modified system. The design of an adaptive control Lyapunov function is illustrated by the example of adaptively quadratically stabilizable in probability stochastic differential systems. Accepted 9 December 1996     

Adaptive stochastic approximation algorithm

In this paper, stochastic approximation (SA) algorithm with a new adaptive step size scheme is proposed. New adaptive step size scheme uses a fixed number of previous noisy function values to adjust steps at every iteration. The algorithm is formulated for a general descent direction and almost sure convergence is established. The case when negative gradient is chosen as a search direction is also considered. The algorithm is tested on a set of standard test problems. Numerical results show good performance and verify efficiency of the algorithm compared to some of existing algorithms with adaptive step sizes.     

Hesitant adaptive search for global optimisation

Pure adaptive search is a stochastic algorithm which has been analysed in distinct ways for finite and continuous global optimisation. In this paper, motivated by the behaviour of practical algorithms such as simulated annealing, we extend these ideas. We present a unified theory which yields both the finite and continuous results for pure adaptive search. At the same time, we allow our extended algorithm to hesitate before improvement continues. Results are obtained for the expected number of iterations to convergence for such an algorithm. © 1998 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.Corresponding author.     

Convergence guarantees for generalized adaptive stochastic search methods for continuous global optimization

This paper presents some simple technical conditions that guarantee the convergence of a general class of adaptive stochastic global optimization algorithms. By imposing some conditions on the probability distributions that generate the iterates, these stochastic algorithms can be shown to converge to the global optimum in a probabilistic sense. These results also apply to global optimization algorithms that combine local and global stochastic search strategies and also those algorithms that combine deterministic and stochastic search strategies. This makes the results applicable to a wide range of global optimization algorithms that are useful in practice. Moreover, this paper provides convergence conditions involving the conditional densities of the random vector iterates that are easy to verify in practice. It also provides some convergence conditions in the special case when the iterates are generated by elliptical distributions such as the multivariate Normal and Cauchy distributions. These results are then used to prove the convergence of some practical stochastic global optimization algorithms, including an evolutionary programming algorithm. In addition, this paper introduces the notion of a stochastic algorithm being probabilistically dense in the domain of the function and shows that, under simple assumptions, this is equivalent to seeing any point in the domain with probability 1. This, in turn, is equivalent to almost sure convergence to the global minimum. Finally, some simple results on convergence rates are also proved.     

求解log—最优组合投资问题的一个自适应算法及其理论分析

本文给出了一个求解log－最优组合投资问题的自适应算法,它是一个变型的随机逼近方法。该问题是一个约束优化问题,因此,采用基于约束流形的梯度上升方向替代常规梯度上升方向,在一些合理的假设下证明了算法的收敛性并进行了渐近稳定性分析。最后,本文将该算法应用于上海证券交易所提供的实际数据的log-最优组合投资问题求解,获得了理想的数值模拟结果。     

A stochastic local search algorithm with adaptive acceptance for high-school timetabling

Automating high school timetabling is a challenging task. This problem is a well known hard computational problem which has been of interest to practitioners as well as researchers. High schools need to timetable their regular activities once per year, or even more frequently. The exact solvers might fail to find a solution for a given instance of the problem. A selection hyper-heuristic can be defined as an easy-to-implement, easy-to-maintain and effective ‘heuristic to choose heuristics’ to solve such computationally hard problems. This paper describes the approach of the team hyper-heuristic search strategies and timetabling (HySST) to high school timetabling which competed in all three rounds of the third international timetabling competition. HySST generated the best new solutions for three given instances in Round 1 and gained the second place in Rounds 2 and 3. It achieved this by using a fairly standard stochastic search method but significantly enhanced by a selection hyper-heuristic with an adaptive acceptance mechanism.     

Global optimization by continuous grasp

We introduce a novel global optimization method called Continuous GRASP (C-GRASP) which extends Feo and Resende’s greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) from the domain of discrete optimization to that of continuous global optimization. This stochastic local search method is simple to implement, is widely applicable, and does not make use of derivative information, thus making it a well-suited approach for solving global optimization problems. We illustrate the effectiveness of the procedure on a set of standard test problems as well as two hard global optimization problems.     

Quantifying uncertainty with ensembles of surrogates for blackbox optimization

Blackbox optimization tackles problems where the functions are expensive to evaluate and where no analytical information is available. In this context, a tried and tested technique is to build surrogates of the objective and the constraints in order to conduct the optimization at a cheaper computational cost. This work introduces an extension to a specific type of surrogates: ensembles of surrogates, enabling them to quantify the uncertainty on the predictions they produce. The resulting extended ensembles of surrogates behave as stochastic models and allow the use of efficient Bayesian optimization tools. The method is incorporated in the search step of the mesh adaptive direct search (MADS) algorithm to improve the exploration of the search space. Computational experiments are conducted on seven analytical problems, two multi-disciplinary optimization problems and two simulation problems. The results show that the proposed approach solves expensive simulation-based problems at a greater precision and with a lower computational effort than stochastic models.

     

Adaptive sample size and importance sampling in estimation-based local search for the probabilistic traveling salesman problem

The probabilistic traveling salesman problem is a paradigmatic example of a stochastic combinatorial optimization problem. For this problem, recently an estimation-based local search algorithm using delta evaluation has been proposed. In this paper, we adopt two well-known variance reduction procedures in the estimation-based local search algorithm: the first is an adaptive sampling procedure that selects the appropriate size of the sample to be used in Monte Carlo evaluation; the second is a procedure that adopts importance sampling to reduce the variance involved in the cost estimation. We investigate several possible strategies for applying these procedures to the given problem and we identify the most effective one. Experimental results show that a particular heuristic customization of the two procedures increases significantly the effectiveness of the estimation-based local search.     

Feedback stabilization and adaptive stabilization of stochastic nonlinear systems by the control Lyapunov function

Our aims of this paper are twofold: On one hand, we study the asymptotic stability in probability of stochastic differential system, when both the drift and diffusion terms are affine in the control. We derive sufficient conditions for the existence of control Lyapunov functions (CLFs) leading to the existence of stabilizing feedback laws which are smooth, except possibly at the equilibrium state. On the other hand, we consider the previous systems with an unknown constant parameters in the drift and introduce the concept of an adaptive CLF for stochastic system and use the stochastic version of Florchinger's control law to design an adaptive controller. In this framework, the problem of adaptive stabilization of nonlinear stochastic system is reduced to the problem of non-adaptive stabilization of a modified system.     

A penalty function-based random search algorithm for optimal control of switched systems with stochastic constraints and its application in automobile test-driving with gear shifts

Practical industrial process is usually a dynamic process including uncertainty. Stochastic constraints can be used for industrial process modeling, when system sate and/or control input constraints cannot be strictly satisfied. Thus, optimal control of switched systems with stochastic constraints can be available to address practical industrial process problems with different modes. In general, obtaining an analytical solution of the optimal control problem is usually very difficult due to the discrete nature of the switching law and the complexity of stochastic constraints. To obtain a numerical solution, this problem is formulated as a constrained nonlinear parameter selection problem (CNPSP) based on a relaxation transformation (RT) technique, an adaptive sample approximation (ASA) method, a smooth approximation (SA) technique, and a control parameterization (CP) method. Following that, a penalty function-based random search (PFRS) algorithm is designed for solving the CNPSP based on a novel search rule-based penalty function (NSRPF) method and a novel random search (NRS) algorithm. The convergence results show that the proposed method is globally convergent. Finally, an optimal control problem in automobile test-driving with gear shifts (ATGS) is further extended to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by taking into account some stochastic constraints. Numerical results show that compared with other typical methods, the proposed method is less conservative and can obtain a stable and robust performance when considering the small perturbations in initial system state. In addition, to balance the computation amount and the numerical solution accuracy, a tolerance setting method is also provided by the numerical analysis technique.     

Expected search duration for finite backtracking adaptive search

Backtracking adaptive search is an optimisation algorithm which generalises pure adaptive search and hesitant adaptive search. This paper considers the number of iterations for which the algorithm runs, on a problem with finitely many range levels, in order to reach a sufficiently extreme objective function level. A difference equation for the expectation of this quantity is derived and solved. Several examples of backtracking adaptive search on finite problems are presented, including special cases that have received attention in earlier papers.     

Adaptive synchronization under almost every initial data for stochastic neural networks with time-varying delays and distributed delays

This paper is concerned with the adaptive synchronization problem for a class of stochastic delayed neural networks. Based on the LaSalle invariant principle of stochastic differential delay equations and the stochastic analysis theory as well as the adaptive feedback control technique, a linear matrix inequality approach is developed to derive some novel sufficient conditions achieving complete synchronization of unidirectionally coupled stochastic delayed neural networks. In particular, the synchronization criterion considered in this paper is the globally almost surely asymptotic stability of the error dynamical system, which has seldom been applied to investigate the synchronization problem. Moreover, the delays proposed in this paper are time-varying delays and distributed delays, which have rarely been used to study the synchronization problem for coupled stochastic delayed neural networks. Therefore, the results obtained in this paper are more general and useful than those given in the previous literature. Finally, two numerical examples and their simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Evolutionary analysis of adaptive dynamics model under variation of noise environment

This paper proposes a stochastic model for the evolutionary adaptive dynamics of species subject to trait-dependent intrinsic growth rates and the influence of environmental noise. The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) mathematically we make an attempt to investigate the evolutionary adaptive dynamics for models with noises; (b) biologically we investigate how the noises in environment affect the evolutionary stability. We first investigate the extinction and permanence of the population in the presence of environmental noises. Combining evolutionary adaptive dynamics with stochastic dynamics, we then establish a fitness function with stochastic disturbance and obtain the evolutionary conditions for continuously stable strategy and evolutionary branching. Our study finds that under intense competition among species, increasing stochastic disturbance can lead to rapidly stable evolution towards smaller trait values, but there is an opposite effect under weak competition among species. This yields an interesting evolutionary threshold, beyond which any increasing stochastic disturbance can go against evolutionary branching and promote evolutionary stability. We then carry out the evolutionary analysis and numerical simulations to illustrate our theoretical results. Finally, for demonstrating the emergence of high-level polymorphism we perform long-term simulation of evolutionary dynamics.     

Robust synchronization for stochastic delayed complex networks with switching topology and unmodeled dynamics via adaptive control approach

In this paper, the robust synchronization problem for a class of stochastic delayed complex networks with switching topology and unmodeled dynamics is investigated by using the adaptive control scheme. Different from some existing uncertain complex network models, the uncertain terms in the complex networks are only needed to be bounded. Based on the stability theory of stochastic delayed differential equation, a novel adaptive controller which ensures that all the nodes in the complex networks robustly synchronize with the target node is derived. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.