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arXiv · 1907.06912

Modeling User Selection in Quality Diversity

Alexander Hagg·Alexander Asteroth·Thomas Bäck
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Abstract

The initial phase in real world engineering optimization and design is a process of discovery in which not all requirements can be made in advance, or are hard to formalize. Quality diversity algorithms, which produce a variety of high performing solutions, provide a unique chance to support engineers and designers in the search for what is possible and high performing. In this work we begin to answer the question how a user can interact with quality diversity and turn it into an interactive innovation aid. By modeling a user's selection it can be determined whether the optimization is drifting away from the user's preferences. The optimization is then constrained by adding a penalty to the objective function. We present an interactive quality diversity algorithm that can take into account the user's selection. The approach is evaluated in a new multimodal optimization benchmark that allows various optimization tasks to be performed. The user selection drift of the approach is compared to a state of the art alternative on both a planning and a neuroevolution control task, thereby showing its limits and possibilities.

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Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas Bäck. 2019-07-16. Modeling User Selection in Quality Diversity. https://doi.org/10.1145/3321707.3321823

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