Related papers: MMES: Mixture Model based Evolution Strategy for L…

Contextual policy search (CPS) is a class of multi-task reinforcement learning algorithms that is particularly useful for robotic applications. A recent state-of-the-art method is Contextual Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategies…

In this paper, we propose an efficient approximated rank one update for covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES). It makes use of two evolution paths as simple as that of CMA-ES, while avoiding the computational matrix…

The Increasing Population Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (IPOP-CMA-ES) algorithm is a reference stochastic optimizer dedicated to blackbox optimization, where no prior knowledge about the underlying problem structure is…

In this work, we propose a new variant of natural evolution strategies (NES) for high-dimensional black-box optimization problems. The proposed method, CR-FM-NES, extends a recently proposed state-of-the-art NES, Fast Moving Natural…

Evolutionary algorithms are sensitive to the mutation rate (MR); no single value of this parameter works well across domains. Self-adaptive MR approaches have been proposed but they tend to be brittle: Sometimes they decay the MR to zero,…

Despite the state-of-the-art performance of the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES), high-dimensional black-box optimization problems are challenging tasks. Such problems often involve a property called low effective…

This paper introduces a novel theoretically sound approach for the celebrated CMA-ES algorithm. Assuming the parameters of the multi variate normal distribution for the minimum follow a conjugate prior distribution, we derive their optimal…

Several practical applications of evolutionary computation possess objective functions that receive the design variables and externally given parameters. Such problems are termed contextual optimization problems. These problems require…

Evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) is an important solution concept in game theory which has been applied frequently to biological models. Informally an ESS is a strategy that if followed by the population cannot be taken over by a…

Pre-training a diverse set of neural network controllers in simulation has enabled robots to adapt online to damage in robot locomotion tasks. However, finding diverse, high-performing controllers requires expensive network training and…

In this study, we consider a continuous min--max optimization problem $\min_{x \in \mathbb{X} \max_{y \in \mathbb{Y}}}f(x,y)$ whose objective function is a black-box. We propose a novel approach to minimize the worst-case objective function…

The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is a fundamental tool in unsupervised machine learning. It is often used as an efficient way to solve Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation problems, especially for models with latent variables. It…

When faced with a specific optimization problem, choosing which algorithm to use is always a tough task. Not only is there a vast variety of algorithms to select from, but these algorithms often are controlled by many hyperparameters, which…

This paper explores the theoretical basis of the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) from the information geometry viewpoint. To establish a theoretical foundation for the CMA-ES, we focus on a geometric structure of a…

In several real-world applications in medical and control engineering, there are unsafe solutions whose evaluations involve inherent risk. This optimization setting is known as safe optimization and formulated as a specialized type of…

This work concerns the evolutionary approaches to distributed stochastic black-box optimization, in which each worker can individually solve an approximation of the problem with nature-inspired algorithms. We propose a distributed evolution…

In this paper, an evolutionary strategy (ES) method is introduced as an optimization approach to solve problems in the manufacturing area. The ES method is applied to a case study for milling operations. The results show that it can…

Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is a widely used iterative algorithm for computing maximum likelihood estimate when dealing with Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). When the sample size is smaller than the data dimension, this could lead…

We combine a refined version of two-point step-size adaptation with the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES). Additionally, we suggest polished formulae for the learning rate of the covariance matrix and the…

The covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) is a stochastic search algorithm using a multivariate normal distribution for continuous black-box optimization. In addition to strong empirical results, part of the CMA-ES can be…