Final Iteration Flashcards
Definition of Decision Support
As it sounds, used in a variety of contexts related to decision making
Definition of Closed Systems
Closed systems are totally independent i.e. ‘closed off’ from the environment
Definition of Open Systems
Open Systems are dependent on their environment - ‘open to’ the environment
Definition of System Effectiveness
System Effectiveness - the degree to which goals are achieved. In simple terms, how good the results are that are produced by the system
Definition of System Efficiency
System Efficiency - A measure of the use of inputs (or resources) to achieve output. In simple terms, how little the computer uses in terms of resources to produce a solution, or how fast the system can produce a valid output.
Definition of Global Optimisation
The task of finding the absolutely best set of admissible conditions to achieve the objective.
Fundamental problem of optimisation is to arrive at the best possible decision/solution in any given set of circumstances
What is the difference between global and local optimum?
Global - better than all other solutions i.e. the absolute best
Local - better than all solutions within a certain neighbourhood (N)
Difference between perturbative and constructive search paradigms?
Perturbative - complete solutions
Constructive - partial solutions
Define Heuristic
Problem dependent search method which seeks good/near-optimal solutions, at a reasonable cost without being able to guarantee optimality.
What are the drawbacks of heuristic search?
No guarantee for the optimality of obtained solutions
Usually can be used for the specific situation for which they are designed
Heuristics have parameters - performance could be sensitive to the setting of those parameters
May give a poor solution
Difference between deterministic and stochastic heuristic search
Deterministic - provides the same solution when run on the given problem instance regardless of how many times
Stochastic - Contain a random component and may return a different solution at each time they are run on the same instance
What is a pseudo-random number?
A long sequence of numbers that is produced using a deterministic process but which appears to be random
What are some problems with pseudo-random numbers?
Shorter than expected periods for some seed states - such seed states may be called ‘weak’
Lack of uniformity of distribution
Correlation of successive values
Distances between where certain values occur are distributed differently from those in a random sequence distribution
What are the main components of a meta/hyper heuristic search optimisation method?
Representation
Neighbourhood relation
Evaluation function
Initialisation
Search process
Mechanism for escaping from local optima
Characteristics of representation
Completeness - all solutions must be representable
Connexity - all solutions must be reachable
Efficiency - must be easy/fast to manipulate by the search operators
Definition of neighbourhood
Neighbour of solution x is a set of solutions that can be reached by a simple move operator (move oeprator/heuristic)
Definition of Hamming Distance
The number of positions at which the corresponding symbols differ i.e. how many differences there are between solutions
Definition of Evaluation Function
Indicates the quality of a given solution, distinguishing between good and bad solutions
Definition of Delta (Incremental) Evaluation
Calculate effects of differences between current solution and a neighbour on the evaluation function value.
Definition of mutational Heuristic/operator
Processes a candidate solution and generates a solution which is not guaranteed to be better than the input
Definition of hill-climbing heuristic/operator
Processes a given candidate solution and generates a better or equal quality solution
Definition of hill climbing algorithm
A local search algorithm which constantly moves in the direction of decreasing (minimum) or increasing (maximum) level/objective value to find the lowest point (minimisation) or highest point (maximisation) of the landscape or best/near optimal solution to the problem.
Give examples of simple hill climbing heuristics:
Steepest Descent/ascent hill climbing (SDHC)
Next Descent/ascent hill climbing (NDHC)
Random Walk/random mutation hill climbing (RWHC or RMHC)
Random-restart (shotgun) hill climbing (RRHC)
Difference between Best Improvement (steepest descent) HC and First Improvement (Next Descent) HC?
Best improvement - doesn’t actually ‘accept’ a bit flip i.e. doesn’t apply it to the candidate solution until the main loop has finished. Remembers the bit flip that gave it the best solution, and then does the bit flip after the loop
First improvement - Upon detecting a solution that has better objective value, immediately enacts the mutation on the candidate solution and then continues from there using that solution.
How does Davis’s Bit Hill Climbing work?
Generates a random permutation, with elements in the range of [0, length of solution-1]
Using this permutation, it selects which bit to flip. If the bit flip produces a better solution, accepts it immediately, then continues on.
How does Random Mutation HC work?
Selects a random bit anywhere in the solution (randomly generates the position) and if it is better, immediately accepts the solution.
Strengths of Hill Climbing
Very easy to implement, requiring only three features - representation, evaluation function, and a measure that defines the neighbourhood around a point in the search space
Weaknesses of Hill Climbing
Local optimum if all neighbouring states are worse or the same
Plateau - If all neighbouring states are the same as the current state, the hill climbing will effectively be a random walk
Ridge/valley - The search may ‘bounce’ from one side of the search space to another. Either way, no progress is made on either side
HC may not find the optimal solution
Usually no upper bound on computation time
Success/failure of each iteration depends on starting point