Automatic game design is an increasingly popular area of research that consists of devising systems that create content or complete games autonomously. The interest in such systems is two-fold: games can be highly stochastic environments that allow presenting this task as a complex optimization problem and automatic play-testing, becoming benchmarks to advance the state of the art on AI methods. In this paper, we propose a general approach that employs the N-Tuple Bandit Evolutionary Algorithm (NTBEA) to tune parameters of three different games of the General Video Game AI (GVGAI) framework. The objective is to adjust the game experience of the players so the distribution of score events through the game approximates certain pre-defined target curves. We report satisfactory results for different target score trends and games, paving the path for future research in the area of automatically tuning player experience.

As one of Bayesian analysis tools, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) has been used to in extensive applications. Most HMMs are solved by Baum-Welch algorithm (BWHMM) to predict the model parameters, which is difficult to find global optimal solutions. This paper proposes an optimized Hidden Markov Model with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and so is called PSOHMM. In order to overcome the statistical constraints in HMM, the paper develops re-normalization and re-mapping mechanisms to ensure the constraints in HMM. The experiments have shown that PSOHMM can search better solution than BWHMM, and has faster convergence speed.

Learning algorithms are enabling robots to solve increasingly challenging real-world tasks. These approaches often rely on demonstrations and reproduce the behavior shown. Unexpected changes in the environment may require using different behaviors to achieve the same effect, for instance to reach and grasp an object in changing clutter. An emerging paradigm addressing this robustness issue is to learn a diverse set of successful behaviors for a given task, from which a robot can select the most suitable policy when faced with a new environment. In this paper, we explore a novel realization of this vision by learning a generative model over policies. Rather than learning a single policy, or a small fixed repertoire, our generative model for policies compactly encodes an unbounded number of policies and allows novel controller variants to be sampled. Leveraging our generative policy network, a robot can sample novel behaviors until it finds one that works for a new environment. We demonstrate this idea with an application of robust ball-throwing in the presence of obstacles. We show that this approach achieves a greater diversity of behaviors than an existing evolutionary approach, while maintaining good efficacy of sampled behaviors, allowing a Baxter robot to hit targets more often when ball throwing in the presence of obstacles.

Deep Optimisation (DO) combines evolutionary search with Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) in a novel way - not for optimising a learning algorithm, but for finding a solution to an optimisation problem. Deep learning has been successfully applied to classification, regression, decision and generative tasks and in this paper we extend its application to solving optimisation problems. Model Building Optimisation Algorithms (MBOAs), a branch of evolutionary algorithms, have been successful in combining machine learning methods and evolutionary search but, until now, they have not utilised DNNs. DO is the first algorithm to use a DNN to learn and exploit the problem structure to adapt the variation operator (changing the neighbourhood structure of the search process). We demonstrate the performance of DO using two theoretical optimisation problems within the MAXSAT class. The Hierarchical Transformation Optimisation Problem (HTOP) has controllable deep structure that provides a clear evaluation of how DO works and why using a layerwise technique is essential for learning and exploiting problem structure. The Parity Modular Constraint Problem (MCparity) is a simplistic example of a problem containing higher-order dependencies (greater than pairwise) which DO can solve and state of the art MBOAs cannot. Further, we show that DO can exploit deep structure in TSP instances. Together these results show that there exists problems that DO can find and exploit deep problem structure that other algorithms cannot. Making this connection between DNNs and optimisation allows for the utilisation of advanced tools applicable to DNNs that current MBOAs are unable to use.

Abstract--In dynamic selection (DS) techniques, only the most competent classifiers, for the classification of a specific test sample are selected to predict the sample's class labels. The more important step in DES techniques is estimating the competence of the base classifiers for the classification of each specific test sample. The classifiers' competence is usually estimated using the neighborhood of the test sample defined on the validation samples, called the region of competence. Thus, the performance of DS techniques is sensitive to the distribution of the validation set. In this paper, we evaluate six prototype selection techniques that work by editing the validation data in order to remove noise and redundant instances. Experiments conducted using several state-of-the-art DS techniques over 30 classification problems demonstrate that by using prototype selection techniques we can improve the classification accuracy of DS techniques and also significantly reduce the computational cost involved. Multiple Classifier Systems (MCS) aim to combine classifiers in order to increase the recognition accuracy in pattern recognition systems [1], [2]. MCS are composed of three phases [3]: (1) Generation, (2) Selection, and (3) Integration.

The key issue in Dynamic Ensemble Selection (DES) is defining a suitable criterion for calculating the classifiers' competence. There are several criteria available to measure the level of competence of base classifiers, such as local accuracy estimates and ranking. However, using only one criterion may lead to a poor estimation of the classifier's competence. In order to deal with this issue, we have proposed a novel dynamic ensemble selection framework using meta-learning, called META-DES. An important aspect of the META-DES framework is that multiple criteria can be embedded in the system encoded as different sets of meta-features. However, some DES criteria are not suitable for every classification problem. For instance, local accuracy estimates may produce poor results when there is a high degree of overlap between the classes. Moreover, a higher classification accuracy can be obtained if the performance of the meta-classifier is optimized for the corresponding data. In this paper, we propose a novel version of the META-DES framework based on the formal definition of the Oracle, called META-DES.Oracle. The Oracle is an abstract method that represents an ideal classifier selection scheme. A meta-feature selection scheme using an overfitting cautious Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) is proposed for improving the performance of the meta-classifier. The difference between the outputs obtained by the meta-classifier and those presented by the Oracle is minimized. Thus, the meta-classifier is expected to obtain results that are similar to the Oracle. Experiments carried out using 30 classification problems demonstrate that the optimization procedure based on the Oracle definition leads to a significant improvement in classification accuracy when compared to previous versions of the META-DES framework and other state-of-the-art DES techniques.

Machine learning techniques have deeply rooted in our everyday life. However, since it is knowledge- and labor-intensive to pursuit good learning performance, human experts are heavily engaged in every aspect of machine learning. In order to make machine learning techniques easier to apply and reduce the demand for experienced human experts, automatic machine learning~(AutoML) has emerged as a hot topic of both in industry and academy. In this paper, we provide a survey on existing AutoML works. First, we introduce and define the AutoML problem, with inspiration from both realms of automation and machine learning. Then, we propose a general AutoML framework that not only covers almost all existing approaches but also guides the design for new methods. Afterward, we categorize and review the existing works from two aspects, i.e., the problem setup and the employed techniques. Finally, we provide a detailed analysis of AutoML approaches and explain the reasons underneath their successful applications. We hope this survey can serve as not only an insightful guideline for AutoML beginners but also an inspiration for future researches.

Recently, data mining studies are being successfully conducted to estimate several parameters in a variety of domains. Data mining techniques have attracted the attention of the information industry and society as a whole, due to a large amount of data and the imminent need to turn it into useful knowledge. However, the effective use of data in some areas is still under development, as is the case in sports, which in recent years, has presented a slight growth; consequently, many sports organizations have begun to see that there is a wealth of unexplored knowledge in the data extracted by them. Therefore, this article presents a systematic review of sports data mining. Regarding years 2010 to 2018, 31 types of research were found in this topic. Based on these studies, we present the current panorama, themes, the database used, proposals, algorithms, and research opportunities. Our findings provide a better understanding of the sports data mining potentials, besides motivating the scientific community to explore this timely and interesting topic.

Using piezoelectric impedance/admittance sensing for structural health monitoring is promising, owing to the simplicity in circuitry design as well as the high-frequency interrogation capability. The actual identification of fault location and severity using impedance/admittance measurements, nevertheless, remains to be an extremely challenging task. A first-principle based structural model using finite element discretization requires high dimensionality to characterize the high-frequency response. As such, direct inversion using the sensitivity matrix usually yields an under-determined problem. Alternatively, the identification problem may be cast into an optimization framework in which fault parameters are identified through repeated forward finite element analysis which however is oftentimes computationally prohibitive. This paper presents an efficient data-assisted optimization approach for fault identification without using finite element model iteratively. We formulate a many-objective optimization problem to identify fault parameters, where response surfaces of impedance measurements are constructed through Gaussian process-based calibration. To balance between solution diversity and convergence, an -dominance enabled many-objective simulated annealing algorithm is established. As multiple solutions are expected, a voting score calculation procedure is developed to further identify those solutions that yield better implications regarding structural health condition. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by systematic numerical and experimental case studies.

Abstract--Differential evolution is the conventional algorithm with the fastest convergence speed, but it may be trapped local optimal solution easily, so many researchers devote themselves into improve DE. Whale swarm algorithm (WSA) is a new algorithm with niching strategy we proposed previously, it's featured with simple mutation strategy and powerful global search capability, but for functions with high dimensions, it converges slower than conventional algorithms. Based on this fact, we proposed a new DE algorithm, called DE with nearest & better option (NbDE). In order to evaluate the performance of NbDE, we compare NbDE with several meta-heuristic algorithms in nine classical benchmark functions with different dimensions. The result have shown that NbDE outperforms other algorithms in convergence speed and accuracy.