A Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is a framework used for modeling and solving constrained problems. Tree-search algorithms like backtracking try to construct a solution to a CSP by selecting the variables of the problem one after another. The order in which these algorithm select the variables potentially have significant impact on the search performance. Various heuristics have been proposed for choosing good variable ordering. Many powerful variable ordering heuristics weigh the constraints first and then utilize the weights for selecting good order of the variables. Constraint weighting are basically employed to identify global bottlenecks in a CSP. In this paper, we propose a new approach for learning weights for the constraints using competitive coevolutionary Genetic Algorithm (GA). Weights learned by the coevolutionary GA later help to make better choices for the first few variables in a search. In the competitive coevolutionary GA, constraints and candidate solutions for a CSP evolve together through an inverse fitness interaction process. We have conducted experiments on several random, quasi-random and patterned instances to measure the efficiency of the proposed approach. The results and analysis show that the proposed approach is good at learning weights to distinguish the hard constraints for quasi-random instances and forced satisfiable random instances generated with the Model RB. For other type of instances, RNDI still seems to be the best approach as our experiments show.

One-class classification (OCC) algorithms aim to build classification models when the negative class is either absent, poorly sampled or not well defined. This unique situation constrains the learning of efficient classifiers by defining class boundary just with the knowledge of positive class. The OCC problem has been considered and applied under many research themes, such as outlier/novelty detection and concept learning. In this paper we present a unified view of the general problem of OCC by presenting a taxonomy of study for OCC problems, which is based on the availability of training data, algorithms used and the application domains applied. We further delve into each of the categories of the proposed taxonomy and present a comprehensive literature review of the OCC algorithms, techniques and methodologies with a focus on their significance, limitations and applications. We conclude our paper by discussing some open research problems in the field of OCC and present our vision for future research.

Many optimization tasks have to be handled in noisy environments, where we cannot obtain the exact evaluation of a solution but only a noisy one. For noisy optimization tasks, evolutionary algorithms (EAs), a kind of stochastic metaheuristic search algorithm, have been widely and successfully applied. Previous work mainly focuses on empirical studying and designing EAs for noisy optimization, while, the theoretical counterpart has been little investigated. In this paper, we investigate a largely ignored question, i.e., whether an optimization problem will always become harder for EAs in a noisy environment. We prove that the answer is negative, with respect to the measurement of the expected running time. The result implies that, for optimization tasks that have already been quite hard to solve, the noise may not have a negative effect, and the easier a task the more negatively affected by the noise. On a representative problem where the noise has a strong negative effect, we examine two commonly employed mechanisms in EAs dealing with noise, the re-evaluation and the threshold selection strategies. The analysis discloses that the two strategies, however, both are not effective, i.e., they do not make the EA more noise tolerant. We then find that a small modification of the threshold selection allows it to be proven as an effective strategy for dealing with the noise in the problem.

We present a newly developed Replica Exchange algorithm using q -Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (REX@q-GSQPO) method for solving the problem of finding the global optimum. The basis of the algorithm is to run multiple copies of independent swarms at different values of q parameter. Based on an energy criterion, chosen to satisfy the detailed balance, we are swapping the particle coordinates of neighboring swarms at regular iteration intervals. The swarm replicas with high q values are characterized by high diversity of particles allowing escaping local minima faster, while the low q replicas, characterized by low diversity of particles, are used to sample more efficiently the local basins. We compare the new algorithm with the standard Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (GSQPO) and q-Gaussian Swarm Quantum Particle Optimization (q-GSQPO) algorithms, and we found that the new algorithm is more robust in terms of the number of fitness function calls, and more efficient in terms ability convergence to the global minimum. In additional, we also provide a method of optimally allocating the swarm replicas among different q values. Our algorithm is tested for three benchmark functions, which are known to be multimodal problems, at different dimensionalities. In addition, we considered a polyalanine peptide of 12 residues modeled using a G\=o coarse-graining potential energy function.

Algorithmic composition is the partial or total automation of the process of music composition by using computers. Since the 1950s, different computational techniques related to Artificial Intelligence have been used for algorithmic composition, including grammatical representations, probabilistic methods, neural networks, symbolic rule-based systems, constraint programming and evolutionary algorithms. This survey aims to be a comprehensive account of research on algorithmic composition, presenting a thorough view of the field for researchers in Artificial Intelligence.

Over the last several decades research efforts have explored various forms of artificial life and embodied artificial life as methods for developing autonomous agents. Such approaches, although a part of the AI canon, are rarely used in research aimed at creating artificial general intelligence. This paper explores the prospects of using in silicoartificial evolution to develop machine consciousness, or strong AI. It is possible that artificial evolution and situated self-organizing agents could become viable tools for studying machine consciousness, but there are several issues that must be overcome. One problem is the use of exogenous selection methods to drive artificial evolutionary processes. A second problem relates to agent representation that is inconsistent with the environment in which the agents are situated. These issues limit the potential for open-ended evolution and fine-grained fitting of agents to environment, which are likely to be important for the eventual development of situated artificial consciousness.

Biologically-inspired AI methods like evolutionary algorithms have shown great promise in creating complex structures yet these structures still pale in comparison to their natural counterparts. The recently introduced generative encoding compositional pattern producing networks (CPPNs), which is based on the principles of how natural organisms develop, narrowed this gap by showing that it is possible to artificially evolve life-like patterns with regularities at a high-level of abstraction. As these generative and developmental systems (GDS) are asked to evolve increasingly complex structures, the question of how to start evolution from a promising part of the search space becomes more and more important. To address this challenge, we introduce the concept of a CPPN-Compiler , which allows the user to directly compile a high-level description of the desired starting structure into the CPPN itself . In this paper, as proof of concept, the CPPN-Compiler is able to generate CPPN-encoded representations from vector-based images that can serve as the starting point for further evolution. Importantly, the offspring of these compiled CPPNs show meaningful variations because they directly embody important domain-specific regularities like symmetry or repetition. Thus the results presented in this paper open up a new research direction in GDS, in which specialized CPPN-Compilers for different domains could help to overcome the black box of evolutionary optimization.

An intelligent agent can display behavior that is not directly related to the task it learns. Depending on the adopted AI framework and task formulation, such behavior is sometimes attributed to environment exploration, or ignored as irrelevant, or even penalized as undesired. We postulate here that virtually every interaction of an agent with its learning environment can result in outcomes that carry information which can be potentially exploited to solve the task. To support this claim, we present Pattern Guided Evolutionary Algorithm (PANGEA), an extension of genetic programming (GP), a genre of evolutionary computation that aims at synthesizing programs that display the desired input-output behavior. PANGEA uses machine learning to search for regularities in intermediate outcomes of program execution (which are ignored in standard GP), more specifically for relationships between these outcomes and the desired program output. The information elicited in this way is used to guide the evolutionary learning process by appropriately adjusting program fitness. An experiment conducted on a suite of benchmarks demonstrates that this architecture makes agent learning more effective than in conventional GP. In the paper, we discuss the possible generalizations and extensions of this architecture and its relationships with other contemporary paradigms like novelty search and deep learning. In conclusion, we extrapolate PANGEA to postulate a dynamic and behavioral learning framework for intelligent agents.

Due to recent advances in synthetic biology and artificial life, the origin of life is currently a hot topic of research. We review the literature and argue that the two traditionally competing "replicator-first" and "metabolism-first" approaches are merging into one integrated theory of individuation and evolution. We contribute to the maturation of this more inclusive approach by highlighting some problematic assumptions that still lead to an impoverished conception of the phenomenon of life. In particular, we argue that the new consensus has so far failed to consider the relevance of intermediate timescales. We propose that an adequate theory of life must account for the fact that all living beings are situated in at least four distinct timescales, which are typically associated with metabolism, motility, development, and evolution. On this view, self-movement, adaptive behavior and morphological changes could have already been present at the origin of life. In order to illustrate this possibility we analyze a minimal model of life-like phenomena, namely of precarious, individuated, dissipative structures that can be found in simple reaction-diffusion systems. Based on our analysis we suggest that processes in intermediate timescales could have already been operative in prebiotic systems. They may have facilitated and constrained changes occurring in the faster- and slower-paced timescales of chemical self-individuation and evolution by natural selection, respectively.

Artificial Immune System (AIS-MACA) a novel computational intelligence technique is can be used for strengthening the automated protein prediction system with more adaptability and incorporating more parallelism to the system. Most of the existing approaches are sequential which will classify the input into four major classes and these are designed for similar sequences. AIS-MACA is designed to identify ten classes from the sequences that share twilight zone similarity and identity with the training sequences with mixed and hybrid variations. This method also predicts three states (helix, strand, and coil) for the secondary structure. Our comprehensive design considers 10 feature selection methods and 4 classifiers to develop MACA (Multiple Attractor Cellular Automata) based classifiers that are build for each of the ten classes. We have tested the proposed classifier with twilight-zone and 1-high-similarity benchmark datasets with over three dozens of modern competing predictors shows that AIS-MACA provides the best overall accuracy that ranges between 80% and 89.8% depending on the dataset.