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Natural Computation and Applications. Xin Yao http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~xin Natural Computation Group School of Computer Science The University of Birmingham UK. Frustration About Computers. Brittle Non-adaptive Doesn’t learn Hopeless in dealing with noisy and inaccurate information
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Natural Computation and Applications Xin Yao http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~xin Natural Computation Group School of Computer Science The University of Birmingham UK
Frustration About Computers • Brittle • Non-adaptive • Doesn’t learn • Hopeless in dealing with noisy and inaccurate information • Doesn’t do the homework for me although I told it that I want a mark over 70% • Never grow up • Slow • …
The Solution • What did we do when we had problems as a kid? Who do we normally turn to? • Ask our mother!
Characteristics of Nature Inspired Computation • Flexible:applicable to different problems • Robust: can deal with noise and uncertainty • Adaptive: can deal with dynamic environments • Autonomous: without human intervention • Decentralised: without a central authority
Natural Inspired Computation • Evolutionary computation • Neural computation • Molecular computation • Quantum computation • Ecological computation • Chemical computation • …
Evolutionary Algorithms Selection Parents Recombination Population Mutation Offspring Replacement
Artificial Neural Networks • Simplified model of a brain • Consist of inputs, processing and outputs • All layers joined by artificial neurons • Fault tolerant • Noise resistant • Can learn and generalise • Good at perception tasks
Agent-based Techniques • Multiple independent agents follow individual strategies • Macro-level behaviour develops • Useful for modelling trading strategies • Can simulate competitive markets • Dynamically optimised scheduling
Container Packing • How to put as many boxes of different sizes into containers in order to minimise space wastage
Swarm intelligence for Animation Flocking can be simulated in computers • Flocking uses rapid short-range communication • Behaviour governed by mutual avoidance, alignment and affinity. • Simple rules generate complex behaviour
Channel Allocation Inspired by Fruit Flies • Fruitflies have an insensitive exoskeleton peppered with sensors formed from short bristles attached to nerve cells. It is important that the bristles are more or less evenly spread out across the surface of the fly. In particular it is undesirable to have two bristles right next to each other. • The correct pattern is formed during the fly's development by interactions among its cells. The individual cells "argue" with each other by secreting protein signals, and perceiving the signals of their neighbours. The cells are autonomous, each running its own "algorithm" using information from its local environment. Each cell sends a signal to its neighbours; at the same time it listens for such a signal from its neighbours. • This "arguing" process is the inspiration for the channel allocation method.
Constrained Dynamic Routing • Dynamic call routing in telecommunication networks • Finding optimal routes for salting trucks • Evolutionary algorithms: Robust, efficient and can be used for hard, dynamic problems for which there is little domain knowledge
Time Series Prediction • Telecommunications traffic flow prediction • Blue-green algae activity prediction in fresh water lakes • Energy consumption prediction • Financial modelling
Recognition and Classification • Object recognition • Medical diagnosis • Credit card assessment • Fraud detection • Vehicle tracking • Subscriber churn prediction
Creative Technologies • Natural computation techniques can be used effectively in the creative industry for graphics, images, music, games, etc. • Highly effective at exploring the huge space of possible artefacts • Boids • Karl Sims’s artificial creatures
Creative Technologies: Evolutionary Art • Evolutionary art from Andrew Rowbottom • Genetic art by Peter Kleiweg • Organic art by William Latham
Summary • Evolutionary computation is part of natural computation • Evolutionary computation can be used in optimisation, data mining and creative design. • Evolutionary computation are particularly good at solving complex real –world problems where very little domain knowledge is available. • Evolutionary computation complements the existing methods.
Further Information • http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/NC/ (research group in the School) • http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/msc-nc/ (MSc in Natural Computation) • http://www.evonet.polytechnique.fr/CIRCUS2/ (Evolutionary Computation Education Center - (EC)² ) • http://ieee-nns.org/pubs/tec/ (IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation)