AbCD: A Component-wise Adjustable Framework for Dynamic Optimization Problems

TL;DR

This paper introduces AbCD, a flexible framework for dynamic optimization problems that enables automatic configuration of algorithms tailored to specific problem characteristics, improving reproducibility and experimentation.

Contribution

The paper presents AbCD, a component-oriented framework for DOPs, and demonstrates its ability to automatically generate effective algorithm configurations using irace.

Findings

Component performance varies with problem type.

Automated configuration improves algorithm adaptation.

Existing DOP components have limitations based on problem context.

Abstract

Dynamic Optimization Problems (DOPs) are characterized by changes in the fitness landscape that can occur at any time and are common in real world applications. The main issues to be considered include detecting the change in the fitness landscape and reacting in accord. Over the years, several evolutionary algorithms have been proposed to take into account this characteristic during the optimization process. However, the number of available tools or open source codebases for these approaches is limited, making reproducibility and extensive experimentation difficult. To solve this, we developed a component-oriented framework for DOPs called Adjustable Components for Dynamic Problems (AbCD), inspired by similar works in the Multiobjective static domain. Using this framework, we investigate components that were proposed in several popular DOP algorithms. Our experiments show that the performance of these components depends on the problem and the selected components used in a configuration, which differs from the results reported in the literature. Using irace, we demonstrate how this framework can automatically generate DOP algorithm configurations that take into account the characteristics of the problem to be solved. Our results highlight existing problems in the DOP field that need to be addressed in the future development of algorithms and components.