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Combinatorial optimization with discrete options in R

Time:10-24

I have a function with five variables that I want to maximize using only an specific set of parameters for each variable.

Are there any methods in R that can do this, other than by brutal force? (e.g. Particle Swarm Optimization, Genetic Algorithm, Greedy, etc.). I have read a few packages but they seem to create their own set of parameters from within a given range. I am only interested in optimizing the set of options provided.

Here is a simplified version of the problem:

#Example of 5 variable function to optimize
Fn<-function(x){
  a=x[1]
  b=x[2]
  c=x[3]
  d=x[4]
  e=x[5]
  SUM=a b c d e
 return(SUM)
}

#Parameters for variables to optimize
Vars=list(
  As=c(seq(1.5,3, by = 0.3)),             #float
  Bs=c(1,2),                              #Binary
  Cs=c(seq(1,60, by=10)),                  #Integer
  Ds=c(seq(60,-60, length.out=5)),        #Negtive
  Es=c(1,2,3)
)

#Full combination
FullCombn= expand.grid(Vars)

Results=data.frame(I=as.numeric(),   Sum=as.numeric())
for (i in 1:nrow(FullCombn)){
  ParsI=FullCombn[i,]
  ResultI=Fn(ParsI)
  Results=rbind(Results,c(I=i,Sum=ResultI))
}

#Best iteration (Largest result)
Best=Results[Results[, 2] == max(Results[, 2]),]
#Best parameters
FullCombn[Best$I,]

CodePudding user response:

Two more possibilities. Both minimize by default, so I flip the sign in your objective function (i.e. return -SUM).

#Example of 5 variable function to optimize
Fn<-function(x, ...){
  a=x[1]
  b=x[2]
  c=x[3]
  d=x[4]
  e=x[5]
  SUM=a b c d e
 return(-SUM)
}

#Parameters for variables to optimize
Vars=list(
  As=c(seq(1.5,3, by = 0.3)),             #float
  Bs=c(1,2),                              #Binary
  Cs=c(seq(1,60, by=10)),                 #Integer
  Ds=c(seq(60,-60, length.out=5)),        #Negtive
  Es=c(1,2,3)
)

First, a grid search. Exactly what you did, just convenient. And the implementation allows you to distribute the evaluations of the objective function.

library("NMOF")
gridSearch(fun = Fn,
           levels = Vars)[c("minfun", "minlevels")]


## 5 variables with 6, 2, 6, 5, ... levels: 1080 function evaluations required.
## $minfun
## [1] -119
## 
## $minlevels
## [1]  3  2 51 60  3

An alternative: a simple Local Search. You start with a valid initial guess, and then move randomly through possible feasible solutions. The key ingredient is the neighbourhood function. It picks one element randomly and then, again randomly, sets this element to one allowed value.

nb <- function(x, levels, ...) {
    i <- sample(length(levels), 1)
    x[i] <- sample(levels[[i]], 1)
    x
}

(There would be better algorithms for neighbourhood functions; but this one is simple and so demonstrates the idea well.)

LSopt(Fn, list(x0 = c(1.8, 2, 11, 30, 2),  ## a feasible initial solution
               neighbour = nb,             
               nI = 200                    ## iterations
               ),
      levels = Vars)$xbest
## Local Search.
## ##...
## Best solution overall: -119
## [1]  3  2 51 60  3

(Disclosure: I am the maintainer of package NMOF, which provides function gridSearch and LSopt.)

CodePudding user response:

Here is a genetic algorithm solution with package GA.
The key is to write a function decode enforcing the constraints, see the package vignette.

library(GA)
#> Loading required package: foreach
#> Loading required package: iterators
#> Package 'GA' version 3.2.2
#> Type 'citation("GA")' for citing this R package in publications.
#> 
#> Attaching package: 'GA'
#> The following object is masked from 'package:utils':
#> 
#>     de

decode <- function(x) {
  As <- Vars$As
  Bs <- Vars$Bs
  Cs <- Vars$Cs
  Ds <- rev(Vars$Ds)
  # fix real variable As
  i <- findInterval(x[1], As)
  if(x[1L] - As[i] < As[i   1L] - x[1L])
    x[1L] <- As[i]
  else x[1L] <- As[i   1L]
  # fix binary variable Bs
  if(x[2L] - Bs[1L] < Bs[2L] - x[2L])
    x[2L] <- Bs[1L]
  else x[2L] <- Bs[2L]
  # fix integer variable Cs
  i <- findInterval(x[3L], Cs)
  if(x[3L] - Cs[i] < Cs[i   1L] - x[3L])
    x[3L] <- Cs[i]
  else x[3L] <- Cs[i   1L]
  # fix integer variable Ds
  i <- findInterval(x[4L], Ds)
  if(x[4L] - Ds[i] < Ds[i   1L] - x[4L])
    x[4L] <- Ds[i]
  else x[4L] <- Ds[i   1L]
  # fix the other, integer variable
  x[5L] <- round(x[5L])
  setNames(x  , c("As", "Bs", "Cs", "Ds", "Es"))
}
Fn <- function(x){
  x <- decode(x)
  # a <- x[1]
  # b <- x[2]
  # c <- x[3]
  # d <- x[4]
  # e <- x[5]
  # SUM <- a   b   c   d   e
  SUM <- sum(x, na.rm = TRUE)
  return(SUM)
}

#Parameters for variables to optimize
Vars <- list(
  As = seq(1.5, 3, by = 0.3),              # Float
  Bs = c(1, 2),                            # Binary
  Cs = seq(1, 60, by = 10),                # Integer
  Ds = seq(60, -60, length.out = 5),       # Negative
  Es = c(1, 2, 3)
)

res <- ga(type = "real-valued", 
          fitness = Fn, 
          lower = c(1.5, 1, 1, -60, 1),
          upper = c(3, 2, 51, 60, 3),
          popSize = 1000,
          seed = 123)
summary(res)
#> ── Genetic Algorithm ─────────────────── 
#> 
#> GA settings: 
#> Type                  =  real-valued 
#> Population size       =  1000 
#> Number of generations =  100 
#> Elitism               =  50 
#> Crossover probability =  0.8 
#> Mutation probability  =  0.1 
#> Search domain = 
#>        x1 x2 x3  x4 x5
#> lower 1.5  1  1 -60  1
#> upper 3.0  2 51  60  3
#> 
#> GA results: 
#> Iterations             = 100 
#> Fitness function value = 119 
#> Solutions = 
#>             x1       x2       x3       x4       x5
#> [1,]  2.854089 1.556080 46.11389 49.31045 2.532682
#> [2,]  2.869408 1.638266 46.12966 48.71106 2.559620
#> [3,]  2.865254 1.665405 46.21684 49.04667 2.528606
#> [4,]  2.866494 1.630416 46.12736 48.78017 2.530454
#> [5,]  2.860940 1.650015 46.31773 48.92642 2.521276
#> [6,]  2.851644 1.660358 46.09504 48.81425 2.525504
#> [7,]  2.855078 1.611837 46.13855 48.62022 2.575492
#> [8,]  2.857066 1.588893 46.15918 48.60505 2.588992
#> [9,]  2.862644 1.637806 46.20663 48.92781 2.579260
#> [10,] 2.861573 1.630762 46.23494 48.90927 2.555612
#>  ...                                              
#> [59,] 2.853788 1.640810 46.35649 48.87381 2.536682
#> [60,] 2.859090 1.658127 46.15508 48.85404 2.590679
apply(res@solution, 1, decode) |> t() |> unique()
#>      As Bs Cs Ds Es
#> [1,]  3  2 51 60  3

Created on 2022-10-24 with reprex v2.0.2

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