EXPObench: Benchmarking Surrogate-based Optimisation Algorithms on Expensive Black-box Functions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bliek, Laurens, Guijt, Arthur, Karlsson, Rickard, Verwer, Sicco, de Weerdt, Mathijs
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911794755272704
author Bliek, Laurens
Guijt, Arthur
Karlsson, Rickard
Verwer, Sicco
de Weerdt, Mathijs
author_facet Bliek, Laurens
Guijt, Arthur
Karlsson, Rickard
Verwer, Sicco
de Weerdt, Mathijs
contents Surrogate algorithms such as Bayesian optimisation are especially designed for black-box optimisation problems with expensive objectives, such as hyperparameter tuning or simulation-based optimisation. In the literature, these algorithms are usually evaluated with synthetic benchmarks which are well established but have no expensive objective, and only on one or two real-life applications which vary wildly between papers. There is a clear lack of standardisation when it comes to benchmarking surrogate algorithms on real-life, expensive, black-box objective functions. This makes it very difficult to draw conclusions on the effect of algorithmic contributions and to give substantial advice on which method to use when. A new benchmark library, EXPObench, provides first steps towards such a standardisation. The library is used to provide an extensive comparison of six different surrogate algorithms on four expensive optimisation problems from different real-life applications. This has led to new insights regarding the relative importance of exploration, the evaluation time of the objective, and the used model. We also provide rules of thumb for which surrogate algorithm to use in which situation. A further contribution is that we make the algorithms and benchmark problem instances publicly available, contributing to more uniform analysis of surrogate algorithms. Most importantly, we include the performance of the six algorithms on all evaluated problem instances. This results in a unique new dataset that lowers the bar for researching new methods as the number of expensive evaluations required for comparison is significantly reduced.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2106_04618
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EXPObench: Benchmarking Surrogate-based Optimisation Algorithms on Expensive Black-box Functions
Bliek, Laurens
Guijt, Arthur
Karlsson, Rickard
Verwer, Sicco
de Weerdt, Mathijs
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Optimization and Control
Surrogate algorithms such as Bayesian optimisation are especially designed for black-box optimisation problems with expensive objectives, such as hyperparameter tuning or simulation-based optimisation. In the literature, these algorithms are usually evaluated with synthetic benchmarks which are well established but have no expensive objective, and only on one or two real-life applications which vary wildly between papers. There is a clear lack of standardisation when it comes to benchmarking surrogate algorithms on real-life, expensive, black-box objective functions. This makes it very difficult to draw conclusions on the effect of algorithmic contributions and to give substantial advice on which method to use when. A new benchmark library, EXPObench, provides first steps towards such a standardisation. The library is used to provide an extensive comparison of six different surrogate algorithms on four expensive optimisation problems from different real-life applications. This has led to new insights regarding the relative importance of exploration, the evaluation time of the objective, and the used model. We also provide rules of thumb for which surrogate algorithm to use in which situation. A further contribution is that we make the algorithms and benchmark problem instances publicly available, contributing to more uniform analysis of surrogate algorithms. Most importantly, we include the performance of the six algorithms on all evaluated problem instances. This results in a unique new dataset that lowers the bar for researching new methods as the number of expensive evaluations required for comparison is significantly reduced.
title EXPObench: Benchmarking Surrogate-based Optimisation Algorithms on Expensive Black-box Functions
topic Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.04618