Multi-parameter Control for the $(1+(λ,λ))$-GA on OneMax via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Nguyen, Tai, Le, Phong, Doerr, Carola, Dang, Nguyen
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Nguyen, Tai
Le, Phong
Doerr, Carola
Dang, Nguyen
author_facet Nguyen, Tai
Le, Phong
Doerr, Carola
Dang, Nguyen
contents It is well known that evolutionary algorithms can benefit from dynamic choices of the key parameters that control their behavior, to adjust their search strategy to the different stages of the optimization process. A prominent example where dynamic parameter choices have shown a provable super-constant speed-up is the $(1+(λ,λ))$ Genetic Algorithm optimizing the OneMax function. While optimal parameter control policies result in linear expected running times, this is not possible with static parameter choices. This result has spurred a lot of interest in parameter control policies. However, many works, in particular theoretical running time analyses, focus on controlling one single parameter. Deriving policies for controlling multiple parameters remains very challenging. In this work we reconsider the problem of the $(1+(λ,λ))$ Genetic Algorithm optimizing OneMax. We decouple its four main parameters and investigate how well state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning techniques can approximate good control policies. We show that although making deep reinforcement learning learn effectively is a challenging task, once it works, it is very powerful and is able to find policies that outperform all previously known control policies on the same benchmark. Based on the results found through reinforcement learning, we derive a simple control policy that consistently outperforms the default theory-recommended setting by $27\%$ and the irace-tuned policy, the strongest existing control policy on this benchmark, by $13\%$, for all tested problem sizes up to $40{,}000$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_12982
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-parameter Control for the $(1+(λ,λ))$-GA on OneMax via Deep Reinforcement Learning
Nguyen, Tai
Le, Phong
Doerr, Carola
Dang, Nguyen
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
It is well known that evolutionary algorithms can benefit from dynamic choices of the key parameters that control their behavior, to adjust their search strategy to the different stages of the optimization process. A prominent example where dynamic parameter choices have shown a provable super-constant speed-up is the $(1+(λ,λ))$ Genetic Algorithm optimizing the OneMax function. While optimal parameter control policies result in linear expected running times, this is not possible with static parameter choices. This result has spurred a lot of interest in parameter control policies. However, many works, in particular theoretical running time analyses, focus on controlling one single parameter. Deriving policies for controlling multiple parameters remains very challenging. In this work we reconsider the problem of the $(1+(λ,λ))$ Genetic Algorithm optimizing OneMax. We decouple its four main parameters and investigate how well state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning techniques can approximate good control policies. We show that although making deep reinforcement learning learn effectively is a challenging task, once it works, it is very powerful and is able to find policies that outperform all previously known control policies on the same benchmark. Based on the results found through reinforcement learning, we derive a simple control policy that consistently outperforms the default theory-recommended setting by $27\%$ and the irace-tuned policy, the strongest existing control policy on this benchmark, by $13\%$, for all tested problem sizes up to $40{,}000$.
title Multi-parameter Control for the $(1+(λ,λ))$-GA on OneMax via Deep Reinforcement Learning
topic Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12982