Evolutionary Computation Group @ FER

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ECF - Evolutionary Computation Framework

ECF is a C++ framework intended for application of any type of evolutionary computation. Current features include:

• parameterless: genotype (individual structure) is the only mandatory parameter
• algorithms: steady state tournament, generational roulette-wheel, elimination, particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), genetic annealing, artificial bee colony (ABC), clonal selection (CLONALG), immune optimization (optIA), evolution strategy, random search
• genetic algorithm genotypes (bitstring, binary encoded real values, floating point vectors, permutation vectors), genetic programming genotype (tree)
• individuals may contain any genotypes in any number
• examples: GP symbolic regression, GP artificial ant, function optimization, TSP, onemax
• parallel execution in many models (global paralel EA, distributed EA, hybrid parallel EA...) using MPI
• configurable environment: changing algorithm, genotypes and parameters without recompilation
• checkpointing and population restoring, various termination criteria, repeated runs, crx and mutation operators selection and usage rate, migration

More detailed feature list

Download

• current package (v 1.4.2, 2017/07/13) is available at Sourceforge: ECF_1.4.2.zip, ECF_1.4.2.tar.gz
• the latest development version can be found at svn://ecf.zemris.fer.hr/ecf/trunk
• latest SVN version can be downloaded and installed with this script (thanks to Jernej Makovsek) tested on Ubuntu

 What's new in 1.4.2:

• new algorithm: Cuckoo search
• new build tools: CMake, CLion (existing: VisualStudio, autotools)

 What's new in 1.4:

• new algorithm: Evolution Strategy
• new example: function optimization from CEC 2014 Real-Parameter Numerical Optimization workshop

 What's new in 1.3.3:

• new algorithms: Artificial Bee Colony, Clonalg, OptIA 
• example with COCO (BBoB) functions now includes BBoB experiment with any ECF algorithm, example results:

Documentation

These files are also included in the package (./help directory).

•  Install: installation and how to build the examples
•  Tutorial: how to use ECF (the quickest way in)
•  Documentation: it's all in the details
•  Reference: browse, download (zip) (doxygen produced)
•  a short FAQ (complement to the Tutorial)

Support:

• Domagoj Jakobović (domagoj.jakobovic @ fer.hr)
• forum at Sourceforge

References

• Jakobović, Domagoj; Golub, Marin; Čupić, Marko. Asynchronous and implicitly parallel evolutionary computation models. // Soft computing. (2013)
• Picek, Stjepan; Jakobović, Domagoj; Golub, Marin. Evolving Cryptographically Sound Boolean Functions // Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2013. Amsterdam : ACM, 2013. 191-192
• Picek, Stjepan; Jakobović, Domagoj; Golub, Marin. On the Recombination Operator in the Real-Coded Genetic Algorithms // Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation.
  2013. 3103-3110
• Jakobović, Domagoj; Marasović, Kristina. Evolving priority scheduling heuristics with genetic programming. // Applied soft computing. 12 (2012) , 9; 2781-2789
• Picek, Stjepan; Golub, Marin; Jakobović, Domagoj. On the Analysis of Experimental Results in Evolutionary Computation // MIPRO 2012 International Convention. Opatija, 2012. 1245-1250 
• Picek, Stjepan; Golub, Marin; Jakobović, Domagoj. Evaluation of Crossover Operator Performance in Genetic Algorithms with Binary Representation. // Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 6840 (2011) ; 223-230
• Brajer, Iva; Jakobović, Domagoj. Automated Design of Combinatorial Logic Circuits // MIPRO 2012 International Convention.Opatija, 2012. 964-969

Development in progress

•  TODO list
•  cartesian GP
•  C# wrapper
•  GUI in Java

Contributors

(Alphabetical order): Hrvoje Ban, Vinko Bedek, Igor Bespaljko, Iva Brajer, Luka Donđivić, Luka Franov, Zvonimir Fras, Danko Komlen, Ivan Kokan, Luka Kraljevic, Luka Krizan, Maja Legac, Tomislav Novak, Lovro Paić-Antunović, Stjepan Picek, Dražen Popović, Ángel Ferreira-Santiago, Domagoj Stanković, Ivana Stokić, Mirjam Škarica

Project leader & support contact: Domagoj Jakobović (domagoj.jakobovic @ fer.hr)

Acknowledgements

ECF software uses the following components:

•  some features of boost C++ library
•  a simple but very useful XML parser

Additionally, this project was inspired by OpenBEAGLE, a comprehensive OO evolutionary framework.

Last update: 23.04.2019