A comparison of illumination algorithms in unbounded spaces

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Abstract
Illumination algorithms are a new class of evolutionary algorithms capable of producing large archives of diverse and high-performing solutions. Examples of such algorithms include Novelty Search with Local Competition (NSLC), the Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites (MAP-Elites) and the newly introduced Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) MAP-Elites. While NSLC can be used in unbounded behavioral spaces, MAP-Elites and CVT-MAP-Elites require the user to manually specify the bounds. In this study, we introduce variants of these algorithms that expand their bounds based on the discovered solutions. In addition, we introduce a novel algorithm called "Cluster-Elites" that can adapt its bounds to non-convex spaces. We compare all algorithms in a maze navigation problem and illustrate that Cluster-Elites and the expansive variants of MAP-Elites and CVT-MAP-Elites have comparable or better performance than NSLC, MAP-Elites and CVT-MAP-Elites.
Funding Information
  • European Research Council (ERC) (637972)