MultiNEAT library configuration file

//Configuration file for the experiments used to evolve morphologies of soft-bodied animats using NEAT search and novelty search
//The file accompanies the Frontiers in Robotics and AI paper "Improving evolvability of morphologies and controllers of developmental soft-bodied robots with novelty search" by Michal Joachimczak, Reiji Suzuki, Takaya Arita
//This file is read by the MultiNEAT library available at: http://multineat.com/
//We used git revision d361660 acquired at 30.10.2013
//Please contact Michal Joachimczak mjoach@gmail.com for questions and software package that evolves metamorphic individuals

NEAT_ParametersStart
////////////////////
// Basic parameters
////////////////////

// Size of population
PopulationSize  300

// If true, this enables dynamic compatibility thresholding
// It will keep the number of species between MinSpecies and MaxSpecies
DynamicCompatibility  true

// Minimum number of species
MinSpecies  5

// Maximum number of species
MaxSpecies  10

// Don't wipe the innovation database each generation?
InnovationsForever  true




////////////////////////////////
// GA Parameters
////////////////////////////////

// Age treshold, meaning if a species is below it, it is considered young
YoungAgeTreshold  5

// Fitness boost multiplier for young species (1.0 means no boost)
// Make sure it is > 1.0 to avoid confusion
YoungAgeFitnessBoost  1.1

// Number of generations without improvement (stagnation) allowed for a species
SpeciesDropoffAge  50

// Minimum jump in fitness necessary to be considered as improvement.
// Setting this value to 0.0 makes the system to behave like regular NEAT.
StagnationDelta  0.0

// Age threshold, meaning if a species is above it, it is considered old
OldAgeTreshold  30

// Multiplier that penalizes old species.
// Make sure it is < 1.0 to avoid confusion.
OldAgePenalty  1.0

// Detect competetive coevolution stagnation
// This kills the worst species of age >N (each X generations)
DetectCompetetiveCoevolutionStagnation  false
// Each X generation..
KillWorstSpeciesEach  15
// Of age above..
KillWorstAge  10

// Percent of best individuals that are allowed to reproduce. 1.0  100%
SurvivalRate  0.25

// Probability for a baby to result from sexual reproduction (crossover/mating). 1.0  100%
// If asexual reprodiction is chosen, the baby will be mutated 100%
CrossoverRate  0.75

// If a baby results from sexual reproduction, this probability determines if mutation will
// be performed after crossover. 1.0  100% (always mutate after crossover)
OverallMutationRate  0.25

// Probability for a baby to result from inter-species mating.
InterspeciesCrossoverRate  0.0001

// Probability for a baby to result from Multipoint Crossover when mating. 1.0  100%
// The default is the Average mating.
MultipointCrossoverRate  0.75

// Performing roulette wheel selection or not?
RouletteWheelSelection  false





///////////////////////////////////
// Phased Search parameters   //
///////////////////////////////////

// Using phased search or not
PhasedSearching  true

// Using delta coding or not
DeltaCoding  true

// What is the MPC + base MPC needed to begin simplifying phase
SimplifyingPhaseMPCTreshold  20

// How many generations of global stagnation should have passed to enter simplifying phase
SimplifyingPhaseStagnationTreshold  30

// How many generations of MPC stagnation are needed to turn back on complexifying
ComplexityFloorGenerations  40






/////////////////////////////////////
// Novelty Search parameters       //
/////////////////////////////////////

// the K constant
NoveltySearch_K  15

// Sparseness treshold. Add to the archive if above
NoveltySearch_P_min  15

// Dynamic Pmin?
NoveltySearch_Dynamic_Pmin  true

// How many evaluations should pass without adding to the archive
// in order to lower Pmin
NoveltySearch_No_Archiving_Stagnation_Treshold  50

// How should it be multiplied (make it less than 1.0)
NoveltySearch_Pmin_lowering_multiplier  0.9

// Not lower than this value
NoveltySearch_Pmin_min  1

// How many one-after-another additions to the archive should
// pass in order to raise Pmin
NoveltySearch_Quick_Archiving_Min_Evaluations  8

// How should it be multiplied (make it more than 1.0)
NoveltySearch_Pmin_raising_multiplier  1.1

// Per how many evaluations to recompute the sparseness of the population
NoveltySearch_Recompute_Sparseness_Each  25




///////////////////////////////////
// Structural Mutation parameters
///////////////////////////////////

// Probability for a baby to be mutated with the Add-Neuron mutation.
MutateAddNeuronProb  0.05

// Allow splitting of any recurrent links
SplitRecurrent  true

// Allow splitting of looped recurrent links
SplitLoopedRecurrent  true

// Probability for a baby to be mutated with the Add-Link mutation
MutateAddLinkProb  0.15

// Probability for a new incoming link to be from the bias neuron
// This enforces it. A value of 0.0 doesn't mean there will not be such links
MutateAddLinkFromBiasProb  0.2

// Probability for a baby to be mutated with the Remove-Link mutation
MutateRemLinkProb  0.1

// Probability for a baby that a simple neuron will be replaced with a link
MutateRemSimpleNeuronProb  0.1

// Maximum number of tries to find 2 neurons to add/remove a link
LinkTries  128

// Probability that a link mutation will be made recurrent
RecurrentProb  0.0

// Probability that a recurrent link mutation will be looped
RecurrentLoopProb  0.0





///////////////////////////////////
// Parameter Mutation parameters
///////////////////////////////////

// Probability for a baby's weights to be mutated
MutateWeightsProb  0.75

// Probability for a severe (shaking) weight mutation
MutateWeightsSevereProb  0.25

// Probability for a particular gene's weight to be mutated. 1.0  100%
//MICHAL - this is now a flexible rate, from 0-0.5, pow(rand,6) but with a minimum of 1/numlinks
WeightMutationRate  0.5

// Maximum perturbation for a weight mutation
WeightMutationMaxPower 1.0

// Maximum magnitude of a replaced weight
WeightReplacementMaxPower  5.0

// Maximum absolute magnitude of a weight
MaxWeight  8.0

// Probability for a baby's A activation function parameters to be perturbed
MutateActivationAProb  0.0

// Probability for a baby's B activation function parameters to be perturbed
MutateActivationBProb  0.0

// Maximum magnitude for the A parameter perturbation
ActivationAMutationMaxPower  0.0

// Maximum magnitude for the B parameter perturbation
ActivationBMutationMaxPower  0.0

// Activation parameter A min/max
MinActivationA  1.0
MaxActivationA  1.0

// Activation parameter B min/max
MinActivationB  0.0
MaxActivationB  0.0

// Maximum magnitude for time costants perturbation
TimeConstantMutationMaxPower  0.0

// Maximum magnitude for biases perturbation
BiasMutationMaxPower  0.5

// Probability for a baby's neuron time constant values to be mutated
MutateNeuronTimeConstantsProb  0.0

// Probability for a baby's neuron bias values to be mutated
MutateNeuronBiasesProb  0.0

// Time constant range
MinNeuronTimeConstant  0.0
MaxNeuronTimeConstant  0.0

// Bias range
MinNeuronBias  0.0
MaxNeuronBias  0.0





// Probability for a baby that an activation function type will be changed for a single neuron
// considered a structural mutation because of the large impact on fitness
MutateNeuronActivationTypeProb  0.1

// Probabilities for a particular activation function appearance
ActivationFunction_SignedSigmoid_Prob  1.0
ActivationFunction_UnsignedSigmoid_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_Tanh_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_TanhCubic_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_SignedStep_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_UnsignedStep_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_SignedGauss_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_UnsignedGauss_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_Abs_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_SignedSine_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_UnsignedSine_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_Linear_Prob  0.0
//not implemented
ActivationFunction_SignedSquare_Prob  0.0
ActivationFunction_UnsignedSquare_Prob  0.0




/////////////////////////////////////
// Speciation parameters
/////////////////////////////////////

// Percent of disjoint genes importance
DisjointCoeff  1.0

// Percent of excess genes importance
ExcessCoeff  1.0

// Average weight difference importance
WeightDiffCoeff  1.5

// Node-specific activation parameter A difference importance
ActivationADiffCoeff  0.0

// Node-specific activation parameter B difference importance
ActivationBDiffCoeff  0.0

// Average time constant difference importance
TimeConstantDiffCoeff  0.0

// Average bias difference importance
BiasDiffCoeff  0.0

// Activation function type difference importance
ActivationFunctionDiffCoeff  0.0

// Compatibility treshold
CompatTreshold  5.0

// Minumal value of the compatibility treshold
MinCompatTreshold  0.2

// Modifier per generation for keeping the species stable
CompatTresholdModifier  0.2

// Per how many generations to change the treshold
// (used in generational mode)
CompatTreshChangeInterval_Generations  1

// Per how many evaluations to change the treshold
// (used in steady state mode)
CompatTreshChangeInterval_Evaluations  10

NEAT_ParametersEnd