Evolutionary Art Using Summed Multi-Objective Ranks

Abstract

This paper shows how a sum of ranks approach to multi-objective evaluation is effective for some low-order search problems, as it discourages the generation of outlier solutions. Outliers, which often arise with the traditional Pareto ranking strategy, tend to exhibit good scores on a minority of feature tests, while having mediocre or poor scores on the rest. They arise from the definition of Pareto dominance, in which an individual can be superlative in as little as a single objective in order to be considered undominated. The application considered in this research is evolutionary art, inwhich images are synthesized that adhere to an aesthetic model based on color gradient distribution. The genetic programming system uses 4 different fitness measurements, that perform aesthetic and color palette analyses. Outliers are usually undesirable in this application, because the color gradient distribution measurements requires 3 features to be satisfactory simultaneously. Sum of ranks scoring typically results in images that score better on the majority of features, and are therefore arguably more visually pleasing. Although the ranked sum strategy was originally inspired by highly dimensional problems having perhaps 20 objectives or more, this research shows that it is likewise practical for low-dimensional problems.

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