| 160 | | Once you're done, you should get a latest copy of HeuristicLab 3.3 or build it from source using Visual Studio. |
| | 162 | Once you're done, you should get a latest copy of HeuristicLab 3.3 and unzip it into a folder or [DevelopersManual#BuildSources build it from source] using Visual Studio. We're now going to configure the problem in HeuristicLab and then take a look at the client and finally let it run. |
| | 163 | |
| | 164 | === Configuring the Race Car Configuration Problem in HeuristicLab === |
| | 165 | |
| | 166 | In the Optimizer we select New from the File menu and choose the '''External Evaluation Problem''' from the list of //Creatables// among which we find the section //Problems//. You may have to scroll down a little until you reach the Problems. |
| | 167 | |
| | 168 | [[Image(Tutorial_CreateNewExternalEvaluationProblem.png)]] |
| | 169 | |
| | 170 | Now we are presented with a new External Evaluation Problem such as we have seen in the architecture description above. It shall be shown here again. |
| | 171 | |
| | 172 | [[Image(ExternalEvaluationProblemParameters.png)]] |
| | 173 | |
| | 174 | So, first let's give the problem a proper name and a proper description so that when we load the problem later we know what this is all about. |
| | 175 | * In the title type "Race Car Configuration Problem (EvoStar 2010)" |
| | 176 | * In the description type "Problem that represents race car configuration challenge of EvoStar 2010" |
| | 177 | |
| | 178 | Now we want to configure the solution representation and for this purpose we click the operator called '''SolutionCreator''' and get following screen. |
| | 179 | |
| | 180 | [[Image(Tutorial_ConfigureSolutionCreator.png)]] |
| | 181 | |
| | 182 | We can examine the operators parameters by selecting the "Parameters" tab, and we will see that there is only a "Successor" parameter defined which is null. This parameter defines the next operator that would be executed after the !SolutionCreator, but we don't need to bother with this parameter in this case and switch back to the "Operators" tab. There is a button with a yellow plus icon that we're going to press. |
| | 183 | |
| | 184 | [[Image(Tutorial_TypeSelector.png)]] |
| | 185 | |
| | 186 | The type selector appears that has the ability to show every HeuristicLab object, but in this case, because the SolutionCreator exposes a list of only `IOperator`s we see a dialog with only operators to choose from. We're interested in creating our solution representation and given that our simulation model expects a vector of real values that describe the car's configuration, we will look into the '''HeuristicLab.Encodings.RealVectorEncoding''' namespace. Click on the "+" infront of that namespace to list all the available operators there. |
| | 187 | |
| | 188 | [[Image(Tutorial_TypeSelector_RealVectorEncoding.png)]] |
| | 189 | |
| | 190 | That is quite a list of operators, but don't get confused. From the names we can see what they are doing, there are several crossovers, manipulators, and a few other operators. Each of these operators has a description that you can see when you click onto it. The description is very helpful in describing what the operator does and there are even references to publications for operators that are taken from the literature. The one operator we are looking for to create a vector of real values is the '''UniformRandomRealVectorCreator'''. Look for it in the list down the bottom and click OK. |
| | 191 | |
| | 192 | [[Image(Tutorial_UniformRandomRealVectorCreator.png)]] |
| | 193 | |
| | 194 | Views are usually nested in each other and when you click on the operator you should see its view opening to the right. If you can't see the operator's details due to low screen resolution you can double click the operator and it will open in a completely new view and in a new tab next to the tab of the problem. |
| | 195 | |
| | 196 | What we have to do next is configure this operator. We see in the operators details that it has five parameters: Bounds, Length, Random, RealVector, and Successor. Like before we can ignore the Successor parameter, but the other 4 are interesting to us. You can click on any of these parameters to get a helpful description in the parameter's own view (which is nested again), you can also double click a parameter to open a view in a new tab. The Bounds parameter tells us that it represents "A 2 column matrix specifying the lower and upper bound for each dimension. If there are less rows than dimension the bounds vector is cycled." This is very helpful information indeed! We know, from reading the challenge's manual that the solution vector is bound in every dimension by 0 and 1 and now we have two choices. We could now click on the button with the pencil icon and create a new Bounds matrix directly in the parameter of this operator or we can set the //Actual Name// of this parameter to the name of the parameter that we create in a higher level. If we'd create the parameter directly in the parameter, other operators do not have access to it and because the Bounds are also needed in other operators like Crossover and Mutation it is a better idea to create the bounds matrix at the problem level. |
| | 197 | |
| | 198 | So we click the yellow plus icon in the parameters list of our problem (marked in the following screenshot). |
| | 199 | |
| | 200 | [[Image(Tutorial_CreateBounds.png)]] |
| | 201 | |
| | 202 | Again we see a dialog similar to the type selector. |
| | 203 | |
| | 204 | [[Image(Tutorial_TypeSelector_NewParameter.png)]] |
| | 205 | |
| | 206 | This time it is restricted to all kinds of `IParameter`s of which there are some in the !HeuristicLab.Parameters namespace. There are several kinds of parameters of which there are two important types: |
| | 207 | 1. Lookup parameters |
| | 208 | 2. Value parameters |
| | 209 | |
| | 210 | Lookup parameters do not have a value of their own, but rather search for this value in a higher scope. Value parameters on the other hand contain a value of their own and do not look for the value in a higher scope. The combination of the two is a !ValueLookupParameter that either has a value in which case it will not look in a higher scope or it does not have a value in which case it will look in a higher scope. So it's the best of the two worlds. Usually when a parameter can be either set directly or looked up a !ValueLookupParameter is well suited. The Bounds parameter for example of the solution creator is such a parameter. In this case however, we're at the problem scope and there's no higher scope so what we need is a new '''ValueParameter<T>'''. The <T> basically states that we have to define the type of the parameter and that we could make a parameter of IOperator for example or in our case, we need a '''ValueParameter<DoubleMatrix>'''. So we select the !ValueParameter, after which a new field becomes visible. |
| | 211 | |
| | 212 | |
| | 213 | [[Image(Tutorial_TypeSelector_NewParameter2.png)]] |
