Speeding up algorithm diagnosis by epsilon-sorting runtime files

Sometimes we need to calculate runtime metrics of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) results in order to plan future runs, or to compare the performances of two different MOEAs. These calculations may prove challenging if small epsilon values were used during optimization because each Pareto front in each runtime file may contain thousands of solutions, which may make the hypervolume calculations take days to complete.. A possible solution may be to filter the Pareto fronts by using bigger epsilons in order to decrease the number of solutions in each front.

The following Python script can be used to split the Pareto fronts within each runtime file generated with BorgMOEA or MOEAFramework, apply new epsilon-dominance to each front, and recombine them into new smaller runtime files. The script and all runtime files must be in the same directory. The script output will be multiple files named after the original .runtime files but with extension .runtime_sorted instead.

import numpy as np
from glob import glob
from os import makedirs, system
from os.path import splitext, basename

def apply_epsilon_dominance(epsilons, number_of_objectives):
    files_fronts = []

    # Create a folder for each runtime file and store each Pareto front as a 
    # separate file.
    print '\nSpliting Pareto fronts.\n'
    for file in glob('*runtime'):
        print file

        s = open(file, 'r')
        fronts = s.read().split('#\r\n')
        folder = splitext(file)[0]
        makedirs(folder)
        for i in range(len(fronts) - 1):
            of = open(folder + "/" + str(i) + ".set", 'w')
            of.write(fronts[i])
            of.write('#')

    # Applies new epsilons to each Pareto front
    print '\nApplying new epsilons to each Pareto front.\n'
    for file in glob('*runtime'):
        print file
        folder = splitext(file)[0]
        for i in range(len(fronts) - 1):
            system('java -cp MOEAFramework-2.0-Executable.jar org.'
                'moeaframework.analysis.sensitivity.ResultFileMerger -d ' + 
                str(number_of_objectives) + ' ./'+ folder + '/' + str(i) + 
                '.set -e ' + epsilons + ' -o ' + folder + '/' + 
                str(i).zfill(2) + '.sorted')

    # Combines epsilon sorted Pareto fronts in new runtime files with 
    # extension .runtime_sorted
    print '\nCombining sorted fronts into new runtime_sorted files.\n'
    for file in glob('*runtime'):
        print file
        folder = splitext(file)[0]
        output_str = ''
        
        of = open(folder + '.runtime_sorted', 'w')

        for f in glob(folder + '/*.sorted'):
            output_str += open(folder + '/' + basename(f)).read() + "#\n"
            
        of.write(output_str)


# epsilons and number of objectives to be used
epsilons = '0.005,0.02,0.02,0.01,0.01,0.01'
number_of_objectives = 6

# Calls the function to apply epsilon dominance
apply_epsilon_dominance(epsilons, number_of_objectives)

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