Applying knowledge of users with similar preference to construct surrogate models of IGAs

Interactive genetic algorithms (IGAs) are effective methods of solving optimization problems with qualitative indices. The problem of user fatigue resulting from his/her evaluations, however, restricts their applications in complex optimization problems. Employing various surrogate models to evaluate (a part of) individuals instead of a user is a feasible approach to solving the above problem. Previous studies, however, have not fully utilized knowledge provided by users with similar preference when constructing these models. The problem of constructing surrogate models by using knowledge of users with similar preference was focused in this study. First, users with similar preference participating the evolution were identified based on the matrix formed by the relationship between users and the “fitness” of allele meaning units and the users' interests in allele meaning units by using the collaborative filtering algorithm based on nearest-neighbor; and then the individuals evaluated by users with similar preference and chosen according to the users' preference similarities and confidence, along with their fitness, were as a part of samples for training the surrogate model of the current user's cognition. The proposed method was applied to an evolutionary fashion design system, and the experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the capability in exploration on the premise of greatly alleviating user fatigue.