Lee W. Jones

Cross-domain features of runs of genetic programming used to evolve designs for analog circuits, optical lens systems, controllers, antennas, mechanical systems, and quantum computing circuits

Genetic programming has now been successfully used to automatically synthesize human-competitive designs in a number of fields, including analog electrical circuits, optical lens systems, antennas, controllers, mechanical systems, and quantum computing circuits. Despite considerable variation in representation and technique, the above results share a number of common features. This paper identifies five common features and suggests possible explanations and interpretations for them. Some of these cross-domain observations clearly could not have been anticipated prior to the work being done.

Automated re-invention of a previously patented optical lens system using genetic programming

The three dozen or so known instances of human-competitive designs of antennas, mechanical systems, circuits, and controllers produced by genetic programming suggest the question of whether genetic programming can be extended to the design of complex structures from other fields. This paper describes how genetic programming can be used to automatically create a complete design for an optical lens system “from scratch”—without starting from a pre-existing good design and without pre-specifying the number of lenses, the layout of lenses, or the numerical parameters of the lenses. More particularly, genetic programming created an optical system that infringed a previous patent (the Konig patent) and improved upon another previous patent (the Tackaberry-Muller patent). The genetically evolved design is an example of a human-competitive result produced by genetic programming in the field of optical design.

Toward Automated Design of Industrial-Strength Analog Circuits by Means of Genetic Programming

It has been previously established that genetic programming can be used as an automated invention machine to synthesize designs for complex structures. In particular, genetic programming has automatically synthesized structures that infringe, improve upon, or duplicate the functionality of 21 previously patented inventions (including six 21st-century patented analog electrical circuits) and has also generated two patentable new inventions (controllers). There are seven promising factors suggesting that these previous results can be extended to deliver industrial-strength automated design of analog circuits, but two countervailing factors. This chapter explores the question of whether the seven promising factors can overcome the two countervailing factors by reviewing progress on an ongoing project in which we are employing genetic programming to synthesize an amplifier circuit. The work involves a multiobjective fitness measure consisting of 16 different elements measured by five different test fixtures. The chapter describes five ways of using general domain knowledge applicable to all analog circuits, two ways for employing problem-specific knowledge, four ways of improving on previously published genetic programming techniques, and four ways of grappling with the multi-objective fitness measures associated with real-world design problems.

Invention and creativity in automated design by means of genetic programming

Some designs are sufficiently creative that they are considered to be inventions. The invention process is typically characterized by a singular moment when the prevailing thinking concerning a long-standing problem is, in a “flash of genius,” overthrown and replaced by a new approach that could not have been logically deduced from what was previously known. This paper discusses such logical discontinuities using an example based on the history of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century in electrical engineering, namely, the invention of negative feedback by AT&Ts Harold S. Black. This 1927 invention overthrew the then prevailing idiom of positive feedback championed by Westinghouses Edwin Howard Armstrong. The paper then shows how this historically important discovery can be readily replicated by an automated design and invention technique patterned after the evolutionary process in nature, namely, genetic programming. Genetic programming employs Darwinian natural selection along with analogs of recombination (crossover), mutation, gene duplication, gene deletion, and mechanisms of developmental biology to breed an ever improving population of structures. Genetic programming rediscovers negative feedback by conducting an evolutionary search for a structure that satisfies Blacks stated high-level goal (i.e., reduction of distortion in amplifiers). Like evolution in nature, genetic programming conducts its search probabilistically without resort to logic using a process that is replete with logical discontinuities. The paper then shows that genetic programming can routinely produce many additional inventive and creative results. In this regard, the paper discusses the automated rediscovery of numerous 20th-century patented inventions involving analog electrical circuits and controllers, the Sallen–Key filter, and six 21st-century patented inventions. In addition, two patentable new inventions (controllers) have been created in the same automated way by means of genetic programming. The paper discusses the promising future of automated invention by means of genetic programming in light of the fact that, to date, increased computer power has yielded progressively more substantial results, including numerous human-competitive results, in synchrony with Moores law. The paper argues that evolutionary search by means of genetic programming is a promising approach for achieving creative, human-competitive, automated design because illogic and creativity are inherent in the evolutionary process.

Automated Design of a Previously Patented Aspherical Optical Lens System by Means of Genetic Programming

This chapter describes how genetic programming was used as an invention machine to automatically synthesize a complete design for an aspherical optical lens system (a type of lens system that is especially difficult to design and that offers advantages in terms of cost, weight, size, and performance over traditional spherical systems). The genetically evolved aspherical lens system duplicated the functionality of a recently patented aspherical system. The automatic synthesis was open-ended — that is, the process did not start from a pre-existing good design and did not pre-specify the number of lenses, which lenses (if any) should be spherical or aspherical, the topological arrangement of the lenses, the numerical parameters of the lenses, or the non-numerical parameters of the lenses. The genetically evolved design is an instance of human-competitive results produced by genetic programming in the field of optical design.

Automated ab initio synthesis of complete designs of four patented optical lens systems by means of genetic programming

Abstract This paper describes how genetic programming has been used as an invention machine to automatically synthesize complete designs for four optical lens systems that duplicated the functionality of previously patented lens systems. The automatic synthesis of the complete design is done ab initio, that is, without starting from a preexisting good design and without prespecifying the number of lenses, the topological arrangement of the lenses, or the numerical or nonnumerical parameters associated with any lens. One of the genetically evolved lens systems infringed a previously issued patent, whereas the others were noninfringing novel designs that duplicated (or improved upon) the performance specifications contained in the patents. One of the patents was issued in the 21st century. The designs were created in a substantially similar and routine way, suggesting that the approach described in the paper can be readily applied to other similar problems in the field of optical design. The genetically evolved designs are instances of human-competitive results produced by genetic programming in the field of optical design.

Human-Competitive Evolvable Hardware Created by Means of Genetic Programming

Genetic programming is a systematic method for getting computers to automatically solve problems. Genetic programming is an extension of the idea of the genetic algorithm into the arena of computer programs. Genetic programming uses the Darwinian principle of natural selection and analogs of recombination (crossover), mutation, gene duplication, gene deletion, and certain mechanisms of developmental biology to progressively breed, over a series of many generations, an improved population of candidate solutions to a problem. Many human-competitive results have been produced using the genetic programming technique, including the automated reinvention of previously patented inventions. This chapter concentrates on the automatic synthesis of six 21st century patented analog electrical circuits by means of genetic programming. The automatic synthesis of analog circuits is done “from scratch”—that is, without starting from a preexisting good design and without prespecifying the circuit’s topology or number or sizing of components. This chapter also briefly summarizes some examples of the automatic synthesis of other types of complex structures by means of genetic programming.

Multi-Domain Observations Concerning the Use of Genetic Programming to Automatically Synthesize Human-Competitive Designs for Analog Circuits, Optical Lens Systems, Controllers, Antennas, Mechanical Systems, and Quantum Computing Circuits

This paper reviews the recent use of genetic programming to automatically synthesize human-competitive designs of complex structures in six engineering domains, namely analog electrical circuits, optical lens systems, controllers, antennas, mechanical systems, and quantum computing circuits. First, the paper identifies common features observed in the human-competitive results produced by genetic programming in the six domains and suggests possible explanations for the observed similarities. Second, the paper identifies the characteristics that make a particular domain amenable to the application of genetic programming for the automatic synthesis of designs. Third, the paper discusses certain domain-specific adjustments in technique that may increase the efficiency of the automated process in a particular domain. Fourth, the paper discusses several technique issues that have arisen in more than one domain.