Helisa

What is it?

Helisa (HEL-EE-SAH) is a Scala frontend for solving problems with genetic algorithms and genetic programming.

It’s pretty much a Scala wrapper around the excellent jenetics library ^[1].

How to use it

Obtaining

helisa is available on Maven central through:

"com.softwaremill" %% "helisa" % "0.8.0"

Currently only Scala 2.12 is supported.

Basic usage

The two things that are absolutely required are:

A genotype, i.e. a representation of possible solutions to the problem,
a fitness function, that scores the solutions generated from the genotypes.

Using an example for guessing a number between 0 and a 100, you would have:

import com.softwaremill.helisa._

case class Guess(num: Int) (1)

val genotype =
  () => genotypes.uniform(chromosomes.int(0, 100)) (2)
def fitness(toGuess: Int) =
  (guess: Guess) => 1.0 / (guess.num - toGuess).abs (3)

The representation of a solution to the problem (the phenotype)
A producer of genotypes.
The fitness function - the closer to the target number, the higher the fitness score.

We use the code above to set up the Evolver, which encapsulates all configuration and generates fresh population streams:

val evolver =
  Evolver(fitness(Number), genotype) (1)
    .populationSize(100) (2)
    .build()

val stream = evolver.streamScalaStdLib() (3)

val best = stream.drop(1000).head.bestPhenotype (4)

println(best)
// Some(Guess(42))

Initialize the Evolver with our genotype and fitness function.
Set the population size.
Obtain a Stream population stream (see Integrating for more information)
Advance the stream and obtain the highest-scored phenotype.

Validation

You can additionally restrict the solution space by adding a phenotype validator:

val evolver =
  Evolver(fitness(Number), genotype)
    .populationSize(100)
    .phenotypeValidator(_.num % 2 == 0) (1)
    .build()

We know the number is even, so we’re restricting possible solutions to only those numbers.

Operators

As a reminder, the three main elements of evolution in genetic algorithms are:

the selection of fittest individuals (phenotypes),
the recombination of selected individuals to form new individuals in the next generation of the population,
the mutation of the new/remaining individuals.

Selection

Standard selectors are available from helisa.selectors, you use them like this:

import com.softwaremill.helisa._

val evolver =
  Evolver(fitnessFunction, genotype)
   .offspringSelector(selectors.x) (1)
   .survivorsSelector(selectors.y) (2)
    .build()

Affect just the survivors.
Affects both the survivors and offspring.

You can also add a custom selector by passing the appropriate function to the survivorSelectorAsFunction or offspringSelectorAsFunction method.

Recombination and mutation

Recombination and mutation is handled are both generalized to operators, available in helisa.operators . You use them as follows:

import com.softwaremill.helisa._

val evolver =
  Evolver(fitnessFunction, genotype)
   .geneticOperators(operators.crossover.x, (1)
   operators.mutation.y) (2)
    .build()

Recombination operators.
Mutation operators.

You can also add a custom operator by passing the appropriate function to the geneticOperatorsAsFunctions method.

Other configuration

See the doc of EvolverBuilder for all Evolver configuration options.

Integrating

Integrations for:

scala.collection.Iterator
scala.collection.Stream
Akka Stream Source
FS2 Stream for any Async
Reactive Streams Publisher

In addition:

Monix is not supported directly, but can be taken advantage with using the other integrations,
Spark integration is coming up.

Genetic programming

TBD

1. there is also a version with a JGAP backend

softwaremill / helisa 0.8.0