title: For real! XCS with continuous-valued inputs.
abstract: Many real-world problems are not conveniently expressed using the ternary representation typically used by Learning Classifier Systems and for such problems an interval-based representation is preferable. We analyse two interval-based representations recently proposed for XCS, together with their associated operators and find evidence of considerable representational and operator bias. We propose a new interval-based representation that is more straightforward than the previous ones and analyse its bias. The representations presented and their analysis are also applicable to other Learning Classifier System architectures. We discuss limitations of the real multiplexer problem, a benchmark problem used for Learning Classifier Systems that have a continuous-valued representation, and propose a new test problem, the checkerboard problem, that matches many classes of real-world problem more closely than the real multiplexer. Representations and operators are compared using both the real multiplexer and checkerboard problems and we find that representational, operator and sampling bias all affect the performance of XCS in continuous-valued environments.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences University of the West of England Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. christopher.stone@uwe.ac.uk
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bull
mesh_terms: D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype