Article,
BEAGLE A Darwinian Approach to Pattern Recognition
Kybernetes, (1981)
Abstract
BEAGLE (Biological Evolutionary Algorithm Generating
Logical Expressions) is a computer package producing
decision-rules by induction from a database. It works
on the principle of naturalistic selection whereby
rules that fit the data badly are killed off and
replaced by mutations of better rules or by new rules
created by mating two better adapted rules. The rules
are Boolean expressions represented by tree
structures.
The software consists of two Pascal programs, HERB
(Heuristic Evolutionary Rule Breeder) and LEAF (Logical
Evaluator And Forecaster). HERB improves a given
starting set of rules by running over several simulated
generations, LEAF uses the rules to classify samples
from a database where the correct membership may not be
known. Preliminary test on three different databases
have been carried out -- on hospital admissions
(classing heart patients as deaths or survivors), on
athletic physique (classing Olympic finalists as
long-distance runners or sprinters) and on football
results (categorising games into draws and
non-draws)
It appears from the tests that the method works better
than the standard discriminant analysis technique based
on a linear discriminant function, and hence that this
long-neglected approach warrants further
investigation.
