{"about":{"site":"https://codewithpapers.app","non_affiliation":"Code with Papers and Syntology are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Papers with Code, Meta, or the pwc-archive mirror.","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","attribution":"https://codewithpapers.app/attribution","modified":"archive material modified by Syntology; see the attribution page"},"url":"/paper/illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","title":"Illuminating search spaces by mapping elites","arxiv_id":"1504.04909","date":"2015-04-20","proceeding":null,"authors":["Jean-Baptiste Mouret","Jeff Clune"],"abstract":"Many fields use search algorithms, which automatically explore a search space\nto find high-performing solutions: chemists search through the space of\nmolecules to discover new drugs; engineers search for stronger, cheaper, safer\ndesigns, scientists search for models that best explain data, etc. The goal of\nsearch algorithms has traditionally been to return the single\nhighest-performing solution in a search space. Here we describe a new,\nfundamentally different type of algorithm that is more useful because it\nprovides a holistic view of how high-performing solutions are distributed\nthroughout a search space. It creates a map of high-performing solutions at\neach point in a space defined by dimensions of variation that a user gets to\nchoose. This Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites (MAP-Elites)\nalgorithm illuminates search spaces, allowing researchers to understand how\ninteresting attributes of solutions combine to affect performance, either\npositively or, equally of interest, negatively. For example, a drug company may\nwish to understand how performance changes as the size of molecules and their\ncost-to-produce vary. MAP-Elites produces a large diversity of high-performing,\nyet qualitatively different solutions, which can be more helpful than a single,\nhigh-performing solution. Interestingly, because MAP-Elites explores more of\nthe search space, it also tends to find a better overall solution than\nstate-of-the-art search algorithms. We demonstrate the benefits of this new\nalgorithm in three different problem domains ranging from producing modular\nneural networks to designing simulated and real soft robots. Because MAP-\nElites (1) illuminates the relationship between performance and dimensions of\ninterest in solutions, (2) returns a set of high-performing, yet diverse\nsolutions, and (3) improves finding a single, best solution, it will advance\nscience and engineering.","url_abs":"http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.04909v1","url_pdf":"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.04909v1.pdf","source":{"archive":"pwc-archive (Hugging Face), CC BY-SA 4.0","snapshot":"2025-07-28","licence_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode","row_kind":"abstracts"},"code_links":[{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/StefanoFioravanzo/MAP-Elites","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"none","reach":{"status":"ok"}},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"jax","reach":null},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/dcg-map-elites","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"jax","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/pga-map-elites","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"pytorch","reach":{"status":"ok"}},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/ivanbravi/RinascimentoFramework","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"none","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/ollenilsson19/MAP-Elites-GAPG","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"pytorch","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"paper_slug":"illuminating-search-spaces-by-mapping-elites","repo_url":"https://github.com/ollenilsson19/PGA-MAP-Elites","is_official":0,"mentioned_in_paper":0,"mentioned_in_github":1,"framework":"pytorch","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}}],"tasks":[],"methods":[],"datasets_introduced":[],"methods_introduced":[],"results":[],"syntology":{"syntology_url":"https://syntology.ai/paper/1504.04909","atlas_url":"https://app.syntology.ai/?focus=1504.04909","mcp":{"get_harvested_code_for_paper":{"arxiv_id":"1504.04909"}},"developers":"https://syntology.ai/developers","read_at":"2026-09-25T09:33:49+00:00","read_at_is":"when the build read Syntology's graph, not when any sample ran","claim":"Per-sample execution status on synthesized fixtures; not a correctness claim about the paper. Samples come from repositories linked to the paper, official or community; repo_kind says which.","repos":[{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/ivanbravi/RinascimentoFramework","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/ollenilsson19/MAP-Elites-GAPG","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/ollenilsson19/PGA-MAP-Elites","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites","reach":null},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/pga-map-elites","reach":{"status":"ok"}},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/dcg-map-elites","reach":{"status":"ok","spdx":"MIT"}},{"provenance":"external:paperswithcode_snapshot_2025-07-28","url":"https://github.com/StefanoFioravanzo/MAP-Elites","reach":{"status":"ok"}}],"summary":{"ran_draft_wrong":2},"by_repo_kind":{"listed":{"samples":2,"ran":2,"repositories":1}},"repo_kind_vocabulary":{"official":"The archive marks this repository official for the paper","named_in_paper":"The archive records that the paper mentions this repository; it is not marked official","listed":"In the archive's code links for this paper, not marked official and not recorded as mentioned in the paper","found_in_text":"Syntology found this repository in the paper's own text; whether it is the authors' implementation is not asserted","community":"Not in the archive's code links for this paper; a community repository Syntology harvested"},"n_pointer_only_for_licence":0,"samples":[{"code_sha256_prefix":"8481ec92f78f7ef9","entry":"customize_axis","repo":"adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites","repo_kind":"listed","path":"analysis/plot_main.py","file_url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites/blob/HEAD/analysis/plot_main.py","link_basis":"first_harvest_node","language":"python","status":"ran_draft_wrong","verification_level":1,"contract_check":"OUTPUT_MISDECLARED","metamorphic_tier":"deterministic","behaviour_fingerprint":false,"licence":"MIT","inline_ok":true,"mcp_get_code":{"code_sha256":"8481ec92f78f7ef9"}},{"code_sha256_prefix":"97d6a629daee3907","entry":"plot","repo":"adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites","repo_kind":"listed","path":"analysis/plot_main.py","file_url":"https://github.com/adaptive-intelligent-robotics/DCRL-MAP-Elites/blob/HEAD/analysis/plot_main.py","link_basis":"first_harvest_node","language":"python","status":"ran_draft_wrong","verification_level":1,"contract_check":"OUTPUT_MISDECLARED","metamorphic_tier":"deterministic","behaviour_fingerprint":false,"licence":"MIT","inline_ok":true,"mcp_get_code":{"code_sha256":"97d6a629daee3907"}}]},"arxiv_metadata":null,"syntology_extracted_results":null}