Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 30, January-June 2017

ISSN 1583-0233 p. 1-14

A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method

Ahmed Youssef HATATA, Mohamed Galal OSMAN, and Mohamed M. ALADL*

Electrical Engineering Department, Mansoura University, 60 Elgomhoria str., Mansoura

City, Egypt
*E-mail: moh.aladl@gmail.com
*
Corresponding author, phone: +201222639922

Abstract
The artificial immune system (AIS) is a new optimization technique which
mimics the defence system of animal organisms against pathogens. This paper
represents a review of the clonal selection theory (CLONALG), under the roof
of AIS. A biological background has been introduced to introduce to the way
the CLONALG works in engineering studies. The optimization procedure is
presented with a simulation example to illustrates CLONALG optimization
process.
Keywords
Artificial Immune System; Clonal Selection Theory; Optimization

Introduction

Natural immune systems (NIS), as the defense system of animal organisms against
pathogens, were the inspiration behind the artificial immune systems (AIS). The interest of
researchers is generated by such immune system features as: recognition of antigen (AG)
characteristics, pattern memorization capabilities, self-organizing memory, adaptation ability,

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

immune response shaping, learning from examples, distributed and parallel data processing,
multilayer structure and generalization capability [1].
AIS based algorithms are divided into two major categories: population based and
network based. Network based algorithms use the concepts of immune network theory; while
population based algorithms use the other theories such as clonal selection and negative
selection [2]. This paper puts its focus on the clonal selection theory (CLONALG) as an
optimization process. The optimization algorithm starts by defining a purpose function f(x)
which needs to be optimized. Some possible candidate solutions are created; antibodies will
be used in the purpose function to calculate their affinity and this will determine the ones
which will be cloned for the next step. The cloned values are changed, mutated with a
predefined ratio and the affinities are recalculated and sorted. After certain evaluations of
affinity, affinity with the smallest value is the solution closest to our problem [3].
The CLONALG has some distinguished features. It operates on a population of points
in search space simultaneously, not on just one point, does not use the derivatives or any other
information, and employs probabilistic transition rules instead of deterministic ones. It also
has the ability of getting out local minima. As a relatively novel optimization algorithm, the
CLONALG has been successfully applied to solve various engineering problems [4].

Biological background
From Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary [5], the immune system (IS) is a
complex system of cellular and molecular components having the primary function of
distinguishing self from not self and defense against foreign organisms or substances. So, the
main function of the IS that consists of innate and adaptive immunities is to distinguish
between foreign molecules that are called antigens (Ags) and that constitute self [6]. The
innate immunity provides immediate defense of the host and destroys Ags using
macrophages and natural killer cells. Its immune response has no immunological memory,
since the response cannot be alerted by repeated exposure to specific Ags. On the other hand,
adaptive immunity has an immunological memory for specific Ags. The immune response
consists of antigen-specific reactions of lymphocytes (T and B cells) which operates as an in-
cell mediate and humoral immunities. Each B cell can produce one form of antigen-specific
antibodies (Abs) to fight with Ags [7]. Figure 1, that is adapted from [8], shows an overview
of the IS main function.

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Figure 1. Overview of IS main function [8]

As illustrated in figure 1, if a pathogen attacks the body, the IS defenses will be

activated as follows: basic defenses like skin and hair try to block the attacking Ags; if the
attacking Ags passes, it will face physiological conditions like Gastec Juice trying to kill it.
The innate immunity will be activated immediately but not specific as a third defense. It uses
a phagocyte which is a type of cell within the body capable of engulfing and absorbing
bacteria and other small cells and particles (Ags). The last line of defense is the adaptive
immunity which takes time to be activated but is specific to the attacking Ags. Its weapon is
the lymphocyte which is a form of small leukocyte (white blood cell) with a single round
nucleus, occurring especially in the lymphatic system.

Artificial Immune Systems (AIS)

Many types of algorithm inspired by biological systems, including evolutionary
algorithms, swarm intelligence, neural networks and membrane computing [9]. Artificial
Immune Systems (AIS) are adaptive systems, inspired by theoretical immunology and
observed immune functions, principles and models, which are applied to problem solving
[10]. The AIS algorithm is based on three theories: immune network theory, negative
selection and clonal selection [2].

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

Immune network theory

The immune Network theory had been proposed in the mid-seventies. The hypothesis
was that the immune system maintains an idiotypic network of interconnected B cells for
antigen recognition. These cells both stimulate and suppress each other in certain ways that
lead to the stabilization of the network. Two B cells are connected if the affinities they share
exceed a certain threshold, and the strength of the connection is directly proportional to the
affinity they share [11].

Negative selection
Negative selection is a mechanism employed to help protect the body against self-
reactive lymphocytes. Such lymphocytes can occur because the building blocks of Abs are
different gene segments that are randomly composed and undergo a further somatic
hypermutation process. This process can therefore produce lymphocytes which are able to
recognize self-Ags [9]. The focus of negative selection algorithm is on anomaly detection
problems such as computer and network intrusion detection. Besides it is used in time series
prediction, image inspection and segmentation, and hardware fault tolerance [2].

Clonal selection principle

The clonal selection principle is the algorithm used to illustrate how the immune
system reacts to Ags and its improved capability to eliminate them [11]. Simply, when Ags
attacks the body, immune cells (B lymphocytes) are responding by producing a specific Abs
for the attacking Ags. Abs are molecules attached primarily to the surface of B cells whose
aim is to recognize and bind to Ags. A proliferation process will occur to the cells that
recognized the attacking Ags producing two new types: attacking and memory cells. The
attacking cells secrete a lot of effective Abs to eliminate the attacking Ags immediately.
The memory cells have a long-life span in case of future exposures of the same or similar
Ags, they can act faster and more effectively [12]. The main features of the clonal selection
theory are shown in figure 2, that is adapted from [13], and illustrated as follows [8]:
new cells are cloned of their parents subjected to a mutation mechanism with high rates
(somatic hypermutation);
elimination of newly differentiated lymphocytes carrying self-reactive receptors;
proliferation and differentiation on contact of mature cells with Ags; and

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the persistence of forbidden clones, resistant to early elimination by self-antigens, as the

basis of autoimmune diseases.

Figure 2. Clonal selection principle [13]

Reinforcement learning and immune memory

Reinforcement learning in the clonal immune system involves cloning the

lymphocytes (Abs) that are very valuable by better recognizing Ags. The Abs progeny will
be naturally divided into higher affinity that will be cloned temporarily and discarded low
affinity Abs. Its very important to ensure an immune response with both high speed and
accuracy. The adaptive immune response is stimulated during the initial exposure of the Ags.
it faces that exposure with a number of B-cells that produces a different affinity Abs. During
the secondary encounters, the effectiveness of the attacking Abs enhanced thanks to the
memory cells with the first infection. This is an intrinsic scheme of a reinforcement strategy,
where the interaction with the environment gives rise to the continuous improvement of the
system capability to perform a given task [14], [15]. Comparing with the primary response
facing the first exposure, the second exposure stimulates a secondary response that is
characterized by a shorter lag phase, a higher rate and a longer synthesis of Abs with high
antigenic affinities as shown in figure 3, that is adapted from [14].

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

Figure 3. Primary and secondary immune response

Affinity maturation
The repertoire of Ag-activated B-cells in the immune response is divided into:
hypermutation and receptor editing. Hypermutation means the affinity of Abs increases from
a generation to the other thanks to the memory cells that memorize the experience of primary
exposure and use that to develop next Abs. This process is continuous [14,16]. Random
changes of the genes responsible for the Ag-Ab interactions lead to an affinity increase of the
Ab. These higher affinity variants are selected to enter the pool of the memory cells. Receptor
editing is essential for producing very high affinity Abs that can be selected to dominate the
response. Cells with low affinity or self-reactive receptors must be efficiently eliminated [17-
19].

Optimization
Based on the biological concept of AIS, optimization techniques have been built
considering AIS theories: immune network theory, negative selection and clonal selection.
This paper focuses on the clonal selection optimization algorithm (COLNALG). But, at first it
should be noted that [14]:
instead of antigen population, there is an objective function to be optimized;
each antibody Ab represents an element of the input space;

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Abs affinity corresponds to the evaluation of the objective function for the given Ab;
number of clones generated n, for Abs will be

(1)

where n is the total number of clones generated for each of the Ags, f at is a multiplying
factor, N is the total number of Abs, gen is the number of iterations and round is the operator
that rounds its argument toward the closest integer. Each term of this sum corresponds to the
clone size of each selected Ab. For N=100 and f at=1 each affinity antibody Ab (i=1) will
produce 100 clones.

Material and method

Proposed CLONALG procedure

In the proposed CLONALG algorithm which was originally proposed by De Castro
and Van Zuben [20], feasible and infeasible Abs are distinguished and sorted due to their
fitness and constrained violation values, respectively [14]. This process is a part of the
algorithm procedure as follows:
1. Generate a set of random antibodies which are the current candidate solutions of the
objective function.
2. Calculate the affinity values of each candidate solutions by calculating the objective
function using each candidate.
3. Sort the antibodies starting from the lowest affinity.
4. Clone the better matching antibodies more with some predefined ratio.
5. Mutate the antibodies with some predefined ratio. This ratio is obtained in a way that
better matching clones mutated less and weakly matching clones mutated much more in
order to reach the optimal solution.
6. Calculate the new affinity values of each antibody.
7. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 while the minimum error criterion is not met
Figure 4 shows the flowchart of the CLONALG procedure.

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

Figure 4. A flowchart of the CLONALG procedure

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Simulation
To illustrate the CLONALG optimization technique, consider the objective function
f(x,y) which is intended to be optimized:

(2)
where f(x,y) is the objective function to be optimized and x&y are the corresponding
antibodies.
The purpose is to find the maximum value of the objective function and the
corresponding values of the antibodies x and y which are defined over the range [-1,1]. The
running parameters according to (1) are: N=100, f at=0.1 and gen=25. The main steps of the
proposed technique are as follows:
Step 1. Generate random values of the antibodies x and y producing an initial search space of
100 populations as shown in figure 5;
Step 2. Evaluate the objective function f(x,y) corresponding to step 1;
Step 3. Sort the new values of the objective function f(x,y) in ascending order;
Step 4. Sort the corresponding values of the antibodies x and y in the corresponding order of
the objective function f(x,y);
Step 5. The best individuals are reproduced (cloned) by the following function;
% Reproduction
function [T,pcs] = reprod(n,fat,N,ind,P,T);
% n -> number of clones
% fat -> multiplying factor
% ind -> best individuals
% T -> temporary population
% pcs -> final position of each clone
if n == 1,
cs = N;
T = ones(N,1) * P(ind(1),:);
else,
for i=1:n,
% cs(i) = round(fat*N/i);
cs(i) = round(fat*N);
pcs(i) = sum(cs);
T = [T; ones(cs(i),1) * P(ind(end-i+1),:)];
end;
end;

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

Figure 5. Initial search space

Step 6. Mutate the antibodies with a mutation probability Pm=0.01. Figure 6 shows the
antibodies population after the cloning and mutation processes;
Step 7. The affinity of the antibodies and will be calculated again;
Step 8. Steps will be repeated according to number of iterations.

Results and discussion

Table 1 shows the best optimization result for each iteration.

As illustrated in Table 1 and Figure 7, the optimal results found f(x,y)=2.26 that is at
values x=-0.63 and y=0.63.
It should be noted that CLONALG optimization method is capable of providing more
accuracy with each iteration processed. Thanks to its memorization capability that memorize
the experience of primary solution and use adaptation ability to develop the next one. As
shown in Figure 7, the solution of the optimization process is being improved with every
iteration processed, until reaching the best results found.

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Figure 6. Antibodies population after the cloning and mutation processes

To sum-up, this paper reviewed the three theories of artificial immune systems (AIS):
immune network theory, negative selection and clonal selection (CLONALG). Focusing on
the CLONALG verified that its capable of performing learning and maintenance of high
quality memory and solving complex problems. Simulation results confirm its effective and
efficient ability in solving the tested problem. This optimization code can be modified for
solving various engineering optimization problems. In a future work, the CLONALG code is
modified to get the optimum size of a hybrid power system consists of PV Panels, Wind
Turbines and Batteries. The objective function is considered as the cost function of the hybrid
system and the antibodies are considered as the components of the hybrid system. The main
goal of the optimization process is to satisfy the hourly load demand with the least probability
of cut-off power and the minimum overall cost.

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 A review of the clonal selection algorithm as an optimization method
Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

Table 1. Optimization results

Iteration x y f(x,y)
1 -0.65 0.55 1.930
2 -0.65 0.55 1.943
3 -0.65 0.61 2.227
4 -0.65 0.61 2.229
5 -0.65 0.65 2.230
6 -0.64 0.65 2.251
7 -0.64 0.65 2.251
8 -0.64 0.65 2.251
9 -0.62 -0.64 2.253
10 -0.63 0.62 2.254
11 -0.64 0.63 2.260
12 -0.64 0.63 2.260
13 -0.64 0.63 2.260
14 -0.64 0.63 2.260
15 -0.64 0.63 2.260
16 -0.64 0.63 2.260
17 -0.64 0.63 2.260
18 -0.64 0.63 2.260
19 -0.64 0.63 2.260
20 -0.64 0.63 2.260
21 -0.63 0.63 2.260
22 -0.63 0.63 2.260
23 -0.63 0.63 2.260
24 -0.63 0.63 2.260
25 -0.63 0.63 2.260

Figure 7. Objective function values

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Ahmed Y. HATATA, Mohamed G. OSMAN, Mohamed M. ALADL

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