Installation and Usage Guide

🔨 Installation

BOAT-ms is built on top of MindSpore. Please install a suitable version for your hardware (Ascend / GPU / CPU) first.

1. Install MindSpore

Follow the Official Installation Guide or use the reference commands below:

CPU (Linux-x86_64) Example

# 1. Create environment
conda create -n mindspore_py39 python=3.9.11 -y
conda activate mindspore_py39

# 2. Install GCC dependencies (Linux only)
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gcc-9 -y

# 3. Install MindSpore (Adjust MS_VERSION as needed)
export MS_VERSION=2.4.1
pip install mindspore==${MS_VERSION} -i [https://repo.mindspore.cn/pypi/simple](https://repo.mindspore.cn/pypi/simple) --trusted-host repo.mindspore.cn

2. Install BOAT-ms

Once MindSpore is ready, install BOAT-ms via PyPI or Source:

# Install from PyPI
pip install boat-ms

# Or install from Source (Specific Branch)
git clone -b boat_ms --single-branch [https://github.com/callous-youth/BOAT.git](https://github.com/callous-youth/BOAT.git)
cd BOAT
pip install -e .

⚡ How to Use BOAT

1. Load Configuration Files

BOAT relies on two key configuration files:

boat_config.json: Specifies optimization strategies and gradient mapping/numerical approximation operations.
loss_config.json: Defines the loss functions for both levels of the BLO process.

import os
import json
import boat_ms as boat

# Load configuration files
with open("path_to_configs/boat_config.json", "r") as f:
    boat_config = json.load(f)

with open("path_to_configs/loss_config.json", "r") as f:
    loss_config = json.load(f)

2. Define Models and Optimizers

You need to specify both the upper-level and lower-level models along with their respective optimizers.

import mindspore 

# Define models
upper_model = UpperModel(*args, **kwargs)  # Replace with your upper-level model
lower_model = LowerModel(*args, **kwargs)  # Replace with your lower-level model

# Define optimizers
upper_opt = mindspore.nn.Adam(upper_model.parameters(), lr=0.01)
lower_opt = mindspore.optim.SGD(lower_model.parameters(), lr=0.01)

3. Customize BOAT Configuration

Modify the boat_config to include your gradient mapping and numerical approximation methods, as well as model and variable details.

# Example gradient mapping and numerical approximation methods Combination.
boat_config["fo_op"] = "MESO" # FOGO supports only

# Add methods and model details to the configuration
boat_config["lower_level_model"] = lower_model
boat_config["upper_level_model"] = upper_model
boat_config["lower_level_opt"] = lower_opt
boat_config["upper_level_opt"] = upper_opt
boat_config["lower_level_var"] = lower_model.trainable_params()
boat_config["upper_level_var"] = upper_model.trainable_params()

4. Initialize the BOAT Problem

Modify the boat_config to include your gradient mapping and numerical approximation methods, as well as model and variable details.

# Initialize the problem
b_optimizer = boat.Problem(boat_config, loss_config)

# Build solvers for lower and upper levels
b_optimizer.build_ll_solver()  # Lower-level solver
b_optimizer.build_ul_solver()  # Upper-level solver

5. Define Data Feeds

Prepare the data feeds for both levels of the BLO process, which was further fed into the the upper-level and lower-level objective functions.

# Define data feeds (Demo Only)
ul_feed_dict = {"data": upper_level_data, "target": upper_level_target}
ll_feed_dict = {"data": lower_level_data, "target": lower_level_target}

6. Run the Optimization Loop

Execute the optimization loop, optionally customizing the solver strategy for gradient mapping methods.

# Set number of iterations
iterations = 1000

# Optimization loop (Demo Only)
for x_itr in range(iterations):
    # Run a single optimization iteration
    loss, run_time = b_optimizer.run_iter(ll_feed_dict, ul_feed_dict, current_iter=x_itr)