NARX prediction and generalization

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Dear all,
I want to address a prediction problem with a NARX. My goal is to predict 6 samples ahead, so I built the dataset in this manner (FILE ATTACHED):
  • x is the time series, dropping the 6-1=5 last samples
  • y is basically a filtered version of x (smoothed with splines->csaps), dropping the 5 first samples
So I first train the narxnet in open-loop, then in closed-loop. The prediction capabilities on the same time series are not too bad. Besides, I want to estimate how well the NARX predictor performs on a new unseen time series. Things go much worse, but not horribly. The point is that in fact I have 30 time series from 30 subjects, so my idea would be to use a leave-one-out procedure: train successively the NARX on a collection of 29 times series, test on the remaining one. In this way, with much more data, prediction and generalization capabilities should increase... but still I cannot find how to train the net on several series. I saw an old question in this regard, unsolved... hopefully you found out.
Ideas? Thank you so much!
close all;
clear all;
load('NARX_Data.mat');
% hidden neurons
NEUR=4;
% buffer sizes
NX=6;
NY=2;
% delays
DX=(1:NX);
DY=(1:NY);
% data preparation
xTrain=num2cell(xTrain);
yTrain=num2cell(yTrain);
xTest=num2cell(xTest);
yTest=num2cell(yTest);
% net creation
narx=narxnet(DX,DY,NEUR);
% narx.trainFcn='trainbr';
narx.divideFcn='';
% narx.divideFcn='divideind';
% narx.divideFcn='divideblock';
% training in open loop
[XsTrain,XiTrain,AiTrain,YsTrain]=preparets(narx,xTrain,{},yTrain);
narx=train(narx,XsTrain,YsTrain,XiTrain);
% use in open loop
% yOLTrainIdeal=cell2mat(YsTrain);
% yOLTrainPred=cell2mat(sim(narx,XsTrain,XiTrain));
% errOLTrain=yOLTrainPred-yOLTrainIdeal;
% figure;
% plot(errOLTrain)
% use in closed loop
yCLTrain=yTrain;
xCLTrain=xTrain;
% training in closed loop
narxCL=closeloop(narx);
[XsCLTrain,XiCLTrain,AiCLTrain,YsCLTrain]=preparets(narxCL,xCLTrain,{},yCLTrain);
narxCL=train(narxCL,XsCLTrain,YsCLTrain,XiCLTrain);
yCLTrainIdeal=cell2mat(YsCLTrain);
yCLTrainPred=cell2mat(narxCL(XsCLTrain,XiCLTrain,AiCLTrain));
% unseen test data
[XsCLTest,XiCLTest,AiCLTest,YsCLTest]=preparets(narxCL,xTest,{},yTest);
yCLTestIdeal=cell2mat(YsCLTest);
yCLTestPred=cell2mat(narxCL(XsCLTest,XiCLTest,AiCLTest));
% comparative
figure; hold on
plot(yCLTrainIdeal,'b');
plot(yCLTrainPred,'r');
plot(yCLTestIdeal,'k');
plot(yCLTestPred,'g');

Accepted Answer

Greg Heath
Greg Heath on 10 Feb 2016
I do not see the point:
1. Plots of x and y almost overlap
Rsqtrn = 1 - mse(yTrain-xTrain)/var(yTrain,1) = 0.87053
Rsqtst = 1 - mse(yTest-xTest)/var(yTest,1) = 0.92444
2. The Test data doesn't look anything like the Train data
Rsqx = 1 - mse(xTrain-xTest)/var(xTrain,1) % -1.9215
Rsqy = 1 - mse(yTrain- yTest)/var(yTrain,1) % -2.0243
3. So why in the world should the net work on the Test data ???
Hope this helps.
Greg
  1 Comment
Fernando García-García
Fernando García-García on 11 Feb 2016
Thank you Greg.
Sure, I get your point. The issue comes from the scarcity of data available for my scenario... that is (by the way) why I would like to use the aggregation of all profiles, except one, to train the NARX.
Definitely, there are marked differences between these two specific example profiles. However, I would have expected (because they are all real patients with the same disease), that there should be a sort of common trend among them, like for example: how the curve deccelerates after a given time of steady increases/decreases. Not sure if I'm beeing clear enough.
Thank you very much

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More Answers (1)

Fernando García-García
Fernando García-García on 9 Jul 2015
Edited: Fernando García-García on 9 Jul 2015
Been reading other posts on this topic. I've done this:
narx.trainFcn='trainbr';
and also:
narxCL=closeloop(removedelay(narx));
Still I see the training does not get to safe configurations, just local minima overfitting. Because from one run to another outcomes (even for the yCLTrainPred signal) vary a lot... not to mention for the unseen test data. Seems I was very lucky that the first run I got the graphs I posted, because if I re-run on the same data, I might get worse than in the picture.
I also observe severe oscillations if NY=4 or NX=8; for example. Again signals of overfitting, I believe.
  1 Comment
Greg Heath
Greg Heath on 10 Feb 2016
In order to duplicate training that uses default random data division and random initial weights, you have to restore the RNG to the same initial state.

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