MLPMultivariate

MLPMultivariate: Multi-Layer Perceptron for joint multivariate forecasting. Predicts all time series simultaneously with shared feedforward neural network layers.

One of the simplest neural architectures are Multi Layer Perceptrons (MLP) composed of stacked Fully Connected Neural Networks trained with backpropagation. Each node in the architecture is capable of modeling non-linear relationships granted by their activation functions. Novel activations like Rectified Linear Units (ReLU) have greatly improved the ability to fit deeper networks overcoming gradient vanishing problems that were associated with Sigmoid and TanH activations. For the forecasting task the last layer is changed to follow a auto-regression problem. This version is multivariate, indicating that it will predict all time series of the forecasting problem jointly.

References

-Rosenblatt, F. (1958). “The perceptron: A probabilistic model for information storage and organization in the brain.” -Fukushima, K. (1975). “Cognitron: A self-organizing multilayered neural network.” -Vinod Nair, Geoffrey E. Hinton (2010). “Rectified Linear Units Improve Restricted Boltzmann Machines”

Figure 1. Three layer MLP with autorregresive inputs.

MLPMultivariate

MLPMultivariate

MLPMultivariate(
    h,
    input_size,
    n_series,
    stat_exog_list=None,
    hist_exog_list=None,
    futr_exog_list=None,
    exclude_insample_y=False,
    num_layers=2,
    hidden_size=1024,
    loss=MAE(),
    valid_loss=None,
    max_steps=1000,
    learning_rate=0.001,
    num_lr_decays=-1,
    early_stop_patience_steps=-1,
    val_check_steps=100,
    batch_size=32,
    valid_batch_size=None,
    windows_batch_size=32,
    inference_windows_batch_size=32,
    start_padding_enabled=False,
    training_data_availability_threshold=0.0,
    step_size=1,
    scaler_type="identity",
    random_seed=1,
    drop_last_loader=False,
    alias=None,
    optimizer=None,
    optimizer_kwargs=None,
    lr_scheduler=None,
    lr_scheduler_kwargs=None,
    dataloader_kwargs=None,
    **trainer_kwargs
)

Bases: BaseModel

MLPMultivariate

Simple Multi Layer Perceptron architecture (MLP) for multivariate forecasting. This deep neural network has constant units through its layers, each with ReLU non-linearities, it is trained using ADAM stochastic gradient descent. The network accepts static, historic and future exogenous data, flattens the inputs and learns fully connected relationships against the target variables.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
h	int	forecast horizon.	required
input_size	int	considered autorregresive inputs (lags), y=[1,2,3,4] input_size=2 -> lags=[1,2].	required
n_series	int	number of time-series.	required
stat_exog_list	str list	static exogenous columns.	None
hist_exog_list	str list	historic exogenous columns.	None
futr_exog_list	str list	future exogenous columns.	None
num_layers	int	number of layers for the MLP.	2
hidden_size	int	number of units for each layer of the MLP.	1024
loss	PyTorch module	instantiated train loss class from losses collection.	MAE()
valid_loss	PyTorch module	instantiated valid loss class from losses collection.	None
max_steps	int	maximum number of training steps.	1000
learning_rate	float	Learning rate between (0, 1).	0.001
num_lr_decays	int	Number of learning rate decays, evenly distributed across max_steps.	-1
early_stop_patience_steps	int	Number of validation iterations before early stopping.	-1
val_check_steps	int	Number of training steps between every validation loss check.	100
batch_size	int	number of different series in each batch.	32
valid_batch_size	int	number of different series in each validation and test batch, if None uses batch_size.	None
windows_batch_size	int	number of windows to sample in each training batch, default uses all.	32
inference_windows_batch_size	int	number of windows to sample in each inference batch, -1 uses all.	32
start_padding_enabled	bool	if True, the model will pad the time series with zeros at the beginning, by input size.	False
training_data_availability_threshold	Union[float, List[float]]	minimum fraction of valid data points required for training windows. Single float applies to both insample and outsample; list of two floats specifies [insample_fraction, outsample_fraction]. Default 0.0 allows windows with only 1 valid data point (current behavior).	0.0
step_size	int	step size between each window of temporal data.	1
scaler_type	str	type of scaler for temporal inputs normalization see temporal scalers.	‘identity’
random_seed	int	random_seed for pytorch initializer and numpy generators.	1
drop_last_loader	bool	if True TimeSeriesDataLoader drops last non-full batch.	False
alias	str	optional, Custom name of the model.	None
optimizer	Subclass of ‘torch.optim.Optimizer’	optional, user specified optimizer instead of the default choice (Adam).	None
optimizer_kwargs	dict	optional, list of parameters used by the user specified optimizer.	None
lr_scheduler	Subclass of ‘torch.optim.lr_scheduler.LRScheduler’	optional, user specified lr_scheduler instead of the default choice (StepLR).	None
lr_scheduler_kwargs	dict	optional, list of parameters used by the user specified lr_scheduler.	None
dataloader_kwargs	dict	optional, list of parameters passed into the PyTorch Lightning dataloader by the TimeSeriesDataLoader.	None
**trainer_kwargs	int	keyword trainer arguments inherited from PyTorch Lighning’s trainer.

MLPMultivariate.fit

fit(
    dataset, val_size=0, test_size=0, random_seed=None, distributed_config=None
)

Fit.

The fit method, optimizes the neural network’s weights using the initialization parameters (learning_rate, windows_batch_size, …) and the loss function as defined during the initialization. Within fit we use a PyTorch Lightning Trainer that inherits the initialization’s self.trainer_kwargs, to customize its inputs, see PL’s trainer arguments.

The method is designed to be compatible with SKLearn-like classes and in particular to be compatible with the StatsForecast library.

By default the model is not saving training checkpoints to protect disk memory, to get them change enable_checkpointing=True in __init__.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
dataset	TimeSeriesDataset	NeuralForecast’s TimeSeriesDataset, see documentation.	required
val_size	int	Validation size for temporal cross-validation.	0
random_seed	int	Random seed for pytorch initializer and numpy generators, overwrites model.init’s.	None
test_size	int	Test size for temporal cross-validation.	0

Returns:

Type	Description
None

MLPMultivariate.predict

predict(
    dataset,
    test_size=None,
    step_size=1,
    random_seed=None,
    quantiles=None,
    h=None,
    explainer_config=None,
    **data_module_kwargs
)

Predict.

Neural network prediction with PL’s Trainer execution of predict_step.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
dataset	TimeSeriesDataset	NeuralForecast’s TimeSeriesDataset, see documentation.	required
test_size	int	Test size for temporal cross-validation.	None
step_size	int	Step size between each window.	1
random_seed	int	Random seed for pytorch initializer and numpy generators, overwrites model.init’s.	None
quantiles	list	Target quantiles to predict.	None
h	int	Prediction horizon, if None, uses the model’s fitted horizon. Defaults to None.	None
explainer_config	dict	configuration for explanations.	None
**data_module_kwargs	dict	PL’s TimeSeriesDataModule args, see documentation.

Returns:

Type	Description
None

Usage Example

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from neuralforecast import NeuralForecast
from neuralforecast.models import MLPMultivariate
from neuralforecast.losses.pytorch import MAE
from neuralforecast.utils import AirPassengersPanel, AirPassengersStatic

Y_train_df = AirPassengersPanel[AirPassengersPanel.ds<AirPassengersPanel['ds'].values[-12]] # 132 train
Y_test_df = AirPassengersPanel[AirPassengersPanel.ds>=AirPassengersPanel['ds'].values[-12]].reset_index(drop=True) # 12 test

model = MLPMultivariate(h=12, 
            input_size=24,
            n_series=2,
            stat_exog_list=['airline1'],
            futr_exog_list=['trend'],            
            loss = MAE(),
            scaler_type='robust',
            learning_rate=1e-3,
            stat_exog_list=['airline1'],
            max_steps=200,
            val_check_steps=10,
            early_stop_patience_steps=2)

fcst = NeuralForecast(
    models=[model],
    freq='ME'
)
fcst.fit(df=Y_train_df, static_df=AirPassengersStatic, val_size=12)
forecasts = fcst.predict(futr_df=Y_test_df)

# Plot predictions
Y_hat_df = forecasts.reset_index(drop=False).drop(columns=['unique_id','ds'])
plot_df = pd.concat([Y_test_df, Y_hat_df], axis=1)
plot_df = pd.concat([Y_train_df, plot_df])

plot_df = plot_df[plot_df.unique_id=='Airline1'].drop('unique_id', axis=1)
plt.plot(plot_df['ds'], plot_df['y'], c='black', label='True')
plt.plot(plot_df['ds'], plot_df['MLPMultivariate'], c='blue', label='median')
plt.grid()
plt.legend()
plt.plot()