# Automated Machine Learning with tidylearn

    library(tidylearn)
    library(dplyr)
    #>
    #> Attaching package: 'dplyr'
    #> The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
    #>
    #>     filter, lag
    #> The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
    #>
    #>     intersect, setdiff, setequal, union
    library(ggplot2)

## Introduction

Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) streamlines the model development process by automatically trying multiple approaches and selecting the best one. tidylearn’s `tl_auto_ml()` function explores various modeling strategies including dimensionality reduction, clustering, and different supervised methods.

Note: AutoML orchestrates the wrapped packages (glmnet, randomForest, xgboost, etc.) rather than implementing new algorithms. Each model in the leaderboard wraps an established package, and you can access the raw model objects via `model$fit`.

## Basic Usage

### Classification Task

    # Run AutoML on iris dataset
    result <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                         task = "classification",
                         time_budget = 60)

    # View best model
    print(result$best_model)

    # View all models tried
    names(result$models)

    # View leaderboard
    result$leaderboard

### Regression Task

    # Run AutoML on regression problem
    result_reg <- tl_auto_ml(mtcars, mpg ~ .,
                             task = "regression",
                             time_budget = 60)

    # Best model
    print(result_reg$best_model)

## How AutoML Works

The `tl_auto_ml()` function follows a four-phase pipeline. Which phases actually run – and how thoroughly – depends on the `time_budget` and the toggle parameters `use_reduction` and `use_clustering`.

Phase | What it does | Models added (classification) | Models added (regression)
--- | --- | --- | ---
1. Baselines | Trains standard models | tree, logistic, forest | tree, linear, forest
2. PCA variants | PCA preprocessing + baseline methods | pca_tree, pca_logistic, pca_forest | pca_tree, pca_linear, pca_forest
3. Cluster variants | Adds cluster assignments as features | clustered_tree, clustered_logistic, clustered_forest | clustered_tree, clustered_linear, clustered_forest
4. Advanced | Tries heavier methods | svm, xgboost | ridge, lasso

Each model is first fit on the full training data, then (if budget allows) evaluated with k-fold cross-validation. When time is tight, models fall back to training-set metrics instead of CV.

## Understanding the Time Budget

The `time_budget` parameter (in seconds) is the most important knob for controlling the speed/thoroughness trade-off. It is checked between model fits, not during them. Once a model starts training it runs to completion, because many of the wrapped packages (randomForest, xgboost, e1071) execute C-level code that R cannot safely interrupt mid-execution. This means the actual wall-clock time may modestly exceed the budget by the duration of the last model that started before the budget expired.

### Budget tiers at a glance

Budget | Baselines | CV | PCA/Cluster variants | Advanced models | Typical models | Use case
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
< 30 s | tree + logistic/linear only | No (training metrics) | No | No | 2 | Quick sanity check, interactive use
30–120 s | tree + logistic/linear + forest | When time remains | If enabled and > 10 % budget left | If > 40 % budget left | 3–7 | Development iteration, notebook exploration
120 s+ | All | Yes | Yes (if enabled) | Yes | 9–11 | Thorough comparison, final model selection

The “forest” baseline and all advanced models (SVM, XGBoost, ridge, lasso) involve C-level code that typically takes 3–15 seconds per fit depending on data size. They are only attempted when `time_budget >= 30`.

### Why CV is the expensive step

A single `tl_model()` call fits one model. Cross-validation (`tl_cv(folds = 5)`) fits five models on subsets, so it costs roughly 5x the time. The function checks the remaining budget after each model fit and skips CV when it would likely exceed the budget, falling back to training-set evaluation instead. Reducing `cv_folds` (e.g. from 5 to 2) is the most effective way to stay closer to the budget while still getting out-of-sample estimates.

### Practical examples

    # Quick sanity check -- 2 fast models, no CV, done in ~1s
    quick <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                        time_budget = 10,
                        use_reduction = FALSE,
                        use_clustering = FALSE)
    quick$leaderboard
    #> baseline_tree, baseline_logistic

    # Development iteration -- baselines + forest, some CV
    medium <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                         time_budget = 60,
                         cv_folds = 3)
    medium$leaderboard
    #> 5--7 models depending on data size

    # Thorough search -- all phases, full CV
    thorough <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                           time_budget = 300,
                           cv_folds = 5)
    thorough$leaderboard
    #> 9--11 models with cross-validated scores

## Task Type Detection

AutoML automatically detects the task type from the response variable:

    # Factor/character response -> classification
    result_class <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ ., task = "auto")

    # Numeric response -> regression
    result_reg <- tl_auto_ml(mtcars, mpg ~ ., task = "auto")

## Controlling the Search

### Feature Engineering Options

    # Disable dimensionality reduction
    no_reduction <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                               use_reduction = FALSE,
                               time_budget = 60)

    # Disable cluster features
    no_clustering <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                                use_clustering = FALSE,
                                time_budget = 60)

    # Baseline models only
    baseline_only <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                                use_reduction = FALSE,
                                use_clustering = FALSE,
                                time_budget = 30)

### Cross-Validation Settings

    # Adjust cross-validation folds
    result_cv <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                            cv_folds = 10,
                            time_budget = 120)

    # Fewer folds for faster evaluation
    result_fast <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                              cv_folds = 3,
                              time_budget = 60)

## Understanding Results

### Accessing Models

    result <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ ., time_budget = 60)

    # Best performing model
    best_model <- result$best_model

    # All models trained
    all_models <- result$models

    # Specific model
    baseline_logistic <- result$models$baseline_logistic
    pca_forest <- result$models$pca_forest

### Leaderboard

    # View performance comparison
    leaderboard <- result$leaderboard

    # Sort by score (higher is better for accuracy, lower for RMSE)
    leaderboard <- leaderboard %>%
      arrange(desc(score))

    print(leaderboard)

### Making Predictions

    # Use best model for predictions
    predictions <- predict(result$best_model, new_data = new_data)

    # Or use a specific model
    predictions_pca <- predict(result$models$pca_forest, new_data = new_data)

## Practical Examples

### Example 1: Iris Classification

    # Split data for evaluation
    split <- tl_split(iris, prop = 0.7, stratify = "Species", seed = 123)

    # Run AutoML on training data
    automl_iris <- tl_auto_ml(split$train, Species ~ .,
                              time_budget = 90,
                              cv_folds = 5)

    # Evaluate on test set
    test_preds <- predict(automl_iris$best_model, new_data = split$test)
    test_accuracy <- mean(test_preds$.pred == split$test$Species)

    cat("AutoML Test Accuracy:", round(test_accuracy * 100, 1), "%\n")

    # Compare models
    for (model_name in names(automl_iris$models)) {
      model <- automl_iris$models[[model_name]]
      preds <- predict(model, new_data = split$test)
      acc <- mean(preds$.pred == split$test$Species)
      cat(model_name, ":", round(acc * 100, 1), "%\n")
    }

### Example 2: MPG Prediction

    # Split mtcars data
    split_mtcars <- tl_split(mtcars, prop = 0.7, seed = 42)

    # Run AutoML
    automl_mpg <- tl_auto_ml(split_mtcars$train, mpg ~ .,
                             task = "regression",
                             time_budget = 90)

    # Evaluate
    test_preds_mpg <- predict(automl_mpg$best_model, new_data = split_mtcars$test)
    rmse <- sqrt(mean((test_preds_mpg$.pred - split_mtcars$test$mpg)^2))

    cat("AutoML Test RMSE:", round(rmse, 2), "\n")

### Example 3: Custom Preprocessing + AutoML

    # Preprocess data first
    processed <- tl_prepare_data(
      split$train,
      Species ~ .,
      scale_method = "standardize",
      remove_correlated = TRUE
    )

    # Run AutoML on preprocessed data
    automl_processed <- tl_auto_ml(processed$data, Species ~ .,
                                   time_budget = 60)

    # Note: Need to apply same preprocessing to test data
    test_processed <- tl_prepare_data(
      split$test,
      Species ~ .,
      scale_method = "standardize"
    )

    test_preds_proc <- predict(
      automl_processed$best_model,
      new_data = test_processed$data
    )

## Comparing AutoML with Manual Selection

    # Manual approach: choose one model
    manual_model <- tl_model(split$train, Species ~ ., method = "forest")
    manual_preds <- predict(manual_model, new_data = split$test)
    manual_acc <- mean(manual_preds$.pred == split$test$Species)

    # AutoML approach
    automl_model <- tl_auto_ml(split$train, Species ~ ., time_budget = 60)
    automl_preds <- predict(automl_model$best_model, new_data = split$test)
    automl_acc <- mean(automl_preds$.pred == split$test$Species)

    cat("Manual Selection:", round(manual_acc * 100, 1), "%\n")
    cat("AutoML:", round(automl_acc * 100, 1), "%\n")

## Advanced AutoML Strategies

### Strategy 1: Iterative AutoML

    # First pass: quick exploration
    quick_automl <- tl_auto_ml(split$train, Species ~ .,
                               time_budget = 30,
                               use_reduction = TRUE,
                               use_clustering = FALSE)

    # Analyze what worked — best model name is in the leaderboard
    best_name <- quick_automl$leaderboard$model[1]
    best_method <- quick_automl$best_model$spec$method
    cat("Best model:", best_name, "(method:", best_method, ")\n")

    # Second pass: if a PCA variant won, invest more in reduction
    if (grepl("^pca_", best_name)) {
      refined_automl <- tl_auto_ml(split$train, Species ~ .,
                                   time_budget = 60,
                                   use_reduction = TRUE,
                                   use_clustering = TRUE)
    }

### Strategy 2: Ensemble of AutoML Models

    # Get top 3 models
    top_models <- automl_iris$leaderboard %>%
      arrange(desc(score)) %>%
      head(3)

    # Make predictions with each
    ensemble_preds <- list()
    for (i in seq_len(nrow(top_models))) {
      model_name <- top_models$model[i]
      model <- automl_iris$models[[model_name]]
      ensemble_preds[[i]] <- predict(model, new_data = split$test)$.pred
    }

    # Majority vote for classification
    final_pred <- apply(do.call(cbind, ensemble_preds), 1, function(x) {
      names(which.max(table(x)))
    })

    ensemble_acc <- mean(final_pred == split$test$Species)
    cat("Ensemble Accuracy:", round(ensemble_acc * 100, 1), "%\n")

## Performance Metrics

### Classification Metrics

    # AutoML automatically uses accuracy for classification
    result_class <- tl_auto_ml(iris, Species ~ .,
                               metric = "accuracy",
                               time_budget = 60)

### Regression Metrics

    # AutoML automatically uses RMSE for regression
    result_reg <- tl_auto_ml(mtcars, mpg ~ .,
                             metric = "rmse",
                             time_budget = 60)

## Best Practices

1. Start fast, then expand: Use `time_budget = 10` to verify the pipeline runs, then increase to 60–120s for real evaluation, and 300s for final model selection.
2. Reduce `cv_folds` before reducing `time_budget`: Going from 5-fold to 2-fold CV cuts evaluation time by ~60% while still providing out-of-sample estimates. A 30s budget with `cv_folds = 2` is often more useful than a 30s budget with the default 5 folds (which will skip CV entirely).
3. Preprocess when needed: Handle missing values before AutoML.
4. Split your data: Always evaluate on held-out test data.
5. Examine multiple models: The “best” model may not always be robust.
6. Consider ensemble approaches: Combine top models for better performance.
7. Understand training-set metrics: When CV is skipped (short budgets), the leaderboard uses training-set metrics which are optimistically biased. These are useful for ranking but not for reporting final performance.

## When to Use AutoML

Good use cases:

- Quick prototyping and baseline establishment
- When you’re unsure which algorithm to use
- Feature engineering exploration
- Benchmark for manual approaches
- Limited ML expertise

Consider manual selection when:

- You have domain knowledge about the best approach
- Interpretability is critical
- You need fine-grained control over hyperparameters
- Computational resources are very limited

## Troubleshooting

### AutoML takes longer than `time_budget`

The budget is checked between model fits. A single random forest or XGBoost fit can take 5–30 seconds depending on data size, and R cannot safely interrupt C-level code mid-execution. To stay closer to the budget:

    # 1. Reduce CV folds (biggest impact)
    fast_result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula,
                              cv_folds = 2,
                              time_budget = 30)

    # 2. Disable slow phases
    baseline_result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula,
                                  use_reduction = FALSE,
                                  use_clustering = FALSE,
                                  time_budget = 30)

    # 3. Use a budget under 30s to skip forest/SVM/XGBoost entirely
    quick_result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula, time_budget = 10)

### Leaderboard scores are all NA

This happens when the evaluation metric isn’t found in the results. The most common cause is using training-set evaluation (short budget) where the metric names differ from CV output. Try increasing the budget so that CV runs, or specify the metric explicitly:

    result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula,
                         metric = "accuracy",  # or "rmse" for regression
                         time_budget = 60)

### Not enough models tried

    # Increase time budget to unlock all phases
    thorough_result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula, time_budget = 300)

    # Ensure feature engineering is enabled
    full_result <- tl_auto_ml(data, formula,
                              use_reduction = TRUE,
                              use_clustering = TRUE,
                              time_budget = 300)

## Summary

tidylearn’s AutoML provides:

- Automated model selection across multiple algorithms
- Feature engineering with PCA and clustering
- Cross-validation for robust performance estimates
- Easy comparison through leaderboard
- Flexible configuration for different scenarios
- Integration workflows combining supervised and unsupervised learning

    # Complete AutoML workflow
    workflow_split <- tl_split(iris, prop = 0.7, stratify = "Species", seed = 123)

    automl_result <- tl_auto_ml(
      data = workflow_split$train,
      formula = Species ~ .,
      task = "auto",
      use_reduction = TRUE,
      use_clustering = TRUE,
      time_budget = 120,
      cv_folds = 5
    )

    # Evaluate best model
    final_preds <- predict(automl_result$best_model, new_data = workflow_split$test)
    final_accuracy <- mean(final_preds$.pred == workflow_split$test$Species)

    cat("Final AutoML Accuracy:", round(final_accuracy * 100, 1), "%\n")
    cat("Best approach:", automl_result$best_model$spec$method, "\n")

AutoML makes machine learning accessible and efficient, allowing you to quickly find good solutions while learning which approaches work best for your data.