Introduction to
Evolutionary Computing II
A.E. Eiben
Free University Amsterdam
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~gusz/
with thanks to the EvoNet Training Committee and its Flying Circus
Contents
The evolutionary mechanism and its
components
Examples: the 8-queens problem
Working of an evolutionary algorithm
EC dialects and beyond
Advantages & disadvantages of EC
Summary
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 2 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The main evolutionary cycle
Parent selection
Parents
Intialization
Recombination
(crossover)
Population
Mutation
Termination
Offspring
Survivor selection
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 3 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The two pillars of evolution
There are two competing forces active
Increasing population Decreasing population
diversity by genetic diversity by selection
operators of parents
mutation
of survivors
recombination
Push towards novelty Push towards quality
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Components:
representation / individuals (1)
Individuals have two levels of existence
phenotype: object in original problem context, the outside
genotype: code to denote that object, the inside
(a.k.a. chromosome, digital DNA):
phenotype: genotype:
a d c a a c b
The link between these levels is called representation
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Components:
representation / individiuals (2)
Phenotype space Genotype space
Encoding
(representation) R0c01cd
B0c01cd
G0c01cd
Decoding
(inverse representation)
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Components:
representation / individuals (3)
Sometimes producing Problem
Genotype
the phenotype from the Data
genotype is a simple
and obvious process.
Other times the
genotype might be a set Growth
of parameters to some Function
algorithm, which works
on the problem data to
produce the phenotype Phenotype
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Components:
representation / individuals (4)
Search takes place in the genotype space
Evaluation takes place in the phenotype space
Repr: Phenotypes Genotypes
Fitness(g) = Value(repr-1(g))
Repr must be invertible, in other words decoding must be
injective (Q: surjective?)
Role of representation: defines objects that can be
manipulated by (genetic) operators
Note back on Darwinism: no mutations on phenotypic
level! (right term: small random variations)
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Components: evaluation, fitness
measure
Role:
represents the task to solve, the requirements to adapt to
enables selection (provides basis for comparison)
Some phenotypic traits are advantageous, desirable,
e.g. big ears cool better,
These traits are rewarded by more offspring that will
expectedly carry the same trait
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Components: population
Role: holds the candidate solutions of the problem as
individuals (genotypes)
Formally, a population is a multiset of individuals,
i.e. repetitions are possible
Population is the basic unit of evolution,
i.e., the population is evolving, not the individuals
Selection operators act on population level
Variation operators act on individual level
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Components: selection
Role:
Gives better individuals a higher chance of
becoming parents
surviving
Pushes population towards higher fitness
E.g. roulette wheel selection
1/6 = 17%
fitness(A) = 3 A B
C
fitness(B) = 1 3/6 = 50% 2/6 = 33%
fitness(C) = 2
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Components: Mutation
Role: causes small (random) variance
before 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
after 1 1 1 0 1 1 1
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Components: Recombination
Role: combines features from different sources
cut cut
parents
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
offspring
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
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Example: the 8 queens problem
Place 8 queens on an 8x8 chessboard in
such a way that they cannot check each other
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 14 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The 8 queens problem
Representation
Phenotype:
a board configuration
Genotype: Obvious mapping
a permutation of
the numbers 1 - 8 1 3 5 2 6 4 7 8
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The 8 queens problem
Fitness evaluation
Penalty of one queen:
the number of queens she can check.
Penalty of a configuration:
the sum of the penalties of all queens.
Note: penalty is to be minimized
Fitness of a configuration:
inverse penalty to be maximized
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 16 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The 8 queens problem
Mutation
Small variation in one permutation, e.g.:
swapping values of two randomly chosen positions, or
inverting a randomly chosen segment
1 3 5 2 6 4 7 8 1 3 7 2 6 4 5 8
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 17 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The 8 queens problem
Recombination
Combining two permutations into two new permutations:
choose random crossover point
copy first parts into children
create second part by inserting values from other
parent:
in the order they appear there
beginning after crossover point
skipping values already in child
1 3 5 2 6 4 7 8 1 3 5 4 2 8 7 6
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 8 7 6 2 4 1 3 5
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 18 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The 8 queens problem
Selection
Parent selection:
Roulette wheel selection, for instance
Survivor selection (replacement)
When inserting a new child into the population, choose
an existing member to replace by:
sorting the whole population by decreasing fitness
enumerating this list from high to low
replacing the first with a fitness lower than the given child
Note: selection works on fitness values, no need to adjust it
to representation
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Working of an EA
Phases in optimizing on a 1-dimensional fitness landscape
Early phase:
quasi-random population distribution
Mid-phase:
population arranged around/on hills
Late phase:
population concentrated on high hills
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Typical run
Best fitness in population
Time (number of generations)
Typical run of an EA shows so-called anytime behavior
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Best fitness in population Long runs?
Progress in 2nd half
Progress in 1st half
Time (number of generations)
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Best fitness in population Smart initialisation?
F F: fitness after smart initialisation
T: time needed to reach level F after random initialisation
T
Time (number of generations)
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Performance of methods on problems Goldberg89 view
Special, problem tailored method
Evolutionary algorithm
Random search
Scale of all problems
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EAs and domain knowledge
Trend in the 90ies: adding problem specific knowledge
to EAs (special variation operators, repair, etc)
Result: EA performance curve deformation:
better on problems of the given type
worse on problems different from given type
Amount of added knowledge is variable
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Michalewicz96 view
EA 4
Performance of methods on problems
EA 2
EA 3
EA 1
P
Scale of all problems
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General EA framework and dialects
There is a general, formal EA framework (omitted here)
In theory:
every EA is an instantiation of this framework, thus:
specifying a particular EA or a type of EAs (a dialect)
needs only filling in the characteristic features
In practice
this would be too formalistic
there are many exceptions (EAs not fitting into this
framework)
why care about the taxonomy, or label?
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Genetic algorithms &
genetic programming
Genetic algorithms (USA, 70s, Holland, DeJong):
Typically applied to: discrete optimization
Attributed features:
not too fast
good solver for combinatorial problems
Special: many variants, e.g., reproduction models, operators
Genetic programming (USA, 90s, Koza)
Typically applied to: machine learning tasks
Attributed features:
competes with neural nets and alike
slow
needs huge populations (thousands)
Special: non-linear chromosomes: trees, graphs
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 28 EvoNet Summer School 2002
Evolution strategies &
evolutionary programming
Evolution strategies (Germany, 70s, Rechenberg, Schwefel)
Typically applied to:
numerical optimization
Attributed features:
fast & good optimizer for real-valued optimization
relatively much theory
Special:
self-adaptation of (mutation) parameters standard
Evolutionary programming (USA, 60s, Fogel et al.)
Typically applied to: machine learning (old EP), optimization
Attributed features:
very open framework: any representation and mutation ops OK
Special:
no recombination
self-adaptation of parameters standard (contemporary EP)
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 29 EvoNet Summer School 2002
Beyond dialects
Field merging from the early 1990s
No hard barriers between dialects, many
hybrids, outliers
Choice for dialect should be motivated by given
problem
Best practical approach: choose representation,
operators, population model, etc. pragmatically
(and end up with an unclassifiable EA)
There are general issues for EC as a whole
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 30 EvoNet Summer School 2002
Advantages of EC
No presumptions w.r.t. problem space
Widely applicable
Low development & application costs
Easy to incorporate other methods
Solutions are interpretable (unlike NN)
Can be run interactively, accommodate user
proposed solutions
Provides many alternative solutions
Intrinsic parallelism,straightforward parallel
implementations
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 31 EvoNet Summer School 2002
Disadvantages of EC
No guarantee for optimal solution within
finite time
Weak theoretical basis
May need parameter tuning
Often computationally expensive, i.e. slow
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 32 EvoNet Summer School 2002
The performance of EC
Acceptable performance at acceptable costs on a wide range
of problems
EC niche (where supposedly superior to other techniques):
complex problems with one or more of the following features
many free parameters
complex relationships between parameters
mixed types of parameters (integer, real)
many local optima
multiple objectives
noisy data
changing conditions (dynamic fitness landscape)
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 33 EvoNet Summer School 2002
Summary
Evolutionary Computation:
is a method, based on biological metaphors,
of breeding solutions to problems
has been shown to be useful in a number of
areas
could be useful for your problem
its easy to give it a try
is FUN
A.E. Eiben, Introduction to EC II 34 EvoNet Summer School 2002
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