Introduction to Evolutionary Computation

• Evolutionary Computation is the field of study devoted to

the design, development, and analysis is problem solvers
based on natural selection (simulated evolution).
• Evolution has proven to be a powerful search process.
• Evolutionary Computation has been successfully applied
to a wide range of problems including:
– Aircraft Design,
– Routing in Communications Networks,
– Tracking Windshear,
– Game Playing (Checkers [Fogel])
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(Applications cont.)

• Robotics,
• Air Traffic Control,
• Design,
• Scheduling,
• Machine Learning,
• Pattern Recognition,
• Job Shop Scheduling,
• VLSI Circuit Layout,
• Strike Force Allocation,
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(Applications cont.)

• Theme Park Tours (Disney Land/World)

http://www.TouringPlans.com
• Market Forecasting,
• Egg Price Forecasting,
• Design of Filters and Barriers,
• Data-Mining,
• User-Mining,
• Resource Allocation,
• Path Planning,
• Etc.
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)
• An Example Evolutionary Computation
Procedure EC{
t = 0;
Initialize Pop(t);
Evaluate Pop(t);
While (Not Done)
{
Parents(t) = Select_Parents(Pop(t));
Offspring(t) = Procreate(Parents(t));
Evaluate(Offspring(t));
Pop(t+1)= Replace(Pop(t),Offspring(t));
t = t + 1;
}
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• In an Evolutionary Computation, a population of

candidate solutions (CSs) is randomly generated.
• Each of the CSs is evaluated and assigned a fitness based
on a user specified evaluation function. The evaluation
function is used to determine the ‘goodness’ of a CS.
• A number of individuals are then selected to be parents
based on their fitness. The Select_Parents method must
be one that balances the urge for selecting the best
performing CSs with the need for population diversity.
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• The selected parents are then allowed to create a set of

offspring which are evaluated and assigned a fitness
using the same evaluation function defined by the user.
• Finally, a decision must be made as to which individuals
of the current population and the offspring population
should be allowed to survive. Typically, in EC , this is
done to guarantee that the population size remains
constant. [The study of ECs with dynamic population
sizes would make an interesting project for this course]
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• Once a decision is made the survivors comprise the next

generation (Pop(t+1)).
• This process of selecting parents based on their fitness,
allowing them to create offspring, and replacing weaker
members of the population is repeated for a user specified
number of cycles.
• Stopping conditions for evolutionary search could be:
– The discovery of an optimal or near optimal solution
– Convergence on a single solution or set of similar solutions,
– When the EC detects the problem has no feasible solution,
– After a user-specified threshold has been reached, or
– After a maximum number of cycles.
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation

• The idea of using simulated evolution to solve engineering

and design problems have been around since the 1950’s
(Fogel, 2000).
– Bremermann, 1962
– Box, 1957
– Friedberg, 1958
• However, it wasn’t until the early 1960’s that we began to
see three influential forms of EC emerge (Back et al,
1997):
– Evolutionary Programming (Lawrence Fogel, 1962),
– Genetic Algorithms (Holland, 1962)
– Evolution Strategies (Rechenberg, 1965 & Schwefel, 1968),
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• The designers of each of the EC techniques

saw that their particular problems could be
solved via simulated evolution.
– Fogel was concerned with solving prediction
problems.
– Rechenberg & Schwefel were concerned with
solving parameter optimization problems.
– Holland was concerned with developing
robust adaptive systems.
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• Each of these researchers successfully developed

appropriate ECs for their particular problems
independently.
• In the US, Genetic Algorithms have become the most
popular EC technique due to a book by David E.
Goldberg (1989) entitled, “Genetic Algorithms in Search,
Optimization & Machine Learning”.
• This book explained the concept of Genetic Search in
such a way the a wide variety of engineers and scientist
could understand and apply.
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation
(cont.)

• However, a number of other books helped fuel the

growing interest in EC:
– Lawrence Davis’, “Handbook of Genetic Algorithms”, (1991),
– Zbigniew Michalewicz’ book (1992), “Genetic Algorithms +
Data Structures = Evolution Programs.
– John R. Koza’s “Genetic Programming” (1992), and
– D. B. Fogel’s 1995 book entitled, “Evolutionary Computation:
Toward a New Philosophy of Machine Intelligence.
• These books not only fueled interest in EC but they also
were instrumental in bringing together the EP, ES, and
GA concepts together in a way that fostered unity and an
explosion of new and exciting forms of EC.
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation:
The Evolution of Evolutionary Computation

• First Generation EC
– EP (Fogel)
– GA (Holland)
– ES (Rechenberg, Schwefel)
• Second Generation EC
– Genetic Evolution of Data Structures (Michalewicz)
– Genetic Evolution of Programs (Koza)
– Hybrid Genetic Search (Davis)
– Tabu Search (Glover)
 A Brief History of Evolutionary Computation:
The Evolution of Evolutionary Computation (cont.)

• Third Generation EC
– Artificial Immune Systems (Forrest)
– Cultural Algorithms (Reynolds)
– DNA Computing (Adleman)
– Ant Colony Optimization (Dorigo)
– Particle Swarm Optimization (Kennedy & Eberhart)
– Memetic Algorithms
– Estimation of Distribution Algorithms
• Fourth Generation ????
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• Let’s walk through a simple example!

• Let’s say you were asked to solve the following problem:
– Maximize:
– f6(x,y) = 0.5 + (sin(sqrt(x2+y2))2 – 0.5)/(1.0 + 0.001(x2+y2))2
– Where x and y are take from [-100.0,100.0]
– You must find a solution that is greater than 0.99754, and
– you can only evaluate a total of 4000 candidate solutions (CSs)
• This seems like a difficult problem. It would be nice if we
could see what it looks like! This may help us determine
a good algorithm for solving it.
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• A 3D view of f6(x,y):
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• If we just look at only one dimension f6(x,1.0)

 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• Let’s develop a simple EC for solving this problem

• An individual (chromosome or CS)
– <xi,yi>
– fiti = f6(xi,yi)
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example
Procedure simpleEC{
t = 0;
Initialize Pop(t); /* of P individuals */
Evaluate Pop(t);
while (t <= 4000-P){
Select_Parent(<xmom,ymom>); /* Randomly */
Select_Parent(<xdad,ydad>); /* Randomly */
Create_Offspring(<xkid,ykid>):
xkid = rnd(xmom, xdad) + Nx(0,);
ykid = rnd(ymom, ydad) + Ny(0,);
fitkid = Evaluate(<xkid,ykid>);
Pop(t+1) = Replace(worst,kid); {Pop(t)-{worst}}{kid}
t = t + 1;
}
}
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• To simulate this simple EC we can use the applet at:

• http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~gvdozier/GA.html
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
A Simple Example

• To get a better understanding of some of the properties of

ECs let’s do the ‘in class’ lab found at:
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~gvdozier/GA_Lab.html
 Introduction to Evolutionary Computation:
Reading List
1. Bäck, T., Hammel, U., and Schwefel, H.-P. (1997). “Evolutionary
Computation: Comments on the History and Current State,” IEEE
Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, VOL. 1, NO. 1, April
1997.
2. Spears, W. M., De Jong, K. A., Bäck, T., Fogel, D. B., and de
Garis, H. (1993). “An Overview of Evolutionary Computation,”
The Proceedings of the European Conference on Machine
Learning, v667, pp. 442-459. (
http://www.cs.uwyo.edu/~wspears/papers/ecml93.pdf)
3. De Jong, Kenneth A., and William M. Spears (1993). “On the
State of Evolutionary Computation”, The Proceedings of the Int'l
Conference on Genetic Algorithms, pp. 618-623. (
http://www.cs.uwyo.edu/~wspears/papers/icga93.pdf)