Genetic Algorithms

GA Quick Overview

Developed: USA in the 1970s

Early names: J. Holland, K. DeJong, D. Goldberg
Typically applied to:

Attributed features:

discrete optimization
not too fast
good heuristic for combinatorial problems

Special Features:

Traditionally emphasizes combining information from good

parents (crossover)
many variants, e.g., reproduction models, operators

Genetic algorithms

Hollands original GA is now known as the

simple genetic algorithm (SGA)
Other GAs use different:

Representations
Mutations
Crossovers
Selection mechanisms

SGA technical summary tableau

Representation

Binary strings

Recombination

N-point or uniform

Mutation
Parent selection

Bitwise bit-flipping with fixed

probability
Fitness-Proportionate

Survivor selection

All children replace parents

Speciality

Emphasis on crossover

Representation
Phenotype space

Genotype space =
{0,1}L

Encoding
(representation)

10010001
10010010
010001001

011101001
Decoding
(inverse representation)

SGA reproduction cycle

1. Select parents for the mating pool

(size of mating pool = population size)
2. Shuffle the mating pool
3. For each consecutive pair apply crossover with
probability pc , otherwise copy parents
4. For each offspring apply mutation (bit-flip with
probability pm independently for each bit)
5. Replace the whole population with the resulting
offspring

SGA operators: 1-point crossover

Choose a random point on the two parents
Split parents at this crossover point
Create children by exchanging tails
Pc typically in range (0.6, 0.9)

SGA operators: mutation

Alter each gene independently with a probability pm

pm is called the mutation rate

Typically between 1/pop_size and 1/ chromosome_length

SGA operators: Selection

Main idea: better individuals get higher chance

Chances proportional to fitness
Implementation: roulette wheel technique

Assign to each individual a part of the
roulette wheel

Spin the wheel n times to select n
individuals
1/6 = 17%

A
3/6 = 50%

2/6 = 33%

fitness(A) = 3
fitness(B) = 1
fitness(C) = 2

An example after Goldberg 89 (1)

Simple problem: max x2 over {0,1,,31}

GA approach:

Representation: binary code, e.g. 01101 13

Population size: 4
1-point xover, bitwise mutation
Roulette wheel selection
Random initialisation

We show one generational cycle done by hand

x2 example: selection

X2 example: crossover

X2 example: mutation

The simple GA

Has been subject of many (early) studies

still often used as benchmark for novel GAs

Shows many shortcomings, e.g.

Representation is too restrictive

Mutation & crossovers only applicable for bit-string &
integer representations
Selection mechanism sensitive for converging
populations with close fitness values
Generational population model (step 5 in SGA repr.
cycle) can be improved with explicit survivor selection

Alternative Crossover Operators

Performance with 1 Point Crossover depends on the

order that variables occur in the representation

more likely to keep together genes that are near

each other

Can never keep together genes from opposite ends

of string

This is known as Positional Bias

Can be exploited if we know about the structure of

our problem, but this is not usually the case

n-point crossover

Choose n random crossover points

Split along those points
Glue parts, alternating between parents
Generalisation of 1 point (still some positional bias)

Uniform crossover

Assign 'heads' to one parent, 'tails' to the other

Flip a coin for each gene of the first child
Make an inverse copy of the gene for the second child
Inheritance is independent of position

Crossover OR mutation?

Decade long debate: which one is better / necessary /

main-background

Answer (at least, rather wide agreement):

it depends on the problem, but

in general, it is good to have both
both have another role
mutation-only-EA is possible, xover-only-EA would not work

Crossover OR mutation? (contd)

Exploration: Discovering promising areas in the search
space, i.e. gaining information on the problem
Exploitation: Optimising within a promising area, i.e. using
information
There is co-operation AND competition between them

Crossover is explorative, it makes a big jump to an area

somewhere in between two (parent) areas

Mutation is exploitative, it creates random small

diversions, thereby staying near (in the area of ) the parent

Crossover OR mutation? (contd)

Only crossover can combine information from two

parents

Only mutation can introduce new information (alleles)

Crossover does not change the allele frequencies of

the population (thought experiment: 50% 0s on first
bit in the population, ?% after performing n
crossovers)

To hit the optimum you often need a lucky mutation

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Other representations

Gray coding of integers (still binary chromosomes)

Gray coding is a mapping that means that small changes in

the genotype cause small changes in the phenotype (unlike
binary coding). Smoother genotype-phenotype mapping
makes life easier for the GA

Nowadays it is generally accepted that it is better to

encode numerical variables directly as

Integers

Floating point variables

Integer representations

Some problems naturally have integer variables, e.g.

image processing parameters
Others take categorical values from a fixed set e.g.
{blue, green, yellow, pink}
N-point / uniform crossover operators work
Extend bit-flipping mutation to make

creep i.e. more likely to move to similar value

Random choice (esp. categorical variables)
For ordinal problems, it is hard to know correct range for
creep, so often use two mutation operators in tandem

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Real valued problems

Many problems occur as real valued problems, e.g.

continuous parameter optimisation f : n 
Illustration: Ackleys function (often used in EC)

Mapping real values on bit strings

z [x,y] represented by {a1,,aL} {0,1}L

[x,y] {0,1}L must be invertible (one phenotype per

genotype)
: {0,1}L [x,y] defines the representation

y x L1
(a1 ,..., a L ) = x + L
( a L j 2 j ) [ x , y ]
2 1 j =0

Only 2L values out of infinite are represented

L determines possible maximum precision of solution
High precision  long chromosomes (slow evolution)

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Floating point mutations 1

General scheme of floating point mutations

x = x1 , ..., xl x = x1 , ..., xl
xi , xi [LBi , UBi ]

Uniform mutation:
xi drawn randomly (uniform) from [LBi ,UBi ]

Analogous to bit-flipping (binary) or random resetting

(integers)

Floating point mutations 2

Non-uniform mutations:

Many methods proposed,such as time-varying

range of change etc.
Most schemes are probabilistic but usually only
make a small change to value
Most common method is to add random deviate to
each variable separately, taken from N(0, )
Gaussian distribution and then curtail to range
Standard deviation controls amount of change
(2/3 of deviations will lie in range (- to + )

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Crossover operators for real valued GAs

Discrete:

each allele value in offspring z comes from one of its

parents (x,y) with equal probability: zi = xi or yi
Could use n-point or uniform

Intermediate

exploits idea of creating children between parents

(hence a.k.a. arithmetic recombination)

zi = xi + (1 - ) yi

where : 0 1.

The parameter can be:

constant: uniform arithmetical crossover
variable (e.g. depend on the age of the population)
picked at random every time

Single arithmetic crossover

Parents: x1,,xn and y1,,yn

Pick a single gene (k) at random,
child1 is: x , ..., x , y + (1 ) x
1

, ..., xn

reverse for other child. e.g. with = 0.5

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Simple arithmetic crossover

Parents: x1,,xn and y1,,yn

Pick random gene (k) after this point mix values
child1 is:

x , ..., x , y
+ (1 ) x
, ..., y + (1 ) x
1
k
k +1
k +1
n
n

reverse for other child. e.g. with = 0.5

Whole arithmetic crossover

Most commonly used

Parents: x1,,xn and y1,,yn
child1 is:

a x + (1 a ) y

reverse for other child. e.g. with = 0.5

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Permutation Representations

Ordering/sequencing problems form a special type

Task is (or can be solved by) arranging some objects in
a certain order

Example: sort algorithm: important thing is which elements

occur before others (order)
Example: Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) : important thing
is which elements occur next to each other (adjacency)

These problems are generally expressed as a

permutation:

if there are n variables then the representation is as a list of n

integers, each of which occurs exactly once

Permutation representation: TSP example

Problem:
Given n cities
Find a complete tour with
minimal length
Encoding:
Label the cities 1, 2, , n
One complete tour is one
permutation (e.g. for n =4
[1,2,3,4], [3,4,2,1] are OK)
Search space is BIG:
for 30 cities there are 30! 1032
possible tours

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Mutation operators for permutations

Normal mutation operators lead to inadmissible

solutions

e.g. bit-wise mutation : let gene i have value j

changing to some other value k would mean that k
occurred twice and j no longer occurred

Therefore must change at least two values

Mutation parameter now reflects the probability
that some operator is applied once to the
whole string, rather than individually in each
position

Insert Mutation for permutations

Pick two allele values at random

Move the second to follow the first, shifting the
rest along to accommodate
Note that this preserves most of the order and
the adjacency information

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Swap mutation for permutations

Pick two alleles at random and swap their

positions
Preserves most of adjacency information (4
links broken), disrupts order more

Inversion mutation for permutations

Pick two alleles at random and then invert the

substring between them.
Preserves most adjacency information (only
breaks two links) but disruptive of order
information

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Scramble mutation for permutations

Pick a subset of genes at random

Randomly rearrange the alleles in those
positions

(note subset does not have to be contiguous)

Crossover operators for permutations

Normal crossover operators will often lead to

inadmissible solutions

12345

12321

54321

54345

Many specialised operators have been devised

which focus on combining order or adjacency
information from the two parents

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Order 1 crossover

Idea is to preserve relative order that elements occur

Informal procedure:
1. Choose an arbitrary part from the first parent
2. Copy this part to the first child
3. Copy the numbers that are not in the first part, to
the first child:

starting right from cut point of the copied part,

using the order of the second parent

and wrapping around at the end
4. Analogous for the second child, with parent roles
reversed

Order 1 crossover example

Copy randomly selected set from first parent

Copy rest from second parent in order 1,9,3,8,2

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Partially Mapped Crossover (PMX)

Informal procedure for parents P1 and P2:
1.
Choose random segment and copy it from P1
2.
Starting from the first crossover point look for elements in that
segment of P2 that have not been copied
3.
For each of these i look in the offspring to see what element j has
been copied in its place from P1
4.
Place i into the position occupied j in P2, since we know that we will
not be putting j there (as is already in offspring)
5.
If the place occupied by j in P2 has already been filled in the
offspring k, put i in the position occupied by k in P2
6.
Having dealt with the elements from the crossover segment, the rest
of the offspring can be filled from P2.
Second child is created analogously

PMX example

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

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Cycle crossover
Basic idea:
Each allele comes from one parent together with its position.

Informal procedure:
1. Make a cycle of alleles from P1 in the following way.
(a) Start with the first allele of P1.
(b) Look at the allele at the same position in P2.
(c) Go to the position with the same allele in P1.
(d) Add this allele to the cycle.
(e) Repeat step b through d until you arrive at the first allele of P1.

2. Put the alleles of the cycle in the first child on the positions
they have in the first parent.
3. Take next cycle from second parent

Cycle crossover example

Step 1: identify cycles

Step 2: copy alternate cycles into offspring

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Edge Recombination

Works by constructing a table listing which

edges are present in the two parents, if an
edge is common to both, mark with a +
e.g. [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] and [9 3 7 8 2 6 5 1 4]

Edge Recombination 2
Informal procedure once edge table is constructed
1. Pick an initial element at random and put it in the offspring
2. Set the variable current element = entry
3. Remove all references to current element from the table
4. Examine list for current element:

If there is a common edge, pick that to be next element

Otherwise pick the entry in the list which itself has the shortest list
Ties are split at random

5. In the case of reaching an empty list:

Examine the other end of the offspring is for extension

Otherwise a new element is chosen at random

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Edge Recombination example

Multiparent recombination

Recall that we are not constricted by the practicalities

of nature
Noting that mutation uses 1 parent, and traditional
crossover 2, the extension to a>2 is natural to examine
Been around since 1960s, still rare but studies indicate
useful
Three main types:

Based on allele frequencies, e.g., p-sexual voting generalising

uniform crossover
Based on segmentation and recombination of the parents, e.g.,
diagonal crossover generalising n-point crossover
Based on numerical operations on real-valued alleles, e.g.,
center of mass crossover, generalising arithmetic
recombination operators

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Population Models

SGA uses a Generational model:

At the other end of the scale are Steady-State

models:

each individual survives for exactly one generation

the entire set of parents is replaced by the offspring

one offspring is generated per generation,

one member of population replaced,

Generation Gap

the proportion of the population replaced

1.0 for GGA, 1/pop_size for SSGA

Fitness Based Competition

Selection can occur in two places:

Selection operators work on whole individual

Selection from current generation to take part in

mating (parent selection)
Selection from parents + offspring to go into next
generation (survivor selection)
i.e. they are representation-independent

Distinction between selection

operators: define selection probabilities

algorithms: define how probabilities are implemented

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Implementation example: SGA

Expected number of copies of an individual i

E( ni ) = f(i)/ f

( = pop.size, f(i) = fitness of i, f avg. fitness in pop.)

Roulette wheel algorithm:

Given a probability distribution, spin a 1-armed

wheel n times to make n selections
No guarantees on actual value of ni

Bakers SUS algorithm:

n evenly spaced arms on wheel and spin once

Guarantees floor(E( ni ) ) ni ceil(E( ni ) )

Fitness-Proportionate Selection

Problems include

One highly fit member can rapidly take over if rest of

population is much less fit: Premature Convergence
At end of runs when fitnesses are similar, lose
selection pressure
Highly susceptible to function transposition

Scaling can fix last two problems

Windowing: f(i) = f(i) - t

where is worst fitness in this (last n) generations

Sigma Scaling: f(i) = max( f(i) ( f - c f ), 0.0)

where c is a constant, usually 2.0

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Function transposition for FPS

Rank Based Selection

Attempt to remove problems of FPS by basing

selection probabilities on relative rather than
absolute fitness
Rank population according to fitness and then
base selection probabilities on rank where
fittest has rank and worst rank 1
This imposes a sorting overhead on the
algorithm, but this is usually negligible
compared to the fitness evaluation time

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Linear Ranking

Parameterised by factor s: 1.0 < s 2.0

measures advantage of best individual
in GGA this is the number of children allotted to it
Simple 3 member example

Exponential Ranking

Linear Ranking is limited to selection pressure

Exponential Ranking can allocate more than 2
copies to fittest individual
Normalise constant factor c according to
population size

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Tournament Selection

All methods above rely on global population

statistics

Could be a bottleneck esp. on parallel machines

Relies on presence of external fitness function
which might not exist: e.g. evolving game players

Informal Procedure:

Pick k members at random then select the best of

these
Repeat to select more individuals

Tournament Selection 2

Probability of selecting i will depend on:

Rank of i
Size of sample k

Whether contestants are picked with replacement

higher k increases selection pressure

Picking without replacement increases selection pressure

Whether fittest contestant always wins

(deterministic) or this happens with probability p

For k = 2, time for fittest individual to take over

population is the same as linear ranking with s = 2 p

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Survivor Selection

Most of methods above used for parent

selection
Survivor selection can be divided into two
approaches:

Age-Based Selection

e.g. SGA
In SSGA can implement as delete-random (not
recommended) or as first-in-first-out (a.k.a. delete-oldest)

Fitness-Based Selection

Using one of the methods above or

Two Special Cases

Elitism

Widely used in both population models (GGA,

SSGA)
Always keep at least one copy of the fittest solution
so far

GENITOR: a.k.a. delete-worst

From Whitleys original Steady-State algorithm (he

also used linear ranking for parent selection)
Rapid takeover : use with large populations or no
duplicates policy

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Example application of order based GAs: JSSP

Precedence constrained job shop scheduling problem

J is a set of jobs.
O is a set of operations
M is a set of machines
Able O M defines which machines can perform which
operations
Pre O O defines which operation should precede which
Dur : O M IR defines the duration of o O on m M

The goal is now to find a schedule that is:

Complete: all jobs are scheduled

Correct: all conditions defined by Able and Pre are satisfied

Optimal: the total duration of the schedule is minimal

Precedence constrained job shop scheduling GA

Representation: individuals are permutations of operations

Permutations are decoded to schedules by a decoding procedure

take the first (next) operation from the individual

look up its machine (here we assume there is only one)
assign the earliest possible starting time on this machine, subject to

machine occupation
precedence relations holding for this operation in the schedule created so far

fitness of a permutation is the duration of the corresponding

schedule (to be minimized)
use any suitable mutation and crossover
use roulette wheel parent selection on inverse fitness
Generational GA model for survivor selection
use random initialisation

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JSSP example: operator comparison

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