GENETIC ALGORITHMS

SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted by

PRAVEEN R S

Roll No: 27322

To

The University of Kerala

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree

Of

Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Stream – Industrial Engineering

Department Of Mechanical Engineering

College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram – 16

November, 2010
 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM – 16

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the report entitled “GENETIC ALGORITHMS”, submitted by

“Praveen R S, S7 Industrial, Roll No. 27322” to the University of Kerala in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology in
Mechanical stream-Industrial Engineering is a bonafide record of the seminar presented by
him.

Sri. V S Unnikrishnan Dr. Regikumar V

(Asst. Professor) (Lecturer)

Sri. M S Subramony Prof. Z A Samitha

(Senior Lecturer) (Senior Staff Advisor)

Prof. E Abdul Rasheed

(Head of the Department)
 Acknowledgement

I express my gratitude to my guides, Sri. V S Unnikrishnan (Asst. Professor, Department of

Mechanical Engineering), Sri. M S Subramony (Lecturer, Department of Mechanical
Engineering) and Sri. Rejikumar V (Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering) from
College of Engineering, Trivandrum for their expert guidance and advice in presenting the
seminar.

I express my sincere thanks to Sri. K Sunilkumar (Lecturer & Staff Advisor, Department of
Mechanical Engineering), Prof. Z A Samitha (Professor & Senior Staff Advisor, Department
of Mechanical Engineering), Prof. E Abdul Rasheed (Head of Department, Department of
Mechanical Engineering), Dr. J Letha (Principal, College of Engineering, Trivandrum) for
giving me this opportunity and for their kind cooperation during the course of this work.

I would also wish to record my gratefulness to all my friends and classmates for their help
and support in carrying out this work successfully. I also thank the Lord Almighty for the
grace, strength and hope to make my endeavour a success.

Praveen R S
 Abstract

Genetic Algorithm is one among the different Bio-inspired computing algorithms. It

applies the Principle of survival of the fittest to find better and better solutions. The feasible

solutions from the solution space are evaluated using a fitness function and they are selected

for reproduction on the basis of their fitness value. Reproduction involves cross over and

mutation. The successive generations would have better average fitness value, compared to

the previous generation. The iteration process is continued till the required convergence is

attained. Genetic Algorithm usually exhibits a reduced chance of converging to local

optimum. It has got a wide variety of applications is Operations Research related problems

like Transportation problems, Travelling salesman problem, Scheduling, Spanning tree

problem, etc.

Keywords: Fitness function, Selection, Cross over, Mutation

 Table of contents
Section 1: Introduction 1
1.1 Evolutionary Algorithms 2
Section 2: Genetic Algorithms 3
2.1 Genetic Algorithms Overview 3
2.2 Structure of a Single Population Genetic Algorithm 5
2.3 Genetic Algorithm Operators 6
2.3.(i) Selection 6
2.3.(ii) Recombination or Crossover 7
2.3.(iii) Mutation 7
Section 3: Encoding 8
3.1 Encoding Techniques 8
3.2 Genotypes and Phenotypes 9
3.3 Random Keys 9
Section 4: Selection 10
4.1 Fitness Function 10
4.2 Selection Techniques 10
4.2.(i) Fitness Proportional Selection 11
4.2.(ii) Ranked Selection 11
4.2.(iii) Stochastic Universal Sampling 11
4.2.(iv) Roulette Wheel Selection 12
4.2.(v) Truncation Selection 13
4.2.(vi) Tournament Selection 13
Section 5: Recombination or Crossover 14
5.1 Recombination Techniques 14
5.1.(i) One point Crossover 14
5.1.(ii) Two point Crossover 14
5.1.(iii) Uniform Crossover 15
5.1.(iv) Shuffle Crossover 15
5.1.(v) Partially Matched Crossover 16
5.1.(vi) Order Crossover 16
5.1.(vii) Cycle Crossover 17
5.2 Crossover Probability (pc) 18
Section 6: Mutation 19
6.1 Mutation Techniques 20
6.1.(i) Flip bit Mutation 20
6.1.(ii) Boundary Mutation 20
6.1.(iii) Uniform Mutation 20
6.2 Mutation Probability(pm) 21
Section 7: Convergence 22
7.1 Premature Convergence 22
7.2 Slow Finishing 23
Section 8: Solution of a Transportation problem using GA 24
8.1 Problem Statement 24
8.2 Encoding 24
8.3 Prüfer Number 25
8.4 GA Operators 25
Section 9: Conclusion 26
Section 10: References 29
 List of Figures
1. The Placement of Genetic Algorithms in the hierarchy of Knowledge Based Information Systems . 1

2. Structure of a simple Genetic Algorithm ............................................................................................ 6

3. Stochastic Universal Sampling ......................................................................................................... 12

4. Chromosome Fitness on a Roulette Wheel ....................................................................................... 12

5. One point Crossover ......................................................................................................................... 14

6. Two point Crossover ......................................................................................................................... 14

7. Uniform Crossover............................................................................................................................ 15

8. Flip Bit Mutation............................................................................................................................... 20

9. Boundary Mutation ........................................................................................................................... 20

10. A Feasible Solution for the Transportation Problem ...................................................................... 24

11. Spanning Tree Representation ........................................................................................................ 24

12. Prüfer Number ................................................................................................................................ 25

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1. Introduction

Knowledge-based information systems or Evolutionary computing algorithms are designed to

mimic the performance of biological systems. Evolutionary computing algorithms are used

for search and optimization applications and also include fuzzy logic, which provides an

approximate reasoning basis for representing uncertain and imprecise knowledge. The no free

lunch theorem states that no search algorithm is better on all problems. All search methods

show on average the same performance over all possible problem instances. The present trend

is to combine these fields into a hybrid in order that the drawbacks of one may be offset by

the merits of another. Neural networks, fuzzy logic and evolutionary computing have shown

capability on many problems, but have not yet been able to solve the really complex

problems that their biological counterparts can.

Knowledge
Based
Information
Systems

Approximate Search/
Reasoning Optimisation
Approaches Approaches

Multivalued
Probabilistic Neural Evolutionary
& Fuzzy
Models Networks Algorithms
logic

Evolutionary Evolutionary Genetic

Strategies Programming Algorithms

Genetic
Programming

Figure 1: The Placement of Genetic Algorithms in the hierarchy of Knowledge Based Information Systems
 Page |2

1.1.Evolutionary Algorithms

Evolutionary algorithms can be used successfully in many applications requiring the

optimization of a certain multi-dimensional function. The population of possible solutions

evolves from one generation to the next, ultimately arriving at a satisfactory solution to

the problem. These algorithms differ in the way a new population is generated from the

present one, and in the way the members are represented within the algorithm. They are

part of the derivative-free optimization and search methods that comprise,

 Genetic Algorithms

 Simulated annealing (SA) which is a stochastic hill-climbing algorithm based on the

analogy with the physical process of annealing. Hill climbing, in essence, finds an

optimum by following the local gradient of the function (thus, they are also known as

gradient methods).

 Random Search Algorithms - Random searches simply perform random walks of the

problem space, recording the best optimum values found. They do not use any

knowledge gained from previous results and are inefficient.

 Randomized Search Techniques - These algorithms use random choice to travel

through the search space using the knowledge gained from previous results in the

search.

 Downhill simplex search

 Tabu search which is usually applied to combinatorial optimization problems

Evolutionary algorithms exhibit an adaptive behavior that allows them to handle non-

linear, high dimensional problems without requiring differentiability or explicit

knowledge of the problem structure. They also are very robust to time-varying behavior,

even though they may exhibit low speed of convergence.

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2. Genetic Algorithms

2.1. Genetic Algorithms Overview

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) were invented by John Holland in the 1960s and were

developed with his students and colleagues at the University of Michigan in the 1970s.

Holland's original goal was to investigate the mechanisms of adaptation in nature and to

develop methods in which these mechanisms could be imported into computer systems.

Genetic algorithms are search methods that employ processes found in natural biological

evolution. These algorithms search or operate on a given population of potential solutions

to find those that approach some specification or criteria. To do this, the algorithm applies

the principle of survival of the fittest to find better and better approximations. At each

generation, a new set of approximations is created by the process of selecting individual

potential solutions (individuals) according to their level of fitness in the problem domain

and breeding them together using operators borrowed from natural genetics. This process

leads to the evolution of populations of individuals that are better suited to their

environment than the individuals that they were created from, just as in natural

adaptation.

The GA will generally include the three fundamental genetic operations of selection,

crossover and mutation. These operations are used to modify the chosen solutions and

select the most appropriate offspring to pass on to succeeding generations. They usually

exhibit a reduced chance of converging to local minima. GAs suffers from the problem of

excessive complexity if used on problems that are too large. Genetic algorithms work on

populations of individuals rather than single solutions, allowing for parallel processing to

be performed when finding solutions to the more large and complex problems.
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Standard genetic algorithms are implemented where the initial population of individuals

is generated at random. At every evolutionary step, also known as generation, the

individuals in the current population are decoded and evaluated according to a fitness

function set for a given problem. The expected number of times an individual is chosen is

approximately proportional to its relative performance in the population. Crossover is

performed between two selected individuals by exchanging part of their genomes to form

new individuals. The mutation operator is introduced to prevent premature convergence.

Every member of a population has a certain fitness value associated with it, which

represents the degree of correctness of that particular solution or the quality of solution it

represents. The initial population of strings is randomly chosen. The GA using genetic

operators, to finally arrive at a quality solution to the given problem manipulates the

strings. GAs converge rapidly to quality solutions. Although they do not guarantee

convergence to the single best solution to the problem, the processing leverage associated

with GAs make them efficient search techniques. The main advantage of a GA is that it is

able to manipulate numerous strings simultaneously by parallel processing, where each

string represents a different solution to a given problem. Thus, the possibility of the GA

getting caught in local minima is greatly reduced because the whole space of possible

solutions can be simultaneously searched.

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2.2 Structure of a Single Population Genetic Algorithm

A GA has the ability to create an initial population of feasible solutions (or number of

individuals) and randomly initializing them at the beginning of a computation. This initial

population is then compared against the specifications or criteria and the individuals that

are closest to the criteria, that is, those with the highest fitness factor, are then recombined

in a way that guides their search to only the most promising areas of the state or search

space. Thus, the first generation is produced.

Each feasible solution is encoded as a chromosome (string) also called a genotype and

each chromosome is given a measure of fitness (fitness factor) via a fitness (evaluation or

objective) function. The fitness of a chromosome determines its ability to survive and

produce offspring. A finite fixed population of chromosomes is maintained. A finite fixed

population of chromosomes is maintained.

If the optimization criteria are not met, then the creation of a new generation starts.

Individuals are selected (parents) according to their fitness for the production of

offspring. Parent chromosomes are combined to produce superior offspring chromosomes

(crossover) at some crossover point (locus). All offspring will be mutated (altering some

genes in a chromosome) with a certain probability. The fitness of the offspring is then

computed. The offspring are inserted into the population replacing the parents, producing

a new generation. This cycle is performed until the optimization criteria are reached. In

some cases, where the parent already has a high fitness factor, it is better not to allow this

parent to be discarded when forming a new generation, but to be carried over. Mutation

ensures the entire state-space will be searched, (given enough time) and it is an effective

way of leading the population out of a local minima trap.

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Provide Initial Does the average fitness suit Yes Best individuals
Population the requirement?

No
Start Solution Found
Generate new
population
Selection

Recombination

Mutation

Figure 2: Structure of a simple Genetic Algorithm

2.3 Genetic Algorithm Operators

A basic genetic algorithm comprises three genetic operators-Selection, Crossover and

Mutation. Starting from an initial population of strings (representing possible solutions), the

GA uses these operators to calculate successive generations. First, pairs of individuals of the

current population are selected to mate with each other to form the offspring, which then

form the next generation.

2.3. (i) Selection

This operator selects the chromosome in the population for reproduction. The more fit

the chromosome, the higher its probability of being selected for reproduction. Thus,

selection is based on the survival-of-the-fittest strategy, but the key idea is to select the

better individuals of the population. After selection of the pairs of parent strings, the

crossover operator is applied to each of these pairs.

 Page |7

2.3. (ii) Recombination or Crossover

The crossover operator involves the swapping of genetic material (bit-values) between

the two parent strings. This operator randomly chooses a locus (a bit position along the

two chromosomes) and exchanges the sub-sequences before and after that locus between

two chromosomes to create two offspring.

2.3. (iii) Mutation

The two individuals (children) resulting from each crossover operation will now be

subjected to the mutation operator in the final step to forming the new generation. This

operator randomly flips or alters one or more bit values at randomly selected locations in

a chromosome.

The mutation operator enhances the ability of the GA to find a near optimal solution to a

given problem by maintaining a sufficient level of genetic variety in the population,

which is needed to make sure that the entire solution space is used in the search for the

best solution. In a sense, it serves as an insurance policy; it helps prevent the loss of

genetic material.
 Page |8

3. Encoding

3.1 Encoding Techniques

For any GA a chromosome representation is required to describe each individual in the

population of interest. The representation scheme determines how the problem is

structured in the GA and also determines what genetic operators are used [1]. Each

individual or chromosome is made up of a sequence of genes from a certain alphabet.

This alphabet could consist of binary digits (0 and 1), floating point numbers, integers,

symbols (i.e., A, B, C, D), matrices, etc. In Holland's original design, the alphabet was

limited to binary digits. Each element of the string represents a particular feature in the

chromosome. The first thing that must be done in any new problem is to generate a code

for this problem. How is one to decide on the correct encoding for one's problem?

Lawrence Davis, a researcher with much experience applying GAs to real-world

problems, strongly advocates using whatever encoding is the most natural for your

problem, and then devising a GA that can use that encoding [2].

One appealing idea is to have the encoding itself adapt so that the GA can make better

use of it. Choosing a fixed encoding ahead of time presents a paradox to the potential

GA user: for any problem that is hard enough that one would want to use a GA, one

doesn't know enough about the problem ahead of time to come up with the best

encoding for the GA. Thus, most research is currently done by guessing at an

appropriate encoding and then trying out a particular version of the GA on it.
 Page |9

3.2 Genotypes and Phenotypes

The actual value of a solution refers to its phenotype whereas the encoded value refers

to its genotype. Search happens in genotypic space, but selection occurs in phenotypic

space. For example, using a binary coding scheme (5, 3) can be coded as 101 011, in

which 101 refers to 5 and 011 refers to 3. (5, 3) is the phenotype whereas 101 011 is the

genotype of the solution.

3.3 Random Keys

Random key is a special encoding scheme used in Travelling Salesman Problem to

represent the nodes [3]. In the random key method, we assign each gene a random

number drawn uniformly from [0; 1). To decode the chromosome, we visit the nodes in

ascending order of their genes. For example:

Random key 0.42 0.06 0.38 0.48 0.81

Decodes as 3 1 2 4 5

Nodes that should be early in the tour tend to “evolve” genes closer to 0 and those that

should come later tend to evolve genes closer to 1. Standard crossover techniques will

generate children that are guaranteed to be feasible.

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4. Selection

4.1 Fitness Function

The evaluation function, or objective function, provides a measure of performance with

respect to a particular set of parameters [4]. The fitness function transforms that measure

of performance into an allocation of reproductive opportunities. The evaluation of a string

representing a set of parameters is independent of the evaluation of any other string. The

fitness of that string, however, is always defined with respect to other members of the

current population.

When individuals are modified to produce new individuals, they are said to be breeding.

Selection determines which individuals are chosen for breeding (recombination) and how

many offspring each selected individual produces. The individual (chromosome or string)

is first grade, known as its fitness, which indicates how good a solution it is. The period in

which the individual is evaluated and assigned a fitness value is known as fitness

assessment. Good chromosomes (those with the highest fitness function) survive and have

offspring, while those chromosomes furthest removed or with the lowest fitness function

are culled. Constraints on the chromosomes can be modeled by penalties in the fitness

function or encoded directly in the chromosomes' data structures.

4.2 Selection Techniques

Once individuals have had their fitness assessed, they may be selected and bred to form

the next generation in the evolution cycle, through repeated application of some selection

function. This function usually selects one or two individuals from the old population,

copies them, modifies them, and returns the modified copies for addition to the new

population. Commonly used selection techniques are as follows.

 P a g e | 11

4.2. (i) Fitness Proportional Selection

This selection method normalizes all the fitnesses in the population. These normalized

fitnesses then become the probabilities that their respective individuals will be selected.

Fitnesses may be transformed in some way prior to normalization. One of the problems

with fitness-proportional selection is that it is based directly on the fitness. Assessed

fitnesses are rarely an accurate measure of how “good” an individual really is.

4.2. (ii) Ranked Selection

In this technique, individuals are first sorted according to their fitness values, with the

first individual being the worst and the last individual being the best. Each individual is

then selected with a probability based on some linear function of its sorted rank. This is

usually done by assigning to the individual at rank i a probability of selection.

( )
| |

where ||P|| is the size of the population P, and 1 < c < 2 is the selection bias: higher

values of the selective pressure „c‟ cause the system to focus more on selecting only the

better individuals. The best individual in the population is thus selected with

probability ; the worst individual is selected with the probability .

4.2. (iii) Stochastic Universal Sampling

Stochastic universal sampling provides zero bias and minimum spread. The individuals

are mapped to contiguous segments of a line, such that each individual's segment is equal

in size to its fitness exactly as in roulette-wheel selection. Here equally spaced pointers

are placed over the line as many as there are individuals to be selected. Consider n the

number of individuals to be selected, then the distance between the pointers is 1/n and the

position of the first pointer is given by a randomly generated number in the range [0, 1/n].
 P a g e | 12

Consider an example. A, B, C, D, E and F are six different solutions arranged in their

decreasing order of fitness, and their lengths are proportional to their fitness values. The

initial point (here its „p‟) is fixed at random and another point „q‟ is fixed such that it is at

a distance of 1/n from p. „r‟ is fixed such that rq = pq. The solutions which fall at those

points are selected. Here, A, B and D are selected.

A B C D E F

p q r
Figure 3: Stochastic Universal Sampling

4.2. (iv) Roulette Wheel Selection

The simplest selection scheme is roulette-wheel selection, also called stochastic sampling

with replacement. Each slot on the wheel represents a chromosome from the parent

generation; the width of each slot represents the relative fitness of a given chromosome.

Then the Roulette wheel is simulated. The largest fitness values tend to be the most likely

resting-places for the marble, since they have larger slots. Consider an example.

E A
20% 7%
D
14% B
24%

C
35%

Figure 4: Chromosome Fitness on a Roulette Wheel

Here, C, being the most fit individual, has the greater probability to be selected.
 P a g e | 13

4.2. (v) Truncation Selection

Compared to the previous selection methods modeling natural selection, truncation

selection is an artificial selection method. Breeders for large populations/mass selection

use it. In truncation selection, individuals are sorted according to their fitness. The next

generation is formed from breeding only the best individuals in the population. One form

of truncation selection, (m,l) selection, works as follows. Let the population size l = km

where k and m are positive integers. The m best individuals in the population are

“selected”. Each individual in this group is then used to produce k new individuals in the

next generation. In a variant form, (m + l) selection, m individuals are “selected” from the

union of the population and the m parents which had created that population previously.

4.2. (vi) Tournament Selection

This selection mechanism is popular because it is simple, fast, and has well-understood

statistical properties. In tournament selection, a pool of n individuals is picked at random

from the population. These are independent choices: an individual may be chosen more

than once. Then tournament selection selects the individual with the highest fitness in this

pool. Clearly, the larger the value n, the more directed this method is at picking highly fit

individuals. If n = 1, then the method selects individuals totally at random. Popular values

for n include 2 and 7. Two is the standard number for genetic algorithm literature, and is

not very selective. Seven is used widely in the genetic programming literature, and is

relatively highly selective.

 P a g e | 14

5. Recombination or Crossover

After selection has been carried out recombination can occur. Crossovers are (sometimes)

deterministic operators that capture the best features of two parents and pass it to a new

offspring. The population is recombined according to the probability of crossover pc.

When a population has been entirely replaced by children, the new population is known

as the next generation. The whole process of finding an optimal solution is known as

evolving a solution.

5.1 Recombination Techniques

5.1. (i) One Point Crossover

The traditional GA uses 1-point crossover, where the two mating chromosomes are each

cut once at corresponding points and the selections after the cuts exchanged. The locus

point is randomly chosen.

Figure 5: One point Crossover

5.1. (ii) Two Point Crossover

In two-point crossover chromosomes are regarded as loop formed by joining the ends

together. To exchange a segment from one loop with that from another loop requires the

selection of two randomly chosen crossover or cut points.

Figure 6: Two point Crossover

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5.1. (iii) Uniform Crossover

This form of crossover is different from one-point crossover. Copying the corresponding

gene from one or the other parent, chosen according to a randomly generated crossover

mask creates each gene in the offspring. Where there is a "1" in the crossover mask, the

gene is copied from the first parent and where there is a "0" in the mask, the gene is

copied from the second parent as shown in figure 7. The process is repeated with the

parents exchanged to produce the second offspring. A new crossover mask is randomly

generated for each pair of parents. Offspring therefore, contain a mixture of genes from

each parent. The number of effective crossing points is not fixed, but will average L/2

where L is the chromosome length.

Figure 7: Uniform Crossover

5.1. (iv) Shuffle Crossover

Shuffle crossover is related to uniform crossover. A single crossover position (as in single

point crossover) is selected. But before the variables are exchanged, they are randomly

shuffled in both parents. After recombination, the variables in the offspring are

unshuffled. This removes positional bias as the variables are randomly reassigned each

time crossover is performed.

 P a g e | 16

5.1. (v) Partially Matched Crossover (PMX)

Partially matched crossover (PMX) arose in an attempt to solve the blind Travelling

Salesman Problem (TSP). In the blind TSP, fitness is entirely based on the ordering of the

cities in a chromosome and as such, we need to maintain valid permutations during

reproduction. PMX begins by selecting two points -- two and five, in this case -- for its

operation.

Parent chromosome 1: AB|CDE|FGH

Parent chromosome 2: GF|HBA|CDE

The PMX algorithm

 notes that the H allele in Chromosome 2 will replace the C allele in Chromosome 1

 so it replaces C with H and H with C for both chromosomes

The same process is accomplished for the other two alleles being swapped, that is,

 B replaced D and D replaces B in both chromosomes

 A replaces E and E replaces A in both chromosomes

And the end result is two offspring with these encodings:

Offspring 1: ED|HBA|FGC

Offspring 2: GF|CDE|HBA

5.1. (vi) Order Crossover (OX)

Order crossover involves the removal of some alleles and the shifting of others. Given the

crossover points and parent chromosomes as in the PMX example, OX would remove the

incoming alleles like so (a dash represents a blank allele):

Offspring 1: - - |HBA|FG

Offspring 2: GF|CDE |---

 P a g e | 17

Then, beginning after the second crossover point, OX shifts alleles to the left (wrapping

around the end of the chromosome if necessary), filling empty alleles and leaving an

opening for the swapped-in section:

Offspring 1: BA|---|FGH

Offspring 2: DE|---|GFC

To finish the process, OX exchanges the alleles within the crossover boundaries, finishing

the two offspring.

Offspring 1: BA|CDE|FGH

Offspring 2: DE|HBA|GFC

PMX preserves the absolute position of a city allele within chromosomes, whereas OX

preserves the order of cities in the permutation.

5.1. (vii) Cycle Crossover (CX)

This form of crossover works in an entirely different fashion, by swapping a specific set

of cities between chromosomes.

Parent 1: ABCDEFGH

Parent 2: GFHBACDE

In generating offspring, CX begins with the first cities of the two parent chromosomes:

Offspring 1: G-------

Offspring 2: A-------

A search of Parent 1 finds the just-introduced G allele in position 7. Another swap occurs:

Offspring 1: G-----D

Offspring 2: A-----G
 P a g e | 18

The search-and-swapping process continues until the allele first replaced in Parent 1 -- the

A – is found in a swap between chromosomes. CX then fills the remaining empty alleles

from corresponding elements of the parents. The final offspring look like this:

Offspring 1: GECBAFDH

Offspring 2: ABHDECGE

The inversion operator isn't a form of crossover; it reverses a sequence of alleles.

Inversion preserves the nature of a permutation while reordering its elements. Here are

two examples of inversion applied to the test chromosomes:

ABC|DEFGH| inverts to ABCHGFED

5.2 Crossover Probability (pc)

Crossover probability (pc) says how often will be crossover performed. If there is no

crossover, offspring is exact copy of parents. If there is a crossover, offspring is made

from the parts of parents‟ chromosome. If crossover probability is 100%, then all

offspring is made by crossover. If it is 0%, whole generation is made from exact copies of

chromosomes from old population.

Crossover is made in the hope that new chromosomes will have good parts of old

chromosome and may be the new chromosomes will be better. However it is good to

leave some part of population survive to next generation.

 P a g e | 19

6. Mutation

After recombination offspring undergo mutation. Although it is generally held that crossover

is the main force leading to a thorough search of the problem space, mutations are

probabilistic background operators that try to re-introduce needed chromosome features (bit

or allele) into populations whose features have been inadvertently lost. Mutation can assist by

preventing a (small) population prematurely converging onto a local minimum and remaining

stuck on this minimum due to a recessive gene that has infected the whole population

(genetic drift). It does this by providing a small element of random search in the vicinity of

the population when it has largely converged. Crossover alone cannot prevent the population

converging on a local minimum. Mutation generally finds better solutions than a crossover-

only regime although crossover gives much faster evolution than a mutation-only population.

As the population converges on a solution, mutation becomes more productive and crossover

less productive. Consequently, it is not a choice between crossover and mutation but, rather

the balance among crossover, mutation and selection that is important. Offspring variables

are mutated by the addition of small random values (size of the mutation step), with low

probability. The probability of mutating a variable pm, is set to be inversely proportional to

the number of bits (variables) "n", in the chromosome (dimensions). The more dimensions

one individual has the smaller the mutation probability is required to be.

A mutation rate m = 1/n produces almost optimal results for a broad class of test functions

where the mutation rate is independent of the size of the population. Varying the mutation

rate by increasing it at the beginning of a search and a decreasing it to 1/n at the end as the

population converges, gives an insignificant improvement in the search speed.

 P a g e | 20

6.1 Mutation Techniques

6.1. (i) Flip bit Mutation

This technique is generally used in binary coded chromosomes. The value of a particular

bit chosen at random is flipped. (i.e. 0 is flipped to 1; or 1 is flipped to 0).

Figure 8:Flip Bit Mutation

6.1. (ii) Boundary Mutation

This is a modification of the flip bit technique. Here, a bit position is selected at random

and it is changed to the upper or lower bound of the coding scheme used.

Consider a coding scheme of characters from A to H.

The „C‟ can be either changed to A or H.

Figure 9: Boundary Mutation

6.1.(iii)Uniform Mutation

This technique is similar to the uniform crossover. Here also, there is a mutation mask,

which determines which all bit positions should be flipped. Flipping is done where an „1‟

is in the mask and the bit is left as it is, where a „0‟ is in the mask.
 P a g e | 21

6.2 Mutation Probability (pm)

Mutation probability says how often will be parts of chromosomes mutated. If there is no

mutation, offspring is taken after crossover without any change. If mutation is performed,

part of chromosome is changed. If mutation probability is 100%, whole chromosome is

changed.

Mutation is made to prevent falling GA into local optimum, but it should not occur very

often, because then GA will in fact change to random search.

 P a g e | 22

7. Convergence

With a correctly designed and implemented GA, the population will evolve over

successive generations so that the fitness of the best and the average individual in each

generation increases towards the global optimum [5]. Convergence is the progression

towards increasing uniformity. A gene is said to have converged when 95% of the

population share the same value. The population is said to have converged when all of the

genes have converged.

At the start of a run, the values for each gene for different members of the population are

randomly distributed giving a wide spread of individual fitnesses. As the run progresses

some gene values begin to predominate. As the population converges the range of

fitnesses in the population reduces. This reduced range often leads to premature

convergence and slow finishing.

7.1 Premature Convergence

A standard problem with GAs is where the genes from a small number of highly fit, but

not optimal, chromosomes may tend to dominate the population causing it to converge on

a local minimum rather than search for a global minimum. Once the population has

reduced its range of fitnesses due to this convergence, the ability of the GA to continue to

search for better solutions is effectively prevented. Crossovers of chromosomes that are

almost identical produce offspring chromosomes that are almost identical to their parents.

The only saving grace is mutation that allows a slower, wider search of the search space

to be made.
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The schema theorem states that we should allocate reproductive opportunities to

individuals in proportion to their relative fitness. However, this allows premature

convergence to occur; because the population is not infinite. In order to make GAs work

effectively on finite populations the selection process of parents must be modified. Ways

of doing this are presented in the next section. The basic idea is to control the number of

reproductive opportunities each individual gets, so that it is neither too large, nor too

small. The effect is to compress the range of fitnesses and prevent any "super-fit"

individuals from having the opportunity to take control.

7.2 Slow Finishing

After many generations, the population would have converged but can't yet find the

global maximum. The average fitness will be high and the range of fitness levels quite

small. This means that there is very little gradient in the fitness function. Because of this

slight slope, the population slowly edges towards the global maximum rather than going

to it quickly.
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8 Solution of a Transportation Problem using Genetic Algorithm

8.1 Problem Statement

There are three sources named S1, S2 and S3, whose supply quantities are 8, 19 and 17

respectively. There are four destinations D1, D2, D3 and D4 whose demands are 11, 3, a4

and 16 respectively. Transportation cost from every source to every destination is same.

Solve the transportation problem to find the optimum allocations.

8.2 Encoding

Establish arbitrary feasible connections between the sources and destinations.

Figure 10: A Feasible Solution for the Transportation Problem

Develop the corresponding Spanning tree notation.

Figure 11: Spanning Tree Representation

The corresponding Spanning trees are coded into Prüfer number.

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8.3 Prüfer number

Prüfer number is an encoding technique used to encode spanning tree representations [6].

It is the sequence of numbers of nodes to which the least valued leaf nodes (dangling

nodes) are connected. If there are „n‟ stations in a Transportation problem (including

sources and destinations), the Prüfer number consists of n-2 digits. The steps to find the

Prüfer number for the above spanning tree are shown below.

Figure 12: Prüfer Number

8.4 GA Operators

The Prüfer number representations of all the feasible solutions need to be obtained first.

They can be evaluated using the fitness function. The fitness for different feasible

solutions can be obtained by calculating the allocations for links between different

sources and destinations, from which the total cost can be obtained. Here, the fitness

should be evaluated in inverse scale. The solution with least cost must be allotted

maximum fitness. Selection process can be followed by Fitness evaluation. It can be

followed by Crossover and Mutation.

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9 Conclusion

The genetic algorithm (GA) is a search heuristic that mimics the process of natural

evolution. This heuristic is routinely used to generate useful solutions to optimization and

search problems [7]. Genetic algorithms belong to the larger class of evolutionary

algorithms (EA), which generate solutions to optimization problems using techniques

inspired by natural evolution, such as inheritance, mutation, selection, and crossover.

In a genetic algorithm, a population of strings (called chromosomes or the genotype of the

genome), which encode candidate solutions (called individuals, creatures, or phenotypes)

to an optimization problem, evolves toward better solutions. Traditionally, solutions are

represented in binary as strings of 0s and 1s, but other encodings are also possible. The

evolution usually starts from a population of randomly generated individuals and happens

in generations. In each generation, the fitness of every individual in the population is

evaluated, multiple individuals are stochastically selected from the current population

(based on their fitness), and modified (recombined and possibly randomly mutated) to

form a new population. The new population is then used in the next iteration of the

algorithm. Commonly, the algorithm terminates when either a maximum number of

generations has been produced, or a satisfactory fitness level has been reached for the

population. If the algorithm has terminated due to a maximum number of generations, a

satisfactory solution may or may not have been reached.

Initially many individual solutions are randomly generated to form an initial population.

The population size depends on the nature of the problem, but typically contains several

hundreds or thousands of possible solutions. Traditionally, the population is generated

randomly, covering the entire range of possible solutions (the search space).

Occasionally, the solutions may be "seeded" in areas where optimal solutions are likely to

be found.
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During each successive generation, a proportion of the existing population is selected to

breed a new generation. Individual solutions are selected through a fitness-based process,

where fitter solutions (as measured by a fitness function) are typically more likely to be

selected. Certain selection methods rate the fitness of each solution and preferentially

select the best solutions. Other methods rate only a random sample of the population, as

this process may be very time-consuming.

Most functions are stochastic and designed so that a small proportion of less fit solutions

are selected. This helps keep the diversity of the population large, preventing premature

convergence on poor solutions. Popular and well-studied selection methods include

roulette wheel selection and tournament selection.

The next step is to generate a second generation population of solutions from those

selected through genetic operators: crossover (also called recombination), and/or

mutation.

For each new solution to be produced, a pair of "parent" solutions is selected for breeding

from the pool selected previously. By producing a "child" solution using the above

methods of crossover and mutation, a new solution is created which typically shares many

of the characteristics of its "parents". New parents are selected for each new child, and the

process continues until a new population of solutions of appropriate size is generated.

Although reproduction methods that are based on the use of two parents are more

"biology inspired", some research suggests more than two "parents" are better to be used

to reproduce a good quality chromosome.

These processes ultimately result in the next generation population of chromosomes that

is different from the initial generation. Generally the average fitness will have increased

by this procedure for the population, since only the best organisms from the first

generation are selected for breeding, along with a small proportion of less fit solutions.
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This generational process is repeated until a termination condition has been reached.

Common terminating conditions are:

 A solution is found that satisfies minimum criteria

 Fixed number of generations reached

 Allocated budget (computation time/money) reached

 The highest ranking solution's fitness is reaching or has reached a plateau such that

successive iterations no longer produce better results

 Manual inspection

 Combinations of the above

Problems which appear to be particularly appropriate for solution by genetic algorithms

include timetabling and scheduling problems, and many scheduling software packages are

based on GAs. GAs have also been applied to engineering. Genetic algorithms are often

applied as an approach to solve global optimization problems.

As a general rule of thumb genetic algorithms might be useful in problem domains that have

a complex fitness landscape as crossover is designed to move the population away from local

optima that a traditional hill climbing algorithm might get stuck in.
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References

[1] Representations for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms, Franz Rothlauf,

Springer 2005
[2] Davis, L. D., editor. 1991. Handbook of Genetic Algorithms. Van Nostrand
Reinhold
[3] Lawrence V. Snyder, Mark S. Daskin, A Random-Key Genetic Algorithm for the
Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem, Department of Industrial Engineering
and Management Sciences, February 25, 2005
[4] Genetic Algorithms-A tutorial, A A R Townsend, July 2003
[5] Genetic Algorithms and Engineering Optimization. Mitsuo Gen and Runwei
Cheng, New York: John Wiley, 2000
[6] G. A. Vignaux and Z. Michalewicz, A Genetic Algorithm for the Linear
Transportation Problem, IEEE Transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, vol.
21, no.2, March/April 1991, pg.no.445 - 452
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm