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Subject Name: Soft Computing Subject Code: IT 701

Syllabus: Unit V
Genetic Algorithm: Introduction to GA, Simple Genetic Algorithm, terminology and operators of
GA (individual, gene, fitness, population, data structure, encoding, selection, crossover, mutation,
convergence criteria). Reasons for working of GA and Schema theorem, GA optimization problems
like TSP (Travelling salesman problem), Network design routing. Introduction to Ant Colony
optimization (ACO) and Particle swarm optimization (PSO).
Course Objectives:
1) The objective of this course is to understand genetic algorithm and its operators.
2) To understand genetic algorithm optimization problems

Introduction to Genetic Algorithm

Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a search-based optimization technique based on the principles of
Genetics and Natural Selection. It is frequently used to find optimal or near-optimal solutions to
difficult problems which otherwise would take a lifetime to solve. It is frequently used to solve
optimization problems, in research, and in machine learning.
What are Genetic Algorithms?
Nature has always been a great source of inspiration to all mankind. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are
search based algorithms based on the concepts of natural selection and genetics. GAs are a subset of
a much larger branch of computation known as Evolutionary Computation.

In GAs, we have a pool or a population of possible solutions to the given problem. These solutions
then undergo recombination and mutation (like in natural genetics), producing new children, and the
process is repeated over various generations. Each individual (or candidate solution) is assigned a
fitness value (based on its objective function value) and the fitter individuals are given a higher
chance to mate and yield more “fitter” individuals. This is in line with the Darwinian Theory of
“Survival of the Fittest”.

Genetic Algorithms are sufficiently randomized in nature, but they perform much better than random
local search (in which we just try various random solutions, keeping track of the best so far), as they
exploit historical information as well.

Terminology & Operators of GA

Individual: An individual is a single solution. An individual groups together two forms of solutions
as given below:
1)The chromosome which is the raw “genetic” information (genotype) that the GA deals.
2)The phenotype which is the expressive of the chromosome in the terms of the model.

Genes: Genes are the basic “instructions” for building a GA. A chromosome is a sequence of genes.
Genes may describe a possible solution to a problem, without actually being the solution. A gene is a
bit string of arbitrary lengths. The bit string is a binary representation of number of intervals from a
lower bound. A gene is the GA’s representation of a single factor value for a control factor, where
control factor must have an upper bound and a lower bound.

Fitness: The fitness of an individual in a GA is the value of an objective function for its phenotype.
For calculating fitness, the chromosome has to be first decoded and the objective function has to be
evaluated. The fitness not only indicates how good the solution is, but also corresponds to how close
the chromosome is to the optimal one.
In case of multi criterion optimization, the fitness function is definitely more difficult to determine.

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Population: A population is a collection of individuals. A population consist of a number

of individuals being tested, the phenotype parameters defining the individuals and some
information about the search space. The two important aspects of population used in GA are:

1. The initial population generation

2. The population size.
For each and every problem, the population size will depend on the complexity of the problem. It is
often a random initialization of population.

Data Structure:The basic data structure of a GA is as follows −

We start with an initial population (which may be generated at random or seeded by other heuristics),
select parents from this population for mating. Apply crossover and mutation operators on the
parents to generate new off-springs. And finally these off-springs replace the existing individuals in
the population and the process repeats. In this way genetic algorithms actually try to mimic the
human evolution to some extent.
A generalized pseudo-code for a GA is explained in the following program –
GA()
initialize population
find fitness of population
while (termination criteria is reached) do
parent selection
crossover with probability pc
mutation with probability pm
decode and fitness calculation
survivor selection
find best
return best

Structure of basic genetic algorithm:

1) Start: generate a random population initial. This population can be seen like a collection of
chromosomes, as the individuals are reduced to the representation of his notable characteristics for
the problem (chromosome); Structure and Operation of a Basic Genetic Algorithm.
2) Fitness: Evaluate each chromosome, by the function of fitness;
3) New population: produce a new population (or generate, or descendants), by execution of the
following steps, so many times, those that the new individuals pretended;
a. Selection: select two chromosomes for crossing, respecting that while more fitness greater his
probability of selection.
b. Crossing: The chromosomes of the parents have to cross somehow.
c. Mutation: consider, with low probability, the application of mutation in some position of the
descendant’s chromosomes.
d. To accept: to accept the descendant and place it in the new population.
4) Replacement: To substitute the old population by the new population, generated in the step 3.
5) Test: a. To test the condition of the algorithm; b. If satisfied, finish, producing how «better
solution» (not confusing like optimum solution) the common population; of the contrary, continue.
6) Goto 2

Encoding: Encoding is a process of representing individual genes. The process can be performed
using bits, numbers, trees, arrays, lists or any other objects. The encoding depends mainly on solving
the problems.
Types of encoding

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Simple Genetic Algorithm

GA handles a population of possible solutions. Each solution is represented through s
chromosome, which is just an abstract representation. Coding all the possible solutions into a
chromosome is the first part, but certainly not the most straightforward one of GA. A set of
reproduction operators has to be determined too. Reproduction operators are applied directly on the
chromosome, and are used to perform mutations and recombination over solutions of the problem.
The simple form of GA is given as:

1. Start with a randomly generated population.

2. Calculate the fitness of each chromosome in the population.
3. Repeat the following steps until n offsprings have been created:
a. Select a pair of parent chromosome from the current population
b. With probability P c crossover the pair at a randomly chosen point to from two offspring
c. Mutate the two offspring at each locus with probability P m
4. Replace the current population with the new population.
5. Go to step 2

General Genetic Algorithm

Create a Reproduce
Evaluate Next
random initial (and children
Fitness Generation
state mutate)
Figure 5.4: Flow of General Genetic Algorithm

Reasons for working of GA:

1. The capability of GA to be implemented as a 'universal optimizer' that could be used for
optimizing any type of problem belonging to different fields.
2. Simplicity and ease of implementation.
3.Proper balance between exploration and exploitation could be achieved by setting parameters
properly.
4. Logical reasoning behind the use of operators like selection, crossover and mutation.
5. Mathematical or theoretical analysis in terms of schema theory or Markov chain models for the
success of GA.
6. One of the pioneer evolutionary algorithms.
7. Solving both constrained and unconstrained optimization problems that is based on natural
selection.

The Schema Theorem

Holland's schema theorem, also called the fundamental theorem of genetic algorithms is an
inequality that results from coarse-graining an equation for evolutionary dynamics. The Schema
Theorem says that short, low-order schemata with above-average fitness increase exponentially in
frequency in successive generations. The theorem was proposed by John Holland in the 1970s. It was
initially widely taken to be the foundation for explanations of the power of genetic algorithms.
For example, consider binary strings of length 6. The schema 1*10*1 describes the set of all strings
of length 6 with 1's at positions 1, 3 and 6 and a 0 at position 4. The * is a wildcard symbol, which
means that positions 2 and 5 can have a value of either 1 or 0. The order of a schema o(H) is defined
as the number of fixed positions in the template, while the defining length delta (H) is the distance
between the first and last specific positions. The order of 1*10*1 is 4 and its defining length is 5. The
fitness of a schema is the average fitness of all strings matching the schema. The fitness of a string is
a measure of the value of the encoded problem solution, as computed by a problem-specific
evaluation function. Using the established methods and genetic operators of genetic algorithms, the

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schema theorem states that short, low-order schemata with above-average fitness
increase exponentially in successive generations. Expressed as an equation:

Here m(H,t) is the number os string belonging to schema Hat generation t, f(H) is the observed
average fitness of schema H and at is the observed average fitness at generation t. The probability of
disruption p is the probability that crossover or mutation will destroy the schema.

GA Optimization Problem using JSSP

Shop scheduling problems belong to the class of multi-stage scheduling problems, where each job
consists of a set of operations. For describing these problems, we use the standard 3-parameter
classification a | b | c. The parameter a indicates the machine environment, the parameter b describes
job characteristics, and the parameter c givesthe optimization criterion.
In such a shop scheduling problem, a set of n jobs J1, J2, …..Jn has to be processed on a set of m
machines M1, M2,…… Mm. The processing of a job Ji on a particular machine Mj is denoted as an
operation and abbreviated by (I, j). Each job Ji consists of a number ni of operations. For the
deterministic scheduling problems, the processing time Pij of each operation (i,j) is given in advance.
Among the shop scheduling problems, there are three basic types: a flow-shop, a job shop and an
open-shop. In a flow shop problem (a = F), each job has exactly m operations, and the technological
route (or machine order) in which the job passes through the machines is the same for any job.
Without loss of generality, we assume that the technological route for any job is given by M1->M2-
>…..->Mm. In a job shop problem (a = J), a specific technological route M j1Mj2….-->Mjni is
given for each job Ji; 1<=i<=n. Note that the number of operations per job n i is equal to m for the
classical job shop problems, but this number may be also smaller than m or larger than m
(recirculation; in this case we may use the notation (I, j, k) for the k-th processing of job Ji on
machine Mj). In an open shop problem (a = O), no technological routes are imposed on the jobs.
Usually, it is assumed that each job has to be processed on any machine. In addition to these three
major types, there also exist generalizations such as a mixed shop or a general shop.

Travelling Salesman Problem using GA

Finding a solution to the travelling salesman problem requires we set up a genetic algorithm in a
specialized way. For instance, a valid solution would need to represent a route where every location
is included at least once and only once. If a route contain a single location more than once, or missed
a location out completely it wouldn't be valid and we would be valuable computation time
calculating its distance.
To ensure the genetic algorithm does indeed meet this requirement special types of mutation and
crossover methods are needed.
Firstly, the mutation method should only be capable of shuffling the route, it shouldn't ever add or
remove a location from the route, and otherwise it would risk creating an invalid solution. One type
of mutation method we could use is swap mutation.
With swap mutation two location in the route are selected at random then their positions are simply
swapped. For example, if we apply swap mutation to the following list, [1,2,3,4,5] we might end up
with, [1,2,5,4,3]. Here, positions 3 and 5 were switched creating a new list with exactly the same
values, just a different order. Because swap mutation is only swapping pre-existing values, it will
never create a list which has missing or duplicate values when compared to the original, and that's
exactly what we want for the traveling salesman problem.

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Now we've dealt with the mutation method we need to pick a crossover method which can
enforce the same constraint.
One crossover method that's able to produce a valid route is ordered crossover. In this
crossover method we select a subset from the first parent, and then add that subset to the
offspring. Any missing values are then adding to the offspring from the second parent in order that
they are found. To make this explanation a little clearer consider the following example:
Parents

Offspring

Here a subset of the route is taken from the first parent (6,7,8) and added to the offspring's route.
Next, the missing route locations are adding in order from the second parent. The first location in the
second parent's route is 9 which isn't in the offspring's route so it's added in the first available
position. The next position in the parent’s route is 8 which is in the offspring's route so it's skipped.
This process continues until the offspring has no remaining empty values. If implemented correctly
the end result should be a route which contains all of the positions its parents did with no positions
missing or duplicated.

A simple genetic algorithm can be defined in the following steps.

Step 1. Create an initial population of P chromosomes.
Step 2. Evaluate the fitness of each chromosome.
Step 3. Choose P/2 parents from the current population via proportional selection.
Step 4. Randomly select two parents to create offspring using crossover operator.
Step 5. Apply mutation operators for minor changes in the results.
Step 6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until all parents are selected and mated.
Step 7. Replace old population of chromosomes with new one.
Step 8. Evaluate the fitness of each chromosome in the new population.
Step 9. Terminate if the number of generations meets some upper bound; otherwise go to Step 3.

The TSP has several applications even in its purest formulation, such as planning, logistics, and the
manufacture of microchips. Slightly modified, it appears as a sub-problem in many areas, such as
DNA sequencing. In these applications, the concept city represents, for example, customers,
soldering points, or DNA fragments, and the concept distance represents travelling times or cost, or a
similarity measure between DNA fragments.

Network Design Routing using GA

The purpose of GA is to determine an ‘‘optimal’’ or ‘‘efficient’’ route set (comprising of a pre-
specified (or fixed) number of routes) for a given road network and transit demand matrix.
The proposed algorithm, the conceptual overview which follows a three step iterative process. The
important features of the proposed algorithm are:
 Various reasonable route sets for the given road network and demand matrix, aredetermined using a
novel stochastic procedure, IRSG. It may be pointed out that this heuristic procedure, which
onlyprovides a starting point for the proposed optimization procedure.
 After the initial one-time use of IRSG, the evaluation step, and the route modification step are
executed repeatedly one after the other until a route set is obtained which satisfies the basic

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properties of an efficient route set maximally; i.e. until an ‘‘efficient’’ or ‘‘optimal’’ route
set obtained.

 The goodness of a route set as a whole is determined in the evaluation step using the evaluation
scheme, EVAL.
 Given a group of route sets and their goodness, the route sets are modified using the proposed
modification procedure, MODIFY, in order to obtain a better group of route sets. The modification is
done using the evolutionary principles of genetic algorithms.

Figure 5.5: Block Diagram of Network Design Routing

Timetabling Problem Solution using GA

1. Generate a random population P
2. while Termination condition is not met do
3. for each individual i of P do
4. Generate a timetable using individual i
5. Evaluate the generated timetable using the fitness function
6. end for
7. Apply variation operators
8. Generate a new population P
9. End while

The main operators we use at the evolution stage are crossover and mutation. Extra operators can be
easily added if necessary.
In order to calculate the fitness value of an individual, a timetable must be generated.
For this, the values in the individual (vector) are used to calculate all arrival and departure times.
After the timetable is generated, it is evaluated using a slightly simplified version of the objective
function.
The fitness function consists in minimizing the total weighted sum of constraints violations for the
timetable.

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GA implementation using MATLAB

MATLAB has a wide variety of functions useful to the genetic algorithm practitioner. Given the
versatility of MATLAB’s high-level language, problems can be coded in m-files in a fraction of the
time that it would take to create C or FORTRAN programs for the same purpose. Couple this
with MATLAB’s advanced data analysis, visualization tools and special purpose application
domain toolboxes and the user is presented with a uniform environment with which to explore the
potential of genetic algorithms.
The Genetic Algorithm Toolbox uses MATLAB matrix functions to build a set of versatile tools
for implementing a wide range of genetic algorithm methods. The Genetic Algorithm Toolbox
is a collection of routines, written mostly in m-files, which implement the most important
functions in genetic algorithms.
The main data structures used by MATLAB in the Genetic Algorithm toolbox are:

• Chromosomes
• Objective function values
• Fitness values

Introduction to Swarm Intelligence

Swarm Intelligence is a new subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) designed to manage a group of
connected machines. We are now entering the age of the Intelligent machines, also called the Internet
of Things (IoT), where more and devices are being connected every day. Swarm intelligence is
quickly emerging as a way this connectivity can be harnessed and put to good use.
Swarm intelligence (as the name suggests) comes from mimicking nature. Swarms of social insects,
such as ants and bees, operate using a collective intelligence that is greater than any individual
member of the swarm. Swarms are therefore highly effective problem-solving groups that can easily
deal with the loss of individual members while still completing the task at hand-a capability that is
very desirable for a huge number of applications. Today this concept is being applied in concert with
machine learning and distributed computing systems. The result is a group of connected machines
that can communicate, coordinate, learn and adapt to reach a specific goal. Check out the video
below and its subsequent follow up videos to see how swarm intelligence is applied to a group of
drones.

Swarm Intelligence Techniques: Ant Colony Optimization

Ant colony optimization (ACO), introduced by Dorigo in his doctoral dissertation, is a class of
optimization algorithms modeled on the actions of an ant colony. ACO is a probabilistic technique
useful in problems that deal with finding better paths through graphs. Artificial 'ants'—simulation
agents—locate optimal solutions by moving through a parameter space representing all possible
solutions. Natural ants lay down pheromones directing each other to resources while exploring their
environment. The simulated 'ants' similarly record their positions and the quality of their solutions,
so that in later simulation iterations more ants locate for better solutions.

The use of swarm intelligence in telecommunication networks has also been researched, in the form
of ant-based routing. This was pioneered separately by Dorigo et al. and Hewlett Packard in the mid-
1990s, with a number of variations since. Basically, this uses a probabilistic routing table
rewarding/reinforcing the route successfully traversed by each "ant" (a small control packet) which
flood the network. Reinforcement of the route in the forwards, reverse direction and both
simultaneously has been researched: backwards reinforcement requires a symmetric network and
couples the two directions together; forwards reinforcement rewards a route before the outcome is
known (but then one would pay for the cinema before one knows how good the film is). As the

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system behaves stochastically and is therefore lacking repeatability, there are large hurdles
to commercial deployment.

Mobile media and new technologies have the potential to change the threshold for collective
action due to swarm intelligence
.
The location of transmission infrastructure for wireless communication networks is an important
engineering problem involving competing objectives. A minimal selection of locations (or sites)
is required subject to providing adequate area coverage for users. A very different-ant inspired
swarm intelligence algorithm, stochastic diffusion search (SDS), has been successfully used to
provide a general model for this problem, related to circle packing and set covering. It has been
shown that the SDS can be applied to identify suitable solutions even for large problem instances.
Particle Swarm Optimization
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a global optimization algorithm for dealing with problems in
which a best solution can be represented as a point or surface in an n-dimensional space.
Hypotheses are plotted in this space and seeded with an initial velocity, as well as a
communication channel between the particles. Particles then move through the solution space, and
are evaluated according to some fitness criterion after each time step. Over time, particles are
accelerated towards those particles within their communication grouping which have better fitness
values. The main advantage of such an approach over other global minimization strategies such as
simulated annealing is that the large numbers of members that make up the particle swarm make the
technique impressively resilient to the problem of local minima.

Nanoparticles are bioengineered particles that can be injected into the body and operate as a
system to do things drug treatments cannot. The primary problem with all of our current cancer
treatments is most procedures target healthy cells in addition to tumors, causing a whole host
of side effects. Nanoparticles by comparison, are custom designed to accumulate ONLY in
tumors, while avoiding healthy tissue.
Nanoparticles can be designed to move, sense, and interact with their environment, just like
robots. In medicine, we call this embodied intelligence. The challenge thus far has been figuring
out how to properly "program" this embodied intelligence to ensure it produces the desired outcome.

Swarms are very effective when a group of individual elements (nanoparticles in this case)
begin reacting as a group to local information. Swarm intelligence is emerging as the key to
which will unlock the true potential of these tiny helpers. Researchers are now reaching out to
the gaming community in an effort to crowd source the proper programming for swarm of
nanoparticles.

Bee Colony Optimization

The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is a swarm based meta-heuristic algorithm that was
introduced by Karaboga in 2005 (Karaboga, 2005) for optimizing numerical problems. It was
inspired by the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. The algorithm is specifically based on
the model proposed by Tereshko and Loengarov (2005) for the foraging behavior of honey bee
colonies. The model consists of three essential components: employed and unemployed foraging
bees, and food sources. The first two components, employed and unemployed foraging bees, search
for rich food sources, which is the third component, close to their hive. The model also defines two
leading modes of behavior which are necessary for self-organizing and collective intelligence:
recruitment of foragers to rich food sources resulting in positive feedback and abandonment of poor
sources by foragers causing negative feedback.

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In ABC, a colony of artificial forager bees (agents) search for rich artificial food sources
(good solutions for a given problem). To apply ABC, the considered optimization problem
is first converted to the problem of finding the best parameter vector which minimizes an
objective function. Then, the artificial bees randomly discover a population of initial solution
vectors and then iteratively improve them by employing the strategies: moving towards better
solutions by means of a neighbor search mechanism while abandoning poor solutions.
The general scheme of the ABC algorithm is as follows:

First Initialization Phase

REPEAT

1. Employed Bees Phase

2. Onlooker Bees Phase
3. Scout Bees Phase
4. Memorize the best solution achieved so far
UNTIL (Cycle=Maximum Cycle Number or a Maximum CPU time)

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