Limitations of the traditional optimization

approaches

Limitations:

Computationally expensive.
For a discontinuous objective function, methods may fail.
Method may not be suitable for parallel computing.
Discrete (integer) variables are difficult to handle.
Methods may not necessarily adaptive.

Evolutionary algorithms have been evolved to address the above

mentioned limitations of solving optimization problems with traditional
approaches.

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Evolutionary Algorithms

The algorithms, which follow some biological and physical behaviors:

Biologic behaviors:
Genetics and Evolution –> Genetic Algorithms (GA)
Behavior of ant colony –> Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)
Human nervous system –> Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

In addition to that there are some algorithms inspired by some physical

behaviors:
Physical behaviors:
Annealing process –> Simulated Annealing (SA)
Swarming of particle –> Particle Swarming Optimization (PSO)
Learning –> Fuzzy Logic (FL)

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Genetic Algorithm

It is a subset of evolutionary algorithm:

Ant Colony optimization

Swarm Particle Optimization

Models biological processes:

Genetics
Evolution
To optimize highly complex objective functions:
Very difficult to model mathematically
NP-Hard (also called combinatorial optimization) problems (which
are computationally very expensive)
Involves large number of parameters (discrete and/or continuous)

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Background of Genetic Algorithm

Firs time itriduced by Ptrof. John Holland (of Michigan University, USA,
1965).
But, the first article on GA was published in 1975.

Principles of GA based on two fundamental biological processes:

Genetics: Gregor Johan Mendel (1865)
Evolution: Charles Darwin (1875)

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A brief account on genetics
The basic building blocks in living bodies are cells. Each cell carries
the basic unit of heredity, called gene
Nucleus

Chromosome

Other cell bodies

For a particular specie, number of chromosomes is fixed.

Examples
Mosquito: 6
Frogs: 26
Human: 46
Goldfish: 94
etc.
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Working of Genetic Algorithm

Definition of GA:
Genetic algorithm is a population-based probabilistic search and
optimization techniques, which works based on the mechanisms of
natural genetics and natural evaluation.

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Framework of GA

Start

Note:
An individual in the
population is
corresponding to a
Initial Population possible solution

No
Converge ? Selection

Yes

Reproduction
Stop

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Working of Genetic Algorithm

Note:

1 GA is an iterative process.
2 It is a searching technique.
3 Working cycle with / without convergence.
4 Solution is not necessarily guranteed. Usually, terminated with a
local optima.

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Framework of GA: A detail view

Start

Define parameters

Parameter representation

Create population
Initialize population
Apply cost
function to each of
the population

No
Converge ? Evaluate the fitness

Selection
Yes

Select Mate
Stop

Crossover

Reproduction
Mutation

Inversion

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