Introduction To Evolutionary Computing

The first complete overview of evolutionary computing, the collective name for a range of problem-solving techniques based on principles of biological evolution, such as natural selection and genetic inheritance. The text is aimed directly at lecturers and graduate and undergraduate students. It is also meant for those who wish to apply evolutionary computing to a particular problem or within a given application area. The book contains quick-reference information on the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of related topics, so it is of interest not just to evolutionary computing specialists but to researchers working in other fields.

The first complete overview of evolutionary computing, the collective name for a range of problem-solving techniques based on principles of biological evolution, such as natural selection and genetic inheritance. The text is aimed directly at lecturers and graduate and undergraduate students. It is also meant for those who wish to apply evolutionary computing to a particular problem or within a given application area. The book contains quick-reference information on the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of related topics, so it is of interest not just to evolutionary computing specialists but to researchers working in other fields.

The first complete overview of evolutionary computing, the collective name for a range of problem-solving techniques based on principles of biological evolution, such as natural selection and genetic inheritance. The text is aimed directly at lecturers and graduate and undergraduate students. It is also meant for those who wish to apply evolutionary computing to a particular problem or within a given application area. The book contains quick-reference information on the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of related topics, so it is of interest not just to evolutionary computing specialists but to researchers working in other fields.

This text is an introduction to the field of evolutionary computation. It approaches evolution strategies and genetic programming, as instances of a more general class of evolutionary algorithms.

Evolutionary algorithms are becoming increasingly attractive across various disciplines, such as operations research, computer science, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, social science and economics. Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms presents an insightful, comprehensive, and up-to-date treatment of evolutionary algorithms. It covers such hot topics as: • genetic algorithms, • differential evolution, • swarm intelligence, and • artificial immune systems. The reader is introduced to a range of applications, as Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms demonstrates how to model real world problems, how to encode and decode individuals, and how to design effective search operators according to the chromosome structures with examples of constraint optimization, multiobjective optimization, combinatorial optimization, and supervised/unsupervised learning. This emphasis on practical applications will benefit all students, whether they choose to continue their academic career or to enter a particular industry. Introduction to Evolutionary Algorithms is intended as a textbook or self-study material for both advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Additional features such as recommended further reading and ideas for research projects combine to form an accessible and interesting pedagogical approach to this widely used discipline.

The overall structure of this new edition is three-tier: Part I presents the basics, Part II is concerned with methodological issues, and Part III discusses advanced topics. In the second edition the authors have reorganized the material to focus on problems, how to represent them, and then how to choose and design algorithms for different representations. They also added a chapter on problems, reflecting the overall book focus on problem-solvers, a chapter on parameter tuning, which they combined with the parameter control and "how-to" chapters into a methodological part, and finally a chapter on evolutionary robotics with an outlook on possible exciting developments in this field. The book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses in artificial intelligence and computational intelligence, and for self-study by practitioners and researchers engaged with all aspects of bioinspired design and optimization.

Genetic algorithms have been used in science and engineering as adaptive algorithms for solving practical problems and as computational models of natural evolutionary systems. This brief, accessible introduction describes some of the most interesting research in the field and also enables readers to implement and experiment with genetic algorithms on their own. It focuses in depth on a small set of important and interesting topics—particularly in machine learning, scientific modeling, and artificial life—and reviews a broad span of research, including the work of Mitchell and her colleagues. The descriptions of applications and modeling projects stretch beyond the strict boundaries of computer science to include dynamical systems theory, game theory, molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and population genetics, underscoring the exciting "general purpose" nature of genetic algorithms as search methods that can be employed across disciplines. An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms is accessible to students and researchers in any scientific discipline. It includes many thought and computer exercises that build on and reinforce the reader's understanding of the text. The first chapter introduces genetic algorithms and their terminology and describes two provocative applications in detail. The second and third chapters look at the use of genetic algorithms in machine learning (computer programs, data analysis and prediction, neural networks) and in scientific models (interactions among learning, evolution, and culture; sexual selection; ecosystems; evolutionary activity). Several approaches to the theory of genetic algorithms are discussed in depth in the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter takes up implementation, and the last chapter poses some currently unanswered questions and surveys prospects for the future of evolutionary computation.

This book is the first in the field to provide extensive, entry level tutorials to the theory of Evolutionary Computing, covering the main approaches to understanding the dynamics of Evolutionary Algorithms. It combines this with recent, previously unpublished research papers based on the material of the tutorials. The outcome is a book which is self-contained to a large degree, attractive both to graduate students and researchers from other fields who want to get acquainted with the theory of Evolutionary Computing, and to active researchers in the field who can use this book as a reference and a source of recent results.