Evolutionary Algorithms: An Overview

Evolutionary algorithms are bio-inspired algorithms based on Darwin’s theory of evolution. They are expected to provide non-optimal but good quality solutions to problems whose resolution is impracticable by exact methods.

In six chapters, this book presents the essential knowledge required to efficiently implement evolutionary algorithms.

Chapter 1 describes a generic evolutionary algorithm as well as the basic operators that compose it. Chapter 2 is devoted to the solving of continuous optimization problems, without constraint. Three leading approaches are described and compared on a set of test functions. Chapter 3 considers continuous optimization problems with constraints. Various approaches suitable for evolutionary methods are presented. Chapter 4 is related to combinatorial optimization. It provides a catalog of variation operators to deal with order-based problems. Chapter 5 introduces the basic notions required to understand the issue of multi-objective optimization and a variety of approaches for its application. Finally, Chapter 6 describes different approaches of genetic programming able to evolve computer programs in the context of machine learning.

Alain PÉTROWSKI is Associate Professor in the Department of Networks and Mobile Multimedia Services at the Telecom-SudParis, Institut Mines-Télécom, Paris-Saclay University, France. His main research interests are related to optimization, metaheuristics and machine learning.

Sana BEN-HAMIDA is Associate Professor at the Paris Ouest University and Associate Researcher at the Computer Science Laboratory of the Paris Dauphine University in France. Her main research interests include evolutionary computation, machine learning and related applications.