Advantages and risks of genetic algorithms

It should be clear by now that genetic algorithms provide scientists with a powerful toolbox with which to optimize problems that:

  • Are poorly understood.
  • May have more than one good enough solutions.
  • Have discrete, discontinuous, and non-differentiable functions.
  • Can be easily integrated with the rules engine and knowledge bases (for example, learning classifiers systems).
  • Do not require deep domain knowledge. The genetic algorithm generates new solution candidates through genetic operators. The initial population does not have to contain the fittest solution.
  • Do not require knowledge of numerical methods such as the Newton-Raphson, conjugate gradient, or BFGS as optimization techniques, which frighten those with little inclination for mathematics.

However, evolutionary computation is not suitable for problems for which:

  • A fitness function cannot be clearly defined
  • Finding the global minimum or maximum is essential to the problem
  • The execution time has to be predictable
  • The solution has to be provided in real time or pseudo-real time
..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset