Sensitiveness of evolutionary algorithms to the random number generator

Abstract

This article presents an empirical study of the impact of the change of the Random Number Generator over the performance of four Evolutionary Algorithms: Particle Swarm Optimisation, Differential Evolution, Genetic Algorithm and Firefly Algorithm. Random Number Generators are a key piece in the production of e-science, including optimisation problems by Evolutionary Algorithms. However, Random Number Generator ought to be carefully selected taking into account the quality of the generator. In order to analyse the impact over the performance of an evolutionary algorithm due to the change of Random Number Generator, a huge production of simulated data is necessary as well as the use of statistical techniques to extract relevant information from large data set. To support this production, a grid computing infrastructure has been employed. In this study, the most frequently employed high-quality Random Number Generators and Evolutionary Algorithms are coupled in order to cover the widest portfolio of cases. As consequence of this study, an evaluation about the impact of the use of different Random Number Generators over the final performance of the Evolutionary Algorithm is stated. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.