Evolutionary Algorithm with a Configurable Search Mechanism

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new population-based evolutionary algorithm that automatically configures the used search mechanism during its operation, which consists in choosing for each individual of the population a single evolutionary operator from the pool. The pool of operators comes from various evolutionary algorithms. With this idea, a flexible balance between exploration and exploitation of the problem domain can be achieved. The approach proposed in this paper might offer an inspirational alternative in creating evolutionary algorithms and their modifications. Moreover, different strategies for mutating those parts of individuals that encode the used search operators are also taken into account. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been tested using typical benchmarks used to test evolutionary algorithms.