Using gene deletion and gene duplication in evolution strategies

Self-adaptation of the mutation strengths is a powerful mechanism in evolution strategies (ES), but it can fail. As a consequence premature convergence or ending up in a local optimum in multi-modal fitness landscapes can occur. In this article a new approach controlling the process of selfadaptation is proposed. This approach combines the old ideas of gene deletion and gene duplication with the selfadaptation mechanism of the ES. Gene deletion and gene duplication is used to vary the number of independent mutation strengths. In order to demonstrate the practicability of the new approach several multi-modal test functions are used. Methods from statistical design of experiments and regression tree methods are applied to improve the performance of a specific heuristic-problem combination. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.6 [Simulation and Modeling]: Model Development General Terms Algorithms Keywords Evolution strategy, self-adaptation, gene duplication

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: GECCO
• Authors: Karlheinz Schmitt
• Keywords: GECCO 2005, Gene Deletion, Gene Duplication, Mutation Strengths