The blob code is competitive with edge-sets in genetic algorithms for the minimum routing cost spanning tree problem

Among the many codings of spanning trees for evolutionary search are those based on bijections between Pr¨ufer strings—strings of n−2 vertex labels—and spanning trees on the labeled vertices. One of these bijections, called the Blob Code, showed promise as an evolutionary coding, but EAs that use it to represent spanning trees have not performed well. Here, a genetic algorithm that represents spanning trees via the Blob Code is faster than, and returns results competitive with those of, a GA that encodes spanning trees as edge-sets on Euclidean instances of the minimum routing cost spanning tree problem. On instances whose edge weights have been chosen at random, the Blob-coded GA maintains its time advantage, but its results are inferior to those of the edge-set-coded GA, and both GAs are hard pressed to keep up with a simple stochastic hill-climber on all the test instances. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: GECCO
• Authors: Bryant A. Julstrom
• Keywords: Blob Code, GECCO 2005, Labels—and Spanning Trees, Spanning Tree