Understanding elementary landscapes

The landscape formalism unites a finite candidate solution set to a neighborhood topology and an objective function. This construct can be used to model the behavior of local search on combinatorial optimization problems. A landscape is elementary when it possesses a unique property that results in a relative smoothness and decomposability to its structure. In this paper we explain elementary landscapes in terms of the expected value of solution components which are transformed in the process of moving from an incumbent solution to a neighboring solution. We introduce new results about the properties of elementary landscapes and discuss the practical implications for search algorithms. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2.8 [Artificial Intelligence]: Problem Solving, Control Methods, and Search General Terms Theory Keywords Combinatorial Optimization, Local Search

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: GECCO
• Authors: Darrell Whitley, Andrew M. Sutton, Adele E. Howe
• Keywords: Combinatorial Optimization, Elementary Landscapes, GECCO 2008, Local Search, Optimization