Structure in Genetic Algorithms

Recent empirical and theoretical studies have shown that simple parameters characterizing the structure of many constraint satisfaction problems also predict the cost to solve them, on average. We apply these observations to improve the performance of genetic algorithms. In particular, we use a simple cost measure to evaluate the likely solution difficulty of the different unsolved subproblems appearing in the population. This is used to determine which individuals contribute to subsequent generations and improves upon the traditional direct use of the underlying cost function. As a specific test case, we used the GENESIS genetic algorithm to search for the optimum of a class of random Walsh polynomials. We also discuss extensions to other types of machine learning and problem solving systems.