evolutionary programming

(EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived

by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960.

An initially random population of individuals (trial

solutions) is created. Mutations are then applied to each

individual to create new individuals. Mutations vary in the

severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual.

The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to

select which should survive to form the new population.

EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the

behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather

than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature

such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and

recombination by genetic crossover.

EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although

the two approaches developed independently. In EP, selection

is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other

individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic

selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the

population.

(1995-02-03)