Abstract
Population size in evolutionary algorithms (EAs) is critical for their performance. In this paper, we first give a comprehensive review of existing population control methods. Then, a few representative methods are selected and empirically compared on a range of well-known benchmark functions to show their pros and cons.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
De Jong, K.: Parameter setting in EAs: a 30 year perspective. In: Lobo, F.G., Lima, C.F., Michalewicz, Z. (eds.) Parameter Setting in Evolutionary Algorithms. SCI, vol. 54, pp. 1–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69432-8_1
Costa, J.C., Tavares, R., Rosa, A.: An experimental study on dynamic random variation of population size. In: 1999 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, IEEE SMC 1999 Conference Proceedings, vol. 1, pp. 607–612. IEEE (1999)
Eiben, Á.E., Hinterding, R., Michalewicz, Z.: Parameter control in evolutionary algorithms. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 3(2), 124–141 (1999)
Eiben, A.E., Marchiori, E., Valkó, V.A.: Evolutionary algorithms with on-the-fly population size adjustment. In: Yao, X., et al. (eds.) PPSN 2004. LNCS, vol. 3242, pp. 41–50. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30217-9_5
Hu, T., Banzhaf, W.: The role of population size in rate of evolution in genetic programming. In: Vanneschi, L., Gustafson, S., Moraglio, A., De Falco, I., Ebner, M. (eds.) EuroGP 2009. LNCS, vol. 5481, pp. 85–96. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01181-8_8
Romero, G., Mora, A.M., Fernandes, C.: Studying the effect of population size in distributed evolutionary algorithms on heterogeneous clusters. Appl. Soft. Comput. 38(C), 530–547 (2016)
Goldberg, D.E.: Sizing populations for serial and parallel genetic algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Genetic Algorithms, pp. 70–79 (1989)
Schaffer, J.: A study of control parameters affecting online performance of genetic algorithms for function optimization, San Meteo, California (1989)
Smith, R.E., Smuda, E.: Adaptively resizing populations: algorithm, analysis, and first results. Complex Syst. 9, 47–72 (1995)
Weise, T., Wu, Y., Chiong, R.J.: Global versus local search: the impact of population sizes on evolutionary algorithm performance. J. Global. Optim. 66(3), 511–534 (2016)
Arabas, J., Michalewicz, Z., Mulawka, J.: GAVaPS-a genetic algorithm with varying population size. In: Proceedings of the First IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, pp. 73–78. IEEE (1994)
Fernández, F., Tomassini, M., Vanneschi, L.: An empirical study of multipopulation genetic programming. Genetic Program. Evol. Mach. 4(1), 21–51 (2003)
Brest, J., Maučec, M.S.: Population size reduction for the differential evolution algorithm. Appl. Intell. 29(3), 228–247 (2008)
Ahrari, A., Shariat-Panahi, M.: An improved evolution strategy with adaptive population size. Optimization 64(12), 2567–2586 (2015)
Karafotias, G., Hoogendoorn, M., Eiben, Á.E.: Parameter control in evolutionary algorithms: trends and challenges. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 19(2), 167–187 (2015)
Piotrowski, A.P.: Review of differential evolution population size. Swarm Evol. Comput. 32, 1–24 (2017)
Holdener, E.A.: The art of parameterless evolutionary algorithms. Ph.D. thesis, Missouri University of Science and Technology (2008)
Goldberg, D.E., Deb, K., Clark, J.H.: Genetic algorithms, noise, and the sizing of populations. Urbana 51, 61801 (1991)
Reeves, C.R.: Using genetic algorithms with small populations. In: ICGA, vol. 590, p. 92 (1993)
Goldberg, D.E., Sastry, K., Latoza, T.: On the supply of building blocks. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 336–342. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. (2001)
De Jong, K.A.: Analysis of the behavior of a class of genetic adaptive systems (1975)
Harik, G., Cantú-Paz, E., Goldberg, D.E., Miller, B.L.: The Gambler’s ruin problem, genetic algorithms, and the sizing of populations. Evol. Comput. 7(3), 231–253 (1999)
Fernandez, F., Vanneschi, L., Tomassini, M.: The effect of plagues in genetic programming: a study of variable-size populations. In: Ryan, C., Soule, T., Keijzer, M., Tsang, E., Poli, R., Costa, E. (eds.) EuroGP 2003. LNCS, vol. 2610, pp. 317–326. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36599-0_29
Fernandez, F., Tomassini, M., Vanneschi, L.: Saving computational effort in genetic programming by means of plagues. In: The 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2003, vol. 3, pp. 2042–2049. IEEE (2003)
de Vega, F.F., Cantú-Paz, E., López, J.I., Manzano, T.: Saving resources with plagues in genetic algorithms. In: Yao, X., et al. (eds.) PPSN 2004. LNCS, vol. 3242, pp. 272–281. Springer, Heidelberg (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30217-9_28
Brest, J., Zamuda, A., Fister, I., Maučec, M.S.: Large scale global optimization using self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm. In: 2010 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 1–8. IEEE (2010)
Brest, J., Maučec, M.S.: Self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm using population size reduction and three strategies. Soft Comput. 15(11), 2157–2174 (2011)
Zamuda, A., Brest, J., Mezura-Montes, E.: Structured population size reduction differential evolution with multiple mutation strategies on CEC 2013 real parameter optimization. In: 2013 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 1925–1931. IEEE (2013)
Yang, M., Cai, Z., Guan, J., Gong, W.: Differential evolution with improved population reduction. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference Companion on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 143–144. ACM (2011)
Ali, M.Z., Awad, N.H., Suganthan, P.N., Reynolds, R.G.: An adaptive multipopulation differential evolution with dynamic population reduction. IEEE Trans. Cybern. 47(9), 2768–2779 (2017)
Iacca, G., Mallipeddi, R., Mininno, E., Neri, F.: Super-fit and population size reduction in compact differential evolution. In: Memetic Computing, pp. 1–8 (2011)
Zamuda, A., Brest, J.: Population reduction differential evolution with multiple mutation strategies in real world industry challenges. In: Rutkowski, L., Korytkowski, M., Scherer, R., Tadeusiewicz, R., Zadeh, L.A., Zurada, J.M. (eds.) EC/SIDE -2012. LNCS, vol. 7269, pp. 154–161. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29353-5_18
Brest, J., Zamuda, A., Fister, I., Maučec, M.S., et al.: Self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm with a small and varying population size. In: 2012 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 1–8. IEEE (2012)
Neri, F., Tirronen, V.: Recent advances in differential evolution: a survey and experimental analysis. Artif. Intell. Rev. 33(1–2), 61–106 (2010)
Koumousis, V.K., Katsaras, C.P.: A saw-tooth genetic algorithm combining the effects of variable population size and reinitialization to enhance performance. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 10(1), 19–28 (2006)
Koumousis, V., Dimou, C.: The effect of oscillating population size on the performance of genetic algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 4th GRACM Congress on Computational Mechanics (2002)
Tanabe, R., Fukunaga, A.S.: Improving the search performance of shade using linear population size reduction. In: 2014 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 1658–1665. IEEE (2014)
Yuan, X., Zhang, B., Wang, P., Liang, J., Yuan, Y., Huang, Y., Lei, X.: Multi-objective optimal power flow based on improved strength pareto evolutionary algorithm. Energy 122, 70–82 (2017)
Polakova, R., Tvrdik, J., Bujok, P.: Evaluating the performance of l-shade with competing strategies on CEC 2014 single parameter-operator test suite. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, pp. 1181–1187 (2016)
Viktorin, A., Pluhacek, M., Senkerik, R.: Network based linear population size reduction in shade. In: International Conference on Intelligent Networking and Collaborative Systems, pp. 86–93 (2016)
Guo, S.M., Tsai, S.H., Yang, C.C., Hsu, P.H.: A self-optimization approach for l-shade incorporated with eigenvector-based crossover and successful-parent-selecting framework on CEC 2015 benchmark set. In: Evolutionary Computation, pp. 1003–1010 (2015)
Zheng, Y.J., Zhang, B.: A simplified water wave optimization algorithm. In: Evolutionary Computation, pp. 807–813 (2015)
Montiel, O., Castillo, O., Melin, P., Sepúlveda, R.: Intelligent control of dynamic population size for evolutionary algorithms. In: IC-AI, pp. 551–557 (2006)
Wang, H., Rahnamayan, S., Wu, Z.: Adaptive differential evolution with variable population size for solving high-dimensional problems. In: 2011 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), pp. 2626–2632. IEEE (2011)
Wang, X., Zhao, S., Jin, Y., Zhang, L.: Differential evolution algorithm based on self-adaptive adjustment mechanism. In: 2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC), pp. 577–581. IEEE (2013)
Elsayed, S.M., Sarker, R.A.: Differential evolution with automatic population injection scheme for constrained problems. In: 2013 IEEE Symposium on Differential Evolution (SDE), pp. 112–118. IEEE (2013)
Zhang, C., Chen, J., Xin, B., Cai, T., Chen, C.: Differential evolution with adaptive population size combining lifetime and extinction mechanisms. In: 2011 8th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), pp. 1221–1226. IEEE (2011)
Zhao, S., Wang, X., Chen, L., Zhu, W.: A novel self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm with population size adjustment scheme. Arab. J. Sci. Eng. 39(8), 6149–6174 (2014)
Schlierkamp-Voosen, D., Muhlenbein, H.: Adaptation of population sizes by competing subpopulations. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computation, pp. 330–335. IEEE (1996)
Smorodkina, E., Tauritz, D.: Greedy population sizing for evolutionary algorithms. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2007, pp. 2181–2187. IEEE (2007)
Hinterding, R., Michalewicz, Z., Peachey, T.C.: Self-adaptive genetic algorithm for numeric functions. In: Voigt, H.-M., Ebeling, W., Rechenberg, I., Schwefel, H.-P. (eds.) PPSN 1996. LNCS, vol. 1141, pp. 420–429. Springer, Heidelberg (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61723-X_1006
Harik, G.R., Lobo, F.G.: A parameter-less genetic algorithm. In: Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, vol. 1, pp. 258–265. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. (1999)
Zhan, Z.H., Zhang, J.: Co-evolutionary differential evolution with dynamic population size and adaptive migration strategy. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference Companion on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 211–212. ACM (2011)
Fernándes, C., Rosa, A.C., Rosa, A.C.: NiGaVaPS - a outbreeding in genetic algorithms. In: ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 477–482 (2000)
Fernándes, C., Rosa, A.: Self-regulated population size in evolutionary algorithms. In: International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, pp. 920–929 (2006)
Fernándes, C., Rosa, A., Pais, A.R., Norte, T.: A study on non-random mating and varying population size in genetic algorithms using a royal road function. In: Proceedings of the 2001 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, vol. 1, pp. 60–66 (2001)
Lee, H.S., Lee, J.H., Kim, E.T.: Optimal classifier ensemble design for vehicle detection using GAVaPS. J. Inst. Control Robot. Syst. 16(1), 96–100 (2010)
Bäck, T., Eiben, A.E., Van Der Vaart, N.A.L.: An empirical study on gas “Without Parameters”. In: International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, pp. 315–324 (2000)
Iorio, A., Li, X.: Parameter control within a co-operative co-evolutionary genetic algorithm. In: Guervós, J.J.M., Adamidis, P., Beyer, H.-G., Schwefel, H.-P., Fernández-Villacañas, J.-L. (eds.) PPSN 2002. LNCS, vol. 2439, pp. 247–256. Springer, Heidelberg (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45712-7_24
Vellev, S.: An adaptive genetic algorithm with dynamic population size for optimizing join queries. Adv. Res. Artif. Int. 82, 82–88 (2008)
Cook, J.E., Tauritz, D.R.: An exploration into dynamic population sizing. In: Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 807–814 (2010)
Krishnakumar, K.: Micro-genetic algorithms for stationary and non-stationary function optimization. In: 1989 Symposium on Visual Communications, Image Processing, and Intelligent Robotics Systems, pp. 289–296. International Society for Optics and Photonics (1990)
Coello, C.A., Pulido, G.T.: Multiobjective optimization using a micro-genetic algorithm. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 274–282. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. (2001)
Xu, Y., Liu, G.: Detection of flaws in composites from scattered elastic-wave field using an improved \(\mu \)GA and a local optimizer. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. 191(36), 3929–3946 (2002)
Ryoo, J., Hajela, P.: Handling variable string lengths in GA-based structural topology optimization. Struct. Multidiscip. Optim. 26(5), 318–325 (2004)
Khor, E.F., Tan, K.C., Wang, M.L., Lee, T.H.: Evolutionary algorithm with dynamic population size for multi-objective optimization. In: Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IECON 2000, vol. 4, pp. 2768–2773 (2000)
Tan, K.C., Lee, T.H., Khor, E.F.: Evolutionary algorithms with dynamic population size and local exploration for multiobjective optimization. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 5(6), 565–588 (2001)
Liang, Y., Leung, K.S.: Genetic algorithm with adaptive elitist-population strategies for multimodal function optimization. Appl. Soft. Comput. 11(2), 2017–2034 (2011)
Yang, M., Cai, Z., Guan, J., Guan, J.: An improved adaptive differential evolution algorithm with population adaptation. In: Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 145–152 (2013)
Ding, M., Chen, H., Lin, N., Jing, S., Liu, F., Liang, X., Liu, W.: Dynamic population artificial bee colony algorithm for multi-objective optimal power flow. Saudi. J. Biol. Sci. 24(3), 703–710 (2017)
Auger, A., Hansen, N.: A restart CMA evolution strategy with increasing population size. In: The 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, vol. 2, pp. 1769–1776 (2005)
Shi, E.C., Leung, F.H.F., Law, B.N.F.: Differential evolution with adaptive population size. In: International Conference on Digital Signal Processing, pp. 876–881 (2014)
Smith, R.E., Smuda, E.: Adaptively resizing populations: algorithm, analysis, and first results. Complex Syst. (1993)
Tirronen, V., Neri, F.: Differential evolution with fitness diversity self-adaptation. In: Chiong, R. (ed.) Nature-Inspired Algorithms for Optimisation. SCI, vol. 193, pp. 199–234. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00267-0_7
Wagner, N., Michalewicz, Z.: Genetic Programming with Efficient Population Control for Financial Time Series Prediction (2001)
Wagner, N., Michalewicz, Z.: Parameter Adaptation for GP Forecasting Applications (2007)
Wagner, N., Michalewicz, Z., Khouja, M., Mcgregor, R.R.: Time series forecasting for dynamic environments: the DyFor genetic program model. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 11(4), 433–452 (2007)
Teo, J.: Exploring dynamic self-adaptive populations in differential evolution. Soft Comput. 10(8), 673–686 (2006)
Eiben, A.E., Schut, M.C., Wilde, A.R.D.: Is self-adaptation of selection pressure and population size possible?: a case study. In: International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, pp. 900–909 (2006)
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61573316).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Guan, Y., Yang, L., Sheng, W. (2017). Population Control in Evolutionary Algorithms: Review and Comparison. In: He, C., Mo, H., Pan, L., Zhao, Y. (eds) Bio-inspired Computing: Theories and Applications. BIC-TA 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 791. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7179-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7179-9_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7178-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7179-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)