Abstract
In this chapter we discuss the notion of Evolutionary Algorithm (EAs) parameters and propose a distinction between EAs and EA instances, based on the type of parameters used to specify their details. Furthermore, we consider the most important aspects of the parameter tuning problem and give an overview of existing parameter tuning methods. Finally, we elaborate on the methodological issues involved here and provide recommendations for further development.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Balaprakash, P., Birattari, M., and Stützle, T.: Improvement strategies for the F-race algorithm: Sampling design and iterative refinement. In: Hybrid Metaheuristics, pp., 108–122 (2007)
Bartz-Beielstein, T., Chiarandini, M., Paquete, L., and Preuss, M., editors, Empirical methods for the analysis of optimization algorithms. Springer (2010)
Bartz-Beielstein, T., Parsopoulos, K.E., and Vrahatis, M. N.: Analysis of particle swarm optimization using computational statistics. In: Chalkis, editor, Proceedings of the International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics (ICNAAM 2004), pp., 34–37 (2004)
Bartz-Beielstein, T.: Experimental analysis of evolution strategies: overview and comprehensive introduction. Technical Report Reihe CI 157/03, SFB 531, Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany (2003)
Bartz-Beielstein, T.: Experimental research in evolutionary computation—the new experimentalism. Natural Computing Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (2006)
Bartz-Beielstein, T., and Markon, S.: Tuning search algorithms for real-world applications: A regression tree based approach. Technical Report of the Collaborative Research Centre 531 Computational Intelligence CI-172/04, University of Dortmund, March (2004)
Bartz-Beielstein, T., and Preuss, M.: Considerations of budget allocation for sequential parameter optimization (SPO). In: Paquete, L., et al., editors, Workshop on Empirical Methods for the Analysis of Algorithms, Proceedings, pp., 35–40, Reykjavik, Iceland (2006)
Bechhofer, R. E., Dunnett, W. C., Goldsman, D. M., and Hartmann, M.: A comparison of the performances of procedures for selecting the normal population having the largest mean when populations have a common unknown variance. Communications in Statistics, B19:971–1006 (1990)
Birattari, M.: Tuning metaheuristics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (2005)
Birattari, M., Yuan, Z., Balaprakash, T., and Stützle, T.: F-frace and iterated F-frace: An overview. In: Bartz-Beielstein, T., et al. [2]
Branke, J., Chick, S. E., and Schmidt, C.: New developments in ranking and selection: An empirical comparison of the three main approaches. In: WSC ’05: Proceedings of the 37th Conference on Winter simulation, pp., 708–717. Winter Simulation Conference (2005)
Chen, J. E., Chen, C. H., and Kelton, D. W.: Optimal computing budget allocation of indifference-zone-selection procedures. Working paper, taken from http://www.cba.uc.edu/faculty/keltonwd (2003)
Clune, J., Goings, S., Punch, B., and Goodman, E.: Investigations in meta-GAs: Panaceas or pipe dreams? In: GECCO ’05: Proceedings of the 2005 Workshops on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp., 235–241, ACM (2005)
Eiben, A. E., Hinterding, R., and Michalewicz, Z.: Parameter control in evolutionary algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 3(2):124–141 (1999)
Eiben, A. E., and Jelasity, M.: A critical note on experimental research methodology in EC. In: Proceedings of the 2002 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC’2002), pp., 582–587. IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ (2002)
Eiben, A. E., and Smith, J. E.: Introduction to Evolutionary Computation. Natural Computing Series. Springer (2003)
Eiben, A. E., and Smith, J. E.: Introduction to evolutionary computing. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (2003)
Greffenstette, J. J.: Optimisation of control parameters for genetic algorithms. In: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, volume 16, pp., 122–128 (1986)
Harik, G. R., and Lobo, F. G.: A parameter-less genetic algorithm. In: Banzhaf, W., et al., editors, Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference GECCO-99, San Francisco, CA. Morgan Kaufmann, pp., 258–265 (1999)
Herdy, M.: Reproductive isolation as strategy parameter in hierarichally organized evolution strategies. In: Männer, R., and Manderick, B., editors, Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, pp., 209–209. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1992)
Lasarczyk, C. W. G.: Genetische programmierung einer algorithmischen chemie. Ph.D. thesis, Technische Universität Dortmund (2007)
Maron, O., and Moore, A.: The racing algorithm: model selection for lazy learners. In: Artificial Intelligence Review, volume 11, pp., 193–225 (1997)
Maturana, J., Lardeux, F., and Saubion, F.: Autonomous operator management for evolutionary algorithms. Journal of Heuristics 16, 881–909 (2010)
Mercer, R. E., and Sampson, J. R.: Adaptive search using a reproductive metaplan. Kybernetes, 7:215–228 (1978)
Myers, R., and Hancock, E. R.: Empirical modelling of genetic algorithms. Evolutionary Computation, 9(4):461–493 (2001)
Nannen, V.: Evolutionary agent-based policy analysis in Ddnamic Environments. Ph.D. thesis, Free University Amsterdam (2009)
Nannen, V., and Eiben, A. E.: Efficient relevance estimation and value calibration of evolutionary algorithm parameters. In: IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, pp., 103–110. IEEE (2007)
Nannen, V. and Eiben, A. E.: Relevance estimation and value calibration of evolutionary algorithm parameters. In: Veloso, M., editor, IJCAI 2007, Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp., 1034–1039 (2007)
Nannen, V. and Eiben, A. E.: A method for parameter calibration and relevance estimation in evolutionary algorithms. In: Keijzer, M. ,editor, Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2006), pp., 183–190. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2006)
Nannen, V., Smit, S. K., and Eiben, A. E.: Costs and benefits of tuning parameters of evolutionary algorithms. In: Rudolph, G., Jansen, T., Lucas, S., Poloni, C., and Beume,N. , editors, PPSN, volume 5199 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp., 528–538. Springer (2008)
Preuss, M.: Adaptability of algorithms for real-valued optimization. In: Giacobini, M., et al., editors, Applications of Evolutionary Computing, EvoWorkshops 2009. Proceedings, volume 5484 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp., 665–674, Berlin, Springer (2009)
Schaffer, J. D., Caruana, R. A., Eshelman, L. J., and Das, R.: A study of control parameters affecting online performance of genetic algorithms for function optimization. In: Proceedings of the Third International conference on Genetic algorithms, pp., 51–60,San Francisco, CA, USA, 1989. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. (1989)
Smit, S. K., and Eiben, A. E.: Comparing parameter tuning methods for evolutionary algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, pp., 399–406. IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, IEEE Press (2009)
Smit, S. K., and Eiben, A. E.: Using entropy for parameter analysis of evolutionary algorithms. In: Bartz-Beielstein, T., et al. [2]
Taguchi, G., and Yokoyama, T.: Taguchi methods: design of experiments. ASI Press (1993)
Wolpert, D. H., and Macready, W. G.: No free lunch theorems for optimization. IEEE Transaction on Evolutionary Computation, 1(1):67–82 (1997)
Yuan, B. and Gallagher, M.: Combining meta-EAs and racing for difficult EA parameter tuning tasks. In: Lobo, F. G., Lima, C. F., and Michalewicz, Z., editors, Parameter Setting in Evolutionary Algorithms, pp., 121–142. Springer (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eiben, A.E., Smit, S.K. (2011). Evolutionary Algorithm Parameters and Methods to Tune Them. In: Hamadi, Y., Monfroy, E., Saubion, F. (eds) Autonomous Search. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21434-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21434-9_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21433-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21434-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)