On the Virtues of Parameterized Uniform Crossover

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OntheVirtuesofParameterizedUniformCrossoverWilliamM.SpearsKennethA.DeJongNavalResearchLaboratoryGeorgeMasonUniversityWashington,D.C.20375USAFairfax,VA22030USAspears@aic.nrl.navy.milkdejong@aic.gmu.edu

AbstractTraditionally,geneticalgorithmshavereliedupon1and2-pointcrossoveroperators.Manyrecentempir-icalstudies,however,haveshownthebenefitsofhighernumbersofcrossoverpoints.Someofthemostintriguingrecentworkhasfocusedonuniformcrossover,whichinvolvesontheaverageL/2cross-overpointsforstringsoflengthL.Theoreticalresultssuggestthat,fromtheviewofhyperplanesamplingdisruption,uniformcrossoverhasfewredeemingfeatures.However,agrowingbodyofexperimentalevidencesuggestsotherwise.Inthispaper,weattempttoreconciletheseopposingviewsofuniformcrossoverandpresentaframeworkforunderstandingitsvirtues.

1IntroductionOneoftheuniqueaspectsoftheworkinvolvinggeneticalgorithms(GAs)istheimportantrolethatrecombinationplays.InmostGAs,recombinationisimplementedbymeansofacrossoveroperatorwhichoperatesonpairsofindividuals(parents)toproducenewoffspringbyexchangingsegmentsfromtheparents’geneticmaterial.Traditionally,thenumberofcrossoverpoints(whichdetermineshowmanysegmentsareexchanged)hasbeenfixedataverylowconstantvalueof1or2.Supportforthisdecisioncamefromearlyworkofbothatheoreticalandempiricalnature[Holland,1975;DeJong,1975].However,therecontinuetobeindicationsthattherearesituationsinwhichhavingahighernumberofcrossoverpointsisbeneficial[Syswerda,1989;Eschelman,1989].Perhapsthemostsurprisingresult(fromatraditionalper-spective)istheeffectivenessonsomeproblemsofuni-formcrossover,anoperatorwhichproducesontheaver-ageL/2crossingsonstringsoflengthL[Syswerda,1989].

Recentworkby[SpearsandDeJong,1990]hasextendedthetheoreticalanalysisofn-pointanduniformcrossoverwithrespecttodisruptionofsamplingdistributions.

However,theypointedoutthatdisruptionanalysisaloneisnotsufficientingeneraltopredictand/orselectoptimalformsofcrossover.Inparticular,theyhaveshownthatthepopulationsizemustalsobetakenintoaccount[DeJongandSpears,1990].Thispaperextendsthatworkbylookingatthepropertiesofaparameterizeduniformcrossoveroperatorandbyconsideringtwootheraspectsofcrossoveroperators,namely,theirrecombinationpotentialandtheirexploratorypower.Inthiscontext,asurprisinglypositiveviewofuniformcrossoveremerges.

2DisruptionAnalysisHollandprovidedtheinitialformalanalysisofthebehaviorofGAsbyshowinghowtheyallocatetrialsinanearoptimalwaytocompetingloworderhyperplanesifthedisruptiveeffectsofthegeneticoperatorsusedisnottoosevere[Holland,1975].Sincemutationistypicallyrunataverylowrate,itisgenerallyignoredasasignificantsourceofdisruption.However,crossoverisusuallyappliedataveryhighrate.So,considerableattentionhasbeengiventoestimatingPd,theprobabilitythataparticularapplicationofcrossoverwillbedisrup-tive.

Holland’sinitialanalysisofthesamplingdisruptionof1-pointcrossover[Holland,1975]hasbeenextendedton-pointanduniformcrossover[DeJong,1975;SpearsandDeJong,1990].Theseresultsareintheformofestimatesofthelikelihoodthatthesamplingofakthorderhyper-plane(Hk)willbedisruptedbyaparticularformofcross-over.Itturnsouttobeeasiermathematicallytoestimatethecomplementofdisruption:thelikelihoodofasamplesurvivingcrossover(whichwedenoteasPs).Asonemightexpect,theresultsareafunctionofboththeorderkofthehyperplaneanditsdefininglength(seetheAppen-dixand[SpearsandDeJong,1990]formoreprecisedetails).

WeprovideinFigure1agraphicalsummaryofatypicalinstanceoftheseresultsforthecaseof3rdorderhyper-planes.Thenon-horizontalcurvesrepresentthesurvival

1of3rdorderhyperplanesundern-pointcrossover(n = 1...6).Thehorizontallinerepresentstheprobabilityofsurvivalunderuniformcrossover.Figure1highlightstwoimportantpoints.First,ifweinterprettheareaaboveaparticularcurveasameasureofthecumulativedisrup-tionpotentialofitsassociatedcrossoveroperator,thenthesecurvessuggestthat2-pointcrossoveristheleastdisruptiveofthen-pointcrossoverfamily,andlessdis-ruptivethanuniformcrossover.Finally,unliken-pointcrossover,uniformcrossoverdisruptsallhyperplanesoforderkwithequalprobability,regardlessofhowlongorshorttheirdefininglengthsare.3APositiveViewofCrossoverDisruptionArecurringthemeinHolland’sworkistheimportanceofaproperbalancebetweenexplorationandexploitationwhenadaptivelysearchinganunknownspaceforhighperformancesolutions[Holland,1975].Thedisruptionanalysisoftheprevioussectionimplicitlyassumesthatdisruptionofthesamplingdistributionsisabadthingandtobeavoided(e.g.,ahighdisruptionmaystressexplora-tionattheexpenseofexploitation).However,thisisnotalwaysthecase.Thereareimportantsituationsinwhichminimizingdisruptionhinderstheadaptivesearchpro-cessbyoveremphasizingexploitationattheexpenseofneededexploration.Oneoftheclearestexamplesofthisiswhenthepopulationsizeistoosmalltoprovidethenecessarysamplingaccuracyforcomplexsearchspaces[DeJongandSpears,1990].Toillustratethiswehaveselecteda30bitproblemwith6peaksfrom[DeJongandSpears,1990].Themeasureofperformanceissimplythebestindividualfoundbythegeneticalgorithm.Thisisplottedevery100evaluations.Sincewearemaximizing,highercurvesrepresentbetterPsDefiningLength0.50.60.70.80.910.50.60.70.80.91L/2L2pt1pt1ptuniformFigure1.Survivalof3rdOrderHyperplanesperformance.Figures2and3illustratetheeffectofpopulationsizeonGAperformance.Noticehowuniformcrossoverdominates2-pointcrossoveronthe6-Peakproblemwithasmallpopulation,butjusttheoppositeistruewithalargepopulation.