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Systems
Topic 5: Genetic
Algorithms
Genetic Algorithms
Introduction
How GAs work
The TSP as an example
Business Applications of GA
Advantages of GA systems
Some issues related to GA based systems
Case Study
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What is a genetic algorithm?
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What is a GA? (contd)
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Intelligence and Evolution
One way of understanding intelligence is as the capability of a creature
to adapt itself to an ever-changing environment
We normally think of adaptation as changes in the characteristics
(including behaviours) of a single animal in response to experiences
over its history
But adaptation is also change in the characteristics of a species, over
the generations, in response to environmental change
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Evolution as Optimisation
Evolution can be seen as a process leading to the optimisation of a
populations ability to survive and thus reproduce in a specific
environment.
Evolutionary fitness - the measure of the ability to respond adequately
to the environment, is the quantity that is actually optimised in natural
life
Consider a normal population of rabbits. Some rabbits are naturally
faster than others. Any characteristic has a range of variation that is due
to i) sexual reproduction and ii) mutation
We may say that the faster rabbits possess superior fitness, since they
have a greater chance of avoiding foxes, surviving and then breeding
If two parents have superior fitness, there is a good chance that a
combination of their genes will produce an offspring with even higher
fitness. We say that there is crossover between the parents genes
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How GAs work (contd)
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How solutions are represented
(contd)
The most common form of representing a solution as a
chromosome is a string of binary digits (aka a binary
vector) eg 1010110101001
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GA Selection
Selection in GA based on a process analogous to that
of biological evolution
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Alteration = Crossover + Mutation
Alteration refines good solutions from current generation to
produce next generation of solutions
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Crossover and Mutation
Mutation
A random adjustment in the genetic composition
Can be useful for introducing new characteristics in a
population
May be counterproductive
Probability kept low: typically 0.001 to 0.01
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An albino is a common mutation
The typical Genetic Algorithm
8. Go to step 4.
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The typical Genetic Algorithm
(contd)
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The Travelling Salesperson Problem
Given a set of n cities (A, B, C, ...) find a closed tour of all cities
with the shortest total distance d
1 million centuries for 50 cities at the rate of 1 billion tours per sec!
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The Travelling Salesperson Problem
In 1987, Martin Groetschel and Olaf Holland found an optimal tour of 666
interesting places in the world. Source: http://www.tsp.gatech.edu//index.html
The TSP example (contd)
CityList1 (3 5 7 2 1 6 4 8)
CityList2 (2 5 7 6 8 1 3 4)
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The TSP example (contd)
Representation and coding of TSP solutions
A solution to the TSP problem is an ordered list of the n
cities
Each city is assigned 1 out of n possible positions
Representation of the solution may be visualised as a
table:
Each row represents a city
Each column associated with a tour position for cities
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The TSP example (contd)
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Business Applications of GA
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Business Applications of GA (contd)
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Advantages of GA systems
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Advantages of GA systems
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Advantages of GA systems (cont'd)
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Advantages of GA systems (cont'd)
Scalability
Moderately scalable
Accommodates increased number of variables by
increasing the length of the chromosome
But
A longer chromosome means a larger population space
(more potential combinations of genes)
More time required for decoding and fitness evaluation
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Some issues related to GA based
systems (contd)
Data requirements
In general, GA do not require extensive access to data
but some applications may need it to evaluate solutions
This makes the quality and quantity of data is important
Local maxima
Local maxima are regions that hold good solutions
relative to regions around them, but which do not
necessarily contain the best overall solutions
The region(s) that contain the best solutions are called
global maxima
GAs are less prone to being trapped in local maxima
because of the use of mutation and crossover
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Some issues related to GA based
systems (contd)
Premature convergence
A GA is said to have converged prematurely if it
explores a local maximum extensively
Mutation interference
Finding a mutation rate which allows the GA to
converge but which also allows adequate exploration of
the solution space is essential for satisfactory
performance
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Case Study - Help Desk Task
Scheduling (Dhar & Stein 1997,
pp.219-227)
GA based system developed at Moodys for
scheduling service tasks to its customer
service representatives
Major constraints
The system
Must minimise computer downtime and customer
dissatisfaction
Must integrate with existing database system which kept track
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Case study constraints (contd)
Must be flexible to
Accommodate new types of task definitions and changes
in employee, training etc.
Allow administrator to modify solutions
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Possible solution methodologies
considered
1. Traditional linear programming (a numerical
optimisation technique)
2. A rule based expert system
3. A GA based system