Non-Linear Genetic Representations
Nicholas J. Radcliffe · 1992
The limitations of linear chromosomes and conventional recombination operators are reviewed. It is argued that there are at least three classes of problems for which such representations and operators are likely to be ineffective. Methods for constructing operators which manipulate more complex structures with evolutionary search methods are presented, and it is argued that whenever possible, genetic operators and analogues of schemata should be defined directly in space of phenotypes, rather than in the genotype (representation) space. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper considers the implications of earlier theoretical work on evolutionary search concerning the relationship between genetic representation, idealised genetic operators and performance correlations between solutions in the search space. The central thesis of the paper is that for many problems conventional linear chromosomes and recombination operators are inadequate for effective genetic search, and that for general problems no...