Representations for evolutionary algorithms
Franz Rothlauf · 2008
Successful and efficient use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) depends on the choice of the problem representation - that is, the genotype and the mapping from genotype to phenotype - and on the choice of search operators that are applied to this representation. These choices cannot be made independently of each other. The question whether a certain representation leads to better performing EAs than an alternative representation can only be answered when the operators applied are taken into consideration. The reverse is also true: deciding between alternative operators is only meaningful for a given representation.