Recombination parameters
William Spears · 2000
Heuristics for Parameter-Setting Issues One operator that is often used in evolution strategies, genetic algorithms, and genetic programming is recombination, where material from two (or more) parents is used to create new offspring. There are numerous ways to implement recombination. This section will focus mainly on recombination operators that construct potentially useful solutions to a problem from smaller components (often called building blocks). This section gives an overview of some of the motivation, issues, theory, and heuristics for building block recombination. E1.3.1 General background Although Holland (1975) was not the first to suggest recombination in an evolutionary algorithm (EA) (see C3.3 e.g. Fraser 1957, Fogel et al 1966), he was the first to place theoretical emphasis on this operator. This emphasis stemmed from his work in adaptive systems, which resulted in the field of genetic algorithms B1.2 (GAs) and genetic programming. According to Holland, an adaptive system must persistently test and B1.5.1 incorporate structural properties associated with better performance. The object, of course, is to find new