Smart Starts: Accelerating Convergence Through Uncommon Region Exploration
Xinyu Zhang, Mário Antunes, Tyler Estro, Erez Zadok, Klaus D. Mueller · Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion · 2025
Initialization profoundly affects evolutionary algorithm (EA) efficacy by dictating search trajectories and convergence. This study introduces a hybrid initialization strategy combining empty-space search algorithm (ESA) and opposition-based learning (OBL). OBL initially generates a diverse population, subsequently augmented by ESA, which identifies under-explored regions. This synergy enhances population diversity, accelerates convergence, and improves EA performance on complex, high-dimensional optimization problems. Benchmark results demonstrate the proposed method's superiority in solution quality and convergence speed compared to conventional initialization techniques.