A Multi-population Approach to Dynamic Optimization Problems

Abstract

Time-dependent optimization problems pose a new challenge to evolutionary algorithms, since they not only require a search for the optimum, but also a continuous tracking of the optimum over time. In this paper, we will will use concepts from the ”forking GA” (a multi-population evolutionary algorithm proposed to find multiple peaks in a multi-modal landscape) to enhance search in a dynamic landscape. The algorithm uses a number of smaller populations to track the most promising peaks over time, while a larger parent population is continuously searching for new peaks. We will show that this approach is indeed suitable for dynamic optimization problems by testing it on the recently proposed Moving Peaks Benchmark.