Real-coded Genetic Algorithms, Virtual Alphabets, and Blocking
David E. Goldberg
Department of General Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Abstract
This paper presents a theory of convergence for real-coded genetic algorithms---GAs that use floating-point or other high-cardinality codings in their chromosomes. The theory is consistent with the theory of schemata and postulates that selection dominates early GA performance and restricts subsequent search to intervals with above-average function values, dimension-by-dimension. These intervals may be further subdivided on the basis of their attraction under genetic hillclimbing. Each of these subintervals is called a virtual character, and the collection of characters along a given dimension is called a virtual alphabet. It is the virtual alphabet that is searched during the recombinative phase of the genetic algorithm, and in many problems this is sufficient to ensure that good solutions are found. Although the theory helps suggest why many problems have been solved using real-coded GAs, it also suggests that real-coded GAs can be blocked from further progress in those situations when local optima separate the virtual characters from the global optimum.
