Title
A survey of techniques for characterising fitness landscapes and some possible ways forward
Abstract
Real-world optimisation problems are often very complex. Metaheuristics have been successful in solving many of these problems, but the difficulty in choosing the best approach can be a huge challenge for practitioners. One approach to this dilemma is to use fitness landscape analysis to better understand problems before deciding on approaches to solving the problems. However, despite extensive research on fitness landscape analysis and a large number of developed techniques, very few techniques are used in practice. This could be because fitness landscape analysis in itself can be complex. In an attempt to make fitness landscape analysis techniques accessible, this paper provides an overview of techniques from the 1980s to the present. Attributes that are important for practical implementation are highlighted and ways of adapting techniques to be more feasible or appropriate are suggested. The survey reveals the wide range of factors that can influence problem difficulty, emphasising the need for a shift in focus away from predicting problem hardness towards measuring characteristics. It is hoped that this survey will invoke renewed interest in the field of understanding complex optimisation problems and ultimately lead to better decision making on the use of appropriate metaheuristics.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.ins.2013.04.015
Inf. Sci.
Keywords
Field
DocType
developed technique,problem hardness,best approach,real-world optimisation problem,problem difficulty,appropriate metaheuristics,possible way,characterising fitness landscape,fitness landscape analysis technique,complex optimisation problem,better decision,fitness landscape analysis,fitness landscape
Fitness landscape,Landscape analysis,Dilemma,Management science,Mathematics,Metaheuristic
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
241,
0020-0255
68
PageRank 
References 
Authors
2.07
53
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Katherine Malan116212.77
Andries P. Engelbrecht266061.64