Title
An empirical study on the search directions of differential evolution
Abstract
Among various evolutionary computation methods, differential evolution (DE) is recognized as one of the most promising methods for solving continuous global optimization problems. Although DE has been used by many researchers, the reasons how and why it can generally solve such problems so well are not fully explained. To find the reasons, we study the common behavior of individuals in DE through various numerical experiments. Regarding DE as a multi-point directional search model, we investigate convergence and practicality of the search directions used by its individuals. Specifically, we focus on the characteristics of two difference vectors for each individual: (a) a vector from the target vector, i.e., the individual itself, to the corresponding mutant vector, and (b) another vector from it to the corresponding trial vector. The experimental results, in which famous benchmark problems are solved by DE/rand/1/bin, exhibit the phenomenon that both of the vectors (a) and (b) automatically decrease their length exponentially, and show the possibility that the mutant vectors improve the corresponding individuals more frequently than the trial vectors.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/CEC.2011.5949935
IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation
Keywords
Field
DocType
genetic algorithms,continuous global optimization,differential evolution,evolutionary computation method,mutant vector,target vector,differential evolution (DE),directional search,global optimization,promising direction,step length
Convergence (routing),Bin,Computer science,Artificial intelligence,Benchmark (computing),Empirical research,Genetic algorithm,Mathematical optimization,Global optimization,Evolutionary computation,Algorithm,Differential evolution,Machine learning
Conference
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
Pending
978-1-4244-7834-7
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.37
8
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kazuaki Masuda174.21
Hirofumi Yokota210.37
Kenzo Kurihara375.23