The effectiveness of co-mutation in evolutionary algorithms: theMscr;_ijn operator

摘要

A new mutation operator, designated ℳ_ijn, which iscapable of operating on a set of adjacent bits in one single step, isintroduced. Its properties are examined and compared against those ofthe bit-flip mutation. A simple evolutionary algorithm is describedwhich is based only on selection and ℳ_ijn. Thisalgorithm is used for the optimization of a well-known problem testbed,and its performance is compared against that offered by both a classicalgenetic algorithm and a more sophisticated one. The obtained resultsprove the effectiveness of the ℳ_ijn operator