Population in an Evolutionary Trap: Simulation of Natural Exploration

The aim of the presented paper is to introduce and compare three novel mechanisms: Simple Variance Adaptation (SVA), Forced Direction of Mutation (FDM) and Deterioration of the Objective Function (DOF), which accelerate the global optimization ability of evolutionary algorithms. The evolutionary algorithm considered here, called Evolutionary Search with Soft Selection (ESSS), is based on the simplest selection-mutation model of phenotype evolution [5]. The comparison analysis is made using two kinds of simulation experiments. The first one is focused on the saddle crossing ability of the algorithm considered. In the second one, chosen global optimization problems are solved.