Adaptive evolutionary programming based on reinforcement learning

Abstract

This paper studies evolutionary programming and adopts reinforcement learning theory to learn individual mutation operators. A novel algorithm named RLEP (Evolutionary Programming based on Reinforcement Learning) is proposed. In this algorithm, each individual learns its optimal mutation operator based on the immediate and delayed performance of mutation operators. Mutation operator selection is mapped into a reinforcement learning problem. Reinforcement learning methods are used to learn optimal policies by maximizing the accumulated rewards. According to the calculated Q function value of each candidate mutation operator, an optimal mutation operator can be selected to maximize the learned Q function value. Four different mutation operators have been employed as the basic candidate operators in RLEP and one is selected for each individual in different generations. Our simulation shows the performance of RLEP is the same as or better than the best of the four basic mutation operators.