Genetic Algorithm: Review and Application

Abstract

Genetic algorithms are considered as a search process used in computing to find exact or a approximate solution for optimization and search problems. There are also termed as global search heuristics. These techniques are inspired by evolutionary biology such as inheritance mutation, selection and cross over. These algorithms provide a technique for program to automatically improve their parameters. This paper is an introduction of genetic algorithm approach including various applications and described the integration of genetic algorithm with object oriented programming approaches. The Genetic algorithm is an adaptive heuristic search method based on population genetics. Genetic algorithm were introduced by John Holland in the early 1970s (1).Genetic algorithm is a probabilistic search algorithm based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics. Genetic algorithm is started with a set of solutions called population. A solution is represented by a chromosome. The population size is preserved throughout each generation. At each generation, fitness of each chromosome is evaluated, and then chromosomes for the next generation are probabilistically selected according to their fitness values. Some of the selected chromosomes randomly mate and produce offspring. When producing offspring, crossover and mutation randomly occurs. Because chromosomes with high fitness values have high probability of being selected, chromosomes of the new generation may have higher average fitness value than those of the old generation. The process of evolution is repeated until the end condition is satisfied. The solutions in genetic algorithms are called chromosomes or strings (2). In most cases, chromosomes are represented by lists or strings. Thus, many operations in genetic algorithm are operations on lists or strings. The very high level languages like Python or Perl are more productive in list processing or string processing than C/C++/Java. In bioinformatics, Python or Perl is widely used. A genetic algorithm is a search technique used in computing to find exact or approximate solutions to