Modeling the Performance of Evolutionary Algorithms on the Root Identification Problem: A Case Study with PBIL and CHC Algorithms

Abstract

The availability of a model to measure the performance of evolutionary algorithms is very important, especially when these algorithms are applied to solve problems with high computational requirements. That model would compute an index of the quality of the solution reached by the algorithm as a function of run-time. Conversely, if we fix an index of quality for the solution, the model would give the number of iterations to be expected. In this work, we develop a statistical model to describe the performance of PBIL and CHC evolutionary algorithms applied to solve the root identification problem. This problem is basic in constraint-based, geometric parametric modeling, as an instance of general constraint-satisfaction problems. The performance model is empirically validated over a benchmark with very large search spaces.