Book Image

Hands-On Genetic Algorithms with Python

By : Eyal Wirsansky
Book Image

Hands-On Genetic Algorithms with Python

By: Eyal Wirsansky

Overview of this book

Genetic algorithms are a family of search, optimization, and learning algorithms inspired by the principles of natural evolution. By imitating the evolutionary process, genetic algorithms can overcome hurdles encountered in traditional search algorithms and provide high-quality solutions for a variety of problems. This book will help you get to grips with a powerful yet simple approach to applying genetic algorithms to a wide range of tasks using Python, covering the latest developments in artificial intelligence. After introducing you to genetic algorithms and their principles of operation, you'll understand how they differ from traditional algorithms and what types of problems they can solve. You'll then discover how they can be applied to search and optimization problems, such as planning, scheduling, gaming, and analytics. As you advance, you'll also learn how to use genetic algorithms to improve your machine learning and deep learning models, solve reinforcement learning tasks, and perform image reconstruction. Finally, you'll cover several related technologies that can open up new possibilities for future applications. By the end of this book, you'll have hands-on experience of applying genetic algorithms in artificial intelligence as well as in numerous other domains.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Basics of Genetic Algorithms
4
Section 2: Solving Problems with Genetic Algorithms
9
Section 3: Artificial Intelligence Applications of Genetic Algorithms
14
Section 4: Related Technologies

Limitations of genetic algorithms

To get the most out of genetic algorithms, we need to be aware of their limitations and potential pitfalls.

The limitations of genetic algorithms are as follows:

  • The need for special definitions
  • The need for hyperparameter tuning
  • Computationally-intensive operations
  • The risk of premature convergence
  • No guaranteed solution

We will cover each of these in the upcoming sections.

Special definitions

When applying genetic algorithms to a given problem, we need to create a suitable representation for them define the fitness function and the chromosome structure, as well as the selection, crossover, and mutation operators that will work for this problem. This can often prove to be challenging...