Sensitivity analysis of a species conserving genetic algorithm's parameters for addressing the niche radius problem

Abstract

Niche Genetic Algorithms (NGA) are a special category of Genetic Algorithms (GA) that solve problems with multiple optima. These algorithms preserve genetic diversity and prevent the GA from converging on a single optima. Many NGAs suffer from the Niche Radius Problem (NRP), which is the problem of correctly setting a radius parameter for optimal results. While the selection of the radius value has been widely researched, the effects of other GA parameters on genetic diversity is not well known. This research is a parameter sensitivity analysis on the other parameters in a GA, namely mutation rate, number of individuals and number of generations.