A Gene Based Adaptive Mutation Strategy for Genetic Algorithms

In this study, a new mechanism that adapts the mutation rate for each locus on the chromosomes, based on feedback obtained from the current population is proposed. Through tests using the one-max problem, it is shown that the proposed scheme improves convergence rate. Further tests are performed using the 4-Peaks and multiple knapsack test problems to compare the performance of the proposed approach with other similar parameter control approaches. A convergence control scheme that provides acceptable performance is chosen to maintain sufficient diversity in the population and implemented for all tested methods to provide fair comparisons. The effects of using a convergence control mechanism are not within the scope of this paper and will be explored in a future study. As a result of the tests, promising results which promote further experimentation are obtained.