Genetic Algorithms: Theory and Applications

FLLL 2 Preface This is a printed collection of the contents of the lecture " Genetic Algorithms: Theory and Applications " which I gave first in the winter semester 1999/2000 at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. The reader should be aware that this manuscript is subject to further reconsideration and improvement. Corrections, complaints, and suggestions are cordially welcome. The sources were manifold: Chapters 1 and 2 were written originally for these lecture notes. All examples were implemented from scratch. The third chapter is a distillation of the books of Goldberg [13] and Hoffmann [15] and a handwritten manuscript of the preceding lecture on genetic algorithms which was given by Andreas Stöckl in 1993 at the Johannes Kepler University. Chapters 4, 5, and 7 contain recent adaptations of previously published material from my own master thesis and a series of lectures which was given by Francisco Herrera and myself at the Second Summer School on Advanced Control at the Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, in summer 1997 [4]. Chapter 6 was written originally, however, strongly influenced by A. Geyer-Schulz's works and H. Hörner's paper on his C++ GP kernel [18]. I would like to thank all the students attending the first GA lecture in Winter 1999/2000, for remaining loyal throughout the whole term and for contributing much to these lecture notes with their vivid, interesting, and stimulating questions, objections, and discussions. Last but not least, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Sabine Lumpi and Susanne Saminger for support in organizational matters, and Pe-ter Bauer for proofreading .