Clustering Based Niching for Genetic Programming in the R Environment

In this paper, we give a short introduction into RGP, a new genetic programming (GP) system based on the statistical package R. The system implements classical untyped tree-based genetic programming as well as more advanced variants including, for example, strongly typed genetic programming and Pareto genetic programming. The main part of this paper is concerned with the problem of premature convergence of GP populations, accompanied by a loss of genetic diversity, resulting in poor effectiveness of the search. We propose a clustering based niching approach to mitigate this problem. The results of preliminary experiments confirm that clustering based niching is effective in preserving genetic diversity in GP populations.