Evolving the Architecture of a Multi-part Program in Genetic Programming Using Architecture-Altering Operations

This paper describes six new architecture-altering operations that provide a way to dynamically determine the architecture of a multipart program during a run of genetic programming. The new operations are patterned after the naturally occurring operations of gene duplication and gene deletion and are motivated by Ohno's provocative book Evolution by Means of Gene Duplication. The new operations are branch duplication, argument duplication, branch creation, argument creation, branch deletion, and argument deletion. These operations dynamically change the architecture of various programs during a run of genetic programming. The new operations can also be interpreted as providing an automated way to specialize and generalize programs. The paper demonstrates that problems can be solved while the architecture is being evolved.