Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory

A lot has been said about competent genetic algorithms, that is, genetic algorithms that can solve boundedly difficult problems quickly, accurately, and reliably. In the recent decade or so, a number of powerful competent genetic algorithms were proposed, including the extended compact genetic algorithm (ECGA) and the hierarchical Bayesian optimization algorithm (hBOA). Although much genetic algorithm community still sticks with the simple genetic algorithm with one-point crossover (for some reason), a number of interesting applications of competent genetic algorithms were published over the past several years.

Recently, an application of hBOA to the military antenna design caught my interest where the task is to optimize a novel, wideband overlapped subarray system to achieve -30-dB sidelobes over a 20% bandwidth. This work was done by the Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory (IlliGAL) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). A number of researchers from IlliGAL and AFRL were involved in this collaborative project: Scott Santarelli, Tian-Li Yu, David E. Goldberg, Edward Altshuler, Teresa O’Donnell, Hugh Southall, and Robert Mailloux. The results show that while simple genetic algorithms fail to solve this problem, hBOA provides acceptable solutions as the problem difficulty increases. The results thus confirm that while for simple problems simple genetic algorithms may suffice, difficult problems necessitate the use of more advanced, competent, genetic algorithms.

For more information, check out IlliGAL report 2005013.