Prerequisites

• Lecture: "Natural and Artificial Evolution"
• Basic knowledge of Matlab programming

Overview

In this laboratory you will experiment with various illustrative and real-world applications of Genetic Algorithms (GA). The examples are implemented as Matlab m-files.

The goal of this laboratory is for you to gain an intuitive understanding of some fundamental aspects of evolution. On the one hand, you will get some first experience in using GAs to solve engineering problems. On the other hand, the insights gained with artificial evolution (GAs) will also give you a better understanding of biological evolution in nature.

In particular, you will be able to explain how evolution is affected by:

• Population size
• Mutation rate
• Selection pressure
• Population diversity
• The genotype
• Recombination

Exercises