AI-Genetic
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sub terminateFunc {
my $ga = shift;
# terminate if reached some threshold.
return 1 if $ga->getFittest->score > $THRESHOLD;
return 0;
}
DESCRIPTION
This module implements a Genetic Algorithm (GA) in pure Perl. Other Perl
modules that achieve the same thing (perhaps better, perhaps worse) do
exist. Please check CPAN. I mainly wrote this module to satisfy my own
needs, and to learn something about GAs along the way.
PLEASE NOTE: As of v0.02, AI::Genetic has been re-written from scratch
to be more modular and expandable. To achieve this, I had to modify the
API, so it is not backward-compatible with v0.01. As a result, I do not
plan on supporting v0.01.
I will not go into the details of GAs here, but here are the bare
basics. Plenty of information can be found on the web.
In a GA, a population of individuals compete for survival. Each
individual is designated by a set of genes that define its behaviour.
Individuals that perform better (as defined by the fitness function)
have a higher chance of mating with other individuals. When two
individuals mate, they swap some of their genes, resulting in an
individual that has properties from both of its "parents". Every now and
then, a mutation occurs where some gene randomly changes value,
resulting in a different individual. If all is well defined, after a few
generations, the population should converge on a "good-enough" solution
to the problem being tackled.
A GA implementation runs for a discrete number of time steps called
*generations*. What happens during each generation can vary greatly
depending on the strategy being used (See the section on "STRATEGIES"
for more info). Typically, a variation of the following happens at each
generation:
1. Selection
Here the performance of all the individuals is evaluated based on
the fitness function, and each is given a specific fitness value.
The higher the value, the bigger the chance of an individual passing
its genes on in future generations through mating (crossover).
2. Crossover
Here, individuals selected are randomly paired up for crossover (aka
*sexual reproduction*). This is further controlled by the crossover
rate specified and may result in a new offspring individual that
contains genes common to both parents. New individuals are injected
into the current population.
3. Mutation
In this step, each individual is given the chance to mutate based on
the mutation probability specified. If an individual is to mutate,
each of its genes is given the chance to randomly switch its value
to some other state.
CLASS METHODS
Here are the public methods.
*$ga*->new(*options*)
This is the constructor. It accepts options in the form of
hash-value pairs. These are:
-population
This defines the size of the population, i.e. how many
individuals to simultaneously exist at each generation.
Defaults to 100.
-crossover
This defines the crossover rate. Defaults to 0.95.
-mutation
This defines the mutation rate. Defaults to 0.05.
*-fitness*
This defines a fitness function. It expects a reference to a
subroutine. More details are given in the section on
"FITNESS FUNCTION".
*-type* This defines the type of the genome. Currently, AI::Genetic
supports only three types:
*bitvector*
Individuals of this type have genes that are bits. Each
gene can be in one of two possible states, on or off.
*listvector*
Each gene of a listvector individual can assume one
string value from a specified list of possible string
values.
*rangevector*
Each gene of a rangevector individual can assume one
integer value from a range of possible integer values.
Note that only integers are supported. The user can
always transform any desired fractional values by
multiplying and dividing by an appropriate power of 10.
Defaults to *bitvector*.
*-terminate*
This option allows the definition of a termination
subroutine. It expects a subroutine reference. This sub will
be called at the end of each generation with one argument:
the AI::Genetic object. Evolution terminates if the sub
returns a true value.
*$ga*->createStrategy(*strategy_name*, *sub_ref*)
This method allows the creation of a custom-made strategy to be used
during evolution. It expects a unique strategy name, and a
subroutine reference as arguments. The subroutine will be called
with one argument: the AI::Genetic object. It is expected to alter
the population at each generation. See the section on "STRATEGIES"
for more information.
*$ga*->init(*initArgs*)
This method initializes the population with random individuals. It
MUST be called before any call to *evolve()* or *inject()*. As a
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