(EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived
by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960.
An initially random population of individuals (trial
solutions) is created. Mutations are then applied to each
individual to create new individuals. Mutations vary in the
severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual.
The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to
select which should survive to form the new population.
EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the
behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather
than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature
such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and
recombination by genetic crossover.
EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although
the two approaches developed independently. In EP, selection
is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other
individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic
selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the
population.
