Ernesto Sanchez – författare

This book describes an award-winning evolutionary algorithm that outperformed experts and conventional heuristics in solving several industrial problems. It presents a discussion of the theoretical and practical aspects that enabled μGP (MicroGP) to autonomously find the optimal solution of hard problems, handling highly structured data, such as full-fledged assembly programs, with functions and interrupt handlers.

For a practitioner, μGP is simply a versatile optimizer to tackle most problems with limited setup effort. The book is valuable for all who require heuristic problem-solving methodologies, such as engineers dealing with verification and test of electronic circuits; or researchers working in robotics and mobile communication. Examples are provided to guide the reader through the process, from problem definition to gathering results.

For an evolutionary computation researcher, μGP may be regarded as a platform where new operators and strategies can be easily tested.

MicroGP (the toolkit) is an active project hosted by Sourceforge: http://ugp3.sourceforge.net/

"Industrial applications of evolutionary algorithms" is intended as a resource for both experienced users of evolutionary algorithms and researchers that are beginning to approach these fascinating optimization techniques.

Experienced users will find interesting details of real-world problems, advice on solving issues related to fitness computation or modeling, and suggestions on how to set the appropriate parameters to reach optimal solutions.

Beginners will find a thorough introduction to evolutionary computation, and a complete presentation of several classes of evolutionary algorithms exploited to solve different problems. Inside, scholars will find useful examples on how to fill the gap between purely theoretical examples and industrial problems.

The collection of case studies presented is also extremely appealing for anyone interested in Evolutionary Computation, but without direct access to extensive technical literature on the subject.

After the introduction, each chapter in the book presents a test case, and is organized so that it can be read independently from the rest: all the information needed to understand the problem and the approach is reported in each part. Chapters are grouped by three themes of particular interest for real-world applications, namely prototype-based validation, reliability and test generation.

The authors hope that this volume will help to expose the flexibility and efficiency of evolutionary techniques, encouraging more companies to adopt them; and that, most of all, you will enjoy your reading.