Introduction to Evolutionary Computation

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview on evolutionary computation, introducing its basic concepts and serving as a starting point for an inexpert user in this field. Then, the chapter discusses paradigms such as genetic algorithms and genetic programming, which are the most widely used techniques in the mining of patterns of interest. Finally, a brief description about other bio-inspired algorithms is considered, paying special interest in ant colony optimization. The main goal is to help the reader to comprehend some basic principles of evolutionary algorithms and swarm intelligence so next chapters of this book can be understood in an appropriate way.