evolution strategy

(ES) A kind of evolutionary algorithm where individuals

(potential solutions) are encoded by a set of real-valued

"object variables" (the individual's "genome"). For each

object variable an individual also has a "strategy variable"

which determines the degree of mutation to be applied to the

corresponding object variable. The strategy variables also

mutate, allowing the rate of mutation of the object variables

to vary.

An ES is characterised by the population size, the

number of offspring produced in each generation and whether

the new population is selected from parents and offspring or

only from the offspring.

ES were invented in 1963 by Ingo Rechenberg, Hans-Paul

Schwefel at the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) while

searching for the optimal shapes of bodies in a flow.

(1995-02-03)