AGE-P: Moving from concept to technical realization

Even though evolutionary algorithms have been applied to a vast number of problems, they are still not always applicable. As an example, this paper briefly discusses smart appliances ensembles, which are characterized by an unknown, dynamically changing number of actuators and sensors. To even cope with such problems, research has previously presented AGE-P, an entirely distributed evolutionary algorithm that allows actuators as well as sensors to join and leave an ensemble at any time without any notice. This paper presents an extension that makes AGE-P suitable for environments that cannot provide reliable data communications, as is often the case in real-world scenarios. The real-world results indicate that the proposed self-synchronization scheme resolves the reliability issue while retaining AGE-P´s open system character.