Iteration-wise parameter learning

Adjusting the control parameters of population-based algorithms is a means for improving the quality of these algorithms´ result when solving optimization problems. The difficulty lies in determining when to assign individual values to specific parameters during the run. This paper investigates the possible implications of a generic and computationally cheap approach towards parameter analysis for population-based algorithms. The effect of parameter settings was analyzed in the application of a genetic algorithm to a set of traveling salesman problem instances. The findings suggest that statistics about local changes of a search from iteration i to iteration i + 1 can provide valuable insight into the sensitivity of the algorithm to parameter values. A simple method for choosing static parameter settings has been shown to recommend settings competitive to those extracted from a state-of-the-art parameter tuner, paramlLS, with major time and setup advantages.