Effect of varying the size of initial parent pool in genetic algorithm

The first stage in genetic algorithms is initialization. There are several parameters in genetic algorithm that decides its speed of convergence and overall nature of problem solving. A relationship exists between the control parameters of different stages. In this paper the role of initialization is elaborated along with various methods that can be used for initializing the population. Initialization also affects the values of the parameters to be used at subsequent steps. Results of a study on how the size of initial population should be chosen are also presented in subsequent sections.