Modifying the fitness function during the use of an evolutionary algorithm for design

Abstract

We use an evolutionary algorithm in which we change the fitness function periodically to model the fact that objectives can change during creative problem solving. We performed an experiment to observe the behavior of the evolutionary algorithm regarding its response to these changes and its ability to successfully generate solutions for its creative task despite the changes. An analysis of the results of this experiment sheds some light into the conditions under which the evolutionary algorithm can respond with varying degrees of robustness to the changes.