A Dynamical Systems Analysis of Collaboration Methods in Cooperative Co-evolution

Contents

Cooperative co-evolution is often used to solve difficult optimization problems by means of problem decomposition. In order to do so efficiently, one must have a good understanding of co-evolution’s dynamical behavior. To build such understanding, we have constructed a methodology for analyzing co-evolution based on dynamical systems theory. In this paper we show how it can be applied to investigate the effects that collaboration methods have on performance and to identify a problem property relevant in this respect.