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IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation

Quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm for a class of combinatorial optimization

Kuk-Hyun Han, Jong-Hwan Kim

Published Dec 1, 2002• 1,592 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel evolutionary algorithm inspired by quantum computing, called a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA), which is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing, such as a quantum bit and superposition of states. Like other evolutionary algorithms, QEA is also characterized by the representation of the individual, evaluation function, and population dynamics. However, instead of binary, numeric, or symbolic representation, QEA uses a Q-bit, defined as the smallest unit of information, for the probabilistic representation and a Q-bit individual as a string of Q-bits. A Q-gate is introduced as a variation operator to drive the individuals toward better solutions. To demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability, experiments were carried out on the knapsack problem, which is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. The results show that QEA performs well, even with a small population, without premature convergence as compared to the conventional genetic algorithm.

DOI
10.1109/tevc.2002.804320

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This paper proposes a novel evolutionary algorithm inspired by quantum computing, called a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA), which is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing, such as a quantum bit and superposition of states. Like other evolutionary algorithms, QEA is also characterized by the representation of the individual, evaluation function, and population dynamics. However, instead of binary, numeric, or symbolic representation, QEA uses a Q-bit, defined as the smallest unit of information, for the probabilistic representation and a Q-bit individual as a string of Q-bits. A Q-gate is introduced as a variation operator to drive the individuals toward better solutions. To demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability, experiments were carried out on the knapsack problem, which is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. The results show that QEA performs well, even with a small population, without premature convergence as compared to the conventional genetic algorithm.
Abstract: This paper introduces quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA), which is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing such as a quantum bit and superposition of states. Like other evolutionary algorithms, QEA is also characterized by the representation of the individual, the evaluation function and the population dynamics. However, instead of binary, numeric, or symbolic representation, QEA uses a Q-bit, defined as the smallest unit of information, for the probabilistic representation and a Q-bit individual as a string of Q-bits.
In this paper, some guidelines for setting the parameters of quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA) are presented. QEA is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing, such as a quantum bit and superposition of states. However, QEA is not a quantum algorithm, but a novel evolutionary algorithm. Like other evolutionary algorithms, QEA is also characterized by the representation of the individual, the evaluation function, and the population dynamics. From recent research on the knapsack problem, the results of QEA are better than those of CGA (conventional GA). Although the performance of QEA is excellent, there is relatively little or no research on the effects of different settings for its parameters. This paper describes some guidelines for setting these parameters. The guidelines are drawn up based on extensive experiments carried out for a class of combinatorial and numerical optimization problems. Through the guidelines, the performance of QEA can be maximized.
In this paper, we propose a novel quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm, called NQEA, for solving combinatorial optimization problems. NQEA uses a new Q-bit update operator to increase the balance between the exploration and exploitation of the search space. In the operator, first, the Q-bits of each individual in the population are updated based on the personal best measurement of that individual and the best measurement of current generation. Then, a restriction is applied to each Q-bit to prevent the premature convergence of its values. The results of experiments on the 0-1 knapsack and NK-landscapes problems show that NQEA performs better than a classical genetic algorithm, CGA, and two quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms, QEA and vQEA, in terms of convergence speed and accuracy.
In this paper, a generalization of the original Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm (QIEA): the Generalized Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm (GQIEA) is proposed. Like QIEA, GQIEA is also based on the quantum computing principle of superposition of states, but extending it not only to be used for binary values {0, 1}, but for any finite set of values {1, n}. GQIEA, as any other quantum inspired evolutionary algorithm, defines an own quantum individual, an evaluation function and population operators. As in QIEA, GQIEA also defines a generalized Q-gate operator, which is a variation operator to drive the individuals toward better solutions. To demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability, the proposal will be applied to the Knapsack Problem (KP), a classic combinatorial optimization problem. Results show that GQIEA has a good performance even with a small population.
From recent research on combinatorial optimization of the knapsack problem, quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA) was proved to be better than conventional genetic algorithms. To improve the performance of the QEA, this paper proposes research issues on QEA such as a termination criterion, a Q-gate, and a two-phase scheme, for a class of numerical and combinatorial optimization problems. A new termination criterion is proposed which gives a clearer meaning on the convergence of Q-bit individuals. A novel variation operator H/sub /spl epsi// gate, which is a modified version of the rotation gate, is proposed along with a two-phase QEA scheme based on the analysis of the effect of changing the initial conditions of Q-bits of the Q-bit individual in the first phase. To demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the updated QEA, several experiments are carried out on a class of numerical and combinatorial optimization problems. The results show that the updated QEA makes QEA more powerful than the previous QEA in terms of convergence speed, fitness, and robustness.
This paper proposes a novel evolutionary computing method called a genetic quantum algorithm (GQA). GQA is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing such as qubits and superposition of states. Instead of binary, numeric, or symbolic representation, by adopting qubit chromosome as a representation GQA can represent a linear superposition of solutions due to its probabilistic representation. As genetic operators, quantum gates are employed for the search of the best solution. Rapid convergence and good global search capability characterize the performance of GQA. The effectiveness and the applicability of GQA are demonstrated by experimental results on the knapsack problem, which is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. The results show that GQA is superior to other genetic algorithms using penalty functions, repair methods and decoders.