Genetic Programming

In genetic programming, normal genetic operations of crossover, mutation and reproduction are applied to computer code to create steadily improving and functioning computer code.

PANDOR

PANDOR is both a 7-node network computer system and a machine language genetic programming system. Given data sets and an evaluation function the system evolves machine code for the x86 processor using a closely related virtual machine. This virtual machine, in addition to providing assembly language operators, also provides instructions for:

Processors exchange program descriptions between themselves to develop a better overall solution.

How does Genetic Programming differ from AI?

Someone asked how does Genetic Programming differ from Artificial Intelligence? I am going to assume AI means either heuristic search based AI (like chess systems) or Expert Systems.

 

The short answer is: if you can describe how to solve a problem, then AI, expert systems, and regular programming work just fine. However, if you do not know how to solve a problem, but you do know how to recognize good versus bad solutions to the problem, then genetic methods are worth looking at.

Genetic Programming Links

Genetic Programming Tutorial Gives a basic overview of the Genetic Programming operations.

Genetic Programming Inc. John Koza is a pioneer in the field of genetic programming. Genetic Programming Inc. is currently doing research and development aimed at producing human-competitive results, with emphasis on the areas of:

He is the author of numerous patents and books, plus he has a 1000 node cluster. His really is bigger!

Genetic Programming ORG has general information on conferences, references and the field in general.

AIM Learning Technologies by Bazhalf and Peter Nordin utilize the similar operations on the machine language level with a 100x speed-up.

An On-Line Method to Evolve Behavior and to Control a Miniature Robot in Real Time with Genetic Programming by Bazhalf and Nordin evolve real-time obstacle avoiding behavior from sensorial data on a running robot.

An Evolutionary Architecture for a Humanoid Robot (PDF) by Bazhalf and Nordin gives an overview of their plans to expand to a humanoid robot.

Evolving Hand-Eye Coordination for a Humanoid Robot with Machine Code Genetic Programming by W. B. Langdon and Nordin.

Genetic Programming Bibliography index page by W. B. Langdon contains a list of authors and their genetic programming papers.

Other Genetic-Inspired Projects

Geneobyte CAM-Brain developed for Advanced Telecommunications Reasearch (ATR) in Kyoto, Japan to support Hugo de Garis. Evolves FPGA designs based on a neural network model. de Garis’ original funding organization STARLAB went bankrupt, so he now has a Professorship at Utah State University, USA. He also offers a Ph.D. level course in "brain building," and offers source code to his evolving network simulator.

Evolutionary Electronics Web Links lists projects around the world interested in developing evolving hardware systems.

EvoWeb Homepage is an online info service for evolutionary computing.