genetic 🧬

genetic is a Typescript Genetic Algorithm Framework based on Sean Moriarity's Genetic Algorithms in Elixir book.

For details on how genetic algorithms work and their shortcomings, check A review on genetic algorithm: past, present, and future

This library is asynchronous, and its goal is to allow the implementation of streaming populations and dynamic fitness functions for continuous evaluation.

Keep in mind that genetic algorithms will underperform carefully designed algorithms under most circumstances. They can be helpful for sporadic exploration when the problem is poorly understood or of stochastic nature.

Documentation

Initialization options

• populationSize: Initial population size. Defaults to 100

Selection

• selectionRate: Rate for selecting fittest parents that will procreate in the crossover process. Default: 0.8
• selectionType: One of the following selection strategies:
  • (default) elite: Only the best individuals from the last generation will be carried over (without any changes) to the next one.
  • random
  • tournament: Randomly divides the population in 3 groups and the winners of each group are carried over.
  • roulette: Fitness proportionate selection
  • stochasticUniversalSampling
  • boltzmannSelection: Temperature controls the rate of selection avoiding premature convergence.
  • rank: Selection probabilities based on their rank position. n + 1/fitnessSum.

Crossover

• crossoverRepairFn: Optional function for repairing damaged chromosomes.
• crossoverType: One of the following crossover strategies:
  • (default) singlePoint
  • orderOne
  • uniform
    • crossoverRate
  • wholeArithmetic
    • crossoverAlpha
  • partiallyMatched

Mutation

• mutationRate: Rate of chromosomes that will be mutated. Default: 0.05
• mutationFn: Custom mutation function.
• mutationType: One of the following mutation strategies:
  • (default) shuffle
  • flipAll
  • flipSome
    • genMutationRate: 0.5
  • scramble
  • scrambleSlice
    • scrambleSize: Default chromosome.size/2
  • gaussian
    • genMutationRate: Default 1

Reinsertion

• reinsertionFn: Custom reinsertion function.
• reinsertionType: One of the following reinsertion strategies:
  • pure: Default
  • elitist
    • survivalRate: Number of survivors to keep on the population. Default: 0.2
    • survivorCount: Absolute number of survivors to keep. Overrides survivalRate

Simulated annealing

• coolingRate: Rate at which the temperature will change relative to fitness changes. Defaults to 0.85

Evolution options

• fitnessSortDirection: Default: "DESC"
• maxPopulation: Limit how large the population can become after reinsertion. Default Infinity
• maxPopulationFn: Dynamically limit the population size.

Usage

Import the main genetic async function and type definitions under Genetic .

import genetic, { Genetic } from "https://deno.land/x/genetic@v1.0.5/mod.ts";

State your problem by implementing the Problem interface. In this case we'll solve the one max problem (the hello world of genetic algoritms). Our goal is to maximize the number of ones on a bitstring.

const oneMaxProblem: Genetic.Problem<number> = {
  getGenotype() {
    return new Promise((resolve) =>
      resolve(
        Array.from({ length: 1000 }, () => Math.random() > 0.5 ? 1 : 0),
      )
    );
  },
  fitnessFn(chromosome) {
    return new Promise((resolve) =>
      resolve(chromosome.genes.reduce((total, n) => n + total, 0))
    );
  },
  shouldTerminate: ([best], _generation, _temperature) => best.fitness === 1000,
};

Specify the options for our genetic algorithm run

const options: Genetic.RunOptions<number> = {
  populationSize: 100,
  mutationRate: 0.5,
  selectionRate: 0.8,
  selectionType: "stochasticUniversalSampling",
  coolingRate: 0.85,
};

And finally find the best population

const bestPopulation = await genetic(
  oneMaxProblem,
  options,
  (message: string) =>
    Deno.stdout.write(new TextEncoder().encode(`\r${message}`)),
);

console.log({ bestPopulation });

Examples

The directory ./examples contain multiple examples showing how to use this library.

To run all the examples, call:

make run-examples

Development

genetic has been developed using deno 🦕.

The Makefile includes shortcuts to commands that will help testing the project and run the examples.

Tests

To run the tests, call

make test

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2022 Bermi Ferrer

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.