methinks it is like a weasel
Creation of a simple genetic algorithm in order to find the phrase "methinks it is like a weasel", with and without the use of crossover. We begin with a random 28-character string at which point we have a 'generation' where some letters are changed, this new string is given a score, the fitness, whereby a higher fitness indicates a string where more letters are the same as in the target string.
We measure speed in terms of the number of mutations which needed to take place to reach the solution. Given this, I found that a genetic algorithm with crossover performed better than without, often up to 4x better.
There are 3 methods explored in this repository: genetic algorithm with crossover, genetic algorithm without crossover, and a simple mutation hill climber algorithm.
Usage Instructions
These commands should both be ran in the top-level directory of the repository.
Prerequisites
Install python3.
Commands
- Mutation hill-climber:
python src/python src/mutation_hill_climber.py. - Genetic algorithm without crossover:
python src/ga_without_crossover.py. - Genetic algorithm with crossover:
python src/ga_without_crossover.py.