Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms

Abstract

This chapter discusses the topic of interactive evolution, where the measure of a solution’s fitness is provided by a human’s subjective judgement, rather than by some predefined model of a problem. Of course, the world around us is full of examples of human intervention in biological evolution, in the form of pets, garden flowers, food crops and farm animals. Applications of Interactive Evolutionary Algorithms (IEAs) range from capturing aesthetics in art and design, to the personalisation of artefacts such as medical devices. When including humans ‘in the loop’ we must consider their peculiar characteristics. On one hand, they can provide insight and guidance beyond simply selecting parents for breeding. On the other, they can be inconsistent, and are prone to fatigue and loss of attention. These factors make it inappropriate to use the ‘traditional’ model of an EA generating possibly thousands of candidate solutions. This chapter describes and explains some of the major algorithmic changes that have been proposed to cope with these issues.