Lamps: A Test Problem for Cooperative Coevolution

We present an analysis of the behaviour of Cooperative Co-evolution algorithms (CCEAs) on a simple test problem, that is the optimal placement of a set of lamps in a square room, for various problems sizes. Cooperative Co-evolution makes it possible to exploit more efficiently the artificial Darwinism scheme, as soon as it is possible to turn the optimisation problem into a co-evolution of interdependent sub-parts of the searched solution. We show here how two cooperative strategies, Group Evolution (GE) and Parisian Evolution (PE) can be built for the lamps problem. An experimental analysis then compares a classical evolution to GE and PE, and analyses their behaviour with respect to scale.