Efficiency of crossover in genetic algorithms

Question

I\'ve implemented a number of genetic algorithms to solve a variety of a problems. However I\'m still skeptical of the usefulness of crossover/recombination.

I usually f

Answer 1

You are correct in being skeptical about the cross-over operation. There is a paper called "On the effectiveness of crossover in simulated evolutionary optimization" (Fogel and Stayton, Biosystems 1994). It is available for free at 1.

By the way, if you haven't already I recommend looking into a technique called "Differential Evolution". It can be very good at solving many optimization problems.