• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1210-1218
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• 2011

GA (Genetic Algorithms) are efficient for searching for global optima but may have some problems such as premature convergence, convergence to local extremum and divergence. These phenomena are related to the evolutionary operators. As population diversity converges to low value, the search ability of a GA decreases and premature convergence or converging to local extremum may occur but population diversity converges to high value, then genetic algorithm may diverge. To guarantee that genetic algorithms converge to the global optima, the genetic operators should be chosen properly. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the selection operator, crossover operator, and mutation operator on convergence properties, and propose the sweeping method of mutation probability and elitist propagation rate to maintain the diversity of the GA's population for getting out of the premature convergence. Results of simulation studies verify the feasibility of using these sweeping operators to avoid premature convergence and convergence to local extrema.