Abstract
Genetic programming (GP) is an extension of a genetic algoriths paradigm, deals with tree structures representing computer programs as individuals. In recent, there have been many research activities on applications of GP to various engineering problems including system identification, data mining, function approximation, and so forth. However, standard GP suffers from the lack of the estimation techniques for numerical parameters of the GP tree that is an essential element in treating various engineering applications involving real-valued function approximations. Unlike the other research activities, where nonlinear optimization methods are employed, I adopt the use of a weighted linear associative memory for estimation of these parameters under GP algorithm. This approach can significantly reduce computational cost while the reasonable accurate value for parameters can be obtained. Due to the fact that the GP algorithm is likely to fall into a local minimum, the GP algorithm often fails to generate the tree with the desired accuracy. This motivates to devise a group of additive genetic programming trees (GAGPT) which consists of a primary tree and a set of auxiliary trees. The output of the GAGPT is the summation of outputs of the primary tree and all auxiliary trees. The addition of auxiliary trees makes it possible to improve both the teaming and generalization capability of the GAGPT, since the auxiliary tree evolves toward refining the quality of the GAGPT by optimizing its fitness function. The effectiveness of this approach is verified by applying the GAGPT to the estimation of the principal dimensions of bulk cargo ships and engine torque of the passenger car.
