Experimental Investigation of Recombination Operators for Differential Evolution

This paper presents a systematic investigation of the effects of sixteen recombination operators for real-coded spaces on the performance of Differential Evolution. A unified description of the operators in terms of mathematical operations of vectors is presented, and a standardized implementation is provided in the form of an R package. The objectives are to simplify the examination of similarities and differences between operators as well as the understanding of their effects on the population, and to provide a platform in which future operators can be incorporated and evaluated. An experimental comparison of the recombination operators is conducted using twenty-eight test problems, and the results are used to discuss possibly promising directions in the development of improved operators for differential evolution.