A Superior Evolutionary Algorithm for 3-SAT

We investigate three approaches to Boolean satisfiability problems. We study and compare the best heuristic algorithm WGSAT and two evolutionary algorithms, an evolution strategy and an evolutionary algorithm adapting its own fitness function while running. The results show that the adaptive EA outperforms the other two approaches. The power of this EA originates from the adaptive mechanism, which is completely problem independent and generally applicable to any constraint satisfaction problem. This suggests that the adaptive EA is not only a good solver for satisfiability problems, but for constraint satisfaction problems in general.

[1]  David B. Fogel,et al.  Evolutionary algorithms in theory and practice , 1997, Complex.

[2]  K. V. D. Hauw.  Evaluating and Improving Steady State Evolutionary Algorithms on Constraint Satisfaction Problems , 1996 .

[3]  Ian P. Gent,et al.  Unsatisfied Variables in Local Search , 1995 .

[4]  Charles Fleurent,et al.  Object-oriented implementation of heuristic search methods for Graph Coloring, Maximum Clique, and Satisfiability , 1993, Cliques, Coloring, and Satisfiability.

[5]  Kenneth A. De Jong,et al.  Using Genetic Algorithms to Solve NP-Complete Problems , 1989, ICGA.

[6]  Jin-Kao Hao,et al.  A Clausal Genetic Representation and its Evolutionary Procedures for Satisfiability Problems , 1995, ICANNGA.

[7]  Marco E. Vink.  Solving Combinatorial Problems Using Evolutionary Algorithms , 1997 .

[8]  Hilary Putnam,et al.  A Computing Procedure for Quantification Theory , 1960, JACM.

[9]  Steven E. Hampson,et al.  Large plateaus and plateau search in Boolean Satisfiability problems: When to give up searching and start again , 1993, Cliques, Coloring, and Satisfiability.

[10]  Raymond Reiter,et al.  A Logical Framework for Depiction and Image Interpretation , 1989, Artif. Intell..

[11]  Jano I. van Hemert,et al.  Graph Coloring with Adaptive Evolutionary Algorithms , 1998, J. Heuristics.

[12]  Jeremy Frank,et al.  Weighting for Godot: Learning Heuristics for GSAT , 1996, AAAI/IAAI, Vol. 1.

[13]  Hector J. Levesque,et al.  Hard and Easy Distributions of SAT Problems , 1992, AAAI.

[14]  Hans-Paul Schwefel,et al.  Evolution and optimum seeking , 1995, Sixth-generation computer technology series.

[15]  Thomas Bäck,et al.  Evolutionary Algorithms in Theory and Practice , 1996 .

[16]  A. Eiben,et al.  Solving 3-SAT by GAs adapting constraint weights , 1997, Proceedings of 1997 IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computation (ICEC '97).

[17]  Stephen A. Cook,et al.  The complexity of theorem-proving procedures , 1971, STOC.

[18]  Bart Selman,et al.  Planning as Satisfiability , 1992, ECAI.