MICHAEL LALENA

Genetic Programming is a means of evolving solutions to difficult problems where the answer is not obvious. Genetic Programming allows problems to be solved without explicitly programming the solution... This is done by way of a fitness function. The fitness function rates the performance of a possible solution. Good solutions are combined with other good solutions to hopefully create even better solutions. A genetic program starts with a random set of programs and continually combines the good programs replacing the bad programs with the newly created ones. By this process, the genetic program can evolve a solution... My Ant Genetic Program evolves programs to mimic the food collection behavior of ants. While the Food Collection Problem is a common Genetic Program problem, my program concentrates on food collection problems where the ants MUST work together in order to succeed.