Genetic Algorithm implementation in Python for the Traveling Salesman Problem

The main script is the ga.py file which contains base classes for creating your own Genetic Algorithm (i.e. import ga; env = ga.Environment(kind=YourKind) where YourKind is some class inheriting ga.IndividualBase) or for simply running the provided implementation of the Traveling Salesman Problem.

Usage for the latter:

Usage: ga.py [options]

Options:
-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-g MAX_GENERATIONS, --max-generations=MAX_GENERATIONS
                        Continue till we have reached MAX_GENERATIONS
-p POPULATION_SIZE, --population-size=POPULATION_SIZE
                        Store POPULATION_SIZE different individuals
-c CROSSOVER_RATE, --crossover-rate=CROSSOVER_RATE
                        Set crossover probability to CROSSOVER_RATE (between 0
                        and 1)
-m MUTATION_RATE, --mutation-rate=MUTATION_RATE
                        Set mutation probability to MUTATION_RATE (between 0
                        and 1)
-e ELITISM, --elitism=ELITISM
                        Enable elitism for the top ELITISM results
--print-interval=PRINT_INTERVAL
                        Print intermediate results for every PRINT_INTERVAL
                        generations. Use 0 for no intermediate output
--csv=CSV             Return csv output for easy plotting every CSV
                        generation
--csv-file=CSV_FILE   Where to write the csv output to (defaults to STDOUT)
-s SAMPLES, --samples=SAMPLES
                        The amount of samples to use. Very useful with csv
                        output
--processes=PROCESSES
                        By default the samples are calculated in parallel, you
                        can change the amount of simultaneous processes with
                        PROCESSES

To generate all output automatically there is also a script called generate_charts.sh available which automatically try all kinds of different values for elitism, population, mutation and crossover.

Requirements

This library has been tested with Python 2.7, freely available from Python.org and has no other "hard" requirements. For prettier output I recommend installing fabulous though, it's a Python module that enables coloured output within your shell and makes everything a lot prettier.

If you run a Python version before 2.7 than you probably need to install the multiprocessing library. I am not entirely certain about the specific since I don't have a pre 2.7 machine available right now.

If you have any questions, feel free to mail me at: Rick _at_ Fawo _dot_ nl