Experimental Investigations into Graph Grammar Evolution

摘要: This dissertation addresses the general issue of designing solutions for any domain that allows solutions to be described as networks. Towards this goal, we establish a framework for network optimisation that is based on the artificial evolution of a (hyper-) graph grammar. We provide a detailed understanding of graph grammar evolution by describing a series of precisely designed experiments that investigate multiple strategies for construction, modularity, diversity, and convergence of the networks and the associated grammar. This brief introductory chapter is organised into multiple sections as follows. First, an essential synopsis of the conceptual background for this research is presented in section 1.1, succeeded in section 1.2 by a description of the research question and our approach to answering it. For the impatient reader, section 1.3 summarises the contributions of this thesis, and the chapter ends with 1.4, an outline of the upcoming chapters.