Mutation

• The other most common operator is mutation.
• You take a successful gene, and mutate it.
• You can just pick one element of the gene string, or you can pick with a low probability each element.
• So, lets take our 123456789 example.
• Randomly select 4, and then randomly pick a number between 1 and 9, lets say 7. This gives you 123756789.
• You could also pick each element with a low probability. Lets say we mutate the original and both slot 2 and 8 are mutated. They become 5 and 6 leaving 123456769.
• Generally the muation rate is low.
• You can use just mutation or just cross over, but typically systems use both.