Analysis of the (1+1) EA on LeadingOnes with Constraints

Abstract: Understanding how evolutionary algorithms perform on constrained problems has gained increasing attention in recent years. In this paper, we study how evolutionary algorithms optimize constrained versions of the classical LeadingOnes problem. We first provide a run time analysis for the classical (1+1) EA on the LeadingOnes problem with a deterministic cardinality constraint, giving $\Theta(n (n-B)\log(B) + n^2)$ as the tight bound. Our results show that the behaviour of the algorithm is highly dependent on the constraint bound of the uniform constraint. Afterwards, we consider the problem in the context of stochastic constraints and provide insights using experimental studies on how the ($\mu$+1) EA is able to deal with these constraints in a sampling-based setting.