Optimising complex pylon structures with grammatical evolution

• Published in: Information sciences Vol. 316; pp. 582 - 597
• Main Authors: Byrne, Jonathan, Fenton, Michael, Hemberg, Erik, McDermott, James, O’Neill, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 20-09-2015
• Subjects: Algorithms; Architecture; British; Competition; Evolution; Genetic programming; Grammar; Grammars; Optimization; Pylons; Representations; Structural optimisation; Grammar; Architecture; Structural optimisation; Genetic programming
• ISSN: 0020-0255; 1872-6291
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ins.2014.03.010

Evolutionary algorithms have proven their ability to optimise architectural designs but are limited by their representation, i.e., the structures that the algorithm is capable of generating. The representation is normally constrained to small structures, or parts of a larger structure, to prevent a preponderance of invalid designs. This work uses a grammar based representation to generate large scale pylon designs. It removes invalid designs from the search space, but still allows complex and large scale constructions. In order to show the suitability of this method to real world design problems, we apply it to the Royal Institute of British Architects pylon design competition. This work shows that a combination of a grammar representation with real world constraints is capable of exploring different design configurations while evolving viable and optimised designs.