Genetic Algorithms and Machine Learning for Programmers

Your Mission: Crowd Control

The genetic algorithm helped cannonballs escape a paper bag, starting with random attempts and improving attempts using crossover and mutation. A PSO is another heuristic random search using particles. This time, you’ll draw on the HTML5 canvas using JavaScript.

You’ll start by moving a single particle around the canvas. Once you know how to move a single particle and draw on canvas, you will consider how to get several particles to follow their neighbors using the k-nearest neighbors’ algorithm. Finally, you adapt this into a particle swarm optimization algorithm to herd the particles out of the paper bag. The swarm needs to share information as they move, and you’ll see how to accomplish this in ​A Particle Swarm ...