Where can I find good and simple test functions for evolutionary algorithms?

Question

I've started learning evolutionary algorithms (GA, PSO, ...) and I want to implement them in Matlab and play with different parameters to get a hold of the algorithms' structures and how they work.

My problem is, I don't have some simple test functions to use. For example, functions with multiple peaks/valleys, one global minimum and multiple local ones, .... Nothing complicated, just some simple mathematical functions with their formulas.

I can try to make some up with putting some sin/cos/exp together, but it'll take time and is really frustrating!

Anybody knows of a resource (site, book, ...) that have these listed?

Answer 1

Here is a set from our very own @Rody Oldenhuis:

Test functions

Answer 2

You might want to try those in the BBOB benchmark set. There is also some nice accompanying literature to this set in form of the corresponding GECCO workshop.

Some of the classic functions were mentioned by AGS already and include Rastrigin, Rosenbrock and Generalized Rosenbrock, Schwefel, Sphere, Griewank, etc.. We have also implemented these and more in HeuristicLab, so if you want to experiment you can also try that (PSO and GA are included also).