Abstract: | The game of Tantrix™ provides a challenging, mathematical and graphic domain for evolutionary computation. The simple task of forming long loops of colored arcs quickly becomes a search nightmare for humans and computers alike as the number of game pieces scales linearly. This paper introduces Tantrix-GA, a genetic algorithm that solves several types and sizes of Tantrix puzzles but still falls well short of (at least a few) human Tantrix experts. By introducing this problem to evolutionary computation researchers, we hope to motivate an evolutionary attack on the holy-grail Tantrix puzzles, one of which has yet to be solved by any intelligence, real or artificial. |