Improving the Tartarus problem as a benchmark in genetic programming

For empirical research on computer algorithms, it is essential to have a set of benchmark problems on which the relative performance of different methods and their applicability can be assessed. In the majority of computational research fields there are established sets of benchmark problems; however, the field of genetic programming lacks a similarly rigorously defined set of benchmarks. There is a strong interest within the genetic programming community to develop a suite of benchmarks. Following recent surveys [7], the desirable characteristics of a benchmark problem are now better defined. In this paper the Tartarus problem is proposed as a tunably difficult benchmark problem for use in Genetic Programming. The justification for this proposal is presented, together with guidance on its usage as a benchmark