10,212 research outputs found
SamACO: variable sampling ant colony optimization algorithm for continuous optimization
An ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm offers
algorithmic techniques for optimization by simulating the foraging behavior of a group of ants to perform incremental solution
constructions and to realize a pheromone laying-and-following
mechanism. Although ACO is first designed for solving discrete
(combinatorial) optimization problems, the ACO procedure is
also applicable to continuous optimization. This paper presents
a new way of extending ACO to solving continuous optimization
problems by focusing on continuous variable sampling as a key
to transforming ACO from discrete optimization to continuous
optimization. The proposed SamACO algorithm consists of three
major steps, i.e., the generation of candidate variable values for
selection, the ants’ solution construction, and the pheromone
update process. The distinct characteristics of SamACO are the
cooperation of a novel sampling method for discretizing the
continuous search space and an efficient incremental solution
construction method based on the sampled values. The performance
of SamACO is tested using continuous numerical functions
with unimodal and multimodal features. Compared with some
state-of-the-art algorithms, including traditional ant-based algorithms
and representative computational intelligence algorithms
for continuous optimization, the performance of SamACO is seen
competitive and promising
Orthogonal methods based ant colony search for solving continuous optimization problems
Research into ant colony algorithms for solving continuous optimization problems forms one of the most
significant and promising areas in swarm computation. Although traditional ant algorithms are designed for combinatorial
optimization, they have shown great potential in solving a wide range of optimization problems, including continuous
optimization. Aimed at solving continuous problems effectively, this paper develops a novel ant algorithm termed "continuous orthogonal ant colony" (COAC), whose pheromone deposit mechanisms would enable ants to search for
solutions collaboratively and effectively. By using the orthogonal design method, ants in the feasible domain can explore
their chosen regions rapidly and e±ciently. By implementing an "adaptive regional radius" method, the proposed
algorithm can reduce the probability of being trapped in local optima and therefore enhance the global search capability and accuracy. An elitist strategy is also employed to reserve the most valuable points. The performance of the COAC is
compared with two other ant algorithms for continuous optimization of API and CACO by testing seventeen functions
in the continuous domain. The results demonstrate that the proposed COAC algorithm outperforms the others
ACO for continuous function optimization: a performance analysis
The performance of the meta-heuristic algorithms often depends on their parameter settings. Appropriate tuning of the underlying parameters can drastically improve the performance of a meta-heuristic. The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), a population based meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of the ants, is no different. Fundamentally, the ACO depends on the construction of new solutions, variable by variable basis using Gaussian sampling of the selected variables from an archive of solutions. A comprehensive performance analysis of the underlying parameters such as: selection strategy, distance measure metric and pheromone evaporation rate of the ACO suggests that the Roulette Wheel Selection strategy enhances the performance of the ACO due to its ability to provide non-uniformity and adequate diversity in the selection of a solution. On the other hand, the Squared Euclidean distance-measure metric offers better performance than other distance-measure metrics. It is observed from the analysis that the ACO is sensitive towards the evaporation rate. Experimental analysis between classical ACO and other meta-heuristic suggested that the performance of the well-tuned ACO surpasses its counterparts
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