Fast multi-swarm optimization for dynamic optimization problems

This article is posted here with permission of IEEE - Copyright @ 2008 IEEEIn the real world, many applications are non-stationary optimization problems. This requires that the optimization algorithms need to not only find the global optimal solution but also track the trajectory of the changing global best solution in a dynamic environment. To achieve this, this paper proposes a multi-swarm algorithm based on fast particle swarm optimization for dynamic optimization problems. The algorithm employs a mechanism to track multiple peaks by preventing overcrowding at a peak and a fast particle swarm optimization algorithm as a local search method to find the near optimal solutions in a local promising region in the search space. The moving peaks benchmark function is used to test the performance of the proposed algorithm. The numerical experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for dynamic optimization problems

A self-learning particle swarm optimizer for global optimization problems

Copyright @ 2011 IEEE. All Rights Reserved. This article was made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been shown as an effective tool for solving global optimization problems. So far, most PSO algorithms use a single learning pattern for all particles, which means that all particles in a swarm use the same strategy. This monotonic learning pattern may cause the lack of intelligence for a particular particle, which makes it unable to deal with different complex situations. This paper presents a novel algorithm, called self-learning particle swarm optimizer (SLPSO), for global optimization problems. In SLPSO, each particle has a set of four strategies to cope with different situations in the search space. The cooperation of the four strategies is implemented by an adaptive learning framework at the individual level, which can enable a particle to choose the optimal strategy according to its own local fitness landscape. The experimental study on a set of 45 test functions and two real-world problems show that SLPSO has a superior performance in comparison with several other peer algorithms.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of U.K. under Grants EP/E060722/1 and EP/E060722/2

Coevolutionary particle swarm optimization using AIS and its application in multiparameter estimation of PMSM

In this paper, a coevolutionary particle-swarm-optimization (PSO) algorithm associating with the artificial immune principle is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, the whole population is divided into two kinds of subpopulations consisting of one elite subpopulation and several normal subpopulations. The best individual of each normal subpopulation will be memorized into the elite subpopulation during the evolution process. A hybrid method, which creates new individuals by using three different operators, is presented to ensure the diversity of all the subpopulations. Furthermore, a simple adaptive wavelet learning operator is utilized for accelerating the convergence speed of the pbest particles. The improved immune-clonal-selection operator is employed for optimizing the elite subpopulation, while the migration scheme is employed for the information exchange between elite subpopulation and normal subpopulations. The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by testing on a suite of standard benchmark functions, which shows faster convergence and global search ability. Its performance is further evaluated by its application to multiparameter estimation of permanent-magnet synchronous machines, which shows that its performance significantly outperforms existing PSOs. The proposed algorithm can estimate the machine dq-axis inductances, stator winding resistance, and rotor flux linkage simultaneously. © 2013 IEEE

Multimodal estimation of distribution algorithms

Taking the advantage of estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) in preserving high diversity, this paper proposes a multimodal EDA. Integrated with clustering strategies for crowding and speciation, two versions of this algorithm are developed, which operate at the niche level. Then these two algorithms are equipped with three distinctive techniques: 1) a dynamic cluster sizing strategy; 2) an alternative utilization of Gaussian and Cauchy distributions to generate offspring; and 3) an adaptive local search. The dynamic cluster sizing affords a potential balance between exploration and exploitation and reduces the sensitivity to the cluster size in the niching methods. Taking advantages of Gaussian and Cauchy distributions, we generate the offspring at the niche level through alternatively using these two distributions. Such utilization can also potentially offer a balance between exploration and exploitation. Further, solution accuracy is enhanced through a new local search scheme probabilistically conducted around seeds of niches with probabilities determined self-adaptively according to fitness values of these seeds. Extensive experiments conducted on 20 benchmark multimodal problems confirm that both algorithms can achieve competitive performance compared with several state-of-the-art multimodal algorithms, which is supported by nonparametric tests. Especially, the proposed algorithms are very promising for complex problems with many local optima

Orthogonal learning particle swarm optimization

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) relies on its learning strategy to guide its search direction. Traditionally, each particle utilizes its historical best experience and its neighborhood’s best experience through linear summation. Such a learning strategy is easy to use, but is inefficient when searching in complex problem spaces. Hence, designing learning strategies that can utilize previous search information (experience) more efficiently has become one of the most salient and active PSO research topics. In this paper, we proposes an orthogonal learning (OL) strategy for PSO to discover more useful information that lies in the above two experiences via orthogonal experimental design. We name this PSO as orthogonal learning particle swarm optimization (OLPSO). The OL strategy can guide particles to fly in better directions by constructing a much promising and efficient exemplar. The OL strategy can be applied to PSO with any topological structure. In this paper, it is applied to both global and local versions of PSO, yielding the OLPSO-G and OLPSOL algorithms, respectively. This new learning strategy and the new algorithms are tested on a set of 16 benchmark functions, and are compared with other PSO algorithms and some state of the art evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed learning strategy and algorithms. The comparisons show that OLPSO significantly improves the performance of PSO, offering faster global convergence, higher solution quality, and stronger robustness

Metaheuristic design of feedforward neural networks: a review of two decades of research

Over the past two decades, the feedforward neural network (FNN) optimization has been a key interest among the researchers and practitioners of multiple disciplines. The FNN optimization is often viewed from the various perspectives: the optimization of weights, network architecture, activation nodes, learning parameters, learning environment, etc. Researchers adopted such different viewpoints mainly to improve the FNN's generalization ability. The gradient-descent algorithm such as backpropagation has been widely applied to optimize the FNNs. Its success is evident from the FNN's application to numerous real-world problems. However, due to the limitations of the gradient-based optimization methods, the metaheuristic algorithms including the evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, etc., are still being widely explored by the researchers aiming to obtain generalized FNN for a given problem. This article attempts to summarize a broad spectrum of FNN optimization methodologies including conventional and metaheuristic approaches. This article also tries to connect various research directions emerged out of the FNN optimization practices, such as evolving neural network (NN), cooperative coevolution NN, complex-valued NN, deep learning, extreme learning machine, quantum NN, etc. Additionally, it provides interesting research challenges for future research to cope-up with the present information processing era

An Improved particle swarm optimization based on lévy flight and simulated annealing for high dimensional optimization problem

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a simple metaheuristic method to implement with robust performance. PSO is regarded as one of the numerous researchers' most well-studied algorithms. However, two of its most fundamental problems remain unresolved. PSO converges onto the local optimum for high-dimensional optimization problems, and it has slow convergence speeds. This paper introduces a new variant of a particle swarm optimization algorithm utilizing Lévy flight-McCulloch, and fast simulated annealing (PSOLFS). The proposed algorithm uses two strategies to address high-dimensional problems: hybrid PSO to define the global search area and fast simulated annealing to refine the visited search region. In this paper, PSOLFS is designed based on a balance between exploration and exploitation. We evaluated the algorithm on 16 benchmark functions for 500 and 1,000 dimension experiments. On 500 dimensions, the algorithm obtains the optimal value on 14 out of 16 functions. On 1,000 dimensions, the algorithm obtains the optimal value on eight benchmark functions and is close to optimal on four others. We also compared PSOLFS with another five PSO variants regarding convergence accuracy and speed. The results demonstrated higher accuracy and faster convergence speed than other PSO variants. Moreover, the results of the Wilcoxon test show a significant difference between PSOLFS and the other PSO variants. Our experiments' findings show that the proposed method enhances the standard PSO by avoiding the local optimum and improving the convergence speed