Improvements on the bees algorithm for continuous optimisation problems

This work focuses on the improvements of the Bees Algorithm in order to enhance the algorithm’s performance especially in terms of convergence rate. For the first enhancement, a pseudo-gradient Bees Algorithm (PG-BA) compares the fitness as well as the position of previous and current bees so that the best bees in each patch are appropriately guided towards a better search direction after each consecutive cycle. This method eliminates the need to differentiate the objective function which is unlike the typical gradient search method. The improved algorithm is subjected to several numerical benchmark test functions as well as the training of neural network. The results from the experiments are then compared to the standard variant of the Bees Algorithm and other swarm intelligence procedures. The data analysis generally confirmed that the PG-BA is effective at speeding up the convergence time to optimum. Next, an approach to avoid the formation of overlapping patches is proposed. The Patch Overlap Avoidance Bees Algorithm (POA-BA) is designed to avoid redundancy in search area especially if the site is deemed unprofitable. This method is quite similar to Tabu Search (TS) with the POA-BA forbids the exact exploitation of previously visited solutions along with their corresponding neighbourhood. Patches are not allowed to intersect not just in the next generation but also in the current cycle. This reduces the number of patches materialise in the same peak (maximisation) or valley (minimisation) which ensures a thorough search of the problem landscape as bees are distributed around the scaled down area. The same benchmark problems as PG-BA were applied against this modified strategy to a reasonable success. Finally, the Bees Algorithm is revised to have the capability of locating all of the global optimum as well as the substantial local peaks in a single run. These multi-solutions of comparable fitness offers some alternatives for the decision makers to choose from. The patches are formed only if the bees are the fittest from different peaks by using a hill-valley mechanism in this so called Extended Bees Algorithm (EBA). This permits the maintenance of diversified solutions throughout the search process in addition to minimising the chances of getting trap. This version is proven beneficial when tested with numerous multimodal optimisation problems

Development of evolutionary based techniques with applications to engineering.

Every possible problem can be considered to have a set of possible states by which amongst them, some are considered better than others by some chosen measure. It is the intention of optimisation to discover such states that perform better than all others for any given problem. It is an important tool within an array of subject areas, arguably all, in particular engineering, which tackles such applications as shape optimisation and industrial scheduling to name but a few. The aims of this work, are to increase the performance of the in-house general-purpose particle swarm optimiser designed at the department of engineering at Swansea University. This is to be achieved through its hybridisation with a local search, considering both solution refinement and early triggering mechanisms. In the discrete domain, an ant colony algorithm is to be chosen and evaluated by way of a parameter study and comparison against other leading ant colony algorithms made for the purpose of development for the future application to scheduling problems. Objectives are achieved through the increased refinement properties of the particle swarm optimiser with its hybridisation with local search. Additionally, an early switching mechanism is derived for the local search, resulting on average in a 20% reduction in the number of function evaluations required for constrained problems. With the highly unpredictable responses to unconstrained problems, only stagnation measures are derived. This study bridges the gap between the in-house optimiser and other hybrid particle swarm techniques available in the literature, resulting in competitive performance. An extensive literature review of ant colony identified the population-based ant colony algorithm (PACO) for further investigation. A detailed parameter study is conducted, resulting in the realisation of the strongly coupled parameters present. Following this, a hybrid off-line tuning method is devised, hybridising a simple particle swarm optimiser with the ant colony algorithm, resulting in an overall better performing algorithm. This indicated clear strengths in some cases over the more popular of ant colony algorithms

Niching for Population-based Ant Colony Optimization

Most Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms are able to find a single (or few) optimal, or near-optimal, solutions to difficult (NP-hard) problems. An issue though is that a small change to the problem can have a large impact on a specific solution by decreasing its quality, or worse still, by rendering it infeasible. Niching methods, such as fitness sharing and crowding, have been implemented with success in the field of Evolutionary Computation (EC) and are aimed at simultaneously locating and maintaining multiple optima to increase search robustness - typically in multi-modal function optimization. In this paper it is shown that a niching technique applied to an ACO algorithm permits the simultaneous location and maintenance of multiple areas of interest in the search space