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Comparative view of the cost function when using the GWO, GD, and PSO algorithms. [Display omitted] • A Policy Iteration Reinforcement Learning-based control approach is proposed. • A Grey Wolf Optimizer algorithm trains the policy neural network. • A comparison with classical Gradient Descent and metaheuristic PSO is offered. • The validation is done on real-time nonlinear servo system position control. • The fast convergence of the suggested approach is proved. This paper presents a new Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based control approach that uses the Policy Iteration (PI) and a metaheuristic Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) algorithm to train the Neural Networks (NNs). Due to an efficient tradeoff to exploration and exploitation, the GWO algorithm shows good results in NN training and solving complex optimization problems. The proposed approach is compared to the classical PI RL-based control approach using the Gradient Descent (GD) algorithm, and with the RL-based control approach which uses the metaheuristic Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The experiments are conducted using a nonlinear servo system laboratory equipment. Each approach evaluated on how well it solves the optimal reference tracking control for an experimental servo system position control system. The policy NNs specific to all three approaches are implemented as state feedback with integrator controllers to remove the steady-state control errors and thus ensure the convergence of the objective function. Because of the random nature of metaheuristic algorithms, the experiments for GWO and PSO algorithms are run multiple times and the results are averaged before the conclusions are presented. The experimental results shows that for the control objective considered in this paper, the GWO algorithm represents a better solution compared to GD and PSO algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Velocity planning serves as an important issue in motion planning for autonomous vehicles. The presented paper proposes a novel velocity planning method with minimum moving time on the basis of path curvature which is accomplished in three steps. First, the assigned path is divided into some elementary parts based on the path curvature. Second, the velocity planning is transformed into an unconstrained optimization problem by assuming the velocity of vehicle to be a specific cubic polynomial on every elementary part to avoid a sudden acceleration in path switching. Finally, we use a modified projection particle swarm optimization (PPSO) algorithm to obtain the time-optimal velocity profile. The proposed method can generate a smooth time-optimal velocity profile while considering all possible relevant constraints. Three examples are provided on different types of path to demonstrate that the final velocity profile is efficient to avoid the sudden acceleration change. Furthermore, the modified PPSO algorithm in this paper is used to solve the optimization problem with high dimensional variables when its upper bound is known, which can not be achieved by the general PPSO algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, optimization of a linear objective function subject to a generalized fuzzy relational inequalities is investigated in which an arbitrary continuous t-norm is considered as fuzzy composition, and fuzzy inequality replaces ordinary inequality in the constraints. Unlike most optimization algorithms, in fuzzy relational inequalities with fuzzy constraints (FRI-FC) we find a near-feasible solution having a better objective value than those resulting from the resolution of the similar problems with crisp (ordinary) inequality constraints. Such solutions are called super-optima in this paper. Subsequently, an algorithm is proposed to find a super-optimum with pre-specified desirable infeasibility. For this purpose, we firstly study some structural properties of the FRI-FC problem and present a new formulization that is independent of t-norms used in the constraints of the problem. This new formulation converts the primary problem into an equivalent problem with simple constraints without considering any penalty parameters. However, it is proved that the transformed equivalent problem enables our algorithm to distinguish unfavorable points and generate a sequence of solutions converging to a super-optimum under a certain sufficient condition. Finally, a modified PSO is presented in which the ability of PSO to solve unconstrained problems with continuous domain, the structure of the transformed problem and some fuzzy structural modifications are combined and form an efficient algorithm to solve the generalized FRI-FC problems. The modified PSO algorithm has been applied to the generalized FRI-FC problem defined with ten well-known continuous t-norms. Additionally, an idea of the FRI-FC problems as outer approximators for FRI problems with ordinary inequalities is also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A combination of Deep Q-Learning algorithm and metaheuristic GSA is offered. • GSA initializes the weights and the biases of the neural networks. • A comparison with classical random, metaheuristic PSO and GWO is carried out. • The validation is done on real-time nonlinear servo system position control. • The drawbacks of randomly initialized neural networks are mitigated. This paper presents a novel Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based control approach that uses a combination of a Deep Q-Learning (DQL) algorithm and a metaheuristic Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA). The GSA is employed to initialize the weights and the biases of the Neural Network (NN) involved in DQL in order to avoid the instability, which is the main drawback of the traditional randomly initialized NNs. The quality of a particular set of weights and biases is measured at each iteration of the GSA-based initialization using a fitness function aiming to achieve the predefined optimal control or learning objective. The data generated during the RL process is used in training a NN-based controller that will be able to autonomously achieve the optimal reference tracking control objective. The proposed approach is compared with other similar techniques which use different algorithms in the initialization step, namely the traditional random algorithm, the Grey Wolf Optimizer algorithm, and the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. The NN-based controllers based on each of these techniques are compared using performance indices specific to optimal control as settling time, rise time, peak time, overshoot, and minimum cost function value. Real-time experiments are conducted in order to validate and test the proposed new approach in the framework of the optimal reference tracking control of a nonlinear position servo system. The experimental results show the superiority of this approach versus the other three competing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population-based random-search optimization technique that has become an increasingly important branch of swarm intelligence studies. Population diversity is an effective measurement that shows the distribution of particles in a search space. In this paper, we propose a diversity-based PSO algorithm that is combined with multiple techniques, and population diversity is used as a search-strategy selection criterion for particles. When diversity is high, we suggest implementing a search strategy that has a strong exploration ability. When diversity is low, we suggest implementing a search strategy that has a strong exploitation ability. In addition to our diversity-based method, we introduce a gradient-based local-search technique, multi-crossover operation, and disturbance strategy to help improve the performance of the proposed algorithm. In the experiments, we compare the proposed algorithm with 10 advanced PSO variants based on 40 widely used benchmark functions, including the CEC2017 benchmark. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm yields a better solution accuracy and convergence speed than those of other PSO variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The concept and verification method of affine invariance are presented. • Six algorithms are employed to analyze their affine invariances. • PSO, OFA and DE are affine invariant, GWO, SCA and BOA are not affine invariant. • Multiple experimental comparisons are executed to verify algorithms' affine invariance. An algorithm whose performance depends on the objective function being aligned with a privileged coordinate system is a poor choice in general because it is unlikely that the optimal orientation will be known in advance. In this paper, a property of meta -heuristic algorithms, named affine invariance, is introduced to verify whether the algorithm is depended on the privileged coordinate system or not. The concept of affine invariance is described in detail, and some classical algorithms, efficient in most test and actual problems, are proved to be affine invariant. While some recent algorithms in the literature are proved to be not affine invariant. As a conclusion, particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE) and optimal foraging algorithm (OFA) are affine invariant, while grey wolf optimizer (GWO), sine cosine algorithm (SCA) and butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA) are not affine invariant. Furthermore, comparison tests are designed to support the theoretical analysis results. In these tests, same random numbers and initial population are used to avoid the influence of randomness, thus, the conclusion is reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many-objective problems refer to the optimization problems containing more than three conflicting objectives. To obtain a representative set of well-distributed non-dominated solutions close to Pareto front in the objective space remains a challenging problem. Many papers have proposed different Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms to solve the lack of the convergence and diversity in many-objective problems. One of the more promising approaches uses a set of reference points to discriminate the solutions and guide the search process. However, this approach was incorporated mainly in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms, and there are just some few promising adaptations of Particle Swarm Optimization approaches for effectively tackling many-objective problems regarding convergence and diversity. Thus, this paper proposes a practical and efficient Many-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm for solving many-objective problems. Our proposal uses a set of reference points dynamically determined according to the search process, allowing the algorithm to converge to the Pareto front, but maintaining the diversity of the Pareto front. Our experimental results demonstrate superior or similar performance when compared to other state-of-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Some real-world optimization problems are plagued by a limited hardware availability. This situation can occur, for example, when the optimization must be performed on a device whose hardware is limited due to cost and space limitations. This paper addresses this class of optimization problems and proposes a novel algorithm, namely compact Particle Swarm Optimization (cPSO). The proposed algorithm employs the search logic typical of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms, but unlike classical PSO algorithms, does not use a swarm of particles and does not store neither the positions nor the velocities. On the contrary, cPSO employs a probabilistic representation of the swarm’s behaviour. This representation allows a modest memory usage for the entire algorithmic functioning, the amount of memory used is the same as what is needed for storing five solutions. A novel interpretation of compact optimization is also given in this paper. Numerical results show that cPSO appears to outperform other modern algorithms of the same category (i.e. which attempt to solve the optimization despite a modest memory usage). In addition, cPSO displays a very good performance with respect to its population-based version and a respectable performance also with respect to some more complex population-based algorithms. A real world application in the field of power engineering and energy generation is given. The presented case study shows how, on a model of an actual power plant, an advanced control system can be online and real-time optimized. In this application example the calculations are embedded directly on the real-time control system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a new algorithm, Function Optimisation by Learning Automata (FOLA), to solve complex function optimisation problems. FOLA consists of multiple automata, in which each automaton undertakes dimensional search on a selected dimension of the solution domain. A search action is taken on a path which is identified in the search space by the path value, and the path value is updated using the values of the states visited in the past, via a state memory that enables better use of the information collected in the optimisation process. In this paper, FOLA is compared with two popularly used particle swarm optimisers and four newly-proposed optimisers, on nine complex multi-modal benchmark functions. The experimental results have shown that in comparison with the other optimisers, FOLA offers better performance for most of the benchmark functions, in terms of its convergence rate and accuracy, and it uses much less computation time to obtain accurate solutions, especially for high-dimensional functions. In order to explore the FOLA’s potential for applications, it is also applied to solve an optimal power flow problem of power systems. FOLA is able to minimise the fuel cost and enhance the voltage stability of the power system more efficiently in comparison with the other algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Real-time services for IoT enabled Disastrous Management Scenarios (DMSs), multicast routing problem has attracted many researchers due to its NP-hard behaviour. The objective is to find a Steiner Tree (S-tree) satisfying the essential constraints. To solve complex problems with minimal overhead and better convergence, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has been widely applied to solve such optimization problems. Data dissemination in DMS poses QoS aware multicast routing as a multi-objective search optimization problem. Conventional Multi-Objective PSO (MOPSO) algorithm has been used to solve multicast routing problem considering multi-objectives i.e., power consumption, delay, and packet loss. However, it consumes more computation power and energy due to iterative searching in complete multidimensional search space and also because of a generic method which converts invalid to valid solutions (S-trees). In this paper, a Forwarding Zone (FZ) enabled MOPSO (FZMOPSO) is proposed which acts in FZ to search the valid solution irrespective of complete search space. An FZ enabled Valid Particle Generator (FZVPG) operator is proposed and integrated with FZMOPSO to convert invalid to valid particles effectively. The performance of FZMOPSO is evaluated considering twelve different network scenarios and the results are compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results evidenced the effectiveness of FZMOPSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As a new evolutionary computation method, the structure of backtracking search optimization algorithm (BSA) is simple and the exploration capability of it is strong. However, the global performance of the BSA is significantly affected by mutation strategies and control parameters. Designing appropriate mutation strategies and control parameters is important to improve the global performance of the BSA. In this paper, an adaptive BSA with knowledge learning (KLBSA) is developed to improve the global performance of the BSA. In the method, an adaptive control parameter based on the global and local information of the swarms in the current iteration is designed to adjust the search step length of individuals, which helps to balance the exploration and exploitation abilities of the algorithm. Moreover, a new mutation strategy based on the guidance of different information is designed to improve the optimization ability of the algorithm. In addition, a multi-population strategy is implemented to thoroughly improve the searching ability of the algorithm for different searching areas. To this end, experiments on three groups of benchmark functions and three real-world problems are implemented to verify the performance of the proposed KLBSA algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm performs competitively and effectively when compared to some other evolutionary algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a hardware/software (HW/SW) co-design approach using SOPC technique and pipeline design method to improve design flexibility and execution performance of particle swarm optimization (PSO) for embedded applications. Based on modular design architecture, a Particle Updating Accelerator module via hardware implementation for updating velocity and position of particles and a Fitness Evaluation module implemented either on a soft-cored processor or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for evaluating the objective functions are respectively designed to work closely together to carry out the evolution process at different design stages. Thanks to the design flexibility, the proposed approach can tackle various optimization problems of embedded applications without the need for hardware redesign. To further improve the execution performance of the PSO, a hardware random number generator (RNG) is also designed in this paper in addition to a particle re-initialization scheme to promote exploration search during the optimization process. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed HW/SW co-design approach for PSO algorithms has good efficiency for obtaining high-quality solutions for embedded applications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has shown to be an efficient, robust and simple optimization algorithm. Most of the PSO studies are empirical, with only a few theoretical analyses that concentrate on understanding particle trajectories. These theoretical studies concentrate mainly on simplified PSO systems. This paper overviews current theoretical studies, and extend these studies to investigate particle trajectories for general swarms to include the influence of the inertia term. The paper also provides a formal proof that each particle converges to a stable point. An empirical analysis of multi-dimensional stochastic particles is also presented. Experimental results are provided to support the conclusions drawn from the theoretical findings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sport is one of the activities of human being where cooperative, competitive, self-learning and interactive environment helps in the overall improvement of the performance. These learning processes are very effective to regulate the players in a good direction as well as to enhance their capability of exploring the new techniques. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a popular stochastic optimization algorithm, used for solving real-world engineering problems. However, it usually suffers from local confinement and easily loses its diversity. In this paper, we have integrated the properties of sports with PSO algorithm and proposed an efficient player selection strategy based diversified PSO (EPS-dPSO), which improves the fitness and robustness of the technique without compromising the computational complexity of the algorithm. The properties of player selection is adopted to enhance the diversity within the search phase as well as to incorporate intense searching of the space. We have comprehensively evaluated the performance of proposed EPS-dPSO by applying it on standard benchmark problems. Experimental result shows that it not only tracks the global optimum within the small search interval but also able to obtain good result for large and asymmetrical search space and also insensitive to initialization of the problems. Further, tests are carried out on the benchmark functions from CEC2005, the large dimensional problems of CEC2008 and some real world problems from CEC2011. All the experimental results indicate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed EPS-dPSO compared to other traditional algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structure learning is a very important problem in the field of Bayesian networks (BNs). It is also an active research area for more than 2 decades; therefore, many approaches have been proposed in order to find an optimal structure based on training samples. In this paper, a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based algorithm is proposed to solve the BN structure learning problem; named BNC-PSO ( B ayesian N etwork C onstruction algorithm using PSO ). Edge inserting/deleting is employed in the algorithm to make the particles have the ability to achieve the optimal solution, while a cycle removing procedure is used to prevent the generation of invalid solutions. Then, the theorem of Markov chain is used to prove the global convergence of our proposed algorithm. Finally, some experiments are designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed PSO-based algorithm. Experimental results indicate that BNC-PSO is worthy of being studied in the field of BNs construction. Meanwhile, it can significantly increase nearly 15% in the scoring metric values, comparing with other optimization-based algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-order graph matching aims at establishing correspondences between two sets of feature points using high-order constraints. It is usually formulated as an NP-hard problem of maximizing an objective function. This paper introduces a discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm for resolving high-order graph matching problems, which incorporates several re-defined operations, a problem-specific initialization method based on heuristic information, and a problem-specific local search procedure. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on both synthetic and real-world datasets. Its outstanding performance is validated in comparison with three state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a dynamic mentoring scheme along with a self-regulation scheme have been incorporated in the standard Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to empower the searching particles with human-like characteristics. The algorithm is referred to as a Dynamic Mentoring and Self-Regulation based Particle Swarm Optimization (DMeSR-PSO) algorithm. Based on their experiences, the particles are divided into three groups, viz., the mentor group, the mentee group and the independent learner group where the number of particles in each group is dynamically changing in every iteration. In human learning psychology, mentoring is regarded as a powerful and effective learning process and independent learners are the ones who do not need mentoring and are capable of performing self-regulation of their own knowledge. Therefore, the particles in each of the above three groups have different learning strategies for their velocity updates where the mentors are equipped with a strong self-belief based search, the mentees are taking guidance from the mentors and the independent learners employ self-perception strategy. The DMeSR-PSO algorithm has been extensively evaluated using the simple unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions from CEC2005, more complex shifted and rotated benchmark functions fromCEC2013 and also based on eight real- world problems from CEC2011. The results have been compared with six state-of-the-art PSO variants and five meta-heuristic algorithms for the CEC2005 problems. Further, a comparative analysis on CEC2013 benchmark functions with different PSO variants has also been presented. Finally, DMeSR-PSO's performance on the real-world problems is compared with the top two algorithms from the CEC2011 competition. The results indicate that the proposed learning strategies help DMeSR-PSO to achieve faster convergence and provide better solutions in most of the problems with a 95% confidence level, yielding an effective optimization algorithm for real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversity of solutions is of great importance for multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. In this paper, a new multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm based on decomposition (MPSO/D) is proposed. Firstly, the objective space of a multi-objective problem is decomposed into a set of sub-regions based on a set of direction vectors. Then MPSO/D makes each sub-region have a solution to maintain the diversity. Secondly, considering the convergence of solutions, MPSO/D uses the crowding distance to calculate the fitness values of the reserved solutions for selection operator, and uses the neighboring particles of a particle to determine the global best historical position ( gbest ) of the particle. The proposed algorithm has been compared with NSGAII, MOEA/D and NNIA on sixteen test sets. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms NSGAII, MOEA/D and NNIA in terms of convergence and diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-population method has been widely used to solve unconstrained continuous dynamic optimization problems with the aim of maintaining multiple populations on different peaks to locate and track multiple changing peaks simultaneously. However, to make this approach efficient, several crucial challenging issues need to be addressed, e.g., how to determine the moment to react to changes, how to adapt the number of populations to changing environments, and how to determine the search area of each population. In addition, several other issues, e.g., communication between populations, overlapping search, the way to create populations, detection of changes, and local search operators, should be also addressed. The lack of attention on these challenging issues within multi-population methods hinders the development of multi-population based algorithms in dynamic environments. In this paper, these challenging issues are comprehensively analyzed by a set of experimental studies from the algorithm design point of view. Experimental studies based on a set of popular algorithms show that the performance of algorithms is significantly affected by these challenging issues on the moving peaks benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning plays an important role in behavior learning among social animals. In contrast to individual (asocial) learning, social learning has the advantage of allowing individuals to learn behaviors from others without incurring the costs of individual trials-and-errors. This paper introduces social learning mechanisms into particle swarm optimization (PSO) to develop a social learning PSO (SL-PSO). Unlike classical PSO variants where the particles are updated based on historical information, including the best solution found by the whole swarm (global best) and the best solution found by each particle (personal best), each particle in the proposed SL-PSO learns from any better particles (termed demonstrators) in the current swarm. In addition, to ease the burden of parameter settings, the proposed SL-PSO adopts a dimension-dependent parameter control method. The proposed SL-PSO is first compared with five representative PSO variants on 40 low-dimensional test functions, including shifted and rotated test functions. The scalability of the proposed SL-PSO is further tested by comparing it with five state-of-the-art algorithms for large-scale optimization on seven high-dimensional (100-D, 500-D, and 1000-D) benchmark functions. Our comparative results show that SL-PSO performs well on low-dimensional problems and is promising for solving large-scale problems as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is concerned with a finite-time particle swarm optimization algorithm for odor source localization. First, a continuous-time finite-time particle swarm optimization (FPSO) algorithm is developed based on the continuous-time model of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Since the introduction of a nonlinear damping item, the proposed continuous-time FPSO algorithm can converge over a finite-time interval. Furthermore, in order to enhance its exploration capability, a tuning parameter is introduced into the proposed continuous-time FPSO algorithm. The algorithm’s finite-time convergence is analyzed by using the Lyapunov approach. Second, the discrete-time FPSO algorithm is obtained by using a given dicretization scheme. The corresponding convergence condition is derived by using a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. Finally, the features and performance of the proposed FPSO algorithm are illustrated by using two ill-posed functions and twenty-five benchmark functions, respectively. In numerical simulation results, the problem of odor source localization is presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed FPSO algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent years, many different variants of the particle swarm optimizer (PSO) for solving optimization problems have been proposed. However, PSO has an inherent drawback in handling constrained problems, mainly because of its complexity and dependency on parameters. Furthermore, one PSO variant may perform well for some test problems but not obtain good results for others. In this paper, our purpose is to develop a new PSO algorithm that can efficiently solve a variety of constrained optimization problems. It considers a mix of different PSO variants each of which evolves with a different number of individuals from the current population. In each generation, the algorithm assigns more individuals to the better-performing variants and fewer to the worse-performing ones. Also, a new PSO variant is developed for use in the proposed algorithm to maintain a better balance between its local and global PSO versions. A new methodology for adapting PSO parameters is presented and the proposed self-adaptive PSO algorithm tested and analyzed on two sets of test problems, namely the CEC2006 and CEC2010 constrained optimization problems. Based on the results, the proposed algorithm shows significantly better performance than the same global and local PSO variants as well as other-state-of-the-art algorithms. Although, based on our analysis, it cannot guarantee an optimal solution for any unknown problem, it is expected to be able to solve a wide variety of practical problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] This paper presents a new multiobjective swarm hybrid learning algorithm, MPSON. [•] We also propose MGAN to comparison with MPSON based on performance measures. [•] The aim of our algorithms is to obtain simple and accurate RBF networks simultaneously. [•] We validate the algorithms on datasets with different features, samples and classes. [•] Results show MPSON is the best algorithm with the accuracy-complexity balance for RBF network design. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent years, the Particle Swarm Optimization has rapidly gained increasing popularity and many variants and hybrid approaches have been proposed to improve it. In this paper, motivated by the behavior and the spatial characteristics of the social and cognitive experience of each particle in the swarm, we develop a hybrid framework that combines the Particle Swarm Optimization and the Differential Evolution algorithm. Particle Swarm Optimization has the tendency to distribute the best personal positions of the swarm particles near to the vicinity of problem’s optima. In an attempt to efficiently guide the evolution and enhance the convergence, we evolve the personal experience or memory of the particles with the Differential Evolution algorithm, without destroying the search capabilities of the algorithm. The proposed framework can be applied to any Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm with minimal effort. To evaluate the performance and highlight the different aspects of the proposed framework, we initially incorporate six classic Differential Evolution mutation strategies in the canonical Particle Swarm Optimization, while afterwards we employ five state-of-the-art Particle Swarm Optimization variants and four popular Differential Evolution algorithms. Extensive experimental results on 25 high dimensional multimodal benchmark functions along with the corresponding statistical analysis, suggest that the hybrid variants are very promising and significantly improve the original algorithms in the majority of the studied cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Both fast and accurate block-matching algorithms are critical to efficient compression of video frames using motion estimation and compensation. While the particle swarm optimization approach holds the promise of alleviating the local optima problem suffered typically by existing very fast block matching methods, motion estimation algorithms based on particle swarm optimization in the literature appear to be either much slower than some leading fast block-matching methods for a given accuracy of motion estimation, or less accurate for a given computational complexity. In this paper, we show that the conventional particle swarm optimization approach, which was originally designed to solve general optimization problems where fast convergence of the algorithm might not be a primary concern, could be modified appropriately so that it could provide accurate motion estimation with very low computational cost in the specific context of video motion estimation. To this end, we proposed a new block matching algorithm based on a set of strategies adapted from the standard particle swarm optimization approach. Extensive simulations showed that the proposed method could achieve significant improvements over leading fast block matching methods including the diamond search and the cross-diamond search methods, in terms of both estimation accuracy and computational cost. In particular, the proposed method based on particle swarm optimization is not only much faster, but also remarkably more accurate (about 2dB higher in terms of the Peak Signal-to-Noise-Ratio) than the competing methods on video sequences with large motion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Multimodal optimization is still one of the most challenging tasks for evolutionary computation. In recent years, many evolutionary multi-modal optimization algorithms have been developed. All these algorithms must tackle two issues in order to successfully solve a multi-modal problem: how to identify multiple global/local optima and how to maintain the identified optima till the end of the search. For most of the multi-modal optimization algorithms, the fine-local search capabilities are not effective. If the required accuracy is high, these algorithms fail to find the desired optima even after converging near them. To overcome this problem, this paper integrates a novel local search technique with some existing PSO based multimodal optimization algorithms to enhance their local search ability. The algorithms are tested on 14 commonly used multi-modal optimization problems and the experimental results suggest that the proposed technique not only increases the probability of finding both global and local optima but also reduces the average number of function evaluations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recently, multimodal optimization problems (MMOPs) have gained a lot of attention from the evolutionary algorithm (EA) community since many real-world applications are MMOPs and may require EAs to present multiple optimal solutions. In this paper, a memetic algorithm that hybridizes particle swarm optimization (PSO) with a local search (LS) technique, called memetic PSO (MPSO), is proposed for locating multiple global and local optimal solutions in the fitness landscape of MMOPs. Within the framework of the proposed MPSO algorithm, a local PSO model, where the particles adaptively form different species based on their indices in the population to search for different sub-regions in the fitness landscape in parallel, is used for globally rough exploration, and an adaptive LS method, which employs two different LS operators in a cooperative way, is proposed for locally refining exploitation. In addition, a triggered re-initialization scheme, where a species is re-initialized once converged, is introduced into the MPSO algorithm in order to enhance its performance of solving MMOPs. Based on a set of benchmark functions, experiments are carried out to investigate the performance of the MPSO algorithm in comparison with some EAs taken from the literature. The experimental results show the efficiency of the MPSO algorithm for solving MMOPs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Motivated by concepts in quantum mechanics and particle swarm optimization (PSO), quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) was proposed as a variant of PSO with better global search ability. Although it has been shown to perform well in finding optimal solutions for many optimization problems, there has so far been little theoretical analysis on its convergence and performance. This paper presents a convergence analysis and performance evaluation of the QPSO algorithm and it also proposes two variants of the QPSO algorithm. First, we investigate in detail the convergence of the QPSO algorithm on a probabilistic metric space and prove that the QPSO algorithm is a form of contraction mapping and can converge to the global optimum. This is the first time that the theory of probabilistic metric spaces has been employed to analyze a stochastic optimization algorithm. We provided a new definition for the convergence rate of a stochastic algorithm as well as definitions for three types of convergence according to the correlations between the convergence rate and the objective function values. With these definitions, the effectiveness of the QPSO is evaluated by computing and analyzing the time complexity and the convergence rate of the algorithm. Then, the QPSO with random mean best position (QPSO-RM) and the QPSO with ranking operator (QPSO-RO) are proposed as two improvements of the QPSO algorithm. Finally, some empirical studies on popular benchmark functions are performed in order to make a full performance evaluation and comparison between QPSO, QPSO-RM, QPSO-RO and other variants of PSO. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nonuniform filter bank transmultiplexer (NUFB TMUX) can be used to implement multicarrier communication system where applications with different data rates are to be multiplexed. It is possible to reduce the hardware complexity of the NUFB TMUX by representing the filter coefficients in canonic signed digit (CSD) format. In this paper the design of a multiplier-less NUFB TMUX is presented. NUFB TMUX with continuous filter coefficients is designed and the filter coefficients are synthesized in CSD format. Filter coefficient synthesis in CSD format is formulated as an optimization problem and an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is used for the optimization. To preserve the canonic nature of filter coefficients in the ABC algorithm the filter coefficients are encoded using a look-up table. The look-up table also provides the number of signed power-of-two (SPT) terms in the CSD numbers. Simulation results show that the performance of the multiplier-less NUFB TMUX designed using the proposed ABC algorithm is much better than that of the multiplier-less NUFB TMUX obtained by rounding the continuous coefficients of filters to the nearest CSD number. Multiplier-less NUFB TMUX designed by the proposed ABC algorithm also outperforms that designed using genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new bare-bones multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm to solve the environmental/economic dispatch problems. The algorithm has three distinctive features: a particle updating strategy which does not require tuning up control parameters; a mutation operator with action range varying over time to expand the search capability; and an approach based on particle diversity to update the global particle leaders. Several trials have been carried out on the IEEE 30-bus test system. By comparing with seven existing multi-objective optimization algorithms and three well-known multi-objective particle swarm optimization techniques, it is found that our algorithm is capable of generating excellent approximation of the true Pareto front and can be used to solve other types of multi-objective optimization problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a novel framework of the estimation of particle swarm distribution algorithms (EPSDAs). The aim is to effectively combine particle swarm optimization (PSO) with the estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) without losing their unique features. This aim is achieved by incorporating the following mechanisms: (1) selection is applied to the local best solutions in order to obtain more promising individuals for model building, (2) a probabilistic model of the problem is built from the selected solutions, and (3) new individuals are generated by a stochastic combination of the EDA’s model sampling method and the PSO’s particle moving mechanism. To exhibit the utility of the EPSDA framework, an extended compact particle swarm optimization (EcPSO) is developed by combining the strengths of the extended compact genetic algorithm (EcGA) with binary PSO (BPSO), along the lines of the suggested framework. Due to its effective nature of harmonizing the global search of EcGA with the local search of BPSO, EcPSO is able to discover the optimal solution in a fast and reliable manner. Experimental results on artificial to real-world problems have adduced grounds for the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, a hybrid of algorithms for electromagnetism-like mechanisms (EM) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO), called HEMPSO, is proposed for use in designing a functional-link-based Petri recurrent fuzzy neural system (FLPRFNS) for nonlinear system control. The FLPRFNS has a functional link-based orthogonal basis function fuzzy consequent and a Petri layer to eliminate the redundant fuzzy rule for each input calculation. In addition, the FLPRFNS is trained by the proposed hybrid algorithm. The main innovation is that the random-neighbourhood local search is replaced by a PSO algorithm with an instant-update strategy for particle information. Each particle updates its information instantaneously and in this way receives the best current information. Thus, HEMPSO combines the advantages of multiple-agent-based searching, global optimisation, and rapid convergence. Simulation results confirm that HEMPSO can be used to perform global optimisation and offers the advantage of rapid convergence; they also indicate that the FLPRFNS exhibits high accuracy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Global optimization of high-dimensional problems in practical applications remains a major challenge to the research community of evolutionary computation. The weakness of randomization-based evolutionary algorithms in searching high-dimensional spaces is demonstrated in this paper. A new strategy, SP-UCI is developed to treat complexity caused by high dimensionalities. This strategy features a slope-based searching kernel and a scheme of maintaining the particle population’s capability of searching over the full search space. Examinations of this strategy on a suite of sophisticated composition benchmark functions demonstrate that SP-UCI surpasses two popular algorithms, particle swarm optimizer (PSO) and differential evolution (DE), on high-dimensional problems. Experimental results also corroborate the argument that, in high-dimensional optimization, only problems with well-formative fitness landscapes are solvable, and slope-based schemes are preferable to randomization-based ones. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the use of some well-known versions of particle swarm optimization (PSO): the canonical PSO with gbest model and lbest model with ring topology, the Bare bones PSO (BBPSO) and the fully informed particle swarm (FIPS) on noisy optimization problems. As far as we know, some of these versions like BBPSO and FIPS had not been previously applied to noisy functions yet. A hybrid approach which consists of the swarm algorithms combined with a jump strategy has been developed for static environments. Here, we focus on investigating the introduction of the jump strategy to the swarm algorithms now applied to noisy optimization problems. The hybrid approach is compared experimentally on different noisy benchmark functions. Simulation results indicate that the addition of the jump strategy to the swarm algorithms is beneficial in terms of robustness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fluctuations in the stock market follow the principle of volatility clustering in which changes are cataloged by similarity; as such, large changes tend to follow large changes, and small changes tend to follow small changes. This clustering is one of the major reasons why many generalized autoregression conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models do not forecast the stock market well. In this paper, an adaptive Fuzzy-GARCH model with particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to solve this problem. The adaptive Fuzzy-GARCH model refers to both GARCH models and the parameters of membership functions, which are determined by the characteristics of market itself. Here, we present an iterative algorithm based on PSO to estimate the parameters of the membership functions. The PSO method aims to achieve a global optimal solution with a rapid convergence rate. The three stock markets of Taiwan, Japan, and Germany were analyzed to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, a controllable probabilistic particle swarm optimization (CPPSO) algorithm is introduced based on Bernoulli stochastic variables and a competitive penalized method. The CPPSO algorithm is proposed to solve optimization problems and is then applied to design the memoryless feedback controller, which is used in the synchronization of an array of delayed neural networks (DNNs). The learning strategies occur in a random way governed by Bernoulli stochastic variables. The expectations of Bernoulli stochastic variables are automatically updated by the search environment. The proposed method not only keeps the diversity of the swarm, but also maintains the rapid convergence of the CPPSO algorithm according to the competitive penalized mechanism. In addition, the convergence rate is improved because the inertia weight of each particle is automatically computed according to the feedback of fitness value. The efficiency of the proposed CPPSO algorithm is demonstrated by comparing it with some well-known PSO algorithms on benchmark test functions with and without rotations. In the end, the proposed CPPSO algorithm is used to design the controller for the synchronization of an array of continuous-time delayed neural networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, an effective particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed for polynomial models for time varying systems. The basic operations of the proposed PSO are similar to those of the classical PSO except that elements of particles represent arithmetic operations and variables of time-varying models. The performance of the proposed PSO is evaluated by polynomial modeling based on various sets of time-invariant and time-varying data. Results of polynomial modeling in time-varying systems show that the proposed PSO outperforms commonly used modeling methods which have been developed for solving dynamic optimization problems including genetic programming (GP) and dynamic GP. An analysis of the diversity of individuals of populations in the proposed PSO and GP reveals why the proposed PSO obtains better results than those obtained by GP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several variants of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm have been proposed in recent past to tackle the multi-objective optimization (MO) problems based on the concept of Pareto optimality. Although a plethora of significant research articles have so far been published on analysis of the stability and convergence properties of PSO as a single-objective optimizer, till date, to the best of our knowledge, no such analysis exists for the multi-objective PSO (MOPSO) algorithms. This paper presents a first, simple analysis of the general Pareto-based MOPSO and finds conditions on its most important control parameters (the inertia factor and acceleration coefficients) that govern the convergence behavior of the algorithm to the optimal Pareto front in the objective function space. Computer simulations over benchmark MO problems have also been provided to substantiate the theoretical derivations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Increasing attention is being paid to solve constrained optimization problems (COP) frequently encountered in real-world applications. In this paper, an improved vector particle swarm optimization (IVPSO) algorithm is proposed to solve COPs. The constraint-handling technique is based on the simple constraint-preserving method. Velocity and position of each particle, as well as the corresponding changes, are all expressed as vectors in order to present the optimization procedure in a more intuitively comprehensible manner. The NVPSO algorithm , which uses one-dimensional search approaches to find a new feasible position on the flying trajectory of the particle when it escapes from the feasible region, has been proposed to solve COP. Experimental results showed that searching only on the flying trajectory for a feasible position influenced the diversity of the swarm and thus reduced the global search capability of the NVPSO algorithm. In order to avoid neglecting any worthy position in the feasible region and improve the optimization efficiency, a multi-dimensional search algorithm is proposed to search within a local region for a new feasible position. The local region is composed of all dimensions of the escaped particle’s parent and the current positions. Obviously, the flying trajectory of the particle is also included in this local region. The new position is not only present in the feasible region but also has a better fitness value in this local region. The performance of IVPSO is tested on 13 well-known benchmark functions. Experimental results prove that the proposed IVPSO algorithm is simple, competitive and stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a hybrid evolutionary method for identifying a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to predict the small-time scale traffic measurements data. We used the tree-structure based evolutionary algorithm to evolve the architecture and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to fine tune the parameters of the additive tree models for the system of ordinary differential equations. We also illustrate some experimental comparisons with genetic programming, gene expression programming and a feedforward neural network optimized using PSO algorithm. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method is feasible and efficient for forecasting the small-scale traffic measurements data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]