A Parameter Control Scheme for DE Inspired by ACO

Differential evolution requires a prior setting of its parameters. Appropriate values are not always easy to determine, even more since they may change during the optimisation process. This is where parameter control comes in. Accordingly, a scheme inspired by ant colony optimisation for controlling the crossover-rate and mutation factor is proposed. Conceptually, artificial ants guided by a pheromone model select parameter value pairs for each individual. The pheromone model is steadily updated in order to reflect the current optimisation state. Promising results were achieved in the comprehensive experimental analysis. Nonetheless, much room for potential improvements is available.