Performance analysis of the Imperialist Competitive algorithm using benchmark functions

In this paper, in order to prove the effectiveness of the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm — a socio-political inspired algorithm-on finding the optimal solution for different kinds of minimization functions as well as different kinds of landscapes. The reliability and quality of solutions for mathematical minimization functions of the ICA is evaluated by seven distinct benchmark functions where each one displays different behaviors, and then the results of each test is compared with two other optimization techniques, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and the Differential Evolution (DE).