Janez Brest

Self-Adapting Control Parameters in Differential Evolution: A Comparative Study on Numerical Benchmark Problems

We describe an efficient technique for adapting control parameter settings associated with differential evolution (DE). The DE algorithm has been used in many practical cases and has demonstrated good convergence properties. It has only a few control parameters, which are kept fixed throughout the entire evolutionary process. However, it is not an easy task to properly set control parameters in DE. We present an algorithm-a new version of the DE algorithm-for obtaining self-adaptive control parameter settings that show good performance on numerical benchmark problems. The results show that our algorithm with self-adaptive control parameter settings is better than, or at least comparable to, the standard DE algorithm and evolutionary algorithms from literature when considering the quality of the solutions obtained

A comprehensive review of firefly algorithms

Abstract The firefly algorithm has become an increasingly important tool of Swarm Intelligence that has been applied in almost all areas of optimization, as well as engineering practice. Many problems from various areas have been successfully solved using the firefly algorithm and its variants. In order to use the algorithm to solve diverse problems, the original firefly algorithm needs to be modified or hybridized. This paper carries out a comprehensive review of this living and evolving discipline of Swarm Intelligence, in order to show that the firefly algorithm could be applied to every problem arising in practice. On the other hand, it encourages new researchers and algorithm developers to use this simple and yet very efficient algorithm for problem solving. It often guarantees that the obtained results will meet the expectations.

Population size reduction for the differential evolution algorithm

Abstract This paper studies the efficiency of a recently defined population-based direct global optimization method called Differential Evolution with self-adaptive control parameters. The original version uses fixed population size but a method for gradually reducing population size is proposed in this paper. It improves the efficiency and robustness of the algorithm and can be applied to any variant of a Differential Evolution algorithm. The proposed modification is tested on commonly used benchmark problems for unconstrained optimization and compared with other optimization methods such as Evolutionary Algorithms and Evolution Strategies.

Performance comparison of self-adaptive and adaptive differential evolution algorithms

Differential evolution (DE) has been shown to be a simple, yet powerful, evolutionary algorithm for global optimization for many real problems. Adaptation, especially self-adaptation, has been found to be highly beneficial for adjusting control parameters, especially when done without any user interaction. This paper presents differential evolution algorithms, which use different adaptive or self-adaptive mechanisms applied to the control parameters. Detailed performance comparisons of these algorithms on the benchmark functions are outlined.

Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm in Constrained Real-Parameter Optimization

Differential Evolution (DE) has been shown to be a powerful evolutionary algorithm for global optimization in many real problems. Self-adaptation has been found to be high beneficial for adjusting control parameters during evolutionary process, especially when done without any user interaction. In this paper we investigate a self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm where more DE strategies are used and control parameters F and CR are self-adapted. The performance of the self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm is evaluated on the set of 24 benchmark functions provided for the CEC2006 special session on constrained real parameter optimization.

High-dimensional real-parameter optimization using Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm with population size reduction

In this paper we investigate a self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm (jDEdynNP-F) where F and CR control parameters are self-adapted and a population size reduction method is used. Additionally the proposed jDEdynNP-F algorithm uses a mechanism for sign changing of F control parameter with some probability based on the fitness values of randomly chosen vectors, which are multiplied by the F control parameter (scaling factor) in the mutation operation of DE algorithm. The performance of the jDEdynNP-F algorithm is evaluated on the set of 7 benchmark functions provided for the CECpsila2008 special session on high-dimensional real-parameter optimization.

Self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm using population size reduction and three strategies

Many real-world optimization problems are large-scale in nature. In order to solve these problems, an optimization algorithm is required that is able to apply a global search regardless of the problems’ particularities. This paper proposes a self-adaptive differential evolution algorithm, called jDElscop, for solving large-scale optimization problems with continuous variables. The proposed algorithm employs three strategies and a population size reduction mechanism. The performance of the jDElscop algorithm is evaluated on a set of benchmark problems provided for the Special Issue on the Scalability of Evolutionary Algorithms and other Metaheuristics for Large Scale Continuous Optimization Problems. Non-parametric statistical procedures were performed for multiple comparisons between the proposed algorithm and three well-known algorithms from literature. The results show that the jDElscop algorithm can deal with large-scale continuous optimization effectively. It also behaves significantly better than other three algorithms used in the comparison, in most cases.

Dynamic optimization using Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution

In this paper we investigate a Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm (jDE) where F and CR control parameters are self-adapted and a multi-population method with aging mechanism is used. The performance of the jDE algorithm is evaluated on the set of benchmark functions provided for the CEC 2009 special session on evolutionary computation in dynamic and uncertain environments.

Large Scale Global Optimization using Differential Evolution with self-adaptation and cooperative co-evolution

In this paper, an optimization algorithm is formulated and its performance assessment for large scale global optimization is presented. The proposed algorithm is named DEwSAcc and is based on Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, which is a floating-point encoding evolutionary algorithm for global optimization over continuous spaces. The original DE is extended by log-normal self-adaptation of its control parameters and combined with cooperative co-evolution as a dimension decomposition mechanism. Experimental results are given for seven high-dimensional test functions proposed for the Special Session on Large Scale Global Optimization at 2008 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence.

Modified firefly algorithm using quaternion representation

Abstract Quaternions are a number system, which extends complex numbers. They are especially useful in areas where fast rotation calculations are needed, e.g., programming video games or controllers of spacecraft. This paper proposes to use quaternion for the representation of individuals in firefly algorithm so as to enhance the performance of the firefly algorithm and to avoid any stagnation. The preliminary results of our experiments after optimizing a test-suite consisting of ten standard functions, showed that the proposed firefly algorithms using quaternion’s representation improved the results of the original firefly algorithm.