An efficient improved African vultures optimization algorithm with dimension learning hunting for traveling salesman and large‐scale optimization applications

Abstract

Exploring the finest shortest-path traveling salesman optimization application is a typical NP-hard problem. Similarly the solution of the large-scale optimization applications is also a big challenging issue in front of scientists. First, African Vultures Optimization Algorithm (AVOA) was developed to resolve continuous applications where it performed fine. In the last few months, many enhanced strategies of AVOA have been offered in recent literature works and it has been extensively utilized to resolve large-scale engineering optimization applications. This study offers a newly modified dimension learning hunting (DLH)-based AVOA called DLHAV algorithm to resolve highly complex continuous and discrete applications. It helps improve the imbalance amid the hunting (or exploitation) and search (or exploration), the lack of crowd diversity, slow convergence speed, trapping in local optima, and early convergence of the AVOA variant. The proposed strategy benefits from a newly driven approach called the DLH search approach congenital from the separate exploitation behavior of vultures in the search domain. DLH exploration strategy utilizes a distinct method to make the best neighborhood for all vultures in which the nearest member information can be supplied amid vultures. DLH helps in improving the balance amid global and local and sustains diversity. To scrutinize the performance of DLHAV, the solutions of the DLHAV method are verified on 29-CEC'17 and 10-CEC'20 with familiar comparative methods and some other classical optimization approaches over many familiar traveling salesman problem/large-scale instances. With the intention of attaining unbiased and rigorous comparison, descriptive statistics such as standard deviation and mean have been applied, and the statistical Friedman test is also conducted. The experimental solution carried out in this study has revealed that the proposed algorithm outperforms significantly over the other alternative optimizers.