Experimental results of heterogeneous cooperative Bare Bones Particle Swarm Optimization with Gaussian jump for large scale global optimization

Abstract

Many optimization problems in recent engineering are complex and high-dimensional problems, a so-called Large-Scale Global Optimization (LSGO) problem, due to the increasing requirements for multidisciplinary approach. This paper proposes a novel Bare Bones Particle Swarm Optimization (BBPSO) algorithm to solve LSGO problems. The BBPSO is a variant of a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and is based on Gaussian distribution. The BBPSO does not consider the selection of controllable parameters of the PSO and is a simple but powerful optimizer. This algorithm, however, is vulnerable to LSGO problems. This study has improved its performance for LSGO problems by combining the heterogeneous cooperation based on the information exchange between particles and the Gaussian jump strategy to avoid local optima. The CEC'2015 Special Session on Large-Scale Global Optimization has given 15 benchmark problems to provide convenience and flexibility for comparing various optimization algorithms specifically designed for large-scale global optimization. Simulations performed with those benchmark problems have verified the performance of the proposed optimizer and compared with the reference algorithm DECC-G of the CEC'2015 special session on LSGO.