Genetic Learning Particle Swarm Optimization with Interlaced Ring Topology

Genetic learning particle swarm optimization (GL-PSO) is a hybrid optimization method based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA). The GL-PSO method improves the performance of PSO by constructing superior exemplars from which individuals of the population learn to move in the search space. However, in case of complex optimization problems, GL-PSO exhibits problems to maintain appropriate diversity, which leads to weakening an exploration and premature convergence. This makes the results of this method not satisfactory. In order to enhance the diversity and adaptability of GL-PSO, and as an effect of its performance, in this paper, a new modified genetic learning method with interlaced ring topology and flexible local search operator has been proposed. To assess the impact of the introduced modifications on performance of the proposed method, an interlaced ring topology has been integrated with GL-PSO only (referred to as GL-PSOI) as well as with a flexible local search operator (referred to as GL-PSOIF). The new strategy was tested on a set of benchmark problems and a CEC2014 test suite. The results were compared with five different variants of PSO, including GL-PSO, GGL-PSOD, PSO, CLPSO and HCLPSO to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.