Ideal solution candidate search for starling murmuration optimizer and its applications on global optimization and engineering problems

In this article, a novel population selection method, fitness distance balance (FDB), and predictive candidate (PC) solution generation hybridization with starling murmuration optimizer (SMO), FDBPC-SMO are proposed. In FDBPC-SMO algorithm, FDB selects subpopulations instead of the separating search strategy (SSS) in the original SMO. The separating size determined in SMO is given as input to the FDB, and the FDB generates the subpopulation based on the distances among the populations. The least squares strategy is applied to the population obtained at the end of the SMO, and the estimated population candidates are found and replaced with the worst solution candidates from the original population. By adding qualitative analysis, the effectiveness of the FDBPC-SMO has been examined based on the dimension and iteration. The success of FDBPC-SMO is the selection of more efficient candidate solutions from the previous population at each iteration, thus minimizing the possibility of getting stuck in the local optimum. The performance of FDBPC-SMO has been investigated on CEC2017 and CEC2019 test sets and seven engineering application problems. In addition, Wilcoxon and Friedman statistical tests confirm the convergence and fitness results of the proposed method. Accordingly, comparing to conventional and improved methods, it is clear that the convergence ability of FDBPC-SMO is superior.