A particle swarm optimization-threshold accepting hybrid algorithm for unconstrained optimization

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid metaheuristic algorithm, which integrates a Threshold Accepting algorithm (TA) with a traditional Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. We used the TA as a catalyst in speeding up convergence of PSO towards the optimal solution. In this hybrid, at the end of every iteration of PSO, the TA is invoked probabilistically to refine the worst particle that lags in the race of finding the solution for that iteration. Consequently the worst particle will be refined in the next iteration. The robustness of the proposed approach has been tested on 34 unconstrained optimization problems taken from the literature. The proposed hybrid demonstrates superior preference in terms of functional evaluations and success rate for 30 simulations conducted.