Parameter Adaptation and Criticality in Particle Swarm Optimization
This addresses the parameter tuning challenge for users of heuristic algorithms, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing PSO methods.
The research tackled the problem of parameter selection in particle swarm optimization (PSO) by developing an Adaptive PSO variant using self-organized criticality to reduce user interaction, resulting in excellent long-run performance without stagnation and better balance of exploration and exploitation compared to standard PSO.
Generality is one of the main advantages of heuristic algorithms, as such, multiple parameters are exposed to the user with the objective of allowing them to shape the algorithms to their specific needs. Parameter selection, therefore, becomes an intrinsic problem of every heuristic algorithm. Selecting good parameter values relies not only on knowledge related to the problem at hand, but to the algorithms themselves. This research explores the usage of self-organized criticality to reduce user interaction in the process of selecting suitable parameters for particle swarm optimization (PSO) heuristics. A particle swarm variant (named Adaptive PSO) with self-organized criticality is developed and benchmarked against the standard PSO. Criticality is observed in the dynamic behaviour of this swarm and excellent results are observed in the long run. In contrast with the standard PSO, the Adaptive PSO does not stagnate at any point in time, balancing the concepts of exploration and exploitation better. A software platform for experimenting with particle swarms, called PSO Laboratory, is also developed. This software is used to test the standard PSO as well as all other PSO variants developed in the process of creating the Adaptive PSO. As the software is intended to be of aid to future and related research, special attention has been put in the development of a friendly graphical user interface. Particle swarms are executed in real time, allowing users to experiment by changing parameters on-the-fly.