Dynamic mentoring and self-regulation based particle swarm optimization algorithm for solving complex real-world optimization problems

In this paper, a dynamic mentoring scheme along with a self-regulation scheme have been incorporated in the standard Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to empower the searching particles with human-like characteristics. The algorithm is referred to as a Dynamic Mentoring and Self-Regulation based Particle Swarm Optimization (DMeSR-PSO) algorithm. Based on their experiences, the particles are divided into three groups, viz., the mentor group, the mentee group and the independent learner group where the number of particles in each group is dynamically changing in every iteration. In human learning psychology, mentoring is regarded as a powerful and effective learning process and independent learners are the ones who do not need mentoring and are capable of performing self-regulation of their own knowledge. Therefore, the particles in each of the above three groups have different learning strategies for their velocity updates where the mentors are equipped with a strong self-belief based search, the mentees are taking guidance from the mentors and the independent learners employ self-perception strategy. The DMeSR-PSO algorithm has been extensively evaluated using the simple unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions from CEC2005, more complex shifted and rotated benchmark functions from CEC2013 and also based on eight real-world problems from CEC2011. The results have been compared with six state-of-the-art PSO variants and five meta-heuristic algorithms for the CEC2005 problems. Further, a comparative analysis on CEC2013 benchmark functions with different PSO variants has also been presented. Finally, DMeSR-PSO's performance on the real-world problems is compared with the top two algorithms from the CEC2011 competition. The results indicate that the proposed learning strategies help DMeSR-PSO to achieve faster convergence and provide better solutions in most of the problems with a 95% confidence level, yielding an effective optimization algorithm for real-world applications.