A hybrid co-evolutionary cultural algorithm based on particle swarm optimization for solving global optimization problems

Intelligent evolutionary algorithms have been widely used to solve large-scale, complex global optimization problems. Co-evolutionary algorithm (CEA), cultural algorithm (CA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are all promising methods in the field of intelligent computation. In this paper, a hybrid co-evolutionary cultural algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (CECBPSO) is proposed. In CECBPSO, a novel space called shared global belief space (SGBS) is introduced into the co-evolutionary mechanism, and a new co-evolutionary cultural framework is built. Through the synergistic mechanism, the algorithm has higher probability of avoiding local optima and the whole swarm can find global optima more quickly. Factorial Design (FD) approach is used in this paper in order to get a guideline on how to tune the designed parameters in CECBPSO. Extensive computational studies are also carried out to evaluate the performance of CECBPSO on thirteen benchmark functions and three real-life optimization problems. The results show that the proposed algorithm has superior performance to other compared algorithms in terms of accuracy and convergence speed, especially on high-dimensional problems.