This paper proposes a new metaheuristic global optimization algorithm inspired by Wildebeest herding behavior called Wildebeest Herd Optimization (WHO) algorithm. WHO algorithm mimics the way nomadic Wildebeest herds search vast areas of grasslands efficiently for regions of high food density. The WHO algorithm models five principal Wildebeest behaviors: firstly Wildebeests have limited eyesight and can only search for food locally, secondly Wildebeests stick to the herd to escape predators, thirdly Wildebeest herd as a whole migrates to regions of high food availability based on historical knowledge of annual grass growth rates and rainfall patterns, fourthly Wildebeests move out of crowded overgrazed regions and finally Wildebeests move to avoid starvation. The WHO algorithm is compared to Physics inspired, Swarm based, Biologically inspired and Evolution inspired global optimization algorithms on an extended test suite of benchmark optimization problems including rotated, shifted, noisy and high dimensional problems. Extensive simulation results indicate that the WHO algorithm proposed in this paper significantly outperforms state-of-the-art popular metaheuristic optimization algorithms like Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm (ABC) and Simulated Annealing (SA) on shifted, high dimensional and large search range problems. © 2019 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Geraldine Bessie Amali D

Department of Computational Intelligence

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Vellore Campus

Dinakaran M

Department of Information Technology

School of Information Technology and Engineering

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

VIT University

Wildebeest herd optimization: A new global optimization algorithm inspired by wildebeest herding behaviour

Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems

This paper proposes a new global optimization <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/metaheuristics">metaheuristic</a> called Galactic Swarm Optimization (GSO) inspired by the motion of stars, galaxies and superclusters of galaxies under the influence of gravity. GSO employs multiple cycles of exploration and exploitation phases to strike an optimal trade-off between exploration of new solutions and exploitation of existing solutions. In the explorative phase different subpopulations independently explore the search space and in the exploitative phase the best solutions of different subpopulations are considered as a superswarm and moved towards the best solutions found by the superswarm. In this paper subpopulations as well as the superswarm are updated using the PSO algorithm. However, the GSO approach is quite general and any population based optimization algorithm can be used instead of the PSO algorithm. Statistical test results indicate that the GSO algorithm proposed in this paper significantly outperforms 4 state-of-the-art PSO algorithms and 4 multiswarm PSO algorithms on an overwhelming majority of 15 benchmark <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/optimisation-problem">optimization problems</a> over 50 independent trials and up to 50 dimensions. Extensive simulation results show that the GSO algorithm proposed in this paper converges faster to a significantly more accurate solution on a wide variety of high dimensional and multimodal benchmark optimization problems.

Applied Soft Computing

Galactic Swarm Optimization: A new global optimization metaheuristic inspired by galactic motion

Stochastic optimization algorithms like genetic algorithms (GAs) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms perform global optimization but waste computational effort by doing a random search. On the other hand deterministic algorithms like gradient descent converge rapidly but may get stuck in local minima of multimodal functions. Thus, an approach that combines the strengths of stochastic and deterministic optimization schemes but avoids their weaknesses is of interest. This paper presents a new hybrid optimization algorithm that combines the PSO algorithm and gradient-based local search algorithms to achieve faster convergence and better accuracy of final solution without getting trapped in local minima. In the new gradient-based PSO algorithm, referred to as the GPSO algorithm, the PSO algorithm is used for global exploration and a gradient based scheme is used for accurate local exploration. The global minimum is located by a process of finding progressively better local minima. The GPSO algorithm avoids the use of inertial weights and constriction coefficients which can cause the PSO algorithm to converge to a local minimum if improperly chosen. The De Jong test suite of benchmark optimization problems was used to test the new algorithm and facilitate comparison with the classical PSO algorithm. The GPSO algorithm is compared to four different refinements of the PSO algorithm from the literature and shown to converge faster to a significantly more accurate final solution for a variety of benchmark test functions. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal	Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems
Publisher	IOS Press
ISSN	1064-1246
Open Access	0