Enhanced Marine Predators Algorithm with Local Escaping Operator for Global Optimization

The recently introduced Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA) exhibits competitive performance in solving optimization problems. However, it often prematurely converges due to an imbalance between its exploration and exploitation capabilities. Therefore, in this paper, an improved MPA variant using a proposed Local Escaping Operator (LEO) is introduced. In the MPA, solution candidates are replaced by better candidates from the previous iteration, mimicking a memory of already visited prey abundant areas. This indicates a weak inter-dependence between the candidates in the population and possible acceptance of new solution candidates created outside the algorithm without damaging the optimization process. Consequently, in the proposed approach, the worst candidates are replaced with solutions created by the LEO. The LEO is based on representative solutions, taking into account the relationship between predators and the characteristics of their population. The approach is experimentally compared with the state-of-the-art meta-heuristics on 82 test functions, including IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation test suites (CEC'14 and CEC'17) and three engineering problems. The results show the superiority of the LEO-MPA over the MPA and recent algorithms. Furthermore, in this paper, the suitability of the hybridization of meta-heuristics with the LEO is discussed and successful attempts with the best algorithms are shown. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The paper presents an improved MPA variant using a Local Escaping Operator (LEO) to address the premature convergence issue. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of LEO-MPA over MPA and recent algorithms, showing the effectiveness of hybridizing meta-heuristics with LEO for optimization problems.