Chaotic harmony search algorithms

Harmony Search (HS) is one of the newest and the easiest to code music inspired heuristics for optimization problems. Like the use of chaos in adjusting note parameters such as pitch, dynamic, rhythm, duration, tempo, instrument selection, attack time, etc. in real music and in sound synthesis and timbre construction, this paper proposes new HS algorithms that use chaotic maps for parameter adaptation in order to improve the convergence characteristics and to prevent the HS to get stuck on local solutions. This has been done by using of chaotic number generators each time a random number is needed by the classical HS algorithm. Seven new chaotic HS algorithms have been proposed and different chaotic maps have been analyzed in the benchmark functions. It has been detected that coupling emergent results in different areas, like those of HS and complex dynamics, can improve the quality of results in some optimization problems. It has been also shown that, some of the proposed methods have somewhat increased the solution quality, that is in some cases they improved the global searching capability by escaping the local solutions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.