A novel bee swarm optimization algorithm for numerical function optimization

The optimization algorithms which are inspired from intelligent behavior of honey bees are among the most recently introduced population based techniques. In this paper, a novel algorithm called bee swarm optimization, or BSO, and its two extensions for improving its performance are presented. The BSO is a population based optimization technique which is inspired from foraging behavior of honey bees. The proposed approach provides different patterns which are used by the bees to adjust their flying trajectories. As the first extension, the BSO algorithm introduces different approaches such as repulsion factor and penalizing fitness (RP) to mitigate the stagnation problem. Second, to maintain efficiently the balance between exploration and exploitation, time-varying weights (TVW) are introduced into the BSO algorithm. The proposed algorithm (BSO) and its two extensions (BSORP and BSO-RPTVW) are compared with existing algorithms which are based on intelligent behavior of honey bees, on a set of well known numerical test functions. The experimental results show that the BSO algorithms are effective and robust; produce excellent results, and outperform other algorithms investigated in this consideration. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.