Search

Swarm intelligent algorithms are derived from the simulation of natural evolution or collective behavior of animals to seek solutions of complicated optimization problems by exploring and exploiting the search space efficiently and effectively. Through the analysis on the search characteristics of swarm intelligent algorithms, the concept of solution set diversity is introduced in this paper according to the infrastructural changes of solution sets in search processes. Two categories of fundamental search strategies, i.e. the diversification search and the intensification search, are then defined and their influences on the stagnation of solution sets evolution are investigated on the basis of the solution set diversity. It is proved in this paper that an intensification strategy inevitably leads candidates solution to a single solution, which is one of the main sources of stagnation; while a diversification strategy is able to reach any point of the coding space from each initial candidate solution, i.e., the whole searching space is the reachable region of the diversification strategy, but the convergence of the algorithm cannot be guaranteed. Three popular swarm intelligent algorithms, i.e. the canonical generic algorithm, the ant colony system and the discrete particle swarm optimization, are tested with a benchmark problem, and the results support the theoretical conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]