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This paper presents an effective approach for solving economic load dispatch problems contemplating the scheduling a set of thermal generating units to produce a specific power at low consumption costs. These problems can be thought of as nonlinear, non-convex, and highly constrained optimization problems with a large number of local minima. To cope with the above issues in solving such problems, a new meta-heuristic named capuchin search algorithm was adopted. To boost the search performance of this algorithm as well as to mitigate its early convergence and regression to the local optimum, it was hybridized with another algorithm and improved using several positive amendments. First, a memory element was added to this algorithm to ameliorate its position and velocity update mechanisms in order to exploit the most encouraging candidate solutions. Second, two adaptive parametric functions were used to manage the exploration and exploitation features of this algorithm and balance them appropriately. Finally, the hybridization was made using the gradient-based optimizer to strengthen the intensification ability of this algorithm and balance its searching ability to fulfill sensible search performance. The proficiency of the proposed algorithm was divulged by assessing it on computationally difficult economic load dispatch problems under 6 different tests with a generator of 3, 13, 40, 80, and 140 units, each with different constraints and load conditions. The proposed algorithm provided the best performance among many other competitors. Its superiority and practicality were revealed by obtaining optimal solutions for large-scale test cases such as 40-unit and 140-unit test systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of the supervised learning process for feedforward neural networks, especially multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP), depends on the suitable configuration of its controlling parameters (i.e., weights and biases). Normally, the gradient descent method is used to find the optimal values of weights and biases. The gradient descent method suffers from the local optimal trap and slow convergence. Therefore, stochastic approximation methods such as metaheuristics are invited. Coronavirus herd immunity optimizer (CHIO) is a recent metaheuristic human-based algorithm stemmed from the herd immunity mechanism as a way to treat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In this paper, an external archive strategy is proposed and applied to direct the population closer to more promising search regions. The external archive is implemented during the algorithm evolution, and it saves the best solutions to be used later. This enhanced version of CHIO is called ACHIO. The algorithm is utilized in the training process of MLP to find its optimal controlling parameters thus empowering their classification accuracy. The proposed approach is evaluated using 15 classification datasets with classes ranging between 2 to 10. The performance of ACHIO is compared against six well-known swarm intelligence algorithms and the original CHIO in terms of classification accuracy. Interestingly, ACHIO is able to produce accurate results that excel other comparative methods in ten out of the fifteen classification datasets and very competitive results for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the learning process of multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is boosted using hybrid metaheuristic optimization algorithms. Normally, the learning process in MLP requires suitable settings of its weight and bias parameters. In the original version of MLP, the gradient descent algorithm is used as a learner in MLP which suffers from two chronic problems: local minima and slow convergence. In this paper, six versions of memetic algorithms (MAs) are proposed to replace gradient descent learning mechanism of MLP where adaptive β -hill climbing (A β HC) as a local search algorithm is hybridized with six population-based metaheuristics which are hybrid flower pollination algorithm, hybrid salp swarm algorithm, hybrid crow search algorithm, hybrid grey wolf optimization (HGWO), hybrid particle swarm optimization, and hybrid JAYA algorithm. This is to show the effect of the proposed MA versions on the performance of MLP. To evaluate the proposed MA versions for MLP, 15 classification benchmark problems with different size and complexity are used. The A β HC algorithm is invoked in the improvement loop of any MA version with a probability of B r parameter, which is investigated to monitor its effect on the behavior of the proposed MA versions. The B r setting which obtains the most promising results is then used to set the hybrid MA. The results show that the proposed MA versions excel the original algorithms. Moreover, HGWO outperforms all other MA versions in almost all the datasets. In a nutshell, MAs are a good choice for training MLP to produce results with high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-dimensional Feature Selection Problems (HFSPs) have grown in popularity but remain challenging. When faced with such complex situations, the majority of currently employed Feature Selection (FS) methods for these problems drastically underperform in terms of effectiveness. To address HFSPs, a new Binary variant of the Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (BAFT) algorithm known as binary adaptive elite opposition-based AFT (BAEOAFT), incorporating historical information and dimensional mutation is presented. The entire population is dynamically separated into two subpopulations in order to maintain population variety, and information and knowledge about individuals are extracted to offer adaptive and dynamic strategies in both subpopulations. Based on the individuals’ history knowledge, Adaptive Tracking Distance (ATD) and Adaptive Perceptive Possibility (APP) schemes are presented for the exploration and exploitation subpopulations. A dynamic dimension mutation technique is used in the exploration subpopulation to enhance BAEOAFT’s capacity in solving HFSPs. Meanwhile, the exploratory subpopulation uses Dlite Dynamic opposite Learning (EDL) to promote individual variety. Even if the exploitation group prematurely converges, the exploration subpopulation’s variety can still be preserved. The proposed BAEOAFT-based FS technique was assessed by utilizing the k-nearest neighbor classifier on 20 HFSPs obtained from the UCI repository. The developed BAEOAFT achieved classification accuracy rates greater than those of its competitors and the conventional BAFT in more than 90% of the applied datasets. Additionally, BAEOAFT outperformed its rivals in terms of reduction rates while selecting the fewest number of features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the economic load dispatch (ELD) problem with valve point effect is tackled using a hybridization between salp swarm algorithm (SSA) as a population-based algorithm and β -hill climbing optimizer as a single point-based algorithm. The proposed hybrid SSA is abbreviated as HSSA. This is to achieve the right balance between the intensification and diversification of the ELD search space. ELD is an important problem in the power systems which is concerned with scheduling the generation units in active generators in optimal way to minimize the fuel cost in accordance with equality and inequality constraints. The proposed HSSA is evaluated using six real-world ELD systems: 3-unit generator, two cases of 13-unit generator, 40-unit generator, 80-unit generator, and 140-unit generator system. These ELD systems are well circulated in the previous literature. The comparative results against 66 well-regarded algorithms are conducted. The results show that the proposed HSSA is able to produce viable and competitive solutions for ELD problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new metaheuristic algorithm called JAYA algorithm has been adapted for feature selection. Feature selection is a typical problem in machine learning and data mining domain concerned with determining the subset of high discriminative features from the irrelevant, noisy, redundant, and high-dimensional features. JAYA algorithm is initially proposed for continuous optimization. Due to the binary nature of the feature selection problem, the JAYA algorithm is adjusted using sinusoidal (i.e., S-shape) transfer function. Furthermore, the mutation operator controlled by adaptive mutation rate ( R m ) parameter is also utilized to control the diversity during the search. The proposed binary JAYA algorithm with adaptive mutation is called BJAM algorithm. The performance of BJAM algorithm is tested using 22 real-world benchmark datasets, which vary in terms of the number of features and the number of instances. Four measures are used for performance analysis: classification accuracy, number of features, fitness values, and computational times. Initially, a comparison between binary JAYA (BJA) algorithm and the proposed BJAM algorithm is conducted to show the effect of the mutation operator in the convergence behavior. After that, the results produced by the BJAM algorithm are compared against those yielded by ten state-of-the-art methods. Surprisingly, the proposed BJAM algorithm is able to excel other comparative methods in 7 out of 22 datasets in terms of classification accuracy. This can lead to the conclusion that the proposed BJAM algorithm is an efficient algorithm for the problems belonging to the feature selection domain and is pregnant with fruitful results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an efficient version of artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm based on the island model concepts. The new version is called the island artificial bee colony (iABC) algorithm. It uses the structured population concept by applying the island model to improve the diversification capabilities of ABC. In the island model, the population is divided into a set of sub-populations called islands, each of which is manipulated separately by an independent variant of the ABC. After a predefined number of iterations, the islands exchange their solutions by migration. This process can help ABC in controlling the diversity of the population during the search process and thus improve the performance. The proposed iABC is evaluated using global optimization functions established by the IEEE-CEC 2015 which include 15 test functions with various dimensions and complexities (i.e., 10, 30, and 50). In order to evaluate the performance of iABC, various parameter settings are utilized to test the effectiveness of their convergence properties. Furthermore, the performance of iABC is compared against 19 comparative methods that used the same IEEE-CEC 2015 test functions. The results show that iABC produced better results when compared with ABC in all IEEE-CEC 2015 test functions, while the results of iABC better than those of the other island-based algorithm on almost all test functions. Furthermore, iABC is able to obtain three new results for three test functions better than all the comparative methods. Using Friedman test and Holm's procedure, iABC is ranked third, seventh, and ninth out of 19 comparative methods for the test functions with 10, 30, 50 dimensionality, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic load dispatch (ELD) is a crucial problem in the power system which is tackled by distributing the required generation power through a set of units to minimize the fuel cost required. This distribution is subject to two main constraints: (1) equality and inequality related to power balance and power output, respectively. In the optimization context, ELD is formulated as a non-convex, nonlinear, constrained optimization problem which cannot be easily solved using calculus-based techniques. Several optimization algorithms have been adapted. Due to the complexity nature of ELD search space, the theoretical concepts of these optimization algorithms have been modified or hybridized. In this paper, the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) which is a swarm intelligence is hybridized with β -hill climbing optimizer (β HC) which is a local search algorithm, to improve convergence properties. GWO is very powerful in a wide search, while β HC is very powerful in deep search. By combining the wide and deep search ability in a single optimization framework, the balance between the exploration and exploitation is correctly managed. The proposed hybrid algorithm is named β -GWO which is evaluated using five different test cases of ELD problems: 3 generating units with 850 MW; 13 generating units with 1800 MW; 13 generating units with 2520 MW; 40 generating units with 10,500 MW; and 80 generating units with 21,000 MW. β -GWO is comparatively measured using 49 comparative methods. The results obtained by β -GWO outperform others in most test cases. In conclusion, the proposed β -GWO is proved to be a powerful method for ELD problem or for any other similar problems in the power system domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is a recent swarm-based evolutionary algorithm that was inspired by the biological evolution of pollination of the flowers. It deals with a panmictic population of pollens (or solutions) at each generation, using global and local pollination operators, to improve the whole population at once. Like other evolutionary algorithms, FPA has a chronic shortcoming that lies in its inability to maturely converge. This is conventionally known as a premature convergence where the diversity of the population is loosed and thus the search is stagnated. Island model is one of the successful structured population techniques that were utilized in the theoretical characteristics of several evolutionary-based algorithms. In this model, the population is divided into a set of islands. The knowledge is distributed among those islands using a migration process that is controlled by migration rate, topology, frequency, and policy. In this paper, the island model is utilized in the evolution process of FPA to control diversity. The proposed approach is called IsFPA. The ability of IsFPA in maintaining the diversity during the search process, and in producing impressive results, can be interpreted by utilizing the island model in the FPA optimization framework. To assess the efficiency of IsFPA, 23 benchmark functions with various sizes and complexities were used. The best parameter configurations of IsFPA were investigated and analyzed. Comparing the results of IsFPA with those of state-of-the-art methods which are FPA, genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), gravitational search algorithm (GSA), multi-verse optimizer (MVO), island bat algorithm (iBA), and island harmony search (iHS), the comparison results show that the IsFPA is able to control the diversity and improves the outcomes where IsFPA is ranked first followed by FPA, iBA, iHS, GSA, MVO, GA, PSO, respectively, based on the Friedman test with Holm and Hochberg as post hoc statistical test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection process is the most attractive operator in the optimization algorithms. It normally mimics the natural selection of survival of the fittest principle. When the selection is too greedy, the selection pressure will be high and therefore the search becomes biased toward exploitation. In contrast, when the selection has a tendency to be random, the selection pressure will be low and thus the exploration is observed more. The selection process in Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) tends to be too greedy since the search is driven by the three best solutions. In this paper, different selection methods extracted from other evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are investigated for GWO. Along with the original selection method of GWO called greedy-based selection method, five others selection methods which are proportional, tournament, universal sampling, linear rank, and random selection methods are investigated. Accordingly, six versions of GWO are proposed which are Greedy-based GWO (GGWO), Proportional-based GWO (PGWO), Tournament-based GWO (TGWO), Universal sampling-based GWO (UGWO), Linear rank-based GWO (LGWO), Random-based GWO (RGWO). The six versions are evaluated using 23 test functions circulated in the literature with different characteristics and complexity. The sensitivity analysis of the control parameters of some new versions are discussed. Interestingly, TGWO achieved the best results for almost all benchmark functions. This proves that the selection methods have a high impact on the performance of GWO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the problem of economic load dispatch (ELD) is tackled using a recently introduced local search-based method called β-hill climbing optimizer. In a power system, the ELD problem is tackled by arranging a set of generation units’ outputs in a specific order to minimize the cost of the operating fuel and to match the power system load demand. This goal is achieved by satisfying all the power balance equality constraints and power output inequality constraints. β-hill climbing algorithm is a new local search algorithm which uses an intelligent stochastic operator called β-operator to escape the trap of local optima. The proposed method is evaluated using five real-world ELD benchmarks which vary in terms of complexity and size. The sensitivity analysis to study the effect of the proposed method parameters is conducted based on eight different convergence cases. The evaluation results of the proposed method are compared with 45 state-of-the-art methods using the same tested ELD benchmarks. Interestingly, the proposed method is able to produce a very closed-to-optimum result for almost all the tested ELD systems and the best result for one of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification of medical data is largely dependent on the effective identification of key features of the data that can be used to aid in the diagnosis of related diseases. This goal can be achieved through feature selection methods that endeavor to get rid of redundant and irrelevant features to ameliorate classification accuracy. This is the aim of this work where a new meta-heuristic, referred to as snake optimizer, was adopted for the purpose of boosting the performance of existing feature selection methods. This optimizer may smoothly fall into local optimal solutions, which may present weak search performance and slow convergence speeds in handling feature selection problems. On this basis, this paper presents three improved adaptive versions of this optimizer, each of which has increased search performance over the basic optimizer. This optimizer was improved using three mathematical models named exponential, power, and delayed S-shaped, to create three methods, referred to as exponential, power, and delayed S-shaped snake optimizers, respectively. These proposed versions were also matured to have more balance between exploration and exploitation aspects. Then, binary variants of these optimizers were evolved to solve feature selection problems using the k-nearest neighbor classifier. To verify the efficacy of these binary optimizers, 24 datasets were used, and then compared with other feature selection optimizers. The experimental results obviously manifested the efficiency of the proposed optimizers in realizing the optimal feature set by achieving utmost accuracy and minimal number of features in the majority of the studied datasets. The proposed binary power snake optimizer outperformed all other competitors in 13, 10, 8, 8, and 12 datasets in respect of classification accuracy, number of chosen attributes, specificity, sensitivity, and fitness scores, respectively. Out of the 24 datasets taken into consideration, the results on 12, 6, and 8 datasets, respectively, showed that this proposed optimizer presented performance scores of more than 90% in respect of sensitivity, accuracy, and specificity metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the update process of harmony search (HS) algorithm is modified to improve its concept of diversity. The update process in HS is based on a greedy mechanism in which the new harmony solution, created in each generation, replaces the worst individual in the population, if better. This greedy process could be improved with other updates mechanisms in order to control the diversity perfectly. Three versions of HS have been proposed: (1) Natural Proportional HS ; (2) Natural Tournament HS; (3) Natural Rank HS. These three HS versions employed the natural selection principle of the “survival of the fittest”. Instead of replacing the worst individual in population, any individual can be replaced based on certain criteria. Four versions of economic loading dispatch (ELD) problems with valve point have been used to measure the effect of the newly proposed HS versions. The results show that the new HS versions are very promising for ELD domain. This claim is proved based on the comparative evaluation process where the new HS versions are able to excel the state-of-the-art methods in almost ELD problems used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In evolutionary computation, systematically structuring the population is used to manage the evolution process. Thus controlling the amount of diversity during the algorithm search. Island-based, hierarchical-based, and cellular automata are the most popular structured population models utilized for evolutionary algorithms to improve their diversity and convergence. Specifically, the cellular automata model arranges the population of individuals in a 2D grid spatial structure where the concepts of cells and their neighbors are considered to drive the evolution step. A recent population-based algorithm is proposed called the crow search algorithm (CSA). It stimulates the behavior of crows in keeping their food in hidden places to be retrieved when needed. Like other population-based algorithms, CSA endures from slow convergence because of inadequate diversity. In this paper, the cellular automata model is incorporated with the optimization framework of CSA to control its diversity during the search, thus boosts its efficiency. The proposed method is abbreviated as CCSA. In CCSA, the population is structured as a 2D grid where the active population is iteratively determined. At each iteration, each individual is updated based on current neighboring individuals determined by the topological neighborhood shapes and follows the best neighboring individual in its active population. The CCSA is evaluated using 23 standard benchmark functions well-circulated in the literature. Initially, six cellular topological neighborhood shapes (i.e., L5, L9, C9, C13, C21, and C25) are studied with various problem sizes to investigate their impact on the CCSA convergence. Comparative evaluations against twelve state-of-the-art methods, including four CSA versions, are conducted. The comparative results prove the effectiveness of the proposed CCSA. The diversity of the proposed CCSA has also been stressed using convergence analysis and hamming distance. For further validations, the proposed algorithm is evaluated using three real-world problems published in IEEE-CEC2011 and welded beam design problems. Again, the proposed CCSA yields more fruitful results than other well-established methods using real-world problems. In conclusion, this paper provides an efficient alternative of CSA to perfectly maintain the diversity of the search, which can be further tested using other optimization problems. • Cellular automata is injected with crow search algorithm (CCSA) to empower diversity. • CCSA with six neighborhood shapes (i.e., L5, L9, C9, C13, C21, and C25) are proposed. • CSA is evaluated using 23 test functions, and four Engineering problems. • Results show the superiority of the CCSA against the other comparative algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new nature-inspired human-based optimization algorithm is proposed which is called coronavirus herd immunity optimizer (CHIO). The inspiration of CHIO is originated from the herd immunity concept as a way to tackle coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The speed of spreading coronavirus infection depends on how the infected individuals directly contact with other society members. In order to protect other members of society from the disease, social distancing is suggested by health experts. Herd immunity is a state the population reaches when most of the population is immune which results in the prevention of disease transmission. These concepts are modeled in terms of optimization concepts. CHIO mimics the herd immunity strategy as well as the social distancing concepts. Three types of individual cases are utilized for herd immunity: susceptible, infected, and immuned. This is to determine how the newly generated solution updates its genes with social distancing strategies. CHIO is evaluated using 23 well-known benchmark functions. Initially, the sensitivity of CHIO to its parameters is studied. Thereafter, the comparative evaluation against seven state-of-the-art methods is conducted. The comparative analysis verifies that CHIO is able to yield very competitive results compared to those obtained by other well-established methods. For more validations, three real-world engineering optimization problems extracted from IEEE-CEC 2011 are used. Again, CHIO is proved to be efficient. In conclusion, CHIO is a very powerful optimization algorithm that can be used to tackle many optimization problems across a wide variety of optimization domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bat-inspired algorithm (BA) is a robust swarm intelligence algorithm that finds success in many problem domains. The ecosystem of bat animals inspires the main idea of BA. This review paper scanned and analysed the state-of-the-art researches investigated using BA from 2017 to 2021. BA has very impressive characteristics such as its easy-to-use, simple in concepts, flexible and adaptable, consistent, and sound and complete. It has strong operators that incorporate the natural selection principle through survival-of-the-fittest rule within the intensification step attracted by local-best solution. Initially, the growth of the recent solid works published in Scopus indexed articles is summarized in terms of the number of BA-based Journal articles published per year, citations, top authors, work with BA, top institutions, and top countries. After that, the different versions of BA are highlighted to be in line with the complex nature of optimization problems such as binary, modified, hybridized, and multiobjective BA. The successful applications of BA are reviewed and summarized, such as electrical and power system, wireless and network system, environment and materials engineering, classification and clustering, structural and mechanical engineering, feature selection, image and signal processing, robotics, medical and healthcare, scheduling domain, and many others. The critical analysis of the limitations and shortcomings of BA is also mentioned. The open-source codes of BA code are given to build a wealthy BA review. Finally, the BA review is concluded, and the possible future directions for upcoming developments are suggested such as utilizing BA to serve in dynamic, robust, multiobjective, large-scaled optimization as well as improve BA performance by utilizing structure population, tuning parameters, memetic strategy, and selection mechanisms. The reader of this review will determine the best domains and applications used by BA and can justify their BA-related contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel meta-heuristic algorithm so-called White Shark Optimizer (WSO) to solve optimization problems over a continuous search space. The core ideas and underpinnings of WSO are inspired by the behaviors of great white sharks, including their exceptional senses of hearing and smell while navigating and foraging. These aspects of behavior are mathematically modeled to accommodate a sufficiently adequate balance between exploration and exploitation of WSO and to assist search agents to explore and exploit each potential area of the search space in order to achieve optimization. The search agents of WSO randomly update their position in connection with best-so-far solutions, to eventually arrive at the optimal outcome. The performance of WSO was comprehensively benchmarked on a set of 29 test functions from the CEC-2017 test suite for several dimensions. WSO was further applied to solve the benchmark problems of the CEC-2011 evolutionary algorithm competition to prove its reliability and applicability to real-world problems. A thorough analysis of computational and convergence results was presented to shed light on the efficacy and stability levels of WSO. The performance score of WSO in terms of several statistical methods was compared with 9 well-established meta-heuristics based on the solutions generated. Friedman's and Holm's tests of the results showed that WSO revealed reasonable solutions, in terms of global optimality, avoidance of local minima and solution quality, compared to other existing meta-heuristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA microarray technology is the fabrication of a single chip to contain a thousand genetic codes. Each microarray experiment can analyze many thousands of genes in parallel. The outcomes of the DNA microarray is a table/matrix, called gene expression data. Pattern recognition algorithms are widely applied to gene expression data to differentiate between health and cancerous patient samples. However, gene expression data is characterized as a high dimensional data that typically encompassed of redundant, noisy, and irrelevant genes. Datasets with such characteristics pose a challenge to machine learning algorithms. This is because they impede the training and testing process and entail high resource computations that deteriorate the classification performance. In order to avoid these pitfalls, gene selection is needed. This paper proposes a new hybrid filter-wrapper approach using robust Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevancy (rMRMR) as a filter approach to choose the top-ranked genes. Modified Gray Wolf Optimizer (MGWO) is used as a wrapper approach to seek further small sets of genes. In MGWO, new optimization operators inspired by the TRIZ-inventive solution are coupled with the original GWO to increase the diversity of the population. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, nine well-known microarray datasets are tested. The support vector machine (SVM) is employed for the classification task to estimate the goodness of the selected subset of genes. The effectiveness of TRIZ optimization operators in MGWO is evaluated by investigating the convergence behavior of GWO with and without TRIZ optimization operators. Moreover, the results of MGWO are compared with seven state-of-art gene selection methods using the same datasets based on classification accuracy and the number of selected genes. The results show that the proposed method achieves the best results in four out of nine datasets and it obtains remarkable results on the remaining datasets. The experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method in searching the gene search space and it was able to find the best gene combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dragonfly Algorithm (DA) is a recent swarm-based optimization method that imitates the hunting and migration mechanisms of idealized dragonflies. Recently, a binary DA (BDA) has been proposed. During the algorithm iterative process, the BDA updates its five main coefficients using random values. This updating mechanism can be improved to utilize the survival-of-the-fittest principle by adopting different functions such as linear, quadratic, and sinusoidal. In this paper, a novel BDA is proposed. The algorithm uses different strategies to update the values of its five main coefficients to tackle Feature Selection (FS) problems. Three versions of BDA have been proposed and compared against the original DA. The proposed algorithms are Linear-BDA, Quadratic-BDA, and Sinusoidal-BDA. The algorithms are evaluated using 18 well-known datasets. Thereafter, they are compared in terms of classification accuracy, the number of selected features, and fitness value. The results show that Sinusoidal-BDA outperforms other proposed methods in almost all datasets. Furthermore, Sinusoidal-BDA exceeds three swarm-based methods in all the datasets in terms of classification accuracy and it excels in most datasets when compared in terms of the fitness function value. In a nutshell, the proposed Sinusoidal-BDA outperforms the comparable feature selection algorithms and the proposed updating mechanism has a high impact on the algorithm performance when tackling FS problems. • This paper proposes an improved Binary Dragonfly Algorithm (BDA) for Feature Selection. • Three versions of BDA are proposed: LBDA, QBDA, and SBDA. • Eighteen datasets taken from UCI machine learning repository are used for evaluation process. • SBDA excels LBDA and QBDA in terms of accuracy, number of features, and fitness function. • SBDA excels the nine comparative methods in 12 out of 18 dataset in terms of accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]