Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2001.08928

On the Performance of Metaheuristics: A Different Perspective

Hamid Reza Boveiri·Raouf Khayami
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Nowadays, we are immersed in tens of newly-proposed evolutionary and swam-intelligence metaheuristics, which makes it very difficult to choose a proper one to be applied on a specific optimization problem at hand. On the other hand, most of these metaheuristics are nothing but slightly modified variants of the basic metaheuristics. For example, Differential Evolution (DE) or Shuffled Frog Leaping (SFL) are just Genetic Algorithms (GA) with a specialized operator or an extra local search, respectively. Therefore, what comes to the mind is whether the behavior of such newly-proposed metaheuristics can be investigated on the basis of studying the specifications and characteristics of their ancestors. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation study on some basic metaheuristics i.e. Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO), and Cuckoo Optimization algorithm (COA) is conducted, which give us a deeper insight into the performance of them so that we will be able to better estimate the performance and applicability of all other variations originated from them. A large number of experiments have been conducted on 20 different combinatorial optimization benchmark functions with different characteristics, and the results reveal to us some fundamental conclusions besides the following ranking order among these metaheuristics, {ABC, PSO, TLBO, GA, COA} i.e. ABC and COA are the best and the worst methods from the performance point of view, respectively. In addition, from the convergence perspective, PSO and ABC have significant better convergence for unimodal and multimodal functions, respectively, while GA and COA have premature convergence to local optima in many cases needing alternative mutation mechanisms to enhance diversification and global search.

Explore related subjects

cs.NEcs.AI

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Hamid Reza Boveiri, Raouf Khayami. 2020-01-24. On the Performance of Metaheuristics: A Different Perspective. https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08928

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Breaking the Central Bias: Spatially Partitioned Experts for Coordinate-Based Neuroevolution

Evolvable-Substrate HyperNEAT (ES-HyperNEAT), a bio-inspired indirect encoding that determines neuron placement and connection weights from spatial coordinates, exhibits a failure mode on MNIST as a diagnostic benchmark. Because input pixels map to a coordinate space centered at the origin, evolved networks converge on a small central cluster of input pixels, a spatial-concentration bias; prior work observed only 21% mean accuracy in this regime. Is this bias an optimization artifact or an architectural ceiling? Inspired by Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) principles, we partition the input into non-overlapping spatial segments, each assigned to a separately evolved specialist network. With 13 such experts, this design reaches 43% mean accuracy, a 106% relative improvement over the baseline. The architectural gain does not depend on data-driven aggregation: equal-weighted averaging, which uses no validation data, already yields a 70% improvement; the gain comes from partitioning, not the weighting. Receptive-field analysis shows the mechanism: partitioning forces evolution to discover features across the entire image, expanding active pixel coverage from 4% to 79%. Absolute accuracy stays below gradient-trained baselines, but the relative gain points to central bias, not the evolutionary search. Two tools are designed to generalize beyond MNIST: a receptive-field diagnostic for silent input-coverage collapse, and a spatial-partitioning remedy that restores coverage.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

A Bio-Plausible Visual Neural Network for Locust-Inspired Collision Perception

Locust visual systems have long served as an important biological paradigm for studying looming perception and collision avoidance. Numerous computational models have successfully reproduced the selective responses of Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) neurons to approaching objects, thereby emulating the fundamental functionality of the biological system. However, existing models remain limited in biological plausibility and robustness when operating in complex and dynamic visual environments. To address these limitations, we propose a biologically plausible neural network for locust-inspired looming detection. The proposed framework incorporates a spatially isotropic sampling strategy that mimics the ommatidial organization of the locust compound eye, a population-voting mechanism inspired by population coding in biological neural systems, and leaky integrate-and-fire neuronal dynamics to replace conventional sigmoid-based membrane activation. Systematic experiments on synthetic stimuli, laboratory sequences, and real-world driving scenarios demonstrate that the proposed model improves robustness under challenging visual conditions while preserving computational efficiency and enhancing biological fidelity. These results highlight the potential of biologically grounded neural computation for robust and efficient collision perception.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

Structural Fusion of Bayesian Networks with Limited Treewidth Using Genetic Algorithms

This paper introduces an evolutionary computation approach for consensus in structural Bayesian Network (BN) fusion under the constraint of limited treewidth. The consensus BN aims to reconcile multiple input BNs into a single one that retains key structural features present in the original networks. Treewidth, a graph-based parameter associated with computationally tractable inference, is utilized to restrict the complexity of the resulting network. A genetic algorithm is proposed to look for a BN that codifies as much information about the unrestricted fusion as possible while ensuring the treewidth restriction. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the genetic algorithm's ability to obtain consensus BNs with limited treewidth, providing a valuable tool for aggregating information from diverse sources while returning a computationally actionable model.

cs.NE↗