A New Back-Propagation Neural Network Optimized with Cuckoo Search Algorithm

Back-propagation Neural Network (BPNN) algorithm is one of the most widely used and a popular technique to optimize the feed forward neural network training. Traditional BP algorithm has some drawbacks, such as getting stuck easily in local minima and slow speed of convergence. Nature inspired meta-heuristic algorithms provide derivative-free solution to optimize complex problems. This paper proposed a new meta-heuristic search algorithm, called cuckoo search (CS), based on cuckoo bird’s behavior to train BP in achieving fast convergence rate and to avoid local minima problem. The performance of the proposed Cuckoo Search Back-Propagation (CSBP) is compared with artificial bee colony using BP algorithm, and other hybrid variants. Specifically OR and XOR datasets are used. The simulation results show that the computational efficiency of BP training process is highly enhanced when coupled with the proposed hybrid method.