Initialization and Displacement of the Particles in TRIBES, a Parameter-Free Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

This chapter presents two ways of improvement for TRIBES, a parameterfree Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. PSO requires the tuning of a set of parameters, and the performance of the algorithm is strongly linked to the values given to the parameter set. However, finding the optimal set of parameters is a very hard and time consuming problem. So, Clerc worked out TRIBES, a totally adaptive algorithm that avoids parameter fitting. Experimental results are encouraging but are still worse than many algorithms. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how TRIBES can be improved by choosing a new way of initialization of the particles and by hybridizing it with an Estimation of Distribution Algorithm (EDA). These two improvements aim at allowing the algorithm to explore as widely as possible the search space and avoid a premature convergence in a local optimum. Obtained results show that, compared to other algorithms, the proposed algorithm gives results either equal or better.