Patron–Prophet Artificial Bee Colony Approach for Solving Numerical Continuous Optimization Problems

Abstract

The swarm-based Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm has a significant range of applications and is competent, compared to other algorithms, regarding many optimization problems. However, the ABC’s performance in higher-dimension situations towards global optima is not on par with other models due to its deficiency in balancing intensification and diversification. In this research, two different strategies are applied for the improvement of the search capability of the ABC in a multimodal search space. In the ABC, the first strategy, Patron–Prophet, is assessed in the scout bee phase to incorporate a cooperative nature. This strategy works based on the donor–acceptor concept. In addition, a self-adaptability approach is included to balance intensification and diversification. This balancing helps the ABC to search for optimal solutions without premature convergence. The first strategy explores unexplored regions with better insight, and more profound intensification occurs in the discovered areas. The second strategy controls the trap of being in local optima and diversification without the pulse of intensification. The proposed model, named the PP-ABC, was evaluated with mathematical benchmark functions to prove its efficiency in comparison with other existing models. Additionally, the standard and statistical analyses show a better outcome of the proposed algorithm over the compared techniques. The proposed model was applied to a three-bar truss engineering design problem to validate the model’s efficacy, and the results were recorded.