A parameter selection strategy for particle swarm optimization based on particle positions

In this study, we found that engineering experience can be used to determine the parameters of an optimization algorithm. We came to this conclusion by analyzing the dynamic characteristics of PSO through a large number of experiments. We constructed a relationship between the dynamic process of particle swarm optimization and the transition process of a control system. A novel parameter strategy for PSO was proven in this paper using the overshoot and the peak time of a transition process. This strategy not only provides a series of flexible parameters for PSO but it also provides a new way to analyze particle trajectories that incorporates engineering practices. In order to validate the new strategy, we compared it with published results from three previous reports, which are consistent or approximately consistent with our new strategy, using a suite of well-known benchmark optimization functions. The experimental results show that the proposed strategy is effective and easy to implement. Moreover, the new strategy was applied to equally spaced linear array synthesis examples and compared with other optimization methods. Experimental results show that it performed well in pattern synthesis. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.