S-shaped and V-shaped binary African vulture optimization algorithm for feature selection

The African vulture optimization algorithm (AVOA) is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm that imitates the eating and movement patterns of authentic African vultures. AVOA is developed to address the continuous optimization problem. However, AVOA is unable to solve the discrete search space, this inspires us to develop the binary AVOA for feature selection problems in classification tasks. The suggested BAVOA incorporates an eight-transfer function (S-shaped and V-shaped) for transforming a continuous variable to a binary one. Using 14 benchmark data sets, the proposed technique is compared against 15 conventional binary metaheuristics algorithms in terms of classification accuracy, fitness function, number of selected features and converging ability. Furthermore, the results are statistically analysed using Wilcoxon test. The comparative findings of S-Shaped and V-shaped transfer functions indicate the superior performance of BAVOA methods, particularly S2-BAVOA, in contrast to other transfer function. Based on results, it turns out that the suggested technique converges to the global minimum in several iterations based on the selection of optimal characteristics, fitness values and higher classification accuracy as compared to the classical binary metaheuristic algorithms.