Adaptive differential evolution with a new joint parameter adaptation method

Differential evolution (DE) is a population-based metaheuristic algorithm that has been proved powerful in solving a wide range of real-parameter optimization tasks. However, the selection of the mutation strategy and control parameters in DE is problem dependent, and inappropriate specification of them will lead to poor performance of the algorithm such as slow convergence and early stagnation in a local optimum. This paper proposes a new method termed as Joint Adaptation of Parameters in DE (JAPDE). The key idea lies in dynamically updating the selection probabilities for a complete set of pairs of parameter generating functions based on feedback information acquired during the search by DE. Further, for mutation strategy adaptation, the Rank-Based Adaptation (RAM) method is utilized to facilitate the learning of multiple probability distributions, each of which corresponds to an interval of fitness ranks of individuals in the population. The coupling of RAM with JAPDE results in the new RAM-JAPDE algorithm that enables simultaneous adaptation of the selection probabilities for pairs of control parameters and mutation strategies in DE. The merit of RAM-JAPDE has been evaluated on the benchmark test suit proposed in CEC2014 in comparison to many well-known DE algorithms. The results of experiments demonstrate that the proposed RAM-JAPDE algorithm outperforms or is competitive to the other related DE variants that perform mutation strategy and control parameter adaptation, respectively.