Random Orthogonal Search with Triangular and Quadratic Distributions (TROS and QROS): Parameterless Algorithms for Global Optimization

Abstract

In this paper, the behavior and performance of Pure Random Orthogonal Search (PROS), a parameter-free evolutionary algorithm (EA) that outperforms many existing EAs on the well-known benchmark functions with finite-time budget, are analyzed. The sufficient conditions to converge to the global optimum are also determined. In addition, we propose two modifications to PROS, namely Triangular-Distributed Random Orthogonal Search (TROS) and Quadratic-Distributed Random Orthogonal Search (QROS). With our local search mechanism, both modified algorithms improve the convergence rates and the errors of the obtained solutions significantly on the benchmark functions while preserving the advantages of PROS: parameterless, excellent computational efficiency, ease of applying to all kinds of applications, and high performance with finite-time search budget. The experimental results show that both TROS and QROS are competitive in comparison to several classic metaheuristic optimization algorithms.

Keywords

• global optimization
• metaheuristics
• orthogonal search
• parameterless
• TROS
• QROS