KGSA: A Gravitational Search Algorithm for Multimodal Optimization based on K-Means Niching Technique and a Novel Elitism Strategy

Abstract

Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) is a metaheuristic for solving unimodal problems. In this paper, a K-means based GSA (KGSA) for multimodal optimization is proposed. This algorithm incorporates K-means and a new elitism strategy called “loop in loop” into the GSA. First in KGSA, the members of the initial population are clustered by K-means. Afterwards, new population is created and divided in different niches (or clusters) to expand the search space. The “loop in loop” technique guides the members of each niche to the optimum direction according to their clusters. This means that lighter members move faster towards the optimum direction of each cluster than the heavier members. For evaluations, KGSA is benchmarked on well-known functions and is compared with some of the state-of-the-art algorithms. Experiments show that KGSA provides better results than the other algorithms in finding local and global optima of constrained and unconstrained multimodal functions.

Keywords

• gravitational search algorithm (gsa)
• multimodal optimization
• k-means
• niching methods