Improvement of the Gravitational Search Algorithm by means of Low-Discrepancy Sobol Quasi Random-Number Sequence Based Initialization

Nature-inspired optimization algorithms can obtain the optima by updating the position of each member in the population. At the beginning of the algorithm, the particles of the population are spread into the search space. The initial distribution of particles corresponds to the beginning points of the search process. Hence, the aim is to alter the position for each particle beginning with this initial position until the optimum solution will be found with respect to the pre-determined conditions like maximum iteration, and specific error value for the fitness function. Therefore, initial positions of the population have a direct effect on both accuracy of the optima and the computational cost. If any member in the population is close enough to the optima, this eases the achievement of the exact solution. On the contrary, individuals grouped far away from the optima might yield pointless efforts. In this study, low-discrepancy quasi-random number sequence is preferred for the localization of the population at the initialization phase. By this way, the population is distributed into the search space in a more uniform manner at the initialization phase. The technique is applied to the Gravitational Search Algorithm and compared via the performance on benchmark function solutions.