An Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm for Global Optimization in Dynamic Environments

This article proposes a multipopulation-based adaptive differential evolution (DE) algorithm to solve dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) in an efficient way. The algorithm uses Brownian and adaptive quantum individuals in conjunction with the DE individuals to maintain the diversity and exploration ability of the population. This algorithm, denoted as dynamic DE with Brownian and quantum individuals (DDEBQ), uses a neighborhood-driven double mutation strategy to control the perturbation and thereby prevents the algorithm from converging too quickly. In addition, an exclusion rule is used to spread the subpopulations over a larger portion of the search space as this enhances the optima tracking ability of the algorithm. Furthermore, an aging mechanism is incorporated to prevent the algorithm from stagnating at any local optimum. The performance of DDEBQ is compared with several state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms using a suite of benchmarks from the generalized dynamic benchmark generator (GDBG) system used in the competition on evolutionary computation in dynamic and uncertain environments, held under the 2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC). The simulation results indicate that DDEBQ outperforms other algorithms for most of the tested DOP instances in a statistically meaningful way.