Dynamic adaptation and multiobjective concepts in a particle swarm optimizer for constrained optimization

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to solve constrained optimization problems based on particle swarm optimization (PSO). First, an empirical comparison of the most popular PSO variants is presented as to select the most convenient among them. After that, the PSO variant chosen is improved in: (1) its parameter control with a dynamic proposal as to promote a better exploration of the search space and to avoid premature convergence and (2) its constraint-handling mechanism by using multiobjective concepts as to promote a better approach to the feasible region. The algorithm is tested on a set of 13 well-known benchmark problems and the obtained performance is compared against some PSO variants and state-of-the-art approaches. Based on the results presented some conclusions are drawn and the future work is established.