Space Net Optimization

Abstract

Most metaheuristic algorithms rely on a few searched solutions to guide later searches during the convergence process for a simple reason: the limited computing resource of a computer makes it impossible to retain all the searched solutions. This also reveals that each search of most metaheuristic algorithms is just like a ballpark guess. To help address this issue, we present a novel metaheuristic algorithm called space net optimization (SNO). It is equipped with a new mechanism called space net; thus, making it possible for a metaheuristic algorithm to use most information provided by all searched solutions to depict the landscape of the solution space. With the space net, a metaheuristic algorithm is kind of like having a ``vision'' on the solution space. Simulation results show that SNO outperforms all the other metaheuristic algorithms compared in this study for a set of well-known single objective bound constrained problems in most cases.