Title: Multidirectional harmony search algorithm for solving integer programming and minimax problems

Authors: Mohamed A. Tawhid; Ahmed F. Ali

Addresses: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, V2C 0C8, Canada ' Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computers and Informatics, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC, V2C 0C8, Canada

Abstract: Integer programming and minimax problems are essential tools in solving various problems that arise in data mining and machine learning such as multi-class data classification and feature selection problems. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid harmony search algorithm by combining the harmony search algorithm with the multidirectional search method in order to solve the integer programming and minimax problems. The proposed algorithm is called multidirectional harmony search algorithm (MDHSA). MDHSA starts the search by applying the standard harmony search for numbers of iteration then the best-obtained solution is passing to the multidirectional search method as an intensification process in order to accelerate the search and overcome the slow convergence of the standard harmony search algorithm. The proposed algorithm is balancing between the global exploration of the harmony search algorithm and the deep exploitation of the multidirectional search method. MDHSA algorithm is tested on seven integer programming problems and 15 minimax problems and compared against 12 algorithms for solving integer programming problems and 11 algorithms for solving minimax problems. The experiments results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm and its ability to solve integer programming and minimax problems in reasonable time.

Keywords: evolutionary computation; global optimisation; harmony search algorithm; direct search algorithm; multidirectional search; integer programming problems; minimax problems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIC.2019.099179

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, 2019 Vol.13 No.3, pp.141 - 158

Accepted: 13 Aug 2018
Published online: 19 Apr 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article