Improved Multi-Strategy Harris Hawks Optimization and Its Application in Engineering Problems

In order to compensate for the low convergence accuracy, slow rate of convergence, and easily falling into the trap of local optima for the original Harris hawks optimization (HHO) algorithm, an improved multi-strategy Harris hawks optimization (MSHHO) algorithm is proposed. First, the population is initialized by Sobol sequences to increase the diversity of the population. Second, the elite opposition-based learning strategy is incorporated to improve the versatility and quality of the solution sets. Furthermore, the energy updating strategy of the original algorithm is optimized to enhance the exploration and exploitation capability of the algorithm in a nonlinear update manner. Finally, the Gaussian walk learning strategy is introduced to avoid the algorithm being trapped in a stagnant state and slipping into a local optimum. We perform experiments on 33 benchmark functions and 2 engineering application problems to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm has good performance in terms of optimization seeking accuracy, the speed of convergence, and stability, which effectively remedies the defects of the original algorithm.