Bat Algorithm Based on an Integration Strategy and Gaussian Distribution

The bat algorithm (BA) is a recent heuristic optimization algorithm based on the echolocation behavior of bats. However, the bat algorithm tends to fall into local optima and its optimization results are unstable because of its low global exploration ability. To solve these problems, a novel bat algorithm based on an integration strategy (IBA) is proposed in this paper. Through the integration strategy, an appropriate operator is adaptively selected to perform global search, so that the global search ability of the IBA is improved. Furthermore, the IBA disturbs the local optimum through a linear combination of Gaussian functions with different variances to avoid becoming trapped in local optima. The IBA also updates the velocity equation with an adaptive weight to further balance the exploration and exploitation. Moreover, the global convergence of the IBA is proved based on the convergence criterion of a stochastic algorithm. The performance of the IBA is evaluated on CEC2013 benchmark functions and compared with that of the standard BA as well as several of its variants. The results show that the IBA is superior to other algorithms.