Binary Equilibrium Optimization Algorithm for Computing Connected Domination Metric Dimension Problem

We consider, in this paper, the NP-hard problem of finding the minimum connected domination metric dimension of graphs. A vertex set B of a connected graph G = (V, E) resolves G if every vertex of G is uniquely identified by its vector of distances to the vertices in B. A resolving set B of G is connected if the subgraph B over bar induced by B is a nontrivial connected subgraph of G. A resolving set is dominating if every vertex of G that does not belong to B is a neighbor to some vertices in B. The cardinality of the smallest resolving set of G, the cardinality of the minimal connected resolving set, and the cardinality of the minimal connected domination resolving set are the metric dimension of G, connected metric dimension of G, and connected domination metric dimension of G, respectively. We present the first attempt to compute heuristically the minimum connected dominant resolving set of graphs by a binary version of the equilibrium optimization algorithm (BEOA). The particles of BEOA are binary-encoded and used to represent which one of the vertices of the graph belongs to the connected domination resolving set. The feasibility is enforced by repairing particles such that an additional vertex generated from vertices of G is added to B, and this repairing process is iterated until B becomes the connected domination resolving set. The proposed BEOA is tested using graph results that are computed theoretically and compared to competitive algorithms. Computational results and their analysis show that BEOA outperforms the binary Grey Wolf Optimizer (BGWO), the binary Particle Swarm Optimizer (BPSO), the binary Whale Optimizer (BWO), the binary Slime Mould Optimizer (BSMO), the binary Grasshopper Optimizer (BGO), the binary Artificial Ecosystem Optimizer (BAEO), and the binary Elephant Herding Optimizer (BEHO).