Differential Evolution Using Enhanced Mutation Strategy Based on Random Neighbor Selection

Symmetry in a differential evolution (DE) transforms a solution without impacting the family of solutions. For symmetrical problems in differential equations, DE is a strong evolutionary algorithm that provides a powerful solution to resolve global optimization problems. DE/best/1 and DE/rand/1 are the two most commonly used mutation strategies in DE. The former provides better exploitation while the latter ensures better exploration. DE/Neighbor/1 is an improved form of DE/rand/1 to maintain a balance between exploration and exploitation which was used with a random neighbor-based differential evolution (RNDE) algorithm. However, this mutation strategy slows down convergence. It should achieve a global minimum by using 1000 x D, where D is the dimension, but due to exploration and exploitation balancing trade-offs, it can not achieve a global minimum within the range of 1000 x D in some of the objective functions. To overcome this issue, a new and enhanced mutation strategy and algorithm have been introduced in this paper, called DE/Neighbor/2, as well as an improved random neighbor-based differential evolution algorithm. The new DE/Neighbor/2 mutation strategy also uses neighbor information such as DE/Neighbor/1; however, in addition, we add weighted differences after various tests. The DE/Neighbor/2 and IRNDE algorithm has also been tested on the same 27 commonly used benchmark functions on which the DE/Neighbor/1 mutation strategy and RNDE were tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the DE/Neighbor/2 mutation strategy and IRNDE algorithm show overall better and faster convergence than the DE/Neighbor/1 mutation strategy and RNDE algorithm. The parametric significance test shows that there is a significance difference in the performance of RNDE and IRNDE algorithms at the 0.05 level of significance.