Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population based stochastic optimization technique influenced by the social behavior of bird flocking or fish schooling.PSO shares many similarities with evolutionary computation techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA). The system is initialized with a population of random solutions and searches for optima by updating generations. However, unlike GA, PSO has no evolution operators such as crossover and mutation. In PSO, the potential solutions, called particles, fly through the problem space by following the current optimum particles. This book represents the contributions of the top researchers in this field and will serve as a valuable tool for professionals in this interdisciplinary field.

This book explains the theoretical structure of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and focuses on the application of PSO to portfolio optimization problems. The general goal of portfolio optimization is to find a solution that provides the highest expected return at each level of portfolio risk. According to H. Markowitz’s portfolio selection theory, as new assets are added to an investment portfolio, the total risk of the portfolio’s decreases depending on the correlations of asset returns, while the expected return on the portfolio represents the weighted average of the expected returns for each asset. The book explains PSO in detail and demonstrates how to implement Markowitz’s portfolio optimization approach using PSO. In addition, it expands on the Markowitz model and seeks to improve the solution-finding process with the aid of various algorithms. In short, the book provides researchers, teachers, engineers, managers and practitioners with many tools they need to apply the PSO technique to portfolio optimization.

This is the first book devoted entirely to Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), which is a non-specific algorithm, similar to evolutionary algorithms, such as taboo search and ant colonies. Since its original development in 1995, PSO has mainly been applied to continuous-discrete heterogeneous strongly non-linear numerical optimization and it is thus used almost everywhere in the world. Its convergence rate also makes it a preferred tool in dynamic optimization.

This book examines the bottom-up applicability of swarm intelligence to solving multiple problems, such as curve fitting, image segmentation, and swarm robotics. It compares the capabilities of some of the better-known bio-inspired optimization approaches, especially Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO) and the recently proposed Fractional Order Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (FODPSO), and comprehensively discusses their advantages and disadvantages. Further, it demonstrates the superiority and key advantages of using the FODPSO algorithm, such as its ability to provide an improved convergence towards a solution, while avoiding sub-optimality. This book offers a valuable resource for researchers in the fields of robotics, sports science, pattern recognition and machine learning, as well as for students of electrical engineering and computer science.

This book is intended to gather recent studies on particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this book, readers can find the recent theoretical developments and applications on PSO algorithm. From the theoretical aspect, PSO has preserved its popularity because of the fast convergence rate, and a lot of hybrid algorithms have recently been developed in order to increase the performance of the algorithm. At the same time, PSO has also been used to solve different kinds of engineering optimization problems. In this book, a reader can find engineering applications of PSO, such as environmental economic dispatch and grid computing.

"This book presents the most recent and established developments of Particle swarm optimization (PSO) within a unified framework by noted researchers in the field"--Provided by publisher.

For many engineering problems we require optimization processes with dynamic adaptation as we aim to establish the dimension of the search space where the optimum solution resides and develop robust techniques to avoid the local optima usually associated with multimodal problems. This book explores multidimensional particle swarm optimization, a technique developed by the authors that addresses these requirements in a well-defined algorithmic approach. After an introduction to the key optimization techniques, the authors introduce their unified framework and demonstrate its advantages in challenging application domains, focusing on the state of the art of multidimensional extensions such as global convergence in particle swarm optimization, dynamic data clustering, evolutionary neural networks, biomedical applications and personalized ECG classification, content-based image classification and retrieval, and evolutionary feature synthesis. The content is characterized by strong practical considerations, and the book is supported with fully documented source code for all applications presented, as well as many sample datasets. The book will be of benefit to researchers and practitioners working in the areas of machine intelligence, signal processing, pattern recognition, and data mining, or using principles from these areas in their application domains. It may also be used as a reference text for graduate courses on swarm optimization, data clustering and classification, content-based multimedia search, and biomedical signal processing applications.

Swarm intelligence is an innovative computational way to solve hard problems. This discipline is inspired by the behaviour of social insect (e.g. ants, termites, bees and wasps) colonies as well as fish schools and bird flocks. The content of this book is divided into two main parts: ant colony optimisation and particle swarm optimisation. The former describes systems that have been engineered using ant colony optimisation and the latter presents systems that were designed based on particle swarm optimisation.

Although the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm requires relatively few parameters and is computationally simple and easy to implement, it is not a globally convergent algorithm. In Particle Swarm Optimisation: Classical and Quantum Perspectives, the authors introduce their concept of quantum-behaved particles inspired by quantum mechanics, which leads to the quantum-behaved particle swarm optimisation (QPSO) algorithm. This globally convergent algorithm has fewer parameters, a faster convergence rate, and stronger searchability for complex problems. The book presents the concepts of optimisation problems as well as random search methods for optimisation before discussing the principles of the PSO algorithm. Examples illustrate how the PSO algorithm solves optimisation problems. The authors also analyse the reasons behind the shortcomings of the PSO algorithm. Moving on to the QPSO algorithm, the authors give a thorough overview of the literature on QPSO, describe the fundamental model for the QPSO algorithm, and explore applications of the algorithm to solve typical optimisation problems. They also discuss some advanced theoretical topics, including the behaviour of individual particles, global convergence, computational complexity, convergence rate, and parameter selection. The text closes with coverage of several real-world applications, including inverse problems, optimal design of digital filters, economic dispatch problems, biological multiple sequence alignment, and image processing. MATLAB®, Fortran, and C++ source codes for the main algorithms are provided on an accompanying downloadable resources. Helping you numerically solve optimisation problems, this book focuses on the fundamental principles and applications of PSO and QPSO algorithms. It not only explains how to use the algorithms, but also covers advanced topics that establish the groundwork for understanding.