A Comparative Study of Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithms for Solving Engineering Design Problems

Metaheuristic optimization algorithms (Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms) are a class of algorithms that mimic the behavior of natural systems such as evolution process, swarm intelligence, human activity and physical phenomena to find the optimal solution. Since the introduction of meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, they have shown their profound impact in solving the high-scale and non-differentiable engineering problems. This paper presents a comparative study of the most widely used nature-inspired optimization algorithms for solving engineering classical design problems, which are considered challenging. The teen metaheuristic algorithms employed in this study are, namely, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Biogeography Based Optimization Algorithm (BBO), Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES), Cuckoo Search algorithm (CS), Differential Evolution (DE), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The efficiency of these algorithms is evaluated on teen popular engineering classical design problems using the solution quality and convergence analysis, which verify the applicability of these algorithms to engineering classical constrained design problems. The experimental results demonstrated that all the algorithms provide a competitive solution.