Incremental Particle Swarm-Guided Local Search for Continuous Optimization

We present an algorithm that is inspired by theoretical and empirical results in social learning and swarm intelligence research. The algorithm is based on a framework that we call incremental social learning. In practical terms, the algorithm is a hybrid between a local search procedure and a particle swarm optimization algorithm with growing population size. The local search procedure provides rapid convergence to good solutions while the particle swarm algorithm enables a comprehensive exploration of the search space. We provide experimental evidence that shows that the algorithm can find good solutions very rapidly without compromising its global search capabilities.