Improved Bat Algorithm Based on Doppler Effect for Optimal Design of Special Truss Structures

Bat algorithm (BA) is one of the well-established metaheuristic algorithms based on the echolocation characteristics of microbats. Literature studies demonstrate that BA provides good results in a wide range of optimization problems due to its simple structures, easy implementation, and effectiveness. However, the standard BA has two general shortcomings when applied to complex optimization problems. The first is the high probability of falling in local optima, and the second is insufficient population diversity, leading to unwanted premature convergence. This paper proposes an improved bat algorithm based on the Doppler effect (IBA-DE) to improve the performance of the standard BA. In the proposed IBA-DE, a new equation with some idealized rules is driven from the Doppler effect and adopted for updating the bat velocities in the algorithm body. The local search part of the standard BA is also improved via searching around the better bat individuals. This part is also equipped with Levy flight to maintain the population diversity. The performance of IBA-DE is evaluated on three real-world engineering design problems. The results obtained by these problems show that IBA-DE is superior to the basic BA and other considered algorithms. For further investigation, IBA-DE is applied to the optimal design of four special truss structures. Comparing the optimization results found by the proposed algorithm with those of some other state-of-art metaheuristics indicates that the proposed IBA-DE can be an efficient optimizer for the optimal design of real-size structures.