Anti-predatory particle swarm optimization: Solution to nonconvex economic dispatch problems

This paper proposes a new particle swarm optimization (PSO) strategy namely, anti-predatory particle swarm optimization (APSO) to solve nonconvex economic dispatch problems. In the classical PSO, the movement of a particle (bird) is governed by three behaviors: inertial, cognitive and social. The cognitive and social behaviors are the components of the foraging activity, which help the swarm of birds to locate food. Another activity that is observed in birds is the anti-predatory nature, which helps the swarm to escape from the predators. In this work, the anti-predatory activity is modeled and embedded in the classical PSO to form APSO. This inclusion enhances the exploration capability of the swarm. To validate the proposed APSO model, it is applied to two test systems having nonconvex solution spaces. Satisfactory results are obtained when compared with previous approaches. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.