An improved butterfly optimization algorithm with chaos

Butterfly Optimization Algorithm (BOA) is a new corner in the category of nature inspired metaheuristic algorithms, inspired from food foraging behavior of the butterflies. Similar to other metaheuristic algorithms, it encounters two probable problems; (1) entrapment in local optima and (2) slow convergence speed. Chaotic maps are one of the best methods to improve the performance of metaheuristic algorithms. In the present study, chaos is introduced into BOA which increases its performance in terms of both local optima avoidance and convergence speed. Ten chaotic maps are employed to enhance the performance of the BOA. The proposed chaotic BOAs are validated on unimodal and multimodal benchmark test functions as well as on engineering design problems. The results indicate that the chaotic maps are able to significantly boost the performance of BOA.