Particle Swarm Optimization

Dr Xiaodong Li

School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University

Date and time: 11.30am - 12.30pm, Friday 29 September, 2006

Venue: 10.08.03 (Building 10, Level 8, Room 3)

Abstract:

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a population-based stochastic optimization technique mimicking the social behaviours of animals and insects, such as bird flocking, animal herding, or fish schooling. PSO was first developed by James Kennedy and Russell Eberhart in 1995. In recent years it has gained increasing popularity in the Evolutionary Computation research community, largely due to the fact that PSO has been shown to be an effective optimization method for solving difficult optimization problems. PSO belongs to the family of Swarm Intelligence techniques, which typically involve studies of collective behaviour in decentralized systems. Such systems are made up by a population of simple agents interacting locally with one other and with their environment. Although there is typically no centralized control dictating the behaviour of the agents, local interactions among the agents often cause a global pattern to emerge. Swarm-like algorithms, such as (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), have already been applied successfully to solve real-world optimization problems.

PSO share some common characteristics with Evolutionary Algorithms. Like EAs, PSO starts with an initial population of randomly generated individuals (i.e., potential solutions). These individuals are then modified over many iterations, via ways of simulating the social behaviour of insects or animals, in an effort to find the optima in the problem space. Unlike EAs, PSO does not explicitly use evolutionary operators such as crossover and mutation. A potential solution simply 'flies' through the search space by modifying itself according to its past experience and its relationship with other individuals in the population and the environment. 

This talk will aim to provide an introduction to Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and if time allows, highlighting some of the most important computational techniques employed and their recent development in this rapid growing area of research. Following topics may be covered:

§         Introduction to PSO

§         PSO using global and local communication topologies

§         Speciation and niching methods in PSO

§         PSO for multiobjective optimization

§         PSO for optimization in dynamic environments

§         PSO real-world applications

About the speaker:

Dr Xiaodong Li is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.  His research interest includes Artificial Intelligence, Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Neutral Networks, Swarm Intelligence, Multiobjective Optimization, Optimization in Dynamic Environments, and their applications to real-world problems. Dr. Li is an IEEE member, and a member of SIGEVO (The ACM Special Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation).  He serves as a technical committee member of Working Group on Swarm Intelligence, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. He was the organizing chair for special session on Swarm Intelligence in CEC'03 and CEC'04, and again in CEC'06. He is the tutorial and special sessions chair for SEAL'06, and the publicity chair and a member of the steering committee for the IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium 2007 (SIS'07).


Seminar Organisation

Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary. If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar co-ordinator.