Improved cuckoo search for reliability optimization problems

• Published in: Computers & industrial engineering Vol. 64; no. 1; pp. 459 - 468
• Main Authors: Valian, Ehsan, Tavakoli, Saeed, Mohanna, Shahram, Haghi, Atiyeh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2013; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Complex systems; Cuckoo search; Heuristic; Improved cuckoo search; Large-scale; Mathematical problems; Optimization; Optimization algorithms; Reliability problem; Simulation; Software reliability; Studies; Cuckoo search; Reliability problem; Improved cuckoo search; Large-scale; Optimization
• ISSN: 0360-8352; 1879-0550
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cie.2012.07.011

► To enhance the accuracy and convergence of the cuckoo search, an improved cuckoo search is presented. ► The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on five reliability problems. ► Simulation and comparison results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. An efficient approach to solve engineering optimization problems is the cuckoo search algorithm. It is a recently developed meta-heuristic optimization algorithm. Normally, the parameters of the cuckoo search are kept constant. This may result in decreasing the efficiency of the algorithm. To cope with this issue, the cuckoo search parameters should be tuned properly. In this paper, an improved cuckoo search algorithm, enhancing the accuracy and convergence rate of the cuckoo search algorithm, is presented. Then, the performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on some complex engineering optimization problems. They are four well-known reliability optimization problems, a large-scale reliability optimization problem as well as a complex system, which is a 15-unit system reliability optimization problem. Finally, the results are compared with those given by several well-known methods. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.