Improved differential evolution algorithm based on cooperative multi-population

This paper introduces an improved differential evolution algorithm based on cooperative multi-population (CMp-DE for short), which combines diverse population collaboration mechanisms and catalytic factors into an improved differential evolution framework. By harnessing various population collaboration mechanisms, the algorithm enhances the diversity of individuals within populations during initial iterations and reduces it during later iterations, thereby harmonizing the algorithm's exploratory and exploitative capabilities. Furthermore, a novel mutation operator is proposed that divides the iterative process into exploration and exploitation phases, thereby augmenting the algorithm's global exploration prowess. Lastly, a catalytic operator is introduced to generate new individuals near post-crossover individuals based on a specified rule, which enhances the algorithm's ability to escape local optima and increasing stability. The proposed CMp-DE is benchmarked against the CEC2017 benchmark test functions and compared against 13 algorithms, including five differential evolution algorithms and their variants, as well as eight state-of-the-art metaheuristic optimization algorithms. This evaluation assesses the CMp-DE's solution accuracy, convergence, stability, and scalability. Finally, the applicability of CMp-DE is validated by addressing six practical optimization problems. The experimental results show that CMp-DE surpasses other algorithms in terms of both convergence accuracy and robustness. Moreover, integrating a catalytic operator with other optimization algorithms notably boosts performance in convergence accuracy and stability. The inclusion of the catalytic operator has significantly enhanced the performance of algorithms compared to their performance before its addition. This underscores the potential of the catalytic operator in improving the performance of various algorithms, particularly in terms of convergence accuracy and robustness.