Global Dynamic Harmony Search algorithm: GDHS

This paper presents a new modification of Harmony Search (HS) algorithm to improve its accuracy and convergence speed and eliminates setting parameters that have to be defined before optimization process and it is difficult to predict fixed values for all kinds of problems. The proposed algorithm is named Global Dynamic Harmony Search (GDHS). In this modification, all the key parameters are changed to dynamic mode and there is no need to predefine any parameters; also the domain is changed to dynamic mode to help a faster convergence. Two experiments, with large sets of benchmark functions, are executed to compare the proposed algorithms with other ones. In the first experiment, 15 benchmark problems are used to compare the proposed algorithm with other similar algorithms based on the Harmony Search method and in the second experiment, 47 benchmark problems are used to compare the performance of the GDHS with other algorithms from different families, including: GA, PSO, DE and ABC algorithms. Results showed that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other algorithms, considering the point that the GDHS does not require any predefined parameter. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.