An adaptive snow ablation-inspired particle swarm optimization with its application in geometric optimization

In response to the shortcomings of particle swarm optimization (PSO), such as low execution efficiency and difficulty in overcoming local optima, this paper proposes a multi-strategy PSO method incorporating snow ablation operation (SAO), known as SAO-MPSO. Firstly, Cubic initialization is performed on particles to obtain a good initial environment. Subsequently, SAO and PSO are combined in parallel, and a balanced search mechanism led by multiple sub-populations is devised, significantly improving the search efficiency of overall population. Finally, the degree day method of SAO is introduced, and particles are endowed with memory of environmental changes to prevent premature convergence of PSO, while balancing the exploration and exploitation (ENE) capabilities in later phases. All adaptive parameters are used throughout this method in place of fixed parameters to improve the robustness and adaptability. For a comprehensive analysis of SAO-MPSO, its good ENE ability is verified on CEC 2020 and CEC 2022 and this method is compared with existing improved PSO versions on both test sets. The results show that SAO-MPSO has certain advantages in the comparison of similar improved algorithms. In order to further validate the strength of SAO-MPSO in dealing with nonlinear optimization problems (OPs) with strong constraints, firstly, based on the ball Wang-Ball (BWB) curve, a combined BWB (CBWB) curve is constructed, and a construction method for CBWB curves that satisfy G¹ and G² continuity is derived. Then, with the energy minimization and scale parameters of the CBWB curve as the optimization objective and variables respectively, a shape optimization model that satisfies G² continuity is established. Finally, three numerical optimization examples based on this model are solved using SAO-MPSO and compared with 10 other methods. The results show that the energy obtained by SAO-MPSO is the smallest, which verifies the effectiveness of this method applied to shape OPs of CBWB curve.