An effective global harmony search algorithm for integer programming problems

An effective global harmony search algorithm (EGHS) is proposed to solve integer programming problems. The EGHS designs a novel location updating equation, which enables the improvised solution to move to the global best solution rapidly in each iteration. Random selection with a low probability is carried out for the improvised solution after updating location, for it can prevent the EGHS from being trapped into the local optimum. The results show that the EGHS can be an efficient alternative for solving integer programming problems.