Adaptive Chaotic Marine Predators Hill Climbing Algorithm for Large-Scale Design Optimizations

Meta-heuristic algorithms have been effectively employed to tackle a wide range of optimisation issues, including structural engineering challenges. The optimisation of the shape and size of large-scale truss structures is complicated due to the nonlinear interplay between the cross-sectional and nodal coordinate pressures of structures. Recently, it was demonstrated that the newly proposed Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA) performs very well on mathematical challenges. The MPA is a meta-heuristic that simulates the essential hunting habits of natural marine predators. However, this algorithm has some disadvantages, such as becoming locked in locally optimal solutions and not exhibiting high exploratory behaviour. This paper proposes two hybrid marine predator algorithms, Nonlinear Marine Predator (HNMPA) and Nonlinear-Chaotic Marine Predator Algorithm (HNCMPA), as improved variations of the marine predator algorithm paired with a hill-climbing (HC) technique for truss optimisation on form and size. The major advantage of these techniques is that they seek to overcome the MPA’s disadvantages by using nonlinear values and prolonging the exploration phase with chaotic values; also, the HC algorithm has been used to avoid locally optimum solutions. In terms of truss optimisation performance, the proposed algorithm is compared to fourteen well-known meta-heuristics, including the Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), Henry Gas Solubility optimisation (HGSO), Arithmetic optimisation Algorithm (AOA), Generalized Normal Distribution Optimisation (GNDO), Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA), Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA), Neural Network Algorithm (NNA), Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA), Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimiser (GTO), Gray Wolf Optimiser (GWO), Moth Flame Optimiser (MFO), Multi-Verse Optimiser (MVO), Equilibrium Optimiser (EO), and Cheetah Optimiser (CO). Furthermore, seven algorithms were chosen to test HNCMPA performance on benchmark optimisation sets, including MPA, MVO, PSO, MFO, SSA, GWO, and WOA. The experiment results demonstrate that the optimisation techniques surpass previously established meta-heuristics in the field of optimisation, encompassing both traditional and CEC problems, by a margin of over 95% in terms of attaining a superior ultimate solution. Additionally, with regards to solving truss optimisation difficulties as a large-scale real-world engineering challenge, the outcomes indicate a performance boost of over 65% in obtaining significantly better solutions for problems involving 260-bar and 314-bar; conversely, in the case of 340-bar issues, the improvement rate is slightly lower at almost 25%.