An improved firefly algorithm for numerical optimization

Firefly algorithm (FA) is a recently introduced algorithm based upon the flashing light pattern of fireflies. This algorithm has proved its significance for various optimization problems but has the problem of trapping in local optima. In this article, in order to, improve the performance of FA, a new improved FA (IFA) has been proposed. The proposed algorithm has been applied to standard state-of-the-art algorithms and it has been found experimentally that IFA provide improved performance with respect to the standard FA, differential evolution (DE), bat algorithm (BA) and flower pollination algorithm (FPA).