Machine-Learning-Assisted Swarm Intelligence Algorithm for Antenna Optimization With Mixed Continuous and Binary Variables

Many existing surrogate-assisted optimization algorithms are limited to designing antennas with continuous variables only. However, numerous challenges emerge when tackling antenna optimization problems that involve both continuous and binary design variables. This article proposes an efficient surrogate-assisted mixed continuous/binary particle swarm optimization (SAMPSO) algorithm to address these mixed-variable antenna optimization problems. The SAMPSO tightly integrates machine learning (ML) models with PSO in two key aspects: an ML-guided swarm updating method and an ML-assisted prescreening strategy. In addition, a novel local ML model training method is developed to reduce the algorithm time complexity. To verify its effectiveness, the SAMPSO is compared with two existing algorithms in solving benchmark functions and designing antennas. The results demonstrate that SAMPSO can achieve design objectives with a faster convergence speed.