WHAT IS OPTIMIZATION?

Optimization can be defined as the art of

obtaining best policies to satisfy certain

objectives, at the same time satisfying
fixed requirements.
It is of two types:
i. Unconstrained Optimization
ii. Constrained Optimization

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)

Developed by Dr. Eberhart & Dr. Kennedy in
1995

How can birds or fish exhibit

such a coordinated
collective behavior?

About pso

The particle swarm optimization concept

consists
of, at each time step, changing the velocity of
(accelerating) each particle toward its pbest as
well as gbest locations and acceleration is
weighted by a random term, with separate
random
numbers
being
generated
for
acceleration towards pbest and gbest locations.

Terms used in PSO:

pbest : The best solution that each particle has

achieved so far.
gbest : When a particle takes all the population

as its topological neihbours,the best value is a

global best.

Each particle tries to modify its position using the following

information:

the current positions,

the current velocities,

the distance between the current position and pbest,

the distance between the current position and the gbest.

The modification of the particles position can be mathematically

modeled according the following equation :

Vik+1 = wVik +c1 rand1() x (pbesti-sik) + c2 rand2() x (gbest-sik) .. (1)

where, vik : velocity of agent i at iteration k,

w: weighting function,
cj : weighting factor,
rand : uniformly distributed
random number between 0 and 1,
sik : current position of agent i at iteration k,
pbesti : pbest of agent i,

The following weighting function is usually utilized in (1)

w = wMax-[(wMax-wMin) x iter]/maxIter

where wMax= initial weight,

wMin = final weight,

(2)

maxIter = maximum iteration number,

iter = current iteration number.
sik+1 = sik + Vik+1

(3)

PSO
sk+1

vk
vk+1

vgbest
vpbest

sk

sk : current searching point.

sk+1: modified
searching point.
vk: current velocity.
vk+1: modified

ALGORITHM FOR PSO

Step 1. Initialize randomly the particles of the population

according to the limit of each unit including individual

dimensions, searching points and velocities. These initial
particles must be feasible candidate solutions that satisfy the
practical operating constraints.

Step 2. Calculate the fitness of each individual in the

population.

Step 3. Compare each particles fitness value with that of its

pbest. The particle with the best cost value among the pbests
is denoted as gbest.

Step 4. Modify the member velocity of each particle.

CONTD.

Step 5. Modify the member position of each

particle .
Step 6. If the new fitness value for any kth
particle is less than its previous value, the
new coordinates for that particle will be
stored as its pbestk. Also compare the fitness
values of all the pbestk for each particle k
and determine gbest.
Step 7. If the number of iterations reaches
the maximum, then go to Step 8. Otherwise,
go to Step 4.
Step 8. The individual that generates the
latest gbest is the solution of the problem.

FLOWCHART

PSO Application
Economic dispatch considering the generator

constraints
A hybrid particle swarm optimization applied
to loss power minimization
A novel approach for unit commitment
problem via an effective hybrid particle swarm
optimization
Congestion Management Using Multiobjective
Particle Swarm Optimization

Pitfalls of PSO
Particles tend to cluster, i.e., converge too

fast and get stuck at local optimum

Movement of particle carried it into infeasible
region
Inappropriate mapping of particle space into
solution space

Comparisons between
G.A. and P.S.O.

Similarity:

1. Both algorithms start with a group of a

randomly generated population.
2. Both have fitness values to evaluate
the population.
3. Both update the population and search
for the optimium with random
techniques.

Comparisons between
G.A. and P.S.O.
Difference:
1. Compared to GA, the advantages of PSO are
that PSO is easy to implement and there are
few parameters to adjust.

2. One of the advantages of PSO is that PSO

takes real numbers as particles. It is not like
GA, which needs to change to binary
encoding, or special genetic operators have to
be used.

Comparisons between
G.A. and P.S.O.

Difference:

3. PSO does not have genetic operators like

reproduction, crossover, and mutation.
Particles update themselves with the internal
velocity.
4. Particles also have memory, which is
important to the algorithm.

Comparisons between
G.A. and P.S.O.
Difference:
5. In GAs, chromosomes share information with
each other. So the whole population moves
like a one group towards an optimal area.

6. In PSO, only gBest (or lBest) gives out the

information to others. It is a one-way
information sharing mechanism. The evolution
only looks for the best solution.

REFERENCES
Wang, C., Shahidehpour, S.M., Power generation Scheduling for multi- area

hydrothermal power systems with tie-line constraints, cascaded reservoirs and

uncertain data., IEEE Trans. PWRS, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1993, pp. 1333-1340
A.J.Wood, B.F.Wollenberg, Power Generation Operation and Control, John

Wileyand Sons, New York, 1984 K. Y. Lee and M. A. El-Sharkawi (Editors), Modern
Heuristic
Optimization Techniques with Applications to Power Systems, IEEE Power
Engineering Society (02TP160), 2002.
R. Caponetto, L. Fortuna, S. Fazzino, and M. G. Xibilia, Chaoticsequences to

improve the performance of evolutionary algorithms,IEEE Trans. on

Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 289-304,Jun. 2003.
[15] L. Shengsong, W. Min, and H. Zhijian, Hybrid algorithm of
chaosoptimization and SLP for optimal power flow problems with
multimodalcharacteristic, IEE Proc.-Gener. Transm. Distrib., Vol. 150, No. 5,
pp.543-547,SEP 2003