What is Position Diversity

With an improper boundary constraints handling method, particles may get “stuck in” the boundary. Premature convergence means that an algorithm has lost its ability of exploration. Population diversity (PD) is an effective way to monitor an algorithm's ability for exploration and exploitation. Through the PD measurement, useful search information can be obtained. PSO with a different topology structure and different boundary constraints handling strategy will have a different impact on particles' exploration and exploitation ability. In this chapter, the phenomenon of particles gets “stuck in” the boundary in PSO and is experimentally studied and reported. The authors observe the position diversity time-changing curves of PSOs with different topologies and different boundary constraints handling techniques and analyze the impact of these strategies on the algorithm's ability of exploration and exploitation.