Impact of boundary control methods on bound-constrained optimization benchmarking

Abstract

Despite initial indifference towards boundary control methods (BCM) in the context of metaheuristic algorithm design, benchmarking, and execution, our research demonstrates their critical importance. This study investigates how the choice of a particular BCM can profoundly influence the performance of competitive algorithms. We analyzed the top three algorithms from the 2017 and 2020 IEEE CEC competitions, posing the following question: Could a change in BCM usage alter an algorithm’s overall performance and, consequently, its ranking among competitors? Our findings reveal that paying attention to BCMs can lead to significant improvements. The experiments revealed that BCM selection can significantly impact an algorithm’s performance and, in some instances, its competition rank. However, most authors omitted to mention the implemented BCM, resulting in poor reproducibility and deviating from recommended benchmarking practices for metaheuristic algorithms. The conclusion is that the BCM should be considered another vital metaheuristics input variable for unambiguous reproducibility of results in benchmarking and for a better understanding of population dynamics.