MICFOA: A Novel Improved Catch Fish Optimization Algorithm with Multi-Strategy for Solving Global Problems

Catch fish optimization algorithm (CFOA) is a newly proposed meta-heuristic algorithm based on human behaviors. CFOA shows better performance on multiple test functions and clustering problems. However, CFOA shows poor performance in some cases, and there is still room for improvement in convergence accuracy, getting rid of local traps, and so on. To further enhance the performance of CFOA, a multi-strategy improved catch fish optimization algorithm (MICFOA) is proposed in this paper. In the exploration phase, we propose a Lévy-based differential independent search strategy to enhance the global search capability of the algorithm while minimizing the impact on the convergence speed. Secondly, in the exploitation phase, a weight-balanced selection mechanism is used to maintain population diversity, enhance the algorithm's ability to get rid of local optima during the search process, and effectively boost the convergence accuracy. Furthermore, the structure of CFOA is also modified in this paper. A fishermen position replacement strategy is added at the end of the algorithm as a way to strengthen the robustness of the algorithm. To evaluate the performance of MICFOA, a comprehensive comparison with nine other metaheuristic algorithms is performed on the 10/30/50/100 dimensions of the CEC 2017 test functions and the 10/20 dimensions of the CEC2022 test functions. Statistical experiments show that MICFOA has more significant dominance in numerical optimization problems, and its overall performance outperforms the CFOA, PEOA, TLBO, COA, ARO, EDO, YDSE, and other state-of-the-art algorithms such as LSHADE, JADE, IDE-EDA, and APSM-jSO.