PSA: A novel optimization algorithm based on survival rules of porcellio scaber

Bio-inspired algorithms such as neural network algorithms and genetic algorithms have received a significant amount of attention in both academic and engineering societies. In this paper, based on the observation of two major survival rules of a species of woodlice, i.e., porcellio scaber, we present an algorithm called the porcellio scaber algorithm (PSA) for solving general unconstrained optimization problems, including differentiable and non-differential ones as well as the case with local optima. Numerical results based on benchmark problems are presented to validate the efficacy of PSA.