experiments in particle swarm optimisation

wha?

particle swarm optimisation is a stochastic optimisation algorithm based roughly on the behaviour of swarms

a problem is formulated in terms of a multidimensional space where each point in the space represents a possible solution to the problem

particles move through the space evaluating each position and remmebering the best solution they have passed

their velocities are influenced by three desires

1. to keep moving in one direction
2. to move towards their personal best
3. to move towards the personal best of their neighbours

let's try an experiment