Enhanced symbiotic organisms search (ESOS) for global numerical optimization

Symbiotic organisms search (SOS) is a simple yet effective metaheuristic algorithm to solve a wide variety of optimization problems. Many studies have been carried out to improve the performance of the SOS algorithm. This research proposes an improved version of the SOS algorithm called the enhanced symbiotic organisms search (ESOS) for global numerical optimization. The conventional SOS is modified by implementing a new searching formula into the parasitism phase to produce a better searching capability. The performance of the ESOS is verified using 26 benchmark functions and one structural engineering design problem. The results are then compared with existing metaheuristic optimization methods. The obtained results show that the ESOS gives a competitive and effective performance for global numerical optimization.