Hybridizing cuckoo search algorithm with hill climbing for numerical optimization problems

The Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA) is a promising metaheuristic algorithm. It is applied to solve many problems in different fields. This paper proposes a new cuckoo search algorithm by combining the cuckoo search algorithm with the Hill Climbing method for solving the integer and minimax optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is named hybrid cuckoo search and hill climbing (CSAHC). CSAHC starts the search by applying the standard cuckoo search for the number of iterations then the best-obtained solution is passed to the hill climbing algorithm as an intensification process to accelerate the search and overcome the slow convergence of the standard cuckoo search algorithm. The proposed algorithm balances between the global exploration of the cuckoo search algorithm and the deep exploitation of the hill climbing method. The validation of the performance is determined by applying 13 benchmarks. The results of experimental simulations indicated that the CSAHC performs better than standard CSA.