Improved quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm for engineering design optimization

[[abstract]]An improved quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm is proposed for solving mixed discrete-continuous nonlinear problems in engineering design. The proposed Latin square quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (LSQEA) combines Latin squares and quantum-inspired genetic algorithm (QGA). The novel contribution of the proposed LSQEA is the use of a QGA to explore the optimal feasible region in macrospace and the use of a systematic reasoning mechanism of the Latin square to exploit the better solution in microspace. By combining the advantages of exploration and exploitation, the LSQEA provides higher computational efficiency and robustness compared to QGA and real-coded GA when solving global numerical optimization problems with continuous variables. Additionally, the proposed LSQEA approach effectively solves mixed discrete-continuous nonlinear design optimization problems in which the design variables are integers, discrete values, and continuous values. The computational experiments show that the proposed LSQEA approach obtains better results compared to existing methods reported in the literature