Bioinspired Bare Bones Mayfly Algorithm for Large-Scale Spherical Minimum Spanning Tree

Mayfly algorithm (MA) is a bioinspired algorithm based on population proposed in recent years and has been applied to many engineering problems successfully. However, it has too many parameters, which makes it difficult to set and adjust a set of appropriate parameters for different problems. In order to avoid adjusting parameters, a bioinspired bare bones mayfly algorithm (BBMA) is proposed. The BBMA adopts Gaussian distribution and Lévy flight, which improves the convergence speed and accuracy of the algorithm and makes better exploration and exploitation of the search region. The minimum spanning tree (MST) problem is a classic combinatorial optimization problem. This study provides a mathematical model for solving a variant of the MST problem, in which all points and solutions are on a sphere. Finally, the BBMA is used to solve the large-scale spherical MST problems. By comparing and analyzing the results of BBMA and other swarm intelligence algorithms in sixteen scales, the experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to other algorithms for the MST problems on a sphere.