SwarmViz: An open-source visualization tool for Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a meta-heuristic for solving high dimensional optimization problems. Due to the large number of dimensions usually employed with PSO, it is not trivial to visualize and monitor the progress of the algorithm. Because of this, adjusting the parameters that govern the dynamics of the swarm for a specific problem becomes challenging. In this article, we present SwarmViz, an open-source visualization tool for PSO. Through SwarmViz, users are able to set up PSO experiments on canonical benchmark functions or input data from external experiments (e.g., learning robotic controllers), and to visualize the optimization process with state-of-the-art visualization tools. SwarmViz has two main goals. First, to enable researchers to monitor the progress of their specific optimization problem and adjust the relevant PSO parameters. Second, to give a visual insight about PSO to students in the scope of teaching optimization techniques. We demonstrate the features of the software through examples on well-known numerical benchmark functions and a case study on the optimization of a robotic controller.