Moth Swarm Algorithm (MSA)
In the MSA, the possible solution of optimization problem is represented by position of light source, and the fitness/quality of this solution is considered as luminescence intensity of the light source [19]. These assumptions have been used to approximate the characteristics of the proposed algorithm. In addition, the proposed moth swarm is considered to consist of three groups of moths, as follows:
Pathfinders , which main task is to discriminate the best positions as a light sources to guide the movement of the main swarm (i.e, light the way);
Prospectors , that tends to wander into a random spiral path within the neighborhood of the light sources, which have been marked by the pathfinders;
Onlookers is a group of moths that drift directly toward the best global solution (moonlight), which has been obtained by prospectors.
At any iteration, each moth (search agent) is incorporated into the optimization problem to find the luminescence intensity of its corresponding light source (fitness). The best fitnesses in the swarm are considered as the positions of the pathfinders, and guidance for the next update iteration. Hence, the second and third best groups take the name of the prospectors and onlookers, respectively. The equations for updating the positions of moths are given in [19].