Synthesis of linear arrays using particle swarm optimisation

The usefulness and limitations of several real-valued particle swarm optimisation (PSO) based schemes when applied to linear array synthesis are presented in this work. PSO with synchronous and asynchronous updates of the swarm as well as both, global and local topologies, have been considered for the algorithm. First of all, the synthesis problem considering both, isotropic and directive element patterns was presented, along with a short description of the four PSO based schemes investigated. Results of a parametric study carried out to compare the whole set of PSO alternatives are also reported and discussed, showing the PSO with global topology and asynchronous updates of the swarm as the best choice for the electromagnetic design problem at hand. Finally, results considering complex, amplitude-only and phase-only synthesis using as reference the global PSO with asynchronous updates are included to demonstrate the capabilities of this relatively new heuristic high-performance optimiser.