Investigating binary PSO parameter influence on the knights cover problem

The underlying relationship between various PSO parameters is experimentally examined by applying the binary PSO (BinPSO) algorithm to solve the knights cover problem. An exhaustive analysis of the cognitive and social acceleration constants is performed, as well as an investigation into the influence of an increased maximum velocity on overall performance. An intuitive visualisation method eases the analysis of experimental results, and certain assumptions about the direct mapping of continuous PSO to BinPSO parameter values are corrected. The effects of increasing the complexity of the problem are also directly studied and recommendations made to improve performance under larger board sizes