Squid Game Optimizer (SGO): a novel metaheuristic algorithm

In this paper, Squid Game Optimizer (SGO) is proposed as a novel metaheuristic algorithm inspired by the primary rules of a traditional Korean game. Squid game is a multiplayer game with two primary objectives: attackers aim to complete their goal while teams try to eliminate each other, and it is usually played on large, open fields with no set guidelines for size and dimensions. The playfield for this game is often shaped like a squid and, according to historical context, appears to be around half the size of a standard basketball court. The mathematical model of this algorithm is developed based on a population of solution candidates with a random initialization process in the first stage. The solution candidates are divided into two groups of offensive and defensive players while the offensive player goes among the defensive players to start a fight which is modeled through a random movement toward the defensive players. By considering the winning states of the players of both sides which is calculated based on the objective function, the position updating process is conducted and the new position vectors are produced. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed SGO algorithm, 25 unconstrained mathematical test functions with 100 dimensions are used, alongside six other commonly used metaheuristics for comparison. 100 independent optimization runs are conducted for both SGO and the other algorithms with a pre-determined stopping condition to ensure statistical significance of the results. Statistical metrics such as mean, standard deviation, and mean of required objective function evaluations are calculated. To provide a more comprehensive analysis, four prominent statistical tests including the Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Mann–Whitney, and Kruskal–Wallis tests are used. Meanwhile, the ability of the suggested SGOA is assessed through the cutting-edge real-world problems on the newest CEC like CEC 2020, while the SGO demonstrate outstanding performance in dealing with these complex optimization problems. The overall assessment of the SGO indicates that the proposed algorithm can provide competitive and remarkable outcomes in both benchmark and real-world problems.