A novel Fibonacci-inspired enhancement of the Bees Algorithm: application to robotic disassembly sequence planning

Abstract

The Bees Algorithm (BA) is an intelligent, nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm first introduced in 2005 and based on the foraging activity of honeybees. Enhancements to the BA have been made continually since its introduction, with some aimed at reducing the number of user-determined parameters. The goal is to achieve optimal results without extensive efforts required for parameter tuning. This article presents an enhanced version of the BA. The enhancement uses the Fibonacci sequence, which can be found in the family tree of the male bee (drone), to give the numbers of bees assigned to conduct local searches. The proposed BA is simple, having only four parameters that must be set by the user, as opposed to five in the basic combinatorial version. To evaluate the performance of the new algorithm in robotic disassembly sequence planning, a case study is conducted on gear pump disassembly, a commonly used benchmark problem in robotic disassembly. A comparison is made between the proposed Fibonacci Bees Algorithm and the Basic Bees Algorithm (BBA). The results are assessed using a statistical performance metric and a performance evaluation index. The findings demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is better than the BBA for more complex problems while exhibiting a similar performance on simpler tasks. Future research will explore broader applications for both continuous and combinatorial problems, demonstrating the versatility of the algorithm across different domains.