A Novel Binary Seagull Optimizer and its Application to Feature Selection Problem

Seagull Optimization Algorithm (SOA) is a metaheuristic algorithm that mimics the migrating and hunting behaviour of seagulls. SOA is able to solve continuous real-life problems, but not to discrete problems. The eight different binary versions of SOA are proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm uses four transfer functions, S-shaped and V-shaped, which are used to map the continuous search space into discrete search space. Twenty-five benchmark functions are used to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The statistical significance of the proposed algorithm is also analysed. Experimental results divulge that the proposed algorithm outperforms the competitive algorithms. The proposed algorithm is also applied on data mining. The results demonstrate the superiority of binary seagull optimization algorithm in data mining application.