AI-SMA: A Self-Adaptive Improved Slime Mold Algorithm for Multi-UAV Path Planning

This study proposes a self-adaptive improved slime mold algorithm called AI-SMA to address these issues. Firstly, AI-SMA incorporates a novel search mechanism to balance exploration and exploitation by integrating ranking-based differential evolution (rank-DE). Then, a self-adaptive switch operator is introduced to increase population diversity in later iterations and avoid premature convergence. Finally, a self-adaptive perturbation strategy is implemented to provide an effective escape mechanism, facilitating faster convergence. Extensive experiments were conducted on the CEC 2017 benchmark test suite and multi-UAV path-planning scenarios. The results show that AI-SMA improves the quality of optimal fitness while demonstrating superior robustness and effectiveness in generating collision-free trajectories.