Training Feed-Forward Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Networks with a Tree-Seed Algorithm

The artificial neural network (ANN) is the most popular research area in neural computing. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) is an ANN that has hidden layers. Feed-forward (FF) ANN is used for classification and regression commonly. Training of FF MLP ANN is performed by backpropagation (BP) algorithm generally. The main disadvantage of BP is trapping into local minima. Nature-inspired optimizers have some mechanisms escaping from the local minima. Tree-seed algorithm (TSA) is an effective population-based swarm intelligence algorithm. TSA mimics the relationship between trees and their seeds. The exploration and exploitation are controlled by search tendency which is a peculiar parameter of TSA. In this work, we train FF MLP ANN for the first time. TSA is compared with particle swarm optimization, gray wolf optimizer, genetic algorithm, ant colony optimization, evolution strategy, population-based incremental learning, artificial bee colony, and biogeography-based optimization. The experimental results show that TSA is the best in terms of mean classification rates and outperformed the opponents on 18 problems.