Application of the PSO Algorithm with Sub-domain Approach for the Optimization of a Radio Telescope Array

In this research a modified PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm was applied to solve an optimization problem of a radio telescope array distribution. The objective of the proposed algorithm was to determine locations of the telescopes on a circle so that the entire array gained its maximal resolving power. A modification of the algorithm relied on the division of the domain into sub-domains. Furthermore, while the initial population was generated the particles were divided into groups. In the initial iterations, each group was moving only inside a subdomain previously assigned to this group thus making the distribution of the whole swarm more homogenous. This paper presents an evaluation of the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.