Parametric modelling of flexible plate structures using continuous ant colony optimization

This paper presents parametric modelling of flexible plate structures using ant colony optimization (ACO). The global optimization technique of ACO is utilized to obtain a dynamic model of a flexible plate structure based on one‐step‐ahead prediction. In this paper a proposed ACO with roulette wheel selection known as ACO2 is compared with a previous modified ACO which is denoted as ACO1. The comparison is to recognize the optimum performance and to enhance the fast convergence. The flexible plate structure is subjected to random disturbance signal types. Fitness function for the ACO optimization is the mean‐squared error between the measured and estimated output of the plate. The validation of the algorithm is presented in both time and frequency domains. Simulation results show that the proposed approachis better and has a fast convergence rate than ACO1. The developed ACO modelling approach will be used for active vibration control systems design and development in future work.