Adversarial game optimization: A game-theoretic metaheuristic for efficient complex optimization and engineering applications

Conglin Li

doi:10.1016/j.ins.2025.123022

Adversarial game optimization: A game-theoretic metaheuristic for efficient complex optimization and engineering applications

2025-12-01

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DOI：10.1016/j.ins.2025.123022

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Metaheuristic optimization algorithms have demonstrated strong performance when applied to complex nonlinear optimization tasks. However, their performance often degrades in high-dimensional and multimodal settings due to premature convergence and insufficient global search. To address these limitations, an Adversarial Game Optimization Algorithm (AGOA) is proposed, which constructs a metaheuristic optimization framework based on adversarial game mechanisms. AGOA integrates three mechanisms: (i) a dynamic role-based population partitioning strategy that assigns individuals as elites, explorers, or responders to balance exploration and exploitation; (ii) an adversarial feedback mechanism where worst-case responders introduce directed perturbations to counter elite dominance; and (iii) a diversity-preserving breakout strategy that monitors population stagnation and activates adaptive restarts. AGOA was tested on CEC 2017 (30D/50D/100D) and CEC 2022 (10D/20D), as well as applications including multi-threshold image segmentation, constrained engineering design, and UAV 3D path planning. Experimental evaluations indicate that AGOA achieves superior performance compared with 79 optimizers in solution quality, convergence behavior, and stability, achieving top rankings across all test categories. Theoretical analysis further establishes convergence to the global optimum in expectation and probability under mild conditions. Overall, AGOA offers a scalable and generalizable optimization framework with strong practical relevance. An open-access implementation of AGOA is provided at https://github.com/tsingke/AGOA.

Keywords:

Metaheuristic optimization algorithms

Adversarial game optimization (AGOA)

Numerical global optimization

Multi-threshold image segmentation

Constrained engineering design

UAV 3D path planning

Adversarial game optimization: A game-theoretic metaheuristic for efficient complex optimization and engineering applications

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