  A new adaptive hybrid optimization strategy, entitled squads, is proposed for
complex inverse analysis of computationally intensive physical models. The new
strategy is designed to be computationally efficient and robust in
identification of the global optimum (e.g. maximum or minimum value of an
objective function). It integrates a global Adaptive Particle Swarm
Optimization (APSO) strategy with a local Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) optimization
strategy using adaptive rules based on runtime performance. The global strategy
optimizes the location of a set of solutions (particles) in the parameter
space. The LM strategy is applied only to a subset of the particles at
different stages of the optimization based on the adaptive rules. After the LM
adjustment of the subset of particle positions, the updated particles are
returned to the APSO strategy. The advantages of coupling APSO and LM in the
manner implemented in squads is demonstrated by comparisons of squads
performance against Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), Particle Swarm Optimization
(PSO), Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO; the TRIBES strategy), and an
existing hybrid optimization strategy (hPSO). All the strategies are tested on
2D, 5D and 10D Rosenbrock and Griewank polynomial test functions and a
synthetic hydrogeologic application to identify the source of a contaminant
plume in an aquifer. Tests are performed using a series of runs with random
initial guesses for the estimated (function/model) parameters. Squads is
observed to have the best performance when both robustness and efficiency are
taken into consideration than the other strategies for all test functions and
the hydrogeologic application.
