A Hybrid Nonlinear Greater Cane Rat Algorithm with Sine–Cosine Algorithm for Global Optimization and Constrained Engineering Applications

The greater cane rat algorithm (GCRA) is a swarm intelligence algorithm inspired by the discerning and intelligent foraging behavior of the greater cane rats, which facilitates mating during the rainy season and non-mating during the dry season. However, the basic GCRA exhibits serious drawbacks of high parameter sensitivity, insufficient solution accuracy, high computational complexity, susceptibility to local optima and overfitting, poor dynamic adaptability, and a severe curse of dimensionality. In this paper, a hybrid nonlinear greater cane rat algorithm with sine–cosine algorithm named (SCGCRA) is proposed for resolving the benchmark functions and constrained engineering designs; the objective is to balance exploration and exploitation to identify the globally optimal precise solution. The SCGCRA utilizes the periodic oscillatory fluctuation characteristics of the sine–cosine algorithm and the dynamic regulation and decision-making of nonlinear control strategy to improve search efficiency and flexibility, enhance convergence speed and solution accuracy, increase population diversity and quality, avoid premature convergence and search stagnation, remedy the disequilibrium between exploration and exploitation, achieve synergistic complementarity and reduce sensitivity, and realize repeated expansion and contraction. Twenty-three benchmark functions and six real-world engineering designs are utilized to verify the reliability and practicality of the SCGCRA. The experimental results demonstrate that the SCGCRA exhibits certain superiority and adaptability in achieving a faster convergence speed, higher solution accuracy, and stronger stability and robustness.