1 Beyond Standard Particle Swarm Optimisation Maurice Clerc Independent Consultant, France Chapter 1 ABSTRACT Currently, two very similar versions of PSO are available that could be called "standard". While it is easy to merge them, their common drawbacks still remain. Therefore, in this paper, the author goes beyond simple merging by suggesting simple yet robust changes and solving a few well-known, com- mon problems, while retaining the classical structure. The results can be proposed to the "swarmer community" as a new standard. TWO FOR ONE Standard Descriptions A Standard PSO is now freely available on the Particle Swarm Central (PSC, 2010) since a few years. The current version is called Standard PSO 2007 (SPSO-2007 in short). The list of contribu- tors is quite long as it also includes the "negative" DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1592-2.ch001 contributions, i.e. work from people who have tested some possible variants, and found them to be not suitable for inclusion in a "standard" that should be both simple and robust. The velocity update equation for one particle in SPSO-2007 is given by v ( t + 1 ) = wv ( t ) + c 1 ( p ( t ) - x ( t ) ) + c 2 ( g ( t ) - x ( t ) ) (1) Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.