A novel optimization algorithm, namely Harbor Seal Whiskers Optimization Algorithm (HSWOA) is proposed in this work. Harbor seals use their whiskers to find underwater disturbances which are in the form of oscillating spheres and track prey even though they lack lateral-line systems. HSWOA mimics the high-level sensing that seal whiskers possess. As such, HSWOA has an excellent exploration capability for the search space and a high exploitation capacity for exploiting the all-optimum solutions to reach the most optimum solution. To validate these abilities, the proposed HSWOA utilizes two sets of test functions: 33 benchmark functions and five IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2019) benchmark functions. The results of HSWOA are compared with ten well-established optimization algorithms. The comparison results show that HSWOA offers superior performance indices to reach an optimum solution while requiring less control variables. The results also show that HSWOA is more efficient regarding computational demand and resolution accuracy. Finally, the HSWOA is employed to track Maximum Power Point (MPP) of Photovoltaic (PV) array with partial shading conditions (PSCs) for two case studies. The results show that HSWOA extracts maximum power in minimum tracking time and high average power capturing capability compared to other optimization techniques.
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