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Swarm Intelligence is a collection of nature-inspired algorithms under the big umbrella
of evolutionary computation. They are population based algorithms. A population
of individuals (potential candidate solutions) cooperating among themselves and
statistically becoming better and better over generations and eventually finding (a)
good enough solution(s).
Researches on swarm intelligence generally fall into three big categories. The first
category is on algorithm. Each swarm intelligence algorithm has been studied and
modified to improve its performance from different perspectives such as the convergence,
solution accuracy, and algorithm efficiency, etc. For example, in particle
swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the impacts of inertia weight, acceleration coefficients,
and neighborhood on the performance of the algorithm have been studied
extensively. Consequently, all kind of PSO variants have been proposed. The second
category is on the types of problems that the algorithms are designed and/or modified
to solve. Generally speaking, most of the swarm intelligence algorithms are originally
designed to solve unconstraint single-objective optimization problems. The algorithms
are then studied and modified to suit for solving other types of problems such
as constraint single-objective optimization problems, multi-objective optimization
problems, constraint multi-objective optimization problems, and combinatorial optimization
problems, etc.. The third category is on algorithms’ applications. Swarm
intelligence algorithms have been successfully applied to solve all kinds of problems
covering a wide range of real-world applications. Due to algorithms’ characteristics
such as that they usually do not require continuity and differentiability which are
critical for traditional optimization algorithms to have, swarm intelligence algorithms
have been able to solve a lot of real-world application problems which are very difficult,
if not impossible, for traditional algorithms to solve. Therefore, swarm intelligence
algorithms have been attracting more and more attentions from engineers in all
industrial sectors. It is the successful real-world applications that are the impetus and
vitality that drives the research on swarm intelligence forward. |
