Abstract:
Swarm algorithms belong to the class of population metaheuristic optimization methods. Despite the use of various metaphors, most swarm algorithms have similar structures, where one can distinguish common components such as the decision population initialization, decision diversification, and decision intensification. Based on the concept of generality, an analysis of key approaches to, methods for, and ways of increasing the efficiency of swarm optimization algorithms was carried out. In the survey, swarm optimization algorithms are viewed as a set of operators without a detailed discussion of each algorithm. The main focus is on the analysis of the key components of the algorithms. The main idea behind efficiency improvement is to maintain a balance between diversification and intensification. In this context, we consider mechanisms for supporting population diversity, methods for tuning and adjusting the swarm algorithm parameters, and approaches to hybridization of algorithms. We also indicate several open problems related to the topic of the survey.