Title: Firefly algorithm: recent advances and applications

Authors: Xin-She Yang; Xingshi He

Addresses: School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT, UK ' School of Science, Xi'an Polytechnic University, No. 19 Jinhua South Road, Xi'an 710048, China

Abstract: Nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms, especially those based on swarm intelligence, have attracted much attention in the last ten years. Firefly algorithm appeared in about five years ago, its literature has expanded dramatically with diverse applications. In this paper, we will briefly review the fundamentals of firefly algorithm together with a selection of recent publications. Then, we discuss the optimality associated with balancing exploration and exploitation, which is essential for all metaheuristic algorithms. By comparing with intermittent search strategy, we conclude that metaheuristics such as firefly algorithm are better than the optimal intermittent search strategy. We also analyse algorithms and their implications for higher-dimensional optimisation problems.

Keywords: bat algorithm; cuckoo search; firefly algorithm; metaheuristics; nature-inspired algorithms; bio-inspired computation; swarm intelligence; exploration; exploitation; intermittent search; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSI.2013.055801

International Journal of Swarm Intelligence, 2013 Vol.1 No.1, pp.36 - 50

Received: 21 Jun 2012
Accepted: 13 Nov 2012
Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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