Biologically inspired optimization: a review

This paper presents a review of the development of biologically inspired algorithms (BIAs), including the evolutionary algorithms and swarm intelligence, as well as the newly emerged bacterial foraging algorithms. Our retrospective review is classified to these three areas of BIAs, and their common features and functionalities are discussed respectively. In order to identify the roots and clarify the variants of various BIAs, our discussion is also extended to identify the difference between each algorithm, particularly by indicating their biological background. The review focuses on not only the background of the original studies of BIAs but also their principles and applications, which are supported with a number of references included in this paper.