Firefly Algorithm: Recent Advances and Applications
This is an incremental review and analysis of an existing algorithm for researchers in optimization and metaheuristics.
The paper reviews the firefly algorithm, a nature-inspired metaheuristic, and concludes that it outperforms optimal intermittent search strategies in balancing exploration and exploitation for optimization problems.
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 optimization problems.