Metaheuristics in nature-inspired algorithms
Michael A. Lones · 2014
To many people, the terms nature-inspired algorithm and metaheuristic are interchangeable. However, this contemporary usage is not consistent with the original meaning of the term metaheuristic, which referred to something closer to a design pattern than to an algorithm. In this paper, it is argued that the loss of focus on true metaheuristics is a primary reason behind the explosion of "novel" nature-inspired algorithms and the issues this has raised. To address this, this paper attempts to explicitly identify the metaheuristics that are used in conventional optimisation algorithms, discuss whether more recent nature-inspired algorithms have delivered any fundamental new knowledge to the field of metaheuristics, and suggest some guidelines for future research in this field.