Review of meta-heuristics and generalised evolutionary walk algorithm

Meta-heuristic algorithms are often nature-inspired, and they are becoming very powerful in solving global optimisation problems. More than a dozen major meta-heuristic algorithms have been developed over the last three decades, and there exist even more variants and hybrids of meta-heuristics. This paper intends to provide an overview of nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithms, from a brief history to their applications. We try to analyse the main components of these algorithms and how and why they work. Then, we intend to provide a unified view of meta-heuristics by proposing a generalised evolutionary walk algorithm (GEWA). Finally, we discuss some of the important open questions.