Particle Swarms in Optimization and Control

In the last decennium, particle swarms have received considerable attention in the fields of optimization and control. Inspired by swarms of social animals, such as birds, fish, and termites, simple behavior on the local level has been shown to result in useful complex behavior on the global level. Particle Swarm Optimization has proven to be a very powerful optimization heuristic, and swarm aggregation based on artificial potential fields enjoys a growing interest for controlling particles in a swarm. Especially the flexibility, scalability, and robustness to errors on a local level are intrinsic properties of swarms that have attracted the interest of researchers in applying swarm technology to various problems. In this contribution, we present an overview of the application of particle swarms for optimization and control of swarm aggregation.