Harmony Search Algorithm

Abstract

Harmony search (HS) is a meta-heuristic search algorithm which tries to mimic the improvisation process of musicians in finding a pleasing harmony. In recent years, due to some advantages, HS has received a significant attention. HS is easy to implement, converges quickly to the optimal solution and finds a good enough solution in a reasonable amount of computational time. The merits of HS algorithm have led to its application to optimization problems of different engineering areas. In this chapter, the concepts and performance of HS algorithm are shown and some engineering applications are reviewed. It is observed that HS has shown promising performance in solving difficult optimization problems and different versions of this algorithm have been developed. In the next years, it is expected that HS is applied to more real optimization problems.