Taxonomy of optimisation techniques and applications

This paper presents a review of recent advances in optimisation techniques. Optimisation is a complex task and it is nearly impossible to identify a single technique which can act as a silver bullet in all contexts where scarcity and limitation of resources and constraints exist. The list of individual optimisation methods, their combinations and hybridisations is endless and, hence, it is imperative to classify them based on common attributes and highlight some of the salient industrial and research domains where they have been implemented. This paper concentrates on application areas of the different optimisation techniques in particular, with the objective to establish a practical taxonomy based on the combination of heuristic or non-heuristic nature of algorithms, nature of design variables and nature of equations. A précis of research at the University of Bedfordshire is also given to highlight the contributions made towards optimising different industrial and engineering problems exemplifying the latest trends and research arenas.