A Survey on GPU-Based Implementation of Swarm Intelligence Algorithms

Inspired by the collective behavior of natural swarm, swarm intelligence algorithms (SIAs) have been developed and widely used for solving optimization problems. When applied to complex problems, a large number of fitness function evaluations are needed to obtain an acceptable solution. To tackle this vital issue, graphical processing units (GPUs) have been used to accelerate the optimization procedure of SIAs. Thanks to their inherent parallelism, SIAs are very suitable for parallel implementation under the GPU platform which have achieved a great success in recent years. This paper presents a comprehensive review of GPU-based parallel SIAs in accordance with a newly proposed taxonomy. Critical concerns for the efficient parallel implementation of SIAs are also described in detail. Moreover, novel criteria are also proposed to evaluate and compare the parallel implementation and algorithm performance universally. The rationality and practicability of the proposed optimization methodology and criteria are verified by careful case study. Finally, our opinions and perspectives on the trends and prospects on the relatively new research domain are also presented for future development.