Towards Swarm Intelligence Ontology for Formal Description of Metaheuristics Algorithms

Swarm intelligence is a class of nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithms, that is specifically derived from biological systems in nature with an emphasis on their social interactions. These algorithms have been primarily developed to solve complex combinatorial optimization problems and are extremely popular among researchers in metaheuristic algorithms. This is evident from the numerous published scientific papers describing algorithms inspired by biological systems, ranging from insects such as ants and bees to the largest animals on the planet like whales. All these algorithms share some common concepts and relationships that can be explicitly identified, named, and formalized. These shared concepts and relationships can be organized and represented through the construction of an ontology. The goal of this paper is to present a formal ontology that standardizes vocabulary, as well as a set of rules enabling precise communication and reasoning about these algorithms. Ultimately, this will improve our understanding, analysis, research processes, and utilization of these computational approaches.