Competitiveness of evolutionary algorithms

The development of efficient hardware for computational purposes has led to a new class of optimization algorithms. These methods are oriented towards the mechanisms of evolutionary processes and are therefore called evolutionary algorithms. The main idea presented here is the transfer of selection, recombination and mutation techniques within biological evolution to optimization strategies. The basic forms of genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies are presented in this paper as well. Also, results of empirical studies will demonstrate the competitiveness of these algorithms.