A Survey of Artificial Hummingbird Algorithm and Its Variants: Statistical Analysis, Performance Evaluation, and Structural Reviewing

In the last few decades, metaheuristic algorithms that use the laws of nature have been used dramatically in numerous and complex optimization problems. The artificial hummingbird algorithm (AHA) is one of the metaheuristic algorithms that was invented in 2022 based on the foraging and migration behavior of the hummingbird for modeling and solving optimization problems. The algorithm initially starts with an initial random population of solutions. It then uses iterative processes and hummingbird position updates to balance exploration and exploitation toward the most optimal solutions. This paper has a detailed and extensive review of the AHA algorithm considering the aspects of hybrid, improved, binary, multi-objective, and optimization problems. In addition, a wide range of applications of AHA in various fields such as feature selection, image processing, scheduling, Internet of Things, classification, clustering, financial and economic issues, forecasting, wireless sensor networks, and many engineering challenges are explored. The statistical and numerical results showed that the AHA algorithm with deep learning methods, Levy flight, and opposition-based learning had the best performance. Also, the AHA algorithm is most widely used in solving multimodal optimization problems and continuous functions.