Chemically Inspired Algorithms

Abstract

An as yet relatively under-explored area of natural computing is the use of chemical phenomena as a source of inspiration for the design of computational algorithms. Of course, chemical processes play a significant role in many of the phenomena already described in this book, including (for example) evolutionary processes and the workings of the natural immune system. However, so far, chemical aspects of these processes have been largely ignored in the design of computational algorithms. In this chapter, we initially provide a short primer on some concepts from chemistry and then — using these — describe a number of optimisation algorithms loosely inspired by the processes of chemical reactions.