"This book describes in-depth the five main iterative algorithms for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems: Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, Tabu Search, Simulated Evolution, and Stochastic Evolution. The authors present various iterative techniques and illustrate how they can be applied to solve several NP-hard problems.".

"For each algorithm the authors present the procedures of the algorithm parameter selection criteria convergence property analysis and parallelization. There are also several real-world examples that illustrate various aspects of the algorithms.

The book includes an introduction to fuzzy logic and its application in the formulation of multi-objective optimization problems, a discussion on hybrid techniques that combine features of heuristics, a survey of recent research work, and examples that illustrate required mathematical concepts."--BOOK JACKET.