The harmony search (HS) algorithm is one of the most popular meta-heuristic algorithms. The basic idea of HS was inspired by the music improvisation process in which the musicians continuously adjust the pitch of their instruments to generate wonderful harmony. Since its inception in 2001, HS has attracted the attention of many researchers from all over the world, resulting in a lot of improved variants and successful applications. Even for today, the research on improved HS variants design and innovative applications are still hot topics. This paper provides a detailed review of the basic concept of HS and a survey of its latest variants for function optimization. It also provides a survey of the innovative applications of HS in the field of intelligent manufacturing based on about 40 recently published articles. Some potential future research directions for both HS and its applications to intelligent manufacturing are also analyzed and summarized in this paper.
Keywords: harmony search; intelligent manufacturing; meta-heuristic; review.