Evolutionary techniques for inverse scattering - Current trends and envisaged developments -

Concerning the state-of-the-art of the application of EAs to inverse scattering, it should be firstly pointed out that their use in computational electromagnetics has a relatively short history, although their use was growing faster from the beginning. However, many of these algorithms (e.g., PSO and ACO) cannot be considered fully developed inversion techniques when compared to other imaging methodologies. From a theoretical point of view, a further analysis concerned with the convergence issues is certainly mandatory. As a matter of fact, the stochastic nature of EAs is an effective feature, but on the other hand it is also a non-negligible obstacle for industrial applications because the non-predictable performances. Nevertheless, even though further developments are still required, existing EAs strategies already demonstrated their potential impact in dealing with complex and large-scale inversion problems. The flexibility of these algorithms and their key features fully justify the large effort dedicated to the development of EA-based techniques for microwave imaging applications.