Early Years of Biased Random-Key Genetic Algorithms: A Systematic Review

This paper presents a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysisfocusing on Biased Random-Key Genetic Algorithms (BRKGA). BRKGA is ametaheuristic framework that uses random-key-based chromosomes with biased,uniform, and elitist mating strategies alongside a genetic algorithm. Thisreview encompasses around 250 papers, covering a diverse array of applicationsranging from classical combinatorial optimization problems to real-worldindustrial scenarios, and even non-traditional applications like hyperparametertuning in machine learning and scenario generation for two-stage problems. Insummary, this study offers a comprehensive examination of the BRKGAmetaheuristic and its various applications, shedding light on key areas forfuture research.