Consensus-Based Optimisation
Consensus-based optimisation (CBO) is an approach to solve the global minimisation problem:
Given a (continuous) objective function $f(x):\mathbb{R}^D \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, find
\[x^* = \operatorname*{argmin}_{x\in\mathbb{R}^D} f(x);\]
i.e., find the point where $f$ takes its lowest value.
CBO uses a finite number $N$ of agents (driven particles), $x_t=(x_t^1,\dots,x_t^N)$, to explore the landscape of $f$ without evaluating any of its derivatives. At each time $t$, the agents evaluate the objective function at their position, $f(x_t^i)$, and define a consensus point $c_\alpha$. This point is an approximation of the global minimiser $x^*$, and is constructed by weighing each agent's position against a "Gibbs-like" distribution, $\exp(-\alpha f(x))$:
\[c_\alpha(x_t) = \frac{1}{ \sum_{i=1}^N \omega_\alpha(x_t^i) } \sum_{i=1}^N x_t^i \, \omega_\alpha(x_t^i), \quad\text{where}\quad \omega_\alpha(\,\cdot\,) = \mathrm{exp}(-\alpha f(\,\cdot\,)),\]
for some $\alpha>0$. The exponential weights in the definition favour those points $x_t^i$ where $f(x_t^i)$ is lowest, and comparatively ignore the rest. If all the found values of the objective function are approximately the same, $c_\alpha(x_t)$ is roughly an arithmetic mean; if, instead, one particle is much better than the rest, $c_\alpha(x_t)$ will be very close to its position.
Once the consensus point is defined, the particles evolve in time following the stochastic differential equation (SDE)
\[\mathrm{d}x_t^i = -\lambda\ \underbrace{ \left( x_t^i - c_\alpha(x_t) \right) \mathrm{d}t }_{ \text{consensus drift} } + \sqrt{2\sigma^2}\ \underbrace{ \left\| x_t^i - c_\alpha(x_t) \right\| \mathrm{d}B_t^i }_{ \text{scaled diffusion} },\]
where $\lambda$ and $\sigma$ are positive parameters, and where $B_t^i$ are independent Brownian motions in $D$ dimensions. The consensus drift is a deterministic term which drives each agent towards the consensus point, at rate $\lambda$; meanwhile, the scaled diffusion is a stochastic term that encourages exploration.
For additional details, see R. Pinnau, C. Totzeck, O. Tse, and S. Martin (2017).