As a novel probabilistic model based evolutionary algorithm, estimation of distribution algorithm(EDA) has
gained wide study and development during recent years. After introducing the mechanism and features of EDA, the research
advances in EDA during recent years are surveyed in detail, including improving the probabilistic model, maintaining the
diversity of population and designing the hybrid algorithms. Moreover, the state of the art about the study on EDA in terms
of theory and application is investigated. Finally, some future research direction and content are proposed.