Green Vehicle Routing Optimization Based on Carbon Emission and Multiobjective Hybrid Quantum Immune Algorithm

© 2018 Xiao-Hong Liu et al. Green Vehicle Routing Optimization Problem (GVROP) is currently a scientific research problem that takes into account the environmental impact and resource efficiency. Therefore, the optimal allocation of resources and the carbon emission in GVROP are becoming more and more important. In order to improve the delivery efficiency and reduce the cost of distribution requirements through intelligent optimization method, a novel multiobjective hybrid quantum immune algorithm based on cloud model (C-HQIA) is put forward. Simultaneously, the computational results have proved that the C-HQIA is an efficient algorithm for the GVROP. We also found that the parameter optimization of the C-HQIA is related to the types of artificial intelligence algorithms. Consequently, the GVROP and the C-HQIA have important theoretical and practical significance

Resolving forward-reverse logistics multi-period model using evolutionary algorithms

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd In the changing competitive landscape and with growing environmental awareness, reverse logistics issues have become prominent in manufacturing organizations. As a result there is an increasing focus on green aspects of the supply chain to reduce environmental impacts and ensure environmental efficiency. This is largely driven by changes made in government rules and regulations with which organizations must comply in order to successfully operate in different regions of the world. Therefore, manufacturing organizations are striving hard to implement environmentally efficient supply chains while simultaneously maximizing their profit to compete in the market. To address the issue, this research studies a forward-reverse logistics model. This paper puts forward a model of a multi-period, multi-echelon, vehicle routing, forward-reverse logistics system. The network considered in the model assumes a fixed number of suppliers, facilities, distributors, customer zones, disassembly locations, re-distributors and second customer zones. The demand levels at customer zones are assumed to be deterministic. The objective of the paper is to maximize the total expected profit and also to obtain an efficient route for the vehicle corresponding to an optimal/near optimal solution. The proposed model is resolved using Artificial Immune System (AIS) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms. The findings show that for the considered model, AIS works better than the PSO. This information is important for a manufacturing organization engaged in reverse logistics programs and in running units efficiently. This paper also contributes to the limited literature on reverse logistics that considers costs and profit as well as vehicle route management

From metaheuristics to learnheuristics: Applications to logistics, finance, and computing

Un gran nombre de processos de presa de decisions en sectors estratègics com el transport i la producció representen problemes NP-difícils. Sovint, aquests processos es caracteritzen per alts nivells d'incertesa i dinamisme. Les metaheurístiques són mètodes populars per a resoldre problemes d'optimització difícils en temps de càlcul raonables. No obstant això, sovint assumeixen que els inputs, les funcions objectiu, i les restriccions són deterministes i conegudes. Aquests constitueixen supòsits forts que obliguen a treballar amb problemes simplificats. Com a conseqüència, les solucions poden conduir a resultats pobres. Les simheurístiques integren la simulació a les metaheurístiques per resoldre problemes estocàstics d'una manera natural. Anàlogament, les learnheurístiques combinen l'estadística amb les metaheurístiques per fer front a problemes en entorns dinàmics, en què els inputs poden dependre de l'estructura de la solució. En aquest context, les principals contribucions d'aquesta tesi són: el disseny de les learnheurístiques, una classificació dels treballs que combinen l'estadística / l'aprenentatge automàtic i les metaheurístiques, i diverses aplicacions en transport, producció, finances i computació.Un gran número de procesos de toma de decisiones en sectores estratégicos como el transporte y la producción representan problemas NP-difíciles. Frecuentemente, estos problemas se caracterizan por altos niveles de incertidumbre y dinamismo. Las metaheurísticas son métodos populares para resolver problemas difíciles de optimización de manera rápida. Sin embargo, suelen asumir que los inputs, las funciones objetivo y las restricciones son deterministas y se conocen de antemano. Estas fuertes suposiciones conducen a trabajar con problemas simplificados. Como consecuencia, las soluciones obtenidas pueden tener un pobre rendimiento. Las simheurísticas integran simulación en metaheurísticas para resolver problemas estocásticos de una manera natural. De manera similar, las learnheurísticas combinan aprendizaje estadístico y metaheurísticas para abordar problemas en entornos dinámicos, donde los inputs pueden depender de la estructura de la solución. En este contexto, las principales aportaciones de esta tesis son: el diseño de las learnheurísticas, una clasificación de trabajos que combinan estadística / aprendizaje automático y metaheurísticas, y varias aplicaciones en transporte, producción, finanzas y computación.A large number of decision-making processes in strategic sectors such as transport and production involve NP-hard problems, which are frequently characterized by high levels of uncertainty and dynamism. Metaheuristics have become the predominant method for solving challenging optimization problems in reasonable computing times. However, they frequently assume that inputs, objective functions and constraints are deterministic and known in advance. These strong assumptions lead to work on oversimplified problems, and the solutions may demonstrate poor performance when implemented. Simheuristics, in turn, integrate simulation into metaheuristics as a way to naturally solve stochastic problems, and, in a similar fashion, learnheuristics combine statistical learning and metaheuristics to tackle problems in dynamic environments, where inputs may depend on the structure of the solution. The main contributions of this thesis include (i) a design for learnheuristics; (ii) a classification of works that hybridize statistical and machine learning and metaheuristics; and (iii) several applications for the fields of transport, production, finance and computing

Holistic, data-driven, service and supply chain optimisation: linked optimisation.

The intensity of competition and technological advancements in the business environment has made companies collaborate and cooperate together as a means of survival. This creates a chain of companies and business components with unified business objectives. However, managing the decision-making process (like scheduling, ordering, delivering and allocating) at the various business components and maintaining a holistic objective is a huge business challenge, as these operations are complex and dynamic. This is because the overall chain of business processes is widely distributed across all the supply chain participants; therefore, no individual collaborator has a complete overview of the processes. Increasingly, such decisions are automated and are strongly supported by optimisation algorithms - manufacturing optimisation, B2B ordering, financial trading, transportation scheduling and allocation. However, most of these algorithms do not incorporate the complexity associated with interacting decision-making systems like supply chains. It is well-known that decisions made at one point in supply chains can have significant consequences that ripple through linked production and transportation systems. Recently, global shocks to supply chains (COVID-19, climate change, blockage of the Suez Canal) have demonstrated the importance of these interdependencies, and the need to create supply chains that are more resilient and have significantly reduced impact on the environment. Such interacting decision-making systems need to be considered through an optimisation process. However, the interactions between such decision-making systems are not modelled. We therefore believe that modelling such interactions is an opportunity to provide computational extensions to current optimisation paradigms. This research study aims to develop a general framework for formulating and solving holistic, data-driven optimisation problems in service and supply chains. This research achieved this aim and contributes to scholarship by firstly considering the complexities of supply chain problems from a linked problem perspective. This leads to developing a formalism for characterising linked optimisation problems as a model for supply chains. Secondly, the research adopts a method for creating a linked optimisation problem benchmark by linking existing classical benchmark sets. This involves using a mix of classical optimisation problems, typically relating to supply chain decision problems, to describe different modes of linkages in linked optimisation problems. Thirdly, several techniques for linking supply chain fragmented data have been proposed in the literature to identify data relationships. Therefore, this thesis explores some of these techniques and combines them in specific ways to improve the data discovery process. Lastly, many state-of-the-art algorithms have been explored in the literature and these algorithms have been used to tackle problems relating to supply chain problems. This research therefore investigates the resilient state-of-the-art optimisation algorithms presented in the literature, and then designs suitable algorithmic approaches inspired by the existing algorithms and the nature of problem linkages to address different problem linkages in supply chains. Considering research findings and future perspectives, the study demonstrates the suitability of algorithms to different linked structures involving two sub-problems, which suggests further investigations on issues like the suitability of algorithms on more complex structures, benchmark methodologies, holistic goals and evaluation, processmining, game theory and dependency analysis

Preventing premature convergence and proving the optimality in evolutionary algorithms

http://ea2013.inria.fr//proceedings.pdfInternational audienceEvolutionary Algorithms (EA) usually carry out an efficient exploration of the search-space, but get often trapped in local minima and do not prove the optimality of the solution. Interval-based techniques, on the other hand, yield a numerical proof of optimality of the solution. However, they may fail to converge within a reasonable time due to their inability to quickly compute a good approximation of the global minimum and their exponential complexity. The contribution of this paper is a hybrid algorithm called Charibde in which a particular EA, Differential Evolution, cooperates with a Branch and Bound algorithm endowed with interval propagation techniques. It prevents premature convergence toward local optima and outperforms both deterministic and stochastic existing approaches. We demonstrate its efficiency on a benchmark of highly multimodal problems, for which we provide previously unknown global minima and certification of optimality

Evolutionary multi-objective optimization in uncertain environments

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Dynamic multi-objective optimization using evolutionary algorithms

Dynamic Multi-objective Optimization Problems (DMOPs) offer an opportunity to examine and solve challenging real world scenarios where trade-off solutions between conflicting objectives change over time. Definition of benchmark problems allows modelling of industry scenarios across transport, power and communications networks, manufacturing and logistics. Recently, significant progress has been made in the variety and complexity of DMOP benchmarks and the incorporation of realistic dynamic characteristics. However, significant gaps still exist in standardised methodology for DMOPs, specific problem domain examples and in the understanding of the impacts and explanations of dynamic characteristics. This thesis provides major contributions on these three topics within evolutionary dynamic multi-objective optimization. Firstly, experimental protocols for DMOPs are varied. This limits the applicability and relevance of results produced and conclusions made in the field. A major source of the inconsistency lies in the parameters used to define specific problem instances being examined. The uninformed selection of these has historically held back understanding of their impacts and standardisation in experimental approach to these parameters in the multi-objective problem domain. Using the frequency and severity (or magnitude) of change events, a more informed approach to DMOP experimentation is conceptualized, implemented and evaluated. Establishment of a baseline performance expectation across a comprehensive range of dynamic instances for well-studied DMOP benchmarks is analyzed. To maximize relevance, these profiles are composed from the performance of evolutionary algorithms commonly used for baseline comparisons and those with simple dynamic responses. Comparison and contrast with the coverage of parameter combinations in the sampled literature highlights the importance of these contributions. Secondly, the provision of useful and realistic DMOPs in the combinatorial domain is limited in previous literature. A novel dynamic benchmark problem is presented by the extension of the Travelling Thief Problem (TTP) to include a variety of realistic and contextually justified dynamic changes. Investigation of problem information exploitation and it's potential application as a dynamic response is a key output of these results and context is provided through comparison to results obtained by adapting existing TTP heuristics. Observation driven iterative development prompted the investigation of multi-population island model strategies, together with improvements in the approaches to accurately describe and compare the performance of algorithm models for DMOPs, a contribution which is applicable beyond the dynamic TTP. Thirdly, the purpose of DMOPs is to reconstruct realistic scenarios, or features from them, to allow for experimentation and development of better optimization algorithms. However, numerous important characteristics from real systems still require implementation and will drive research and development of algorithms and mechanisms to handle these industrially relevant problem classes. The novel challenges associated with these implementations are significant and diverse, even for a simple development such as consideration of DMOPs with multiple time dependencies. Real world systems with dynamics are likely to contain multiple temporally changing aspects, particularly in energy and transport domains. Problems with more than one dynamic problem component allow for asynchronous changes and a differing severity between components that leads to an explosion in the size of the possible dynamic instance space. Both continuous and combinatorial problem domains require structured investigation into the best practices for experimental design, algorithm application and performance measurement, comparison and visualization. Highlighting the challenges, the key requirements for effective progress and recommendations on experimentation are explored here

A vision-based optical character recognition system for real-time identification of tractors in a port container terminal

Automation has been seen as a promising solution to increase the productivity of modern sea port container terminals. The potential of increase in throughput, work efficiency and reduction of labor cost have lured stick holders to strive for the introduction of automation in the overall terminal operation. A specific container handling process that is readily amenable to automation is the deployment and control of gantry cranes in the container yard of a container terminal where typical operations of truck identification, loading and unloading containers, and job management are primarily performed manually in a typical terminal. To facilitate the overall automation of the gantry crane operation, we devised an approach for the real-time identification of tractors through the recognition of the corresponding number plates that are located on top of the tractor cabin. With this crucial piece of information, remote or automated yard operations can then be performed. A machine vision-based system is introduced whereby these number plates are read and identified in real-time while the tractors are operating in the terminal. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the system and highlight the major difficulties encountered including the recognition of character information printed on the number plates due to poor image integrity. Working solutions are proposed to address these problems which are incorporated in the overall identification system.postprin