Mixed-Integer Constrained Optimization Based on Memetic Algorithm

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are population-based global search methods. They have been successfully applied tomany complex optimization problems. However, EAs are frequently incapable of finding a convergence solution indefault of local search mechanisms. Memetic Algorithms (MAs) are hybrid EAs that combine genetic operators withlocal search methods. With global exploration and local exploitation in search space, MAs are capable of obtainingmore high-quality solutions. On the other hand, mixed-integer hybrid differential evolution (MIHDE), as an EA-basedsearch algorithm, has been successfully applied to many mixed-integer optimization problems. In this paper, amemetic algorithm based on MIHDE is developed for solving mixed-integer optimization problems. However, most ofreal-world mixed-integer optimization problems frequently consist of equality and/or inequality constraints. In order toeffectively handle constraints, an evolutionary Lagrange method based on memetic algorithm is developed to solvethe mixed-integer constrained optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is implemented and tested on twobenchmark mixed-integer constrained optimization problems. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithmcan find better optimal solutions compared with some other search algorithms. Therefore, it implies that the proposedmemetic algorithm is a good approach to mixed-integer optimization problems

Climbing depth-bounded adjacent discrepancy search for solving hybrid flow shop scheduling problems with multiprocessor tasks

This paper considers multiprocessor task scheduling in a multistage hybrid flow-shop environment. The problem even in its simplest form is NP-hard in the strong sense. The great deal of interest for this problem, besides its theoretical complexity, is animated by needs of various manufacturing and computing systems. We propose a new approach based on limited discrepancy search to solve the problem. Our method is tested with reference to a proposed lower bound as well as the best-known solutions in literature. Computational results show that the developed approach is efficient in particular for large-size problems

Submodular memetic approximation for multiobjective parallel test paper generation

Parallel test paper generation is a biobjective distributed resource optimization problem, which aims to generate multiple similarly optimal test papers automatically according to multiple user-specified assessment criteria. Generating high-quality parallel test papers is challenging due to its NP-hardness in both of the collective objective functions. In this paper, we propose a submodular memetic approximation algorithm for solving this problem. The proposed algorithm is an adaptive memetic algorithm (MA), which exploits the submodular property of the collective objective functions to design greedy-based approximation algorithms for enhancing steps of the multiobjective MA. Synergizing the intensification of submodular local search mechanism with the diversification of the population-based submodular crossover operator, our algorithm can jointly optimize the total quality maximization objective and the fairness quality maximization objective. Our MA can achieve provable near-optimal solutions in a huge search space of large datasets in efficient polynomial runtime. Performance results on various datasets have shown that our algorithm has drastically outperformed the current techniques in terms of paper quality and runtime efficiency

A memetic particle swarm optimisation algorithm for dynamic multi-modal optimisation problems

Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & Francis.Many real-world optimisation problems are both dynamic and multi-modal, which require an optimisation algorithm not only to find as many optima under a specific environment as possible, but also to track their moving trajectory over dynamic environments. To address this requirement, this article investigates a memetic computing approach based on particle swarm optimisation for dynamic multi-modal optimisation problems (DMMOPs). Within the framework of the proposed algorithm, a new speciation method is employed to locate and track multiple peaks and an adaptive local search method is also hybridised to accelerate the exploitation of species generated by the speciation method. In addition, a memory-based re-initialisation scheme is introduced into the proposed algorithm in order to further enhance its performance in dynamic multi-modal environments. Based on the moving peaks benchmark problems, experiments are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison with several state-of-the-art algorithms taken from the literature. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for DMMOPs.This work was supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China under Grant no. 70931001, the Funds for Creative Research Groups of China under Grant no. 71021061, the National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China under Grant 71001018, Grant no. 61004121 and Grant no. 70801012 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities Grant no. N090404020, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of UK under Grant no. EP/E060722/01 and Grant EP/E060722/02, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under Grant G-YH60

A multi-cycled sequential memetic computing approach for constrained optimisation

In this paper, we propose a multi-cycled sequential memetic computing structure for constrained optimisation. The structure is composed of multiple evolutionary cycles. At each cycle, an evolutionary algorithm is considered as an operator, and connects with a local optimiser. This structure enables the learning of useful knowledge from previous cycles and the transfer of the knowledge to facilitate search in latter cycles. Specifically, we propose to apply an estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) to explore the search space until convergence at each cycle. A local optimiser, called DONLP2, is then applied to improve the best solution found by the EDA. New cycle starts after the local improvement if the computation budget has not been exceeded. In the developed EDA, an adaptive fully-factorized multivariate probability model is proposed. A learning mechanism, implemented as the guided mutation operator, is adopted to learn useful knowledge from previous cycles. The developed algorithm was experimentally studied on the benchmark problems in the CEC 2006 and 2010 competition. Experimental studies have shown that the developed probability model exhibits excellent exploration capability and the learning mechanism can significantly improve the search efficiency under certain conditions. The comparison against some well-known algorithms showed the superiority of the developed algorithm in terms of the consumed fitness evaluations and the solution quality

Multi agent collaborative search based on Tchebycheff decomposition

This paper presents a novel formulation of Multi Agent Collaborative Search, for multi-objective optimization, based on Tchebycheff decomposition. A population of agents combines heuristics that aim at exploring the search space both globally (social moves) and in a neighborhood of each agent (individualistic moves). In this novel formulation the selection process is based on a combination of Tchebycheff scalarization and Pareto dominance. Furthermore, while in the previous implementation, social actions were applied to the whole population of agents and individualistic actions only to an elite sub-population, in this novel formulation this mechanism is inverted. The novel agent-based algorithm is tested at first on a standard benchmark of difficult problems and then on two specific problems in space trajectory design. Its performance is compared against a number of state-of-the-art multi objective optimization algorithms. The results demonstrate that this novel agent-based search has better performance with respect to its predecessor in a number of cases and converges better than the other state-of-the-art algorithms with a better spreading of the solutions