A reusable iterative optimization software library to solve combinatorial problems with approximate reasoning

Real world combinatorial optimization problems such as scheduling are typically too complex to solve with exact methods. Additionally, the problems often have to observe vaguely specified constraints of different importance, the available data may be uncertain, and compromises between antagonistic criteria may be necessary. We present a combination of approximate reasoning based constraints and iterative optimization based heuristics that help to model and solve such problems in a framework of C++ software libraries called StarFLIP++. While initially developed to schedule continuous caster units in steel plants, we present in this paper results from reusing the library components in a shift scheduling system for the workforce of an industrial production plant.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures; for a project overview see http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/proj/StarFLIP

Multiobjective programming for type-2 hierarchical fuzzy inference trees

This paper proposes a design of hierarchical fuzzy inference tree (HFIT). An HFIT produces an optimum tree-like structure. Specifically, a natural hierarchical structure that accommodates simplicity by combining several low-dimensional fuzzy inference systems (FISs). Such a natural hierarchical structure provides a high degree of approximation accuracy. The construction of HFIT takes place in two phases. Firstly, a nondominated sorting based multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) is applied to obtain a simple tree structure (low model’s complexity) with a high accuracy. Secondly, the differential evolution algorithm is applied to optimize the obtained tree’s parameters. In the obtained tree, each node has a different input’s combination, where the evolutionary process governs the input’s combination. Hence, HFIT nodes are heterogeneous in nature, which leads to a high diversity among the rules generated by the HFIT. Additionally, the HFIT provides an automatic feature selection because it uses MOGP for the tree’s structural optimization that accept inputs only relevant to the knowledge contained in data. The HFIT was studied in the context of both type-1 and type-2 FISs, and its performance was evaluated through six application problems. Moreover, the proposed multiobjective HFIT was compared both theoretically and empirically with recently proposed FISs methods from the literature, such as McIT2FIS, TSCIT2FNN, SIT2FNN, RIT2FNS-WB, eT2FIS, MRIT2NFS, IT2FNN-SVR, etc. From the obtained results, it was found that the HFIT provided less complex and highly accurate models compared to the models produced by most of the other methods. Hence, the proposed HFIT is an efficient and competitive alternative to the other FISs for function approximation and feature selectio

PAC: A Novel Self-Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Controller for Micro Aerial Vehicles

There exists an increasing demand for a flexible and computationally efficient controller for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) due to a high degree of environmental perturbations. In this work, an evolving neuro-fuzzy controller, namely Parsimonious Controller (PAC) is proposed. It features fewer network parameters than conventional approaches due to the absence of rule premise parameters. PAC is built upon a recently developed evolving neuro-fuzzy system known as parsimonious learning machine (PALM) and adopts new rule growing and pruning modules derived from the approximation of bias and variance. These rule adaptation methods have no reliance on user-defined thresholds, thereby increasing the PAC's autonomy for real-time deployment. PAC adapts the consequent parameters with the sliding mode control (SMC) theory in the single-pass fashion. The boundedness and convergence of the closed-loop control system's tracking error and the controller's consequent parameters are confirmed by utilizing the LaSalle-Yoshizawa theorem. Lastly, the controller's efficacy is evaluated by observing various trajectory tracking performance from a bio-inspired flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (BI-FWMAV) and a rotary wing micro aerial vehicle called hexacopter. Furthermore, it is compared to three distinctive controllers. Our PAC outperforms the linear PID controller and feed-forward neural network (FFNN) based nonlinear adaptive controller. Compared to its predecessor, G-controller, the tracking accuracy is comparable, but the PAC incurs significantly fewer parameters to attain similar or better performance than the G-controller.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in Information Science Journal 201

Dynamic non-linear system modelling using wavelet-based soft computing techniques

The enormous number of complex systems results in the necessity of high-level and cost-efficient modelling structures for the operators and system designers. Model-based approaches offer a very challenging way to integrate a priori knowledge into the procedure. Soft computing based models in particular, can successfully be applied in cases of highly nonlinear problems. A further reason for dealing with so called soft computational model based techniques is that in real-world cases, many times only partial, uncertain and/or inaccurate data is available. Wavelet-Based soft computing techniques are considered, as one of the latest trends in system identification/modelling. This thesis provides a comprehensive synopsis of the main wavelet-based approaches to model the non-linear dynamical systems in real world problems in conjunction with possible twists and novelties aiming for more accurate and less complex modelling structure. Initially, an on-line structure and parameter design has been considered in an adaptive Neuro- Fuzzy (NF) scheme. The problem of redundant membership functions and consequently fuzzy rules is circumvented by applying an adaptive structure. The growth of a special type of Fungus (Monascus ruber van Tieghem) is examined against several other approaches for further justification of the proposed methodology. By extending the line of research, two Morlet Wavelet Neural Network (WNN) structures have been introduced. Increasing the accuracy and decreasing the computational cost are both the primary targets of proposed novelties. Modifying the synoptic weights by replacing them with Linear Combination Weights (LCW) and also imposing a Hybrid Learning Algorithm (HLA) comprising of Gradient Descent (GD) and Recursive Least Square (RLS), are the tools utilised for the above challenges. These two models differ from the point of view of structure while they share the same HLA scheme. The second approach contains an additional Multiplication layer, plus its hidden layer contains several sub-WNNs for each input dimension. The practical superiority of these extensions is demonstrated by simulation and experimental results on real non-linear dynamic system; Listeria Monocytogenes survival curves in Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) whole milk, and consolidated with comprehensive comparison with other suggested schemes. At the next stage, the extended clustering-based fuzzy version of the proposed WNN schemes, is presented as the ultimate structure in this thesis. The proposed Fuzzy Wavelet Neural network (FWNN) benefitted from Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) clustering feature, updated by a modified Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. One of the main aims of this thesis is to illustrate how the GMM-EM scheme could be used not only for detecting useful knowledge from the data by building accurate regression, but also for the identification of complex systems. The structure of FWNN is based on the basis of fuzzy rules including wavelet functions in the consequent parts of rules. In order to improve the function approximation accuracy and general capability of the FWNN system, an efficient hybrid learning approach is used to adjust the parameters of dilation, translation, weights, and membership. Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is employed for wavelet parameters adjustment together with Weighted Least Square (WLS) which is dedicated for the Linear Combination Weights fine-tuning. The results of a real-world application of Short Time Load Forecasting (STLF) further re-enforced the plausibility of the above technique

A new data-driven neural fuzzy system with collaborative fuzzy clustering mechanism

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. In this paper, a novel fuzzy rule transfer mechanism for self-constructing neural fuzzy inference networks is being proposed. The features of the proposed method, termed data-driven neural fuzzy system with collaborative fuzzy clustering mechanism (DDNFS-CFCM) are; (1) Fuzzy rules are generated facilely by fuzzy c-means (FCM) and then adapted by the preprocessed collaborative fuzzy clustering (PCFC) technique, and (2) Structure and parameter learning are performed simultaneously without selecting the initial parameters. The DDNFS-CFCM can be applied to deal with big data problems by the virtue of the PCFC technique, which is capable of dealing with immense datasets while preserving the privacy and security of datasets. Initially, the entire dataset is organized into two individual datasets for the PCFC procedure, where each of the dataset is clustered separately. The knowledge of prototype variables (cluster centers) and the matrix of just one halve of the dataset through collaborative technique are deployed. The DDNFS-CFCM is able to achieve consistency in the presence of collective knowledge of the PCFC and boost the system modeling process by parameter learning ability of the self-constructing neural fuzzy inference networks (SONFIN). The proposed method outperforms other existing methods for time series prediction problems