974 research outputs found

    Introductory Review of Swarm Intelligence Techniques

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    With the rapid upliftment of technology, there has emerged a dire need to fine-tune or optimize certain processes, software, models or structures, with utmost accuracy and efficiency. Optimization algorithms are preferred over other methods of optimization through experimentation or simulation, for their generic problem-solving abilities and promising efficacy with the least human intervention. In recent times, the inducement of natural phenomena into algorithm design has immensely triggered the efficiency of optimization process for even complex multi-dimensional, non-continuous, non-differentiable and noisy problem search spaces. This chapter deals with the Swarm intelligence (SI) based algorithms or Swarm Optimization Algorithms, which are a subset of the greater Nature Inspired Optimization Algorithms (NIOAs). Swarm intelligence involves the collective study of individuals and their mutual interactions leading to intelligent behavior of the swarm. The chapter presents various population-based SI algorithms, their fundamental structures along with their mathematical models.Comment: Submitted to Springe

    Understanding the Electricity-Water-Climate Change Nexus Using a Stochastic Optimization Approach

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    Climate change has been shown to cause droughts (among other catastrophic weather events) and it is shown to be exacerbated by the increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions on our planet. In May 2013, CO2 daily average concentration over the Pacific Ocean at Mauna Loa Observatory reached a dangerous milestone of 400 ppm, which has not been experienced in thousands of years in the earth\u27s climate. These levels were attributed to the ever-increasing human activity over the last 5-6 decades. Electric power generators are documented by the U.S. Department of Energy to be the largest users of ground and surface water and also to be the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Water shortages and droughts in some parts of the U.S. and around the world are becoming a serious concern to independent system operators in wholesale electricity markets. Water shortages can cause significant challenges in electricity production having a direct socioeconomic impact on surrounding regions. Several researchers and institutes around the world have highlighted the fact that there exists an inextricable nexus between electricity, water, and climate change. However, there are no existing quantitative models that study this nexus. This dissertation aims to ll this vacuum. This research presents a new comprehensive quantitative model that studies the electricity-water-climate change nexus. The first two parts of the dissertation focuses on investigating the impact of a joint CO2 emissions and H2O usage tax on a sample electric power network. The latter part of the dissertation presents a model that can be used to study the impact of a joint CO2 and H2O cap-and-trade program on a power grid. We adopt a competitive Markov decision process (CMDP) approach to model the dynamic daily competition in wholesale electricity markets, and solve the resulting model using a reinforcement learning approach. In the first part, we study the impacts of dierent tax mechanisms using exogenous tax rate values found in the literature. We consider the complexities of a electricity power network by using a standard direct-current optimal power flow formulation. In the second part, we use a response surface optimization approach to calculate optimal tax rates for CO2 emissions and H2O usage, and then we examine the impacts of implementing this optimal tax on a power grid. In this part, we use a multi-objective variant of the optimal power flow formulation and solve it using a strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm. We use a 30-bus IEEE power network to perform our detailed simulations and analyses. We study the impacts of implementing the tax policies under several realistic scenarios such as the integration of wind energy, stochastic nature of wind energy, integration of PV energy, water supply disruptions, adoption of water saving technologies, tax credits to generators investing in water saving technologies, and integration of Hydro power generation. The third part, presents a variation of our stochastic optimization framework to model a joint CO2 and H2O cap-and-trade program in wholesale electricity markets for future research. Results from the research show that for the 30-bus power grid, transition from coal generation to wind power could reduce CO2 emissions by 60% and water usage about 40% over a 10-year horizon. Electricity prices increase with the adoption of water and carbon taxes; likewise, capacity disruptions also cause electricity prices to increase

    Robust and Constrained Portfolio Optimization using Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms

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    Optimization plays an important role in many areas of science, management,economics and engineering. Many techniques in mathematics and operation research are available to solve such problems. However these techniques have many shortcomings to provide fast and accurate solution particularly when the optimization problem involves many variables and constraints. Investment portfolio optimization is one such important but complex problem in computational finance which needs effective and efficient solutions. In this problem each available asset is judiciously selected in such a way that the total profit is maximized while simultaneously minimizing the total risk. The literature survey reveals that due to non availability of suitable multi objective optimization tools, this problem is mostly being solved by viewing it as a single objective optimization problem

    A Comprehensive Survey on Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm and Its Applications

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    Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a heuristic global optimization method, proposed originally by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995. It is now one of the most commonly used optimization techniques. This survey presented a comprehensive investigation of PSO. On one hand, we provided advances with PSO, including its modifications (including quantum-behaved PSO, bare-bones PSO, chaotic PSO, and fuzzy PSO), population topology (as fully connected, von Neumann, ring, star, random, etc.), hybridization (with genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, Tabu search, artificial immune system, ant colony algorithm, artificial bee colony, differential evolution, harmonic search, and biogeography-based optimization), extensions (to multiobjective, constrained, discrete, and binary optimization), theoretical analysis (parameter selection and tuning, and convergence analysis), and parallel implementation (in multicore, multiprocessor, GPU, and cloud computing forms). On the other hand, we offered a survey on applications of PSO to the following eight fields: electrical and electronic engineering, automation control systems, communication theory, operations research, mechanical engineering, fuel and energy, medicine, chemistry, and biology. It is hoped that this survey would be beneficial for the researchers studying PSO algorithms

    Solution of the Multi-objective Economic and Emission Load Dispatch Problem Using Adaptive Real Quantum Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm

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    Economic load dispatch is a complex and significant problem in power generation. The inclusion of emission with economic operation makes it a Multi-objective economic emission load dispatch (MOEELD) problem. So it is a tough task to resolve a constrained MOEELD problem with antagonistic multiple objectives of emission and cost. Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) have been widely used for solving such complex multi-objective problems. However, the performance of EAs on such problems is dependent on the choice of the operators and their parameters, which becomes a complex issue to solve in itself. The present work is carried out to solve a Multi-objective economic emission load dispatch problem using a Multi-objective adaptive real coded quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (MO-ARQIEA) with gratifying all the constraints of unit and system. A repair-based constraint handling and adaptive quantum crossover operator (ACO) are used to satisfy the constraints and preserve the diversity of the suggested approach. The suggested approach is evaluated on the IEEE 30-Bus system consisting of six generating units. These results obtained for different test cases are compared with other reputed and well-known techniques

    On the role of metaheuristic optimization in bioinformatics

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    Metaheuristic algorithms are employed to solve complex and large-scale optimization problems in many different fields, from transportation and smart cities to finance. This paper discusses how metaheuristic algorithms are being applied to solve different optimization problems in the area of bioinformatics. While the text provides references to many optimization problems in the area, it focuses on those that have attracted more interest from the optimization community. Among the problems analyzed, the paper discusses in more detail the molecular docking problem, the protein structure prediction, phylogenetic inference, and different string problems. In addition, references to other relevant optimization problems are also given, including those related to medical imaging or gene selection for classification. From the previous analysis, the paper generates insights on research opportunities for the Operations Research and Computer Science communities in the field of bioinformatics

    Fitness landscape-based analysis of nature-inspired algorithms

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    As the number of nature-inspired algorithms increases so does the need to characterise these algorithms. A rigorous process to characterise algorithms helps practitioners decide which algorithms may offer a good fit for their given problem. One approach is to relate the characteristics of a problem's associated fitness landscape with the performance of an algorithm. The aim of this thesis is to capitalise on the notion of fitness landscape characteristics as a technique for analysing algorithm performance, and to provide a novel algorithm- and problem-independent methodology that can be used to present the strengths and weaknesses of an algorithm. The methodology was tested by developing a portfolio of six nature-inspired algorithms commonly used to solve continuous optimisation problems. This portfolio includes the performance of these algorithms with parameters both “out of the box" and after they have been tuned using an automated tuning technique. Each of the algorithms shows a different “resilience" profile to the landscape characteristics, and responds differently to the tuning process. In order to provide a more practical way to utilise the portfolio an automated “ranking" methodology based on two machine learning techniques was developed. Using estimates of the fitness landscape characteristics on benchmark problems, the best algorithm to use is estimated, and compared with the actual performance of each algorithm. While results show that predicting algorithm performance is difficult, the results are promising, and show that this is an area worth exploring further. This methodology has significant advantages over the current practice of demonstrating novel algorithm performance on benchmark problems, most importantly offering a practical, generalised overview of the algorithm to a potential practitioner. Choosing to use a technique such as the one demonstrated here when presenting a novel algorithm could greatly ease the problem of algorithm selection

    Heuristic optimization of electrical energy systems: Refined metrics to compare the solutions

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    Many optimization problems admit a number of local optima, among which there is the global optimum. For these problems, various heuristic optimization methods have been proposed. Comparing the results of these solvers requires the definition of suitable metrics. In the electrical energy systems literature, simple metrics such as best value obtained, the mean value, the median or the standard deviation of the solutions are still used. However, the comparisons carried out with these metrics are rather weak, and on these bases a somehow uncontrolled proliferation of heuristic solvers is taking place. This paper addresses the overall issue of understanding the reasons of this proliferation, showing a conceptual scheme that indicates how the assessment of the best solver may result in the unlimited formulation of new solvers. Moreover, this paper shows how the use of more refined metrics defined to compare the optimization result, associated with the definition of appropriate benchmarks, may make the comparisons among the solvers more robust. The proposed metrics are based on the concept of first-order stochastic dominance and are defined for the cases in which: (i) the globally optimal solution can be found (for testing purposes); and (ii) the number of possible solutions is so large that practically it cannot be guaranteed that the global optimum has been found. Illustrative examples are provided for a typical problem in the electrical energy systems area – distribution network reconfiguration. The conceptual results obtained are generally valid to compare the results of other optimization problem
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