Sample records for evolutionary optimization algorithm

  1. An Orthogonal Evolutionary Algorithm With Learning Automata for Multiobjective Optimization.

    PubMed

    Dai, Cai; Wang, Yuping; Ye, Miao; Xue, Xingsi; Liu, Hailin

    2016-12-01

    Research on multiobjective optimization problems becomes one of the hottest topics of intelligent computation. In order to improve the search efficiency of an evolutionary algorithm and maintain the diversity of solutions, in this paper, the learning automata (LA) is first used for quantization orthogonal crossover (QOX), and a new fitness function based on decomposition is proposed to achieve these two purposes. Based on these, an orthogonal evolutionary algorithm with LA for complex multiobjective optimization problems with continuous variables is proposed. The experimental results show that in continuous states, the proposed algorithm is able to achieve accurate Pareto-optimal sets and wide Pareto-optimal fronts efficiently. Moreover, the comparison with the several existing well-known algorithms: nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II, decomposition-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm, decomposition-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm with an ensemble of neighborhood sizes, multiobjective optimization by LA, and multiobjective immune algorithm with nondominated neighbor-based selection, on 15 multiobjective benchmark problems, shows that the proposed algorithm is able to find more accurate and evenly distributed Pareto-optimal fronts than the compared ones.

  2. Cooperative combinatorial optimization: evolutionary computation case study.

    PubMed

    Burgin, Mark; Eberbach, Eugene

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents a formalization of the notion of cooperation and competition of multiple systems that work toward a common optimization goal of the population using evolutionary computation techniques. It is proved that evolutionary algorithms are more expressive than conventional recursive algorithms, such as Turing machines. Three classes of evolutionary computations are introduced and studied: bounded finite, unbounded finite, and infinite computations. Universal evolutionary algorithms are constructed. Such properties of evolutionary algorithms as completeness, optimality, and search decidability are examined. A natural extension of evolutionary Turing machine (ETM) model is proposed to properly reflect phenomena of cooperation and competition in the whole population.

  3. A theoretical comparison of evolutionary algorithms and simulated annealing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hart, W.E.

    1995-08-28

    This paper theoretically compares the performance of simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithms. Our main result is that under mild conditions a wide variety of evolutionary algorithms can be shown to have greater performance than simulated annealing after a sufficiently large number of function evaluations. This class of EAs includes variants of evolutionary strategie and evolutionary programming, the canonical genetic algorithm, as well as a variety of genetic algorithms that have been applied to combinatorial optimization problems. The proof of this result is based on a performance analysis of a very general class of stochastic optimization algorithms, which has implications formore » the performance of a variety of other optimization algorithm.« less

  4. Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization for Radio Frequency Charging in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks.

    PubMed

    Yao, Ke-Han; Jiang, Jehn-Ruey; Tsai, Chung-Hsien; Wu, Zong-Syun

    2017-08-20

    This paper investigates how to efficiently charge sensor nodes in a wireless rechargeable sensor network (WRSN) with radio frequency (RF) chargers to make the network sustainable. An RF charger is assumed to be equipped with a uniform circular array (UCA) of 12 antennas with the radius λ , where λ is the RF wavelength. The UCA can steer most RF energy in a target direction to charge a specific WRSN node by the beamforming technology. Two evolutionary algorithms (EAs) using the evolution strategy (ES), namely the Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization (EBO) algorithm and the Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization Reseeding (EBO-R) algorithm, are proposed to nearly optimize the power ratio of the UCA beamforming peak side lobe (PSL) and the main lobe (ML) aimed at the given target direction. The proposed algorithms are simulated for performance evaluation and are compared with a related algorithm, called Particle Swarm Optimization Gravitational Search Algorithm-Explore (PSOGSA-Explore), to show their superiority.

  5. A Note on Evolutionary Algorithms and Its Applications

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bhargava, Shifali

    2013-01-01

    This paper introduces evolutionary algorithms with its applications in multi-objective optimization. Here elitist and non-elitist multiobjective evolutionary algorithms are discussed with their advantages and disadvantages. We also discuss constrained multiobjective evolutionary algorithms and their applications in various areas.

  6. Classification of Medical Datasets Using SVMs with Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithms Based on Endocrine-Based Particle Swarm Optimization and Artificial Bee Colony Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Lin, Kuan-Cheng; Hsieh, Yi-Hsiu

    2015-10-01

    The classification and analysis of data is an important issue in today's research. Selecting a suitable set of features makes it possible to classify an enormous quantity of data quickly and efficiently. Feature selection is generally viewed as a problem of feature subset selection, such as combination optimization problems. Evolutionary algorithms using random search methods have proven highly effective in obtaining solutions to problems of optimization in a diversity of applications. In this study, we developed a hybrid evolutionary algorithm based on endocrine-based particle swarm optimization (EPSO) and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithms in conjunction with a support vector machine (SVM) for the selection of optimal feature subsets for the classification of datasets. The results of experiments using specific UCI medical datasets demonstrate that the accuracy of the proposed hybrid evolutionary algorithm is superior to that of basic PSO, EPSO and ABC algorithms, with regard to classification accuracy using subsets with a reduced number of features.

  7. Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization for Radio Frequency Charging in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Yao, Ke-Han; Jiang, Jehn-Ruey; Tsai, Chung-Hsien; Wu, Zong-Syun

    2017-01-01

    This paper investigates how to efficiently charge sensor nodes in a wireless rechargeable sensor network (WRSN) with radio frequency (RF) chargers to make the network sustainable. An RF charger is assumed to be equipped with a uniform circular array (UCA) of 12 antennas with the radius λ, where λ is the RF wavelength. The UCA can steer most RF energy in a target direction to charge a specific WRSN node by the beamforming technology. Two evolutionary algorithms (EAs) using the evolution strategy (ES), namely the Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization (EBO) algorithm and the Evolutionary Beamforming Optimization Reseeding (EBO-R) algorithm, are proposed to nearly optimize the power ratio of the UCA beamforming peak side lobe (PSL) and the main lobe (ML) aimed at the given target direction. The proposed algorithms are simulated for performance evaluation and are compared with a related algorithm, called Particle Swarm Optimization Gravitational Search Algorithm-Explore (PSOGSA-Explore), to show their superiority. PMID:28825648

  8. Scheduling Earth Observing Satellites with Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Globus, Al; Crawford, James; Lohn, Jason; Pryor, Anna

    2003-01-01

    We hypothesize that evolutionary algorithms can effectively schedule coordinated fleets of Earth observing satellites. The constraints are complex and the bottlenecks are not well understood, a condition where evolutionary algorithms are often effective. This is, in part, because evolutionary algorithms require only that one can represent solutions, modify solutions, and evaluate solution fitness. To test the hypothesis we have developed a representative set of problems, produced optimization software (in Java) to solve them, and run experiments comparing techniques. This paper presents initial results of a comparison of several evolutionary and other optimization techniques; namely the genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, squeaky wheel optimization, and stochastic hill climbing. We also compare separate satellite vs. integrated scheduling of a two satellite constellation. While the results are not definitive, tests to date suggest that simulated annealing is the best search technique and integrated scheduling is superior.

  9. System Design under Uncertainty: Evolutionary Optimization of the Gravity Probe-B Spacecraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pullen, Samuel P.; Parkinson, Bradford W.

    1994-01-01

    This paper discusses the application of evolutionary random-search algorithms (Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithms) to the problem of spacecraft design under performance uncertainty. Traditionally, spacecraft performance uncertainty has been measured by reliability. Published algorithms for reliability optimization are seldom used in practice because they oversimplify reality. The algorithm developed here uses random-search optimization to allow us to model the problem more realistically. Monte Carlo simulations are used to evaluate the objective function for each trial design solution. These methods have been applied to the Gravity Probe-B (GP-B) spacecraft being developed at Stanford University for launch in 1999, Results of the algorithm developed here for GP-13 are shown, and their implications for design optimization by evolutionary algorithms are discussed.

  10. Linear antenna array optimization using flower pollination algorithm.

    PubMed

    Saxena, Prerna; Kothari, Ashwin

    2016-01-01

    Flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is a new nature-inspired evolutionary algorithm used to solve multi-objective optimization problems. The aim of this paper is to introduce FPA to the electromagnetics and antenna community for the optimization of linear antenna arrays. FPA is applied for the first time to linear array so as to obtain optimized antenna positions in order to achieve an array pattern with minimum side lobe level along with placement of deep nulls in desired directions. Various design examples are presented that illustrate the use of FPA for linear antenna array optimization, and subsequently the results are validated by benchmarking along with results obtained using other state-of-the-art, nature-inspired evolutionary algorithms such as particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization and cat swarm optimization. The results suggest that in most cases, FPA outperforms the other evolutionary algorithms and at times it yields a similar performance.

  11. An Effective Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm for Solving the Numerical Optimization Problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qian, Xiaohong; Wang, Xumei; Su, Yonghong; He, Liu

    2018-04-01

    There are many different algorithms for solving complex optimization problems. Each algorithm has been applied successfully in solving some optimization problems, but not efficiently in other problems. In this paper the Cauchy mutation and the multi-parent hybrid operator are combined to propose a hybrid evolutionary algorithm based on the communication (Mixed Evolutionary Algorithm based on Communication), hereinafter referred to as CMEA. The basic idea of the CMEA algorithm is that the initial population is divided into two subpopulations. Cauchy mutation operators and multiple paternal crossover operators are used to perform two subpopulations parallelly to evolve recursively until the downtime conditions are met. While subpopulation is reorganized, the individual is exchanged together with information. The algorithm flow is given and the performance of the algorithm is compared using a number of standard test functions. Simulation results have shown that this algorithm converges significantly faster than FEP (Fast Evolutionary Programming) algorithm, has good performance in global convergence and stability and is superior to other compared algorithms.

  12. Social Media: Menagerie of Metrics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-01-27

    intelligence, an evolutionary algorithm (EA) is a subset of evolutionary computation, a generic population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm . An EA...Cloning - 22 Animals were cloned to date; genetic algorithms can help prediction (e.g. “elitism” - attempts to ensure selection by including performers...28, 2010 Evolutionary Algorithm • Evolutionary algorithm From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Artificial intelligence portal In artificial

  13. Comparison of evolutionary algorithms for LPDA antenna optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lazaridis, Pavlos I.; Tziris, Emmanouil N.; Zaharis, Zaharias D.; Xenos, Thomas D.; Cosmas, John P.; Gallion, Philippe B.; Holmes, Violeta; Glover, Ian A.

    2016-08-01

    A novel approach to broadband log-periodic antenna design is presented, where some of the most powerful evolutionary algorithms are applied and compared for the optimal design of wire log-periodic dipole arrays (LPDA) using Numerical Electromagnetics Code. The target is to achieve an optimal antenna design with respect to maximum gain, gain flatness, front-to-rear ratio (F/R) and standing wave ratio. The parameters of the LPDA optimized are the dipole lengths, the spacing between the dipoles, and the dipole wire diameters. The evolutionary algorithms compared are the Differential Evolution (DE), Particle Swarm (PSO), Taguchi, Invasive Weed (IWO), and Adaptive Invasive Weed Optimization (ADIWO). Superior performance is achieved by the IWO (best results) and PSO (fast convergence) algorithms.

  14. Trajectory optimization of spacecraft high-thrust orbit transfer using a modified evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shirazi, Abolfazl

    2016-10-01

    This article introduces a new method to optimize finite-burn orbital manoeuvres based on a modified evolutionary algorithm. Optimization is carried out based on conversion of the orbital manoeuvre into a parameter optimization problem by assigning inverse tangential functions to the changes in direction angles of the thrust vector. The problem is analysed using boundary delimitation in a common optimization algorithm. A method is introduced to achieve acceptable values for optimization variables using nonlinear simulation, which results in an enlarged convergence domain. The presented algorithm benefits from high optimality and fast convergence time. A numerical example of a three-dimensional optimal orbital transfer is presented and the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is shown.

  15. A tabu search evalutionary algorithm for multiobjective optimization: Application to a bi-criterion aircraft structural reliability problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Long, Kim Chenming

    Real-world engineering optimization problems often require the consideration of multiple conflicting and noncommensurate objectives, subject to nonconvex constraint regions in a high-dimensional decision space. Further challenges occur for combinatorial multiobjective problems in which the decision variables are not continuous. Traditional multiobjective optimization methods of operations research, such as weighting and epsilon constraint methods, are ill-suited to solving these complex, multiobjective problems. This has given rise to the application of a wide range of metaheuristic optimization algorithms, such as evolutionary, particle swarm, simulated annealing, and ant colony methods, to multiobjective optimization. Several multiobjective evolutionary algorithms have been developed, including the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA) and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA), for determining the Pareto-optimal set of non-dominated solutions. Although numerous researchers have developed a wide range of multiobjective optimization algorithms, there is a continuing need to construct computationally efficient algorithms with an improved ability to converge to globally non-dominated solutions along the Pareto-optimal front for complex, large-scale, multiobjective engineering optimization problems. This is particularly important when the multiple objective functions and constraints of the real-world system cannot be expressed in explicit mathematical representations. This research presents a novel metaheuristic evolutionary algorithm for complex multiobjective optimization problems, which combines the metaheuristic tabu search algorithm with the evolutionary algorithm (TSEA), as embodied in genetic algorithms. TSEA is successfully applied to bicriteria (i.e., structural reliability and retrofit cost) optimization of the aircraft tail structure fatigue life, which increases its reliability by prolonging fatigue life. A comparison for this application of the proposed algorithm, TSEA, with several state-of-the-art multiobjective optimization algorithms reveals that TSEA outperforms these algorithms by providing retrofit solutions with greater reliability for the same costs (i.e., closer to the Pareto-optimal front) after the algorithms are executed for the same number of generations. This research also demonstrates that TSEA competes with and, in some situations, outperforms state-of-the-art multiobjective optimization algorithms such as NSGA II and SPEA 2 when applied to classic bicriteria test problems in the technical literature and other complex, sizable real-world applications. The successful implementation of TSEA contributes to the safety of aeronautical structures by providing a systematic way to guide aircraft structural retrofitting efforts, as well as a potentially useful algorithm for a wide range of multiobjective optimization problems in engineering and other fields.

  16. Why don’t you use Evolutionary Algorithms in Big Data?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stanovov, Vladimir; Brester, Christina; Kolehmainen, Mikko; Semenkina, Olga

    2017-02-01

    In this paper we raise the question of using evolutionary algorithms in the area of Big Data processing. We show that evolutionary algorithms provide evident advantages due to their high scalability and flexibility, their ability to solve global optimization problems and optimize several criteria at the same time for feature selection, instance selection and other data reduction problems. In particular, we consider the usage of evolutionary algorithms with all kinds of machine learning tools, such as neural networks and fuzzy systems. All our examples prove that Evolutionary Machine Learning is becoming more and more important in data analysis and we expect to see the further development of this field especially in respect to Big Data.

  17. Performance comparison of some evolutionary algorithms on job shop scheduling problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mishra, S. K.; Rao, C. S. P.

    2016-09-01

    Job Shop Scheduling as a state space search problem belonging to NP-hard category due to its complexity and combinational explosion of states. Several naturally inspire evolutionary methods have been developed to solve Job Shop Scheduling Problems. In this paper the evolutionary methods namely Particles Swarm Optimization, Artificial Intelligence, Invasive Weed Optimization, Bacterial Foraging Optimization, Music Based Harmony Search Algorithms are applied and find tuned to model and solve Job Shop Scheduling Problems. To compare about 250 Bench Mark instances have been used to evaluate the performance of these algorithms. The capabilities of each these algorithms in solving Job Shop Scheduling Problems are outlined.

  18. Advanced Targeting Cost Function Design for Evolutionary Optimization of Control of Logistic Equation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Senkerik, Roman; Zelinka, Ivan; Davendra, Donald; Oplatkova, Zuzana

    2010-06-01

    This research deals with the optimization of the control of chaos by means of evolutionary algorithms. This work is aimed on an explanation of how to use evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and how to properly define the advanced targeting cost function (CF) securing very fast and precise stabilization of desired state for any initial conditions. As a model of deterministic chaotic system, the one dimensional Logistic equation was used. The evolutionary algorithm Self-Organizing Migrating Algorithm (SOMA) was used in four versions. For each version, repeated simulations were conducted to outline the effectiveness and robustness of used method and targeting CF.

  19. Evolutionary Multiobjective Design Targeting a Field Programmable Transistor Array

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aguirre, Arturo Hernandez; Zebulum, Ricardo S.; Coello, Carlos Coello

    2004-01-01

    This paper introduces the ISPAES algorithm for circuit design targeting a Field Programmable Transistor Array (FPTA). The use of evolutionary algorithms is common in circuit design problems, where a single fitness function drives the evolution process. Frequently, the design problem is subject to several goals or operating constraints, thus, designing a suitable fitness function catching all requirements becomes an issue. Such a problem is amenable for multi-objective optimization, however, evolutionary algorithms lack an inherent mechanism for constraint handling. This paper introduces ISPAES, an evolutionary optimization algorithm enhanced with a constraint handling technique. Several design problems targeting a FPTA show the potential of our approach.

  20. AI-BL1.0: a program for automatic on-line beamline optimization using the evolutionary algorithm.

    PubMed

    Xi, Shibo; Borgna, Lucas Santiago; Zheng, Lirong; Du, Yonghua; Hu, Tiandou

    2017-01-01

    In this report, AI-BL1.0, an open-source Labview-based program for automatic on-line beamline optimization, is presented. The optimization algorithms used in the program are Genetic Algorithm and Differential Evolution. Efficiency was improved by use of a strategy known as Observer Mode for Evolutionary Algorithm. The program was constructed and validated at the XAFCA beamline of the Singapore Synchrotron Light Source and 1W1B beamline of the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

  1. Evolutionary Dynamic Multiobjective Optimization Via Kalman Filter Prediction.

    PubMed

    Muruganantham, Arrchana; Tan, Kay Chen; Vadakkepat, Prahlad

    2016-12-01

    Evolutionary algorithms are effective in solving static multiobjective optimization problems resulting in the emergence of a number of state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). Nevertheless, the interest in applying them to solve dynamic multiobjective optimization problems has only been tepid. Benchmark problems, appropriate performance metrics, as well as efficient algorithms are required to further the research in this field. One or more objectives may change with time in dynamic optimization problems. The optimization algorithm must be able to track the moving optima efficiently. A prediction model can learn the patterns from past experience and predict future changes. In this paper, a new dynamic MOEA using Kalman filter (KF) predictions in decision space is proposed to solve the aforementioned problems. The predictions help to guide the search toward the changed optima, thereby accelerating convergence. A scoring scheme is devised to hybridize the KF prediction with a random reinitialization method. Experimental results and performance comparisons with other state-of-the-art algorithms demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of significantly improving the dynamic optimization performance.

  2. Multiobjective optimization of temporal processes.

    PubMed

    Song, Zhe; Kusiak, Andrew

    2010-06-01

    This paper presents a dynamic predictive-optimization framework of a nonlinear temporal process. Data-mining (DM) and evolutionary strategy algorithms are integrated in the framework for solving the optimization model. DM algorithms learn dynamic equations from the process data. An evolutionary strategy algorithm is then applied to solve the optimization problem guided by the knowledge extracted by the DM algorithm. The concept presented in this paper is illustrated with the data from a power plant, where the goal is to maximize the boiler efficiency and minimize the limestone consumption. This multiobjective optimization problem can be either transformed into a single-objective optimization problem through preference aggregation approaches or into a Pareto-optimal optimization problem. The computational results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed optimization framework.

  3. An Improved Co-evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization for Wireless Sensor Networks with Dynamic Deployment

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Xue; Wang, Sheng; Ma, Jun-Jie

    2007-01-01

    The effectiveness of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) depends on the coverage and target detection probability provided by dynamic deployment, which is usually supported by the virtual force (VF) algorithm. However, in the VF algorithm, the virtual force exerted by stationary sensor nodes will hinder the movement of mobile sensor nodes. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is introduced as another dynamic deployment algorithm, but in this case the computation time required is the big bottleneck. This paper proposes a dynamic deployment algorithm which is named “virtual force directed co-evolutionary particle swarm optimization” (VFCPSO), since this algorithm combines the co-evolutionary particle swarm optimization (CPSO) with the VF algorithm, whereby the CPSO uses multiple swarms to optimize different components of the solution vectors for dynamic deployment cooperatively and the velocity of each particle is updated according to not only the historical local and global optimal solutions, but also the virtual forces of sensor nodes. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed VFCPSO is competent for dynamic deployment in WSNs and has better performance with respect to computation time and effectiveness than the VF, PSO and VFPSO algorithms.

  4. Bell-Curve Based Evolutionary Strategies for Structural Optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kincaid, Rex K.

    2001-01-01

    Evolutionary methods are exceedingly popular with practitioners of many fields; more so than perhaps any optimization tool in existence. Historically Genetic Algorithms (GAs) led the way in practitioner popularity. However, in the last ten years Evolutionary Strategies (ESs) and Evolutionary Programs (EPS) have gained a significant foothold. One partial explanation for this shift is the interest in using GAs to solve continuous optimization problems. The typical GA relies upon a cumbersome binary representation of the design variables. An ES or EP, however, works directly with the real-valued design variables. For detailed references on evolutionary methods in general and ES or EP in specific see Back and Dasgupta and Michalesicz. We call our evolutionary algorithm BCB (bell curve based) since it is based upon two normal distributions.

  5. Evolutionary design optimization of traffic signals applied to Quito city.

    PubMed

    Armas, Rolando; Aguirre, Hernán; Daolio, Fabio; Tanaka, Kiyoshi

    2017-01-01

    This work applies evolutionary computation and machine learning methods to study the transportation system of Quito from a design optimization perspective. It couples an evolutionary algorithm with a microscopic transport simulator and uses the outcome of the optimization process to deepen our understanding of the problem and gain knowledge about the system. The work focuses on the optimization of a large number of traffic lights deployed on a wide area of the city and studies their impact on travel time, emissions and fuel consumption. An evolutionary algorithm with specialized mutation operators is proposed to search effectively in large decision spaces, evolving small populations for a short number of generations. The effects of the operators combined with a varying mutation schedule are studied, and an analysis of the parameters of the algorithm is also included. In addition, hierarchical clustering is performed on the best solutions found in several runs of the algorithm. An analysis of signal clusters and their geolocation, estimation of fuel consumption, spatial analysis of emissions, and an analysis of signal coordination provide an overall picture of the systemic effects of the optimization process.

  6. Evolutionary design optimization of traffic signals applied to Quito city

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    This work applies evolutionary computation and machine learning methods to study the transportation system of Quito from a design optimization perspective. It couples an evolutionary algorithm with a microscopic transport simulator and uses the outcome of the optimization process to deepen our understanding of the problem and gain knowledge about the system. The work focuses on the optimization of a large number of traffic lights deployed on a wide area of the city and studies their impact on travel time, emissions and fuel consumption. An evolutionary algorithm with specialized mutation operators is proposed to search effectively in large decision spaces, evolving small populations for a short number of generations. The effects of the operators combined with a varying mutation schedule are studied, and an analysis of the parameters of the algorithm is also included. In addition, hierarchical clustering is performed on the best solutions found in several runs of the algorithm. An analysis of signal clusters and their geolocation, estimation of fuel consumption, spatial analysis of emissions, and an analysis of signal coordination provide an overall picture of the systemic effects of the optimization process. PMID:29236733

  7. Comparison of some evolutionary algorithms for optimization of the path synthesis problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grabski, Jakub Krzysztof; Walczak, Tomasz; Buśkiewicz, Jacek; Michałowska, Martyna

    2018-01-01

    The paper presents comparison of the results obtained in a mechanism synthesis by means of some selected evolutionary algorithms. The optimization problem considered in the paper as an example is the dimensional synthesis of the path generating four-bar mechanism. In order to solve this problem, three different artificial intelligence algorithms are employed in this study.

  8. A global optimization algorithm inspired in the behavior of selfish herds.

    PubMed

    Fausto, Fernando; Cuevas, Erik; Valdivia, Arturo; González, Adrián

    2017-10-01

    In this paper, a novel swarm optimization algorithm called the Selfish Herd Optimizer (SHO) is proposed for solving global optimization problems. SHO is based on the simulation of the widely observed selfish herd behavior manifested by individuals within a herd of animals subjected to some form of predation risk. In SHO, individuals emulate the predatory interactions between groups of prey and predators by two types of search agents: the members of a selfish herd (the prey) and a pack of hungry predators. Depending on their classification as either a prey or a predator, each individual is conducted by a set of unique evolutionary operators inspired by such prey-predator relationship. These unique traits allow SHO to improve the balance between exploration and exploitation without altering the population size. To illustrate the proficiency and robustness of the proposed method, it is compared to other well-known evolutionary optimization approaches such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Firefly Algorithm (FA), Differential Evolution (DE), Genetic Algorithms (GA), Crow Search Algorithm (CSA), Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), Moth-flame Optimization Algorithm (MOA) and Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA). The comparison examines several standard benchmark functions, commonly considered within the literature of evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results show the remarkable performance of our proposed approach against those of the other compared methods, and as such SHO is proven to be an excellent alternative to solve global optimization problems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Bell-Curve Based Evolutionary Strategies for Structural Optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kincaid, Rex K.

    2000-01-01

    Evolutionary methods are exceedingly popular with practitioners of many fields; more so than perhaps any optimization tool in existence. Historically Genetic Algorithms (GAs) led the way in practitioner popularity (Reeves 1997). However, in the last ten years Evolutionary Strategies (ESs) and Evolutionary Programs (EPS) have gained a significant foothold (Glover 1998). One partial explanation for this shift is the interest in using GAs to solve continuous optimization problems. The typical GA relies upon a cumber-some binary representation of the design variables. An ES or EP, however, works directly with the real-valued design variables. For detailed references on evolutionary methods in general and ES or EP in specific see Back (1996) and Dasgupta and Michalesicz (1997). We call our evolutionary algorithm BCB (bell curve based) since it is based upon two normal distributions.

  10. Comparing Evolutionary Programs and Evolutionary Pattern Search Algorithms: A Drug Docking Application

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hart, W.E.

    1999-02-10

    Evolutionary programs (EPs) and evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAS) are two general classes of evolutionary methods for optimizing on continuous domains. The relative performance of these methods has been evaluated on standard global optimization test functions, and these results suggest that EPSAs more robustly converge to near-optimal solutions than EPs. In this paper we evaluate the relative performance of EPSAs and EPs on a real-world application: flexible ligand binding in the Autodock docking software. We compare the performance of these methods on a suite of docking test problems. Our results confirm that EPSAs and EPs have comparable performance, and theymore » suggest that EPSAs may be more robust on larger, more complex problems.« less

  11. Cost versus life cycle assessment-based environmental impact optimization of drinking water production plants.

    PubMed

    Capitanescu, F; Rege, S; Marvuglia, A; Benetto, E; Ahmadi, A; Gutiérrez, T Navarrete; Tiruta-Barna, L

    2016-07-15

    Empowering decision makers with cost-effective solutions for reducing industrial processes environmental burden, at both design and operation stages, is nowadays a major worldwide concern. The paper addresses this issue for the sector of drinking water production plants (DWPPs), seeking for optimal solutions trading-off operation cost and life cycle assessment (LCA)-based environmental impact while satisfying outlet water quality criteria. This leads to a challenging bi-objective constrained optimization problem, which relies on a computationally expensive intricate process-modelling simulator of the DWPP and has to be solved with limited computational budget. Since mathematical programming methods are unusable in this case, the paper examines the performances in tackling these challenges of six off-the-shelf state-of-the-art global meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, suitable for such simulation-based optimization, namely Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2), Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), Indicator-based Evolutionary Algorithm (IBEA), Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition (MOEA/D), Differential Evolution (DE), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The results of optimization reveal that good reduction in both operating cost and environmental impact of the DWPP can be obtained. Furthermore, NSGA-II outperforms the other competing algorithms while MOEA/D and DE perform unexpectedly poorly. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Using modified fruit fly optimisation algorithm to perform the function test and case studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pan, Wen-Tsao

    2013-06-01

    Evolutionary computation is a computing mode established by practically simulating natural evolutionary processes based on the concept of Darwinian Theory, and it is a common research method. The main contribution of this paper was to reinforce the function of searching for the optimised solution using the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA), in order to avoid the acquisition of local extremum solutions. The evolutionary computation has grown to include the concepts of animal foraging behaviour and group behaviour. This study discussed three common evolutionary computation methods and compared them with the modified fruit fly optimization algorithm (MFOA). It further investigated the ability of the three mathematical functions in computing extreme values, as well as the algorithm execution speed and the forecast ability of the forecasting model built using the optimised general regression neural network (GRNN) parameters. The findings indicated that there was no obvious difference between particle swarm optimization and the MFOA in regards to the ability to compute extreme values; however, they were both better than the artificial fish swarm algorithm and FOA. In addition, the MFOA performed better than the particle swarm optimization in regards to the algorithm execution speed, and the forecast ability of the forecasting model built using the MFOA's GRNN parameters was better than that of the other three forecasting models.

  13. Genetic evolutionary taboo search for optimal marker placement in infrared patient setup

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Riboldi, M.; Baroni, G.; Spadea, M. F.; Tagaste, B.; Garibaldi, C.; Cambria, R.; Orecchia, R.; Pedotti, A.

    2007-09-01

    In infrared patient setup adequate selection of the external fiducial configuration is required for compensating inner target displacements (target registration error, TRE). Genetic algorithms (GA) and taboo search (TS) were applied in a newly designed approach to optimal marker placement: the genetic evolutionary taboo search (GETS) algorithm. In the GETS paradigm, multiple solutions are simultaneously tested in a stochastic evolutionary scheme, where taboo-based decision making and adaptive memory guide the optimization process. The GETS algorithm was tested on a group of ten prostate patients, to be compared to standard optimization and to randomly selected configurations. The changes in the optimal marker configuration, when TRE is minimized for OARs, were specifically examined. Optimal GETS configurations ensured a 26.5% mean decrease in the TRE value, versus 19.4% for conventional quasi-Newton optimization. Common features in GETS marker configurations were highlighted in the dataset of ten patients, even when multiple runs of the stochastic algorithm were performed. Including OARs in TRE minimization did not considerably affect the spatial distribution of GETS marker configurations. In conclusion, the GETS algorithm proved to be highly effective in solving the optimal marker placement problem. Further work is needed to embed site-specific deformation models in the optimization process.

  14. GAMBIT: A Parameterless Model-Based Evolutionary Algorithm for Mixed-Integer Problems.

    PubMed

    Sadowski, Krzysztof L; Thierens, Dirk; Bosman, Peter A N

    2018-01-01

    Learning and exploiting problem structure is one of the key challenges in optimization. This is especially important for black-box optimization (BBO) where prior structural knowledge of a problem is not available. Existing model-based Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) are very efficient at learning structure in both the discrete, and in the continuous domain. In this article, discrete and continuous model-building mechanisms are integrated for the Mixed-Integer (MI) domain, comprising discrete and continuous variables. We revisit a recently introduced model-based evolutionary algorithm for the MI domain, the Genetic Algorithm for Model-Based mixed-Integer opTimization (GAMBIT). We extend GAMBIT with a parameterless scheme that allows for practical use of the algorithm without the need to explicitly specify any parameters. We furthermore contrast GAMBIT with other model-based alternatives. The ultimate goal of processing mixed dependences explicitly in GAMBIT is also addressed by introducing a new mechanism for the explicit exploitation of mixed dependences. We find that processing mixed dependences with this novel mechanism allows for more efficient optimization. We further contrast the parameterless GAMBIT with Mixed-Integer Evolution Strategies (MIES) and other state-of-the-art MI optimization algorithms from the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) commercial algorithm suite on problems with and without constraints, and show that GAMBIT is capable of solving problems where variable dependences prevent many algorithms from successfully optimizing them.

  15. Comparison of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms: empirical results.

    PubMed

    Zitzler, E; Deb, K; Thiele, L

    2000-01-01

    In this paper, we provide a systematic comparison of various evolutionary approaches to multiobjective optimization using six carefully chosen test functions. Each test function involves a particular feature that is known to cause difficulty in the evolutionary optimization process, mainly in converging to the Pareto-optimal front (e.g., multimodality and deception). By investigating these different problem features separately, it is possible to predict the kind of problems to which a certain technique is or is not well suited. However, in contrast to what was suspected beforehand, the experimental results indicate a hierarchy of the algorithms under consideration. Furthermore, the emerging effects are evidence that the suggested test functions provide sufficient complexity to compare multiobjective optimizers. Finally, elitism is shown to be an important factor for improving evolutionary multiobjective search.

  16. Bell-Curve Based Evolutionary Optimization Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.; Laba, K.; Kincaid, R.

    1998-01-01

    The paper presents an optimization algorithm that falls in the category of genetic, or evolutionary algorithms. While the bit exchange is the basis of most of the Genetic Algorithms (GA) in research and applications in America, some alternatives, also in the category of evolutionary algorithms, but use a direct, geometrical approach have gained popularity in Europe and Asia. The Bell-Curve Based Evolutionary Algorithm (BCB) is in this alternative category and is distinguished by the use of a combination of n-dimensional geometry and the normal distribution, the bell-curve, in the generation of the offspring. The tool for creating a child is a geometrical construct comprising a line connecting two parents and a weighted point on that line. The point that defines the child deviates from the weighted point in two directions: parallel and orthogonal to the connecting line, the deviation in each direction obeying a probabilistic distribution. Tests showed satisfactory performance of BCB. The principal advantage of BCB is its controllability via the normal distribution parameters and the geometrical construct variables.

  17. A Guiding Evolutionary Algorithm with Greedy Strategy for Global Optimization Problems

    PubMed Central

    Cao, Leilei; Xu, Lihong; Goodman, Erik D.

    2016-01-01

    A Guiding Evolutionary Algorithm (GEA) with greedy strategy for global optimization problems is proposed. Inspired by Particle Swarm Optimization, the Genetic Algorithm, and the Bat Algorithm, the GEA was designed to retain some advantages of each method while avoiding some disadvantages. In contrast to the usual Genetic Algorithm, each individual in GEA is crossed with the current global best one instead of a randomly selected individual. The current best individual served as a guide to attract offspring to its region of genotype space. Mutation was added to offspring according to a dynamic mutation probability. To increase the capability of exploitation, a local search mechanism was applied to new individuals according to a dynamic probability of local search. Experimental results show that GEA outperformed the other three typical global optimization algorithms with which it was compared. PMID:27293421

  18. A Guiding Evolutionary Algorithm with Greedy Strategy for Global Optimization Problems.

    PubMed

    Cao, Leilei; Xu, Lihong; Goodman, Erik D

    2016-01-01

    A Guiding Evolutionary Algorithm (GEA) with greedy strategy for global optimization problems is proposed. Inspired by Particle Swarm Optimization, the Genetic Algorithm, and the Bat Algorithm, the GEA was designed to retain some advantages of each method while avoiding some disadvantages. In contrast to the usual Genetic Algorithm, each individual in GEA is crossed with the current global best one instead of a randomly selected individual. The current best individual served as a guide to attract offspring to its region of genotype space. Mutation was added to offspring according to a dynamic mutation probability. To increase the capability of exploitation, a local search mechanism was applied to new individuals according to a dynamic probability of local search. Experimental results show that GEA outperformed the other three typical global optimization algorithms with which it was compared.

  19. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar; McCulloch, Richard Chet James

    In this work a new hybrid genetic algorithm was developed which combines a rudimentary adaptive steepest ascent hill climbing algorithm with a sophisticated evolutionary algorithm in order to optimize complex multivariate design problems. By combining a highly stochastic algorithm (evolutionary) with a simple deterministic optimization algorithm (adaptive steepest ascent) computational resources are conserved and the solution converges rapidly when compared to either algorithm alone. In genetic algorithms natural selection is mimicked by random events such as breeding and mutation. In the adaptive steepest ascent algorithm each variable is perturbed by a small amount and the variable that caused the mostmore » improvement is incremented by a small step. If the direction of most benefit is exactly opposite of the previous direction with the most benefit then the step size is reduced by a factor of 2, thus the step size adapts to the terrain. A graphical user interface was created in MATLAB to provide an interface between the hybrid genetic algorithm and the user. Additional features such as bounding the solution space and weighting the objective functions individually are also built into the interface. The algorithm developed was tested to optimize the functions developed for a wood pelleting process. Using process variables (such as feedstock moisture content, die speed, and preheating temperature) pellet properties were appropriately optimized. Specifically, variables were found which maximized unit density, bulk density, tapped density, and durability while minimizing pellet moisture content and specific energy consumption. The time and computational resources required for the optimization were dramatically decreased using the hybrid genetic algorithm when compared to MATLAB's native evolutionary optimization tool.« less

  20. Stochastic Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Robot Paths

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fink, Wolfgang; Aghazarian, Hrand; Huntsberger, Terrance; Terrile, Richard

    2006-01-01

    A computer program implements stochastic evolutionary algorithms for planning and optimizing collision-free paths for robots and their jointed limbs. Stochastic evolutionary algorithms can be made to produce acceptably close approximations to exact, optimal solutions for path-planning problems while often demanding much less computation than do exhaustive-search and deterministic inverse-kinematics algorithms that have been used previously for this purpose. Hence, the present software is better suited for application aboard robots having limited computing capabilities (see figure). The stochastic aspect lies in the use of simulated annealing to (1) prevent trapping of an optimization algorithm in local minima of an energy-like error measure by which the fitness of a trial solution is evaluated while (2) ensuring that the entire multidimensional configuration and parameter space of the path-planning problem is sampled efficiently with respect to both robot joint angles and computation time. Simulated annealing is an established technique for avoiding local minima in multidimensional optimization problems, but has not, until now, been applied to planning collision-free robot paths by use of low-power computers.

  1. Turbopump Performance Improved by Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oyama, Akira; Liou, Meng-Sing

    2002-01-01

    The development of design optimization technology for turbomachinery has been initiated using the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm under NASA's Intelligent Synthesis Environment and Revolutionary Aeropropulsion Concepts programs. As an alternative to the traditional gradient-based methods, evolutionary algorithms (EA's) are emergent design-optimization algorithms modeled after the mechanisms found in natural evolution. EA's search from multiple points, instead of moving from a single point. In addition, they require no derivatives or gradients of the objective function, leading to robustness and simplicity in coupling any evaluation codes. Parallel efficiency also becomes very high by using a simple master-slave concept for function evaluations, since such evaluations often consume the most CPU time, such as computational fluid dynamics. Application of EA's to multiobjective design problems is also straightforward because EA's maintain a population of design candidates in parallel. Because of these advantages, EA's are a unique and attractive approach to real-world design optimization problems.

  2. A novel metaheuristic for continuous optimization problems: Virus optimization algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Yun-Chia; Rodolfo Cuevas Juarez, Josue

    2016-01-01

    A novel metaheuristic for continuous optimization problems, named the virus optimization algorithm (VOA), is introduced and investigated. VOA is an iteratively population-based method that imitates the behaviour of viruses attacking a living cell. The number of viruses grows at each replication and is controlled by an immune system (a so-called 'antivirus') to prevent the explosive growth of the virus population. The viruses are divided into two classes (strong and common) to balance the exploitation and exploration effects. The performance of the VOA is validated through a set of eight benchmark functions, which are also subject to rotation and shifting effects to test its robustness. Extensive comparisons were conducted with over 40 well-known metaheuristic algorithms and their variations, such as artificial bee colony, artificial immune system, differential evolution, evolutionary programming, evolutionary strategy, genetic algorithm, harmony search, invasive weed optimization, memetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing. The results showed that the VOA is a viable solution for continuous optimization.

  3. Multiobjective Multifactorial Optimization in Evolutionary Multitasking.

    PubMed

    Gupta, Abhishek; Ong, Yew-Soon; Feng, Liang; Tan, Kay Chen

    2016-05-03

    In recent decades, the field of multiobjective optimization has attracted considerable interest among evolutionary computation researchers. One of the main features that makes evolutionary methods particularly appealing for multiobjective problems is the implicit parallelism offered by a population, which enables simultaneous convergence toward the entire Pareto front. While a plethora of related algorithms have been proposed till date, a common attribute among them is that they focus on efficiently solving only a single optimization problem at a time. Despite the known power of implicit parallelism, seldom has an attempt been made to multitask, i.e., to solve multiple optimization problems simultaneously. It is contended that the notion of evolutionary multitasking leads to the possibility of automated transfer of information across different optimization exercises that may share underlying similarities, thereby facilitating improved convergence characteristics. In particular, the potential for automated transfer is deemed invaluable from the standpoint of engineering design exercises where manual knowledge adaptation and reuse are routine. Accordingly, in this paper, we present a realization of the evolutionary multitasking paradigm within the domain of multiobjective optimization. The efficacy of the associated evolutionary algorithm is demonstrated on some benchmark test functions as well as on a real-world manufacturing process design problem from the composites industry.

  4. An Analytical Framework for Runtime of a Class of Continuous Evolutionary Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yushan; Hu, Guiwu

    2015-01-01

    Although there have been many studies on the runtime of evolutionary algorithms in discrete optimization, relatively few theoretical results have been proposed on continuous optimization, such as evolutionary programming (EP). This paper proposes an analysis of the runtime of two EP algorithms based on Gaussian and Cauchy mutations, using an absorbing Markov chain. Given a constant variation, we calculate the runtime upper bound of special Gaussian mutation EP and Cauchy mutation EP. Our analysis reveals that the upper bounds are impacted by individual number, problem dimension number n, searching range, and the Lebesgue measure of the optimal neighborhood. Furthermore, we provide conditions whereby the average runtime of the considered EP can be no more than a polynomial of n. The condition is that the Lebesgue measure of the optimal neighborhood is larger than a combinatorial calculation of an exponential and the given polynomial of n.

  5. Theoretical Analysis of Local Search and Simple Evolutionary Algorithms for the Generalized Travelling Salesperson Problem.

    PubMed

    Pourhassan, Mojgan; Neumann, Frank

    2018-06-22

    The generalized travelling salesperson problem is an important NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem for which meta-heuristics, such as local search and evolutionary algorithms, have been used very successfully. Two hierarchical approaches with different neighbourhood structures, namely a Cluster-Based approach and a Node-Based approach, have been proposed by Hu and Raidl (2008) for solving this problem. In this paper, local search algorithms and simple evolutionary algorithms based on these approaches are investigated from a theoretical perspective. For local search algorithms, we point out the complementary abilities of the two approaches by presenting instances where they mutually outperform each other. Afterwards, we introduce an instance which is hard for both approaches when initialized on a particular point of the search space, but where a variable neighbourhood search combining them finds the optimal solution in polynomial time. Then we turn our attention to analysing the behaviour of simple evolutionary algorithms that use these approaches. We show that the Node-Based approach solves the hard instance of the Cluster-Based approach presented in Corus et al. (2016) in polynomial time. Furthermore, we prove an exponential lower bound on the optimization time of the Node-Based approach for a class of Euclidean instances.

  6. Multiobjective Optimization Using a Pareto Differential Evolution Approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madavan, Nateri K.; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Differential Evolution is a simple, fast, and robust evolutionary algorithm that has proven effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult single-objective optimization problems. In this paper, the Differential Evolution algorithm is extended to multiobjective optimization problems by using a Pareto-based approach. The algorithm performs well when applied to several test optimization problems from the literature.

  7. Modeling of biological intelligence for SCM system optimization.

    PubMed

    Chen, Shengyong; Zheng, Yujun; Cattani, Carlo; Wang, Wanliang

    2012-01-01

    This article summarizes some methods from biological intelligence for modeling and optimization of supply chain management (SCM) systems, including genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, differential evolution, swarm intelligence, artificial immune, and other biological intelligence related methods. An SCM system is adaptive, dynamic, open self-organizing, which is maintained by flows of information, materials, goods, funds, and energy. Traditional methods for modeling and optimizing complex SCM systems require huge amounts of computing resources, and biological intelligence-based solutions can often provide valuable alternatives for efficiently solving problems. The paper summarizes the recent related methods for the design and optimization of SCM systems, which covers the most widely used genetic algorithms and other evolutionary algorithms.

  8. Modeling of Biological Intelligence for SCM System Optimization

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Shengyong; Zheng, Yujun; Cattani, Carlo; Wang, Wanliang

    2012-01-01

    This article summarizes some methods from biological intelligence for modeling and optimization of supply chain management (SCM) systems, including genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, differential evolution, swarm intelligence, artificial immune, and other biological intelligence related methods. An SCM system is adaptive, dynamic, open self-organizing, which is maintained by flows of information, materials, goods, funds, and energy. Traditional methods for modeling and optimizing complex SCM systems require huge amounts of computing resources, and biological intelligence-based solutions can often provide valuable alternatives for efficiently solving problems. The paper summarizes the recent related methods for the design and optimization of SCM systems, which covers the most widely used genetic algorithms and other evolutionary algorithms. PMID:22162724

  9. An Evolutionary Algorithm for Fast Intensity Based Image Matching Between Optical and SAR Satellite Imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fischer, Peter; Schuegraf, Philipp; Merkle, Nina; Storch, Tobias

    2018-04-01

    This paper presents a hybrid evolutionary algorithm for fast intensity based matching between satellite imagery from SAR and very high-resolution (VHR) optical sensor systems. The precise and accurate co-registration of image time series and images of different sensors is a key task in multi-sensor image processing scenarios. The necessary preprocessing step of image matching and tie-point detection is divided into a search problem and a similarity measurement. Within this paper we evaluate the use of an evolutionary search strategy for establishing the spatial correspondence between satellite imagery of optical and radar sensors. The aim of the proposed algorithm is to decrease the computational costs during the search process by formulating the search as an optimization problem. Based upon the canonical evolutionary algorithm, the proposed algorithm is adapted for SAR/optical imagery intensity based matching. Extensions are drawn using techniques like hybridization (e.g. local search) and others to lower the number of objective function calls and refine the result. The algorithm significantely decreases the computational costs whilst finding the optimal solution in a reliable way.

  10. Algorithmic Mechanism Design of Evolutionary Computation.

    PubMed

    Pei, Yan

    2015-01-01

    We consider algorithmic design, enhancement, and improvement of evolutionary computation as a mechanism design problem. All individuals or several groups of individuals can be considered as self-interested agents. The individuals in evolutionary computation can manipulate parameter settings and operations by satisfying their own preferences, which are defined by an evolutionary computation algorithm designer, rather than by following a fixed algorithm rule. Evolutionary computation algorithm designers or self-adaptive methods should construct proper rules and mechanisms for all agents (individuals) to conduct their evolution behaviour correctly in order to definitely achieve the desired and preset objective(s). As a case study, we propose a formal framework on parameter setting, strategy selection, and algorithmic design of evolutionary computation by considering the Nash strategy equilibrium of a mechanism design in the search process. The evaluation results present the efficiency of the framework. This primary principle can be implemented in any evolutionary computation algorithm that needs to consider strategy selection issues in its optimization process. The final objective of our work is to solve evolutionary computation design as an algorithmic mechanism design problem and establish its fundamental aspect by taking this perspective. This paper is the first step towards achieving this objective by implementing a strategy equilibrium solution (such as Nash equilibrium) in evolutionary computation algorithm.

  11. Algorithmic Mechanism Design of Evolutionary Computation

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    We consider algorithmic design, enhancement, and improvement of evolutionary computation as a mechanism design problem. All individuals or several groups of individuals can be considered as self-interested agents. The individuals in evolutionary computation can manipulate parameter settings and operations by satisfying their own preferences, which are defined by an evolutionary computation algorithm designer, rather than by following a fixed algorithm rule. Evolutionary computation algorithm designers or self-adaptive methods should construct proper rules and mechanisms for all agents (individuals) to conduct their evolution behaviour correctly in order to definitely achieve the desired and preset objective(s). As a case study, we propose a formal framework on parameter setting, strategy selection, and algorithmic design of evolutionary computation by considering the Nash strategy equilibrium of a mechanism design in the search process. The evaluation results present the efficiency of the framework. This primary principle can be implemented in any evolutionary computation algorithm that needs to consider strategy selection issues in its optimization process. The final objective of our work is to solve evolutionary computation design as an algorithmic mechanism design problem and establish its fundamental aspect by taking this perspective. This paper is the first step towards achieving this objective by implementing a strategy equilibrium solution (such as Nash equilibrium) in evolutionary computation algorithm. PMID:26257777

  12. Practical advantages of evolutionary computation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fogel, David B.

    1997-10-01

    Evolutionary computation is becoming a common technique for solving difficult, real-world problems in industry, medicine, and defense. This paper reviews some of the practical advantages to using evolutionary algorithms as compared with classic methods of optimization or artificial intelligence. Specific advantages include the flexibility of the procedures, as well as their ability to self-adapt the search for optimum solutions on the fly. As desktop computers increase in speed, the application of evolutionary algorithms will become routine.

  13. Multi-objective optimization in spatial planning: Improving the effectiveness of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karakostas, Spiros

    2015-05-01

    The multi-objective nature of most spatial planning initiatives and the numerous constraints that are introduced in the planning process by decision makers, stakeholders, etc., synthesize a complex spatial planning context in which the concept of solid and meaningful optimization is a unique challenge. This article investigates new approaches to enhance the effectiveness of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) via the adoption of a well-known metaheuristic: the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). In particular, the contribution of a sophisticated crossover operator coupled with an enhanced initialization heuristic is evaluated against a series of metrics measuring the effectiveness of MOEAs. Encouraging results emerge for both the convergence rate of the evolutionary optimization process and the occupation of valuable regions of the objective space by non-dominated solutions, facilitating the work of spatial planners and decision makers. Based on the promising behaviour of both heuristics, topics for further research are proposed to improve their effectiveness.

  14. Parameter meta-optimization of metaheuristics of solving specific NP-hard facility location problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Skakov, E. S.; Malysh, V. N.

    2018-03-01

    The aim of the work is to create an evolutionary method for optimizing the values of the control parameters of metaheuristics of solving the NP-hard facility location problem. A system analysis of the tuning process of optimization algorithms parameters is carried out. The problem of finding the parameters of a metaheuristic algorithm is formulated as a meta-optimization problem. Evolutionary metaheuristic has been chosen to perform the task of meta-optimization. Thus, the approach proposed in this work can be called “meta-metaheuristic”. Computational experiment proving the effectiveness of the procedure of tuning the control parameters of metaheuristics has been performed.

  15. Efficient hybrid evolutionary algorithm for optimization of a strip coiling process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pholdee, Nantiwat; Park, Won-Woong; Kim, Dong-Kyu; Im, Yong-Taek; Bureerat, Sujin; Kwon, Hyuck-Cheol; Chun, Myung-Sik

    2015-04-01

    This article proposes an efficient metaheuristic based on hybridization of teaching-learning-based optimization and differential evolution for optimization to improve the flatness of a strip during a strip coiling process. Differential evolution operators were integrated into the teaching-learning-based optimization with a Latin hypercube sampling technique for generation of an initial population. The objective function was introduced to reduce axial inhomogeneity of the stress distribution and the maximum compressive stress calculated by Love's elastic solution within the thin strip, which may cause an irregular surface profile of the strip during the strip coiling process. The hybrid optimizer and several well-established evolutionary algorithms (EAs) were used to solve the optimization problem. The comparative studies show that the proposed hybrid algorithm outperformed other EAs in terms of convergence rate and consistency. It was found that the proposed hybrid approach was powerful for process optimization, especially with a large-scale design problem.

  16. Performance optimization of the power user electric energy data acquire system based on MOEA/D evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ding, Zhongan; Gao, Chen; Yan, Shengteng; Yang, Canrong

    2017-10-01

    The power user electric energy data acquire system (PUEEDAS) is an important part of smart grid. This paper builds a multi-objective optimization model for the performance of the PUEEADS from the point of view of the combination of the comprehensive benefits and cost. Meanwhile, the Chebyshev decomposition approach is used to decompose the multi-objective optimization problem. We design a MOEA/D evolutionary algorithm to solve the problem. By analyzing the Pareto optimal solution set of multi-objective optimization problem and comparing it with the monitoring value to grasp the direction of optimizing the performance of the PUEEDAS. Finally, an example is designed for specific analysis.

  17. Design and Optimization of Low-thrust Orbit Transfers Using Q-law and Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, Seungwon; vonAllmen, Paul; Fink, Wolfgang; Petropoulos, Anastassios; Terrile, Richard

    2005-01-01

    Future space missions will depend more on low-thrust propulsion (such as ion engines) thanks to its high specific impulse. Yet, the design of low-thrust trajectories is complex and challenging. Third-body perturbations often dominate the thrust, and a significant change to the orbit requires a long duration of thrust. In order to guide the early design phases, we have developed an efficient and efficacious method to obtain approximate propellant and flight-time requirements (i.e., the Pareto front) for orbit transfers. A search for the Pareto-optimal trajectories is done in two levels: optimal thrust angles and locations are determined by Q-law, while the Q-law is optimized with two evolutionary algorithms: a genetic algorithm and a simulated-annealing-related algorithm. The examples considered are several types of orbit transfers around the Earth and the asteroid Vesta.

  18. Optimal Wavelengths Selection Using Hierarchical Evolutionary Algorithm for Prediction of Firmness and Soluble Solids Content in Apples

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Hyperspectral scattering is a promising technique for rapid and noninvasive measurement of multiple quality attributes of apple fruit. A hierarchical evolutionary algorithm (HEA) approach, in combination with subspace decomposition and partial least squares (PLS) regression, was proposed to select o...

  19. A hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for wind-turbine blade optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sessarego, M.; Dixon, K. R.; Rival, D. E.; Wood, D. H.

    2015-08-01

    A concurrent-hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (hybrid NSGA-II) has been developed and applied to the simultaneous optimization of the annual energy production, flapwise root-bending moment and mass of the NREL 5 MW wind-turbine blade. By hybridizing a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) with gradient-based local search, it is believed that the optimal set of blade designs could be achieved in lower computational cost than for a conventional MOEA. To measure the convergence between the hybrid and non-hybrid NSGA-II on a wind-turbine blade optimization problem, a computationally intensive case was performed using the non-hybrid NSGA-II. From this particular case, a three-dimensional surface representing the optimal trade-off between the annual energy production, flapwise root-bending moment and blade mass was achieved. The inclusion of local gradients in the blade optimization, however, shows no improvement in the convergence for this three-objective problem.

  20. Biogeography-based particle swarm optimization with fuzzy elitism and its applications to constrained engineering problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Weian; Li, Wuzhao; Zhang, Qun; Wang, Lei; Wu, Qidi; Ren, Hongliang

    2014-11-01

    In evolutionary algorithms, elites are crucial to maintain good features in solutions. However, too many elites can make the evolutionary process stagnate and cannot enhance the performance. This article employs particle swarm optimization (PSO) and biogeography-based optimization (BBO) to propose a hybrid algorithm termed biogeography-based particle swarm optimization (BPSO) which could make a large number of elites effective in searching optima. In this algorithm, the whole population is split into several subgroups; BBO is employed to search within each subgroup and PSO for the global search. Since not all the population is used in PSO, this structure overcomes the premature convergence in the original PSO. Time complexity analysis shows that the novel algorithm does not increase the time consumption. Fourteen numerical benchmarks and four engineering problems with constraints are used to test the BPSO. To better deal with constraints, a fuzzy strategy for the number of elites is investigated. The simulation results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

  1. Optimization of the p-xylene oxidation process by a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm with adaptive parameters co-derived with the population-based incremental learning algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Zhan; Yan, Xuefeng

    2018-04-01

    Different operating conditions of p-xylene oxidation have different influences on the product, purified terephthalic acid. It is necessary to obtain the optimal combination of reaction conditions to ensure the quality of the products, cut down on consumption and increase revenues. A multi-objective differential evolution (MODE) algorithm co-evolved with the population-based incremental learning (PBIL) algorithm, called PBMODE, is proposed. The PBMODE algorithm was designed as a co-evolutionary system. Each individual has its own parameter individual, which is co-evolved by PBIL. PBIL uses statistical analysis to build a model based on the corresponding symbiotic individuals of the superior original individuals during the main evolutionary process. The results of simulations and statistical analysis indicate that the overall performance of the PBMODE algorithm is better than that of the compared algorithms and it can be used to optimize the operating conditions of the p-xylene oxidation process effectively and efficiently.

  2. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms for fuzzy classification in survival prediction.

    PubMed

    Jiménez, Fernando; Sánchez, Gracia; Juárez, José M

    2014-03-01

    This paper presents a novel rule-based fuzzy classification methodology for survival/mortality prediction in severe burnt patients. Due to the ethical aspects involved in this medical scenario, physicians tend not to accept a computer-based evaluation unless they understand why and how such a recommendation is given. Therefore, any fuzzy classifier model must be both accurate and interpretable. The proposed methodology is a three-step process: (1) multi-objective constrained optimization of a patient's data set, using Pareto-based elitist multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to maximize accuracy and minimize the complexity (number of rules) of classifiers, subject to interpretability constraints; this step produces a set of alternative (Pareto) classifiers; (2) linguistic labeling, which assigns a linguistic label to each fuzzy set of the classifiers; this step is essential to the interpretability of the classifiers; (3) decision making, whereby a classifier is chosen, if it is satisfactory, according to the preferences of the decision maker. If no classifier is satisfactory for the decision maker, the process starts again in step (1) with a different input parameter set. The performance of three multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, niched pre-selection multi-objective algorithm, elitist Pareto-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for diversity reinforcement (ENORA) and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), was tested using a patient's data set from an intensive care burn unit and a standard machine learning data set from an standard machine learning repository. The results are compared using the hypervolume multi-objective metric. Besides, the results have been compared with other non-evolutionary techniques and validated with a multi-objective cross-validation technique. Our proposal improves the classification rate obtained by other non-evolutionary techniques (decision trees, artificial neural networks, Naive Bayes, and case-based reasoning) obtaining with ENORA a classification rate of 0.9298, specificity of 0.9385, and sensitivity of 0.9364, with 14.2 interpretable fuzzy rules on average. Our proposal improves the accuracy and interpretability of the classifiers, compared with other non-evolutionary techniques. We also conclude that ENORA outperforms niched pre-selection and NSGA-II algorithms. Moreover, given that our multi-objective evolutionary methodology is non-combinational based on real parameter optimization, the time cost is significantly reduced compared with other evolutionary approaches existing in literature based on combinational optimization. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Educational Tool for Optimal Controller Tuning Using Evolutionary Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carmona Morales, D.; Jimenez-Hornero, J. E.; Vazquez, F.; Morilla, F.

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, an optimal tuning tool is presented for control structures based on multivariable proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, using genetic algorithms as an alternative to traditional optimization algorithms. From an educational point of view, this tool provides students with the necessary means to consolidate their knowledge on…

  4. Interactive optimization approach for optimal impulsive rendezvous using primer vector and evolutionary algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Ya-Zhong; Zhang, Jin; Li, Hai-yang; Tang, Guo-Jin

    2010-08-01

    In this paper, a new optimization approach combining primer vector theory and evolutionary algorithms for fuel-optimal non-linear impulsive rendezvous is proposed. The optimization approach is designed to seek the optimal number of impulses as well as the optimal impulse vectors. In this optimization approach, adding a midcourse impulse is determined by an interactive method, i.e. observing the primer-magnitude time history. An improved version of simulated annealing is employed to optimize the rendezvous trajectory with the fixed-number of impulses. This interactive approach is evaluated by three test cases: coplanar circle-to-circle rendezvous, same-circle rendezvous and non-coplanar rendezvous. The results show that the interactive approach is effective and efficient in fuel-optimal non-linear rendezvous design. It can guarantee solutions, which satisfy the Lawden's necessary optimality conditions.

  5. An efficient and accurate solution methodology for bilevel multi-objective programming problems using a hybrid evolutionary-local-search algorithm.

    PubMed

    Deb, Kalyanmoy; Sinha, Ankur

    2010-01-01

    Bilevel optimization problems involve two optimization tasks (upper and lower level), in which every feasible upper level solution must correspond to an optimal solution to a lower level optimization problem. These problems commonly appear in many practical problem solving tasks including optimal control, process optimization, game-playing strategy developments, transportation problems, and others. However, they are commonly converted into a single level optimization problem by using an approximate solution procedure to replace the lower level optimization task. Although there exist a number of theoretical, numerical, and evolutionary optimization studies involving single-objective bilevel programming problems, not many studies look at the context of multiple conflicting objectives in each level of a bilevel programming problem. In this paper, we address certain intricate issues related to solving multi-objective bilevel programming problems, present challenging test problems, and propose a viable and hybrid evolutionary-cum-local-search based algorithm as a solution methodology. The hybrid approach performs better than a number of existing methodologies and scales well up to 40-variable difficult test problems used in this study. The population sizing and termination criteria are made self-adaptive, so that no additional parameters need to be supplied by the user. The study indicates a clear niche of evolutionary algorithms in solving such difficult problems of practical importance compared to their usual solution by a computationally expensive nested procedure. The study opens up many issues related to multi-objective bilevel programming and hopefully this study will motivate EMO and other researchers to pay more attention to this important and difficult problem solving activity.

  6. Evolutionary pattern search algorithms

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hart, W.E.

    1995-09-19

    This paper defines a class of evolutionary algorithms called evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAs) and analyzes their convergence properties. This class of algorithms is closely related to evolutionary programming, evolutionary strategie and real-coded genetic algorithms. EPSAs are self-adapting systems that modify the step size of the mutation operator in response to the success of previous optimization steps. The rule used to adapt the step size can be used to provide a stationary point convergence theory for EPSAs on any continuous function. This convergence theory is based on an extension of the convergence theory for generalized pattern search methods. An experimentalmore » analysis of the performance of EPSAs demonstrates that these algorithms can perform a level of global search that is comparable to that of canonical EAs. We also describe a stopping rule for EPSAs, which reliably terminated near stationary points in our experiments. This is the first stopping rule for any class of EAs that can terminate at a given distance from stationary points.« less

  7. A Bee Evolutionary Guiding Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II for Multiobjective Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling.

    PubMed

    Deng, Qianwang; Gong, Guiliang; Gong, Xuran; Zhang, Like; Liu, Wei; Ren, Qinghua

    2017-01-01

    Flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is an NP-hard puzzle which inherits the job-shop scheduling problem (JSP) characteristics. This paper presents a bee evolutionary guiding nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (BEG-NSGA-II) for multiobjective FJSP (MO-FJSP) with the objectives to minimize the maximal completion time, the workload of the most loaded machine, and the total workload of all machines. It adopts a two-stage optimization mechanism during the optimizing process. In the first stage, the NSGA-II algorithm with T iteration times is first used to obtain the initial population N , in which a bee evolutionary guiding scheme is presented to exploit the solution space extensively. In the second stage, the NSGA-II algorithm with GEN iteration times is used again to obtain the Pareto-optimal solutions. In order to enhance the searching ability and avoid the premature convergence, an updating mechanism is employed in this stage. More specifically, its population consists of three parts, and each of them changes with the iteration times. What is more, numerical simulations are carried out which are based on some published benchmark instances. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed BEG-NSGA-II algorithm is shown by comparing the experimental results and the results of some well-known algorithms already existed.

  8. A Bee Evolutionary Guiding Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II for Multiobjective Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling

    PubMed Central

    Deng, Qianwang; Gong, Xuran; Zhang, Like; Liu, Wei; Ren, Qinghua

    2017-01-01

    Flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is an NP-hard puzzle which inherits the job-shop scheduling problem (JSP) characteristics. This paper presents a bee evolutionary guiding nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (BEG-NSGA-II) for multiobjective FJSP (MO-FJSP) with the objectives to minimize the maximal completion time, the workload of the most loaded machine, and the total workload of all machines. It adopts a two-stage optimization mechanism during the optimizing process. In the first stage, the NSGA-II algorithm with T iteration times is first used to obtain the initial population N, in which a bee evolutionary guiding scheme is presented to exploit the solution space extensively. In the second stage, the NSGA-II algorithm with GEN iteration times is used again to obtain the Pareto-optimal solutions. In order to enhance the searching ability and avoid the premature convergence, an updating mechanism is employed in this stage. More specifically, its population consists of three parts, and each of them changes with the iteration times. What is more, numerical simulations are carried out which are based on some published benchmark instances. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed BEG-NSGA-II algorithm is shown by comparing the experimental results and the results of some well-known algorithms already existed. PMID:28458687

  9. An evolutionary firefly algorithm for the estimation of nonlinear biological model parameters.

    PubMed

    Abdullah, Afnizanfaizal; Deris, Safaai; Anwar, Sohail; Arjunan, Satya N V

    2013-01-01

    The development of accurate computational models of biological processes is fundamental to computational systems biology. These models are usually represented by mathematical expressions that rely heavily on the system parameters. The measurement of these parameters is often difficult. Therefore, they are commonly estimated by fitting the predicted model to the experimental data using optimization methods. The complexity and nonlinearity of the biological processes pose a significant challenge, however, to the development of accurate and fast optimization methods. We introduce a new hybrid optimization method incorporating the Firefly Algorithm and the evolutionary operation of the Differential Evolution method. The proposed method improves solutions by neighbourhood search using evolutionary procedures. Testing our method on models for the arginine catabolism and the negative feedback loop of the p53 signalling pathway, we found that it estimated the parameters with high accuracy and within a reasonable computation time compared to well-known approaches, including Particle Swarm Optimization, Nelder-Mead, and Firefly Algorithm. We have also verified the reliability of the parameters estimated by the method using an a posteriori practical identifiability test.

  10. An Evolutionary Firefly Algorithm for the Estimation of Nonlinear Biological Model Parameters

    PubMed Central

    Abdullah, Afnizanfaizal; Deris, Safaai; Anwar, Sohail; Arjunan, Satya N. V.

    2013-01-01

    The development of accurate computational models of biological processes is fundamental to computational systems biology. These models are usually represented by mathematical expressions that rely heavily on the system parameters. The measurement of these parameters is often difficult. Therefore, they are commonly estimated by fitting the predicted model to the experimental data using optimization methods. The complexity and nonlinearity of the biological processes pose a significant challenge, however, to the development of accurate and fast optimization methods. We introduce a new hybrid optimization method incorporating the Firefly Algorithm and the evolutionary operation of the Differential Evolution method. The proposed method improves solutions by neighbourhood search using evolutionary procedures. Testing our method on models for the arginine catabolism and the negative feedback loop of the p53 signalling pathway, we found that it estimated the parameters with high accuracy and within a reasonable computation time compared to well-known approaches, including Particle Swarm Optimization, Nelder-Mead, and Firefly Algorithm. We have also verified the reliability of the parameters estimated by the method using an a posteriori practical identifiability test. PMID:23469172

  11. Multidisciplinary Multiobjective Optimal Design for Turbomachinery Using Evolutionary Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2005-01-01

    This report summarizes Dr. Lian s efforts toward developing a robust and efficient tool for multidisciplinary and multi-objective optimal design for turbomachinery using evolutionary algorithms. This work consisted of two stages. The first stage (from July 2003 to June 2004) Dr. Lian focused on building essential capabilities required for the project. More specifically, Dr. Lian worked on two subjects: an enhanced genetic algorithm (GA) and an integrated optimization system with a GA and a surrogate model. The second stage (from July 2004 to February 2005) Dr. Lian formulated aerodynamic optimization and structural optimization into a multi-objective optimization problem and performed multidisciplinary and multi-objective optimizations on a transonic compressor blade based on the proposed model. Dr. Lian s numerical results showed that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the blade weight and increase the stage pressure ratio in an efficient manner. In addition, the new design was structurally safer than the original design. Five conference papers and three journal papers were published on this topic by Dr. Lian.

  12. Application of evolutionary computation in ECAD problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Dae-Hyun; Hwang, Seung H.

    1998-10-01

    Design of modern electronic system is a complicated task which demands the use of computer- aided design (CAD) tools. Since a lot of problems in ECAD are combinatorial optimization problems, evolutionary computations such as genetic algorithms and evolutionary programming have been widely employed to solve those problems. We have applied evolutionary computation techniques to solve ECAD problems such as technology mapping, microcode-bit optimization, data path ordering and peak power estimation, where their benefits are well observed. This paper presents experiences and discusses issues in those applications.

  13. A Bell-Curved Based Algorithm for Mixed Continuous and Discrete Structural Optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kincaid, Rex K.; Weber, Michael; Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, Jaroslaw

    2001-01-01

    An evolutionary based strategy utilizing two normal distributions to generate children is developed to solve mixed integer nonlinear programming problems. This Bell-Curve Based (BCB) evolutionary algorithm is similar in spirit to (mu + mu) evolutionary strategies and evolutionary programs but with fewer parameters to adjust and no mechanism for self adaptation. First, a new version of BCB to solve purely discrete optimization problems is described and its performance tested against a tabu search code for an actuator placement problem. Next, the performance of a combined version of discrete and continuous BCB is tested on 2-dimensional shape problems and on a minimum weight hub design problem. In the latter case the discrete portion is the choice of the underlying beam shape (I, triangular, circular, rectangular, or U).

  14. A review and experimental study on the application of classifiers and evolutionary algorithms in EEG-based brain-machine interface systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tahernezhad-Javazm, Farajollah; Azimirad, Vahid; Shoaran, Maryam

    2018-04-01

    Objective. Considering the importance and the near-future development of noninvasive brain-machine interface (BMI) systems, this paper presents a comprehensive theoretical-experimental survey on the classification and evolutionary methods for BMI-based systems in which EEG signals are used. Approach. The paper is divided into two main parts. In the first part, a wide range of different types of the base and combinatorial classifiers including boosting and bagging classifiers and evolutionary algorithms are reviewed and investigated. In the second part, these classifiers and evolutionary algorithms are assessed and compared based on two types of relatively widely used BMI systems, sensory motor rhythm-BMI and event-related potentials-BMI. Moreover, in the second part, some of the improved evolutionary algorithms as well as bi-objective algorithms are experimentally assessed and compared. Main results. In this study two databases are used, and cross-validation accuracy (CVA) and stability to data volume (SDV) are considered as the evaluation criteria for the classifiers. According to the experimental results on both databases, regarding the base classifiers, linear discriminant analysis and support vector machines with respect to CVA evaluation metric, and naive Bayes with respect to SDV demonstrated the best performances. Among the combinatorial classifiers, four classifiers, Bagg-DT (bagging decision tree), LogitBoost, and GentleBoost with respect to CVA, and Bagging-LR (bagging logistic regression) and AdaBoost (adaptive boosting) with respect to SDV had the best performances. Finally, regarding the evolutionary algorithms, single-objective invasive weed optimization (IWO) and bi-objective nondominated sorting IWO algorithms demonstrated the best performances. Significance. We present a general survey on the base and the combinatorial classification methods for EEG signals (sensory motor rhythm and event-related potentials) as well as their optimization methods through the evolutionary algorithms. In addition, experimental and statistical significance tests are carried out to study the applicability and effectiveness of the reviewed methods.

  15. Evolutionary Optimization of a Quadrifilar Helical Antenna

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lohn, Jason D.; Kraus, William F.; Linden, Derek S.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Automated antenna synthesis via evolutionary design has recently garnered much attention in the research literature. Evolutionary algorithms show promise because, among search algorithms, they are able to effectively search large, unknown design spaces. NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is due to reach final Martian orbit insertion in January, 2002. Onboard the spacecraft is a quadrifilar helical antenna that provides telecommunications in the UHF band with landed assets, such as robotic rovers. Each helix is driven by the same signal which is phase-delayed in 90 deg increments. A small ground plane is provided at the base. It is designed to operate in the frequency band of 400-438 MHz. Based on encouraging previous results in automated antenna design using evolutionary search, we wanted to see whether such techniques could improve upon Mars Odyssey antenna design. Specifically, a co-evolutionary genetic algorithm is applied to optimize the gain and size of the quadrifilar helical antenna. The optimization was performed in-situ in the presence of a neighboring spacecraft structure. On the spacecraft, a large aluminum fuel tank is adjacent to the antenna. Since this fuel tank can dramatically affect the antenna's performance, we leave it to the evolutionary process to see if it can exploit the fuel tank's properties advantageously. Optimizing in the presence of surrounding structures would be quite difficult for human antenna designers, and thus the actual antenna was designed for free space (with a small ground plane). In fact, when flying on the spacecraft, surrounding structures that are moveable (e.g., solar panels) may be moved during the mission in order to improve the antenna's performance.

  16. Particle Swarm Optimization Toolbox

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grant, Michael J.

    2010-01-01

    The Particle Swarm Optimization Toolbox is a library of evolutionary optimization tools developed in the MATLAB environment. The algorithms contained in the library include a genetic algorithm (GA), a single-objective particle swarm optimizer (SOPSO), and a multi-objective particle swarm optimizer (MOPSO). Development focused on both the SOPSO and MOPSO. A GA was included mainly for comparison purposes, and the particle swarm optimizers appeared to perform better for a wide variety of optimization problems. All algorithms are capable of performing unconstrained and constrained optimization. The particle swarm optimizers are capable of performing single and multi-objective optimization. The SOPSO and MOPSO algorithms are based on swarming theory and bird-flocking patterns to search the trade space for the optimal solution or optimal trade in competing objectives. The MOPSO generates Pareto fronts for objectives that are in competition. A GA, based on Darwin evolutionary theory, is also included in the library. The GA consists of individuals that form a population in the design space. The population mates to form offspring at new locations in the design space. These offspring contain traits from both of the parents. The algorithm is based on this combination of traits from parents to hopefully provide an improved solution than either of the original parents. As the algorithm progresses, individuals that hold these optimal traits will emerge as the optimal solutions. Due to the generic design of all optimization algorithms, each algorithm interfaces with a user-supplied objective function. This function serves as a "black-box" to the optimizers in which the only purpose of this function is to evaluate solutions provided by the optimizers. Hence, the user-supplied function can be numerical simulations, analytical functions, etc., since the specific detail of this function is of no concern to the optimizer. These algorithms were originally developed to support entry trajectory and guidance design for the Mars Science Laboratory mission but may be applied to any optimization problem.

  17. Multiobjective optimization and multivariable control of the beer fermentation process with the use of evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Andrés-Toro, B; Girón-Sierra, J M; Fernández-Blanco, P; López-Orozco, J A; Besada-Portas, E

    2004-04-01

    This paper describes empirical research on the model, optimization and supervisory control of beer fermentation. Conditions in the laboratory were made as similar as possible to brewery industry conditions. Since mathematical models that consider realistic industrial conditions were not available, a new mathematical model design involving industrial conditions was first developed. Batch fermentations are multiobjective dynamic processes that must be guided along optimal paths to obtain good results. The paper describes a direct way to apply a Pareto set approach with multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). Successful finding of optimal ways to drive these processes were reported. Once obtained, the mathematical fermentation model was used to optimize the fermentation process by using an intelligent control based on certain rules.

  18. An evolutionary algorithm technique for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance plan optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Langton, John T.; Caroli, Joseph A.; Rosenberg, Brad

    2008-04-01

    To support an Effects Based Approach to Operations (EBAO), Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) planners must optimize collection plans within an evolving battlespace. A need exists for a decision support tool that allows ISR planners to rapidly generate and rehearse high-performing ISR plans that balance multiple objectives and constraints to address dynamic collection requirements for assessment. To meet this need we have designed an evolutionary algorithm (EA)-based "Integrated ISR Plan Analysis and Rehearsal System" (I2PARS) to support Effects-based Assessment (EBA). I2PARS supports ISR mission planning and dynamic replanning to coordinate assets and optimize their routes, allocation and tasking. It uses an evolutionary algorithm to address the large parametric space of route-finding problems which is sometimes discontinuous in the ISR domain because of conflicting objectives such as minimizing asset utilization yet maximizing ISR coverage. EAs are uniquely suited for generating solutions in dynamic environments and also allow user feedback. They are therefore ideal for "streaming optimization" and dynamic replanning of ISR mission plans. I2PARS uses the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) to automatically generate a diverse set of high performing collection plans given multiple objectives, constraints, and assets. Intended end users of I2PARS include ISR planners in the Combined Air Operations Centers and Joint Intelligence Centers. Here we show the feasibility of applying the NSGA-II algorithm and EAs in general to the ISR planning domain. Unique genetic representations and operators for optimization within the ISR domain are presented along with multi-objective optimization criteria for ISR planning. Promising results of the I2PARS architecture design, early software prototype, and limited domain testing of the new algorithm are discussed. We also present plans for future research and development, as well as technology transition goals.

  19. Test scheduling optimization for 3D network-on-chip based on cloud evolutionary algorithm of Pareto multi-objective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Chuanpei; Niu, Junhao; Ling, Jing; Wang, Suyan

    2018-03-01

    In this paper, we present a parallel test strategy for bandwidth division multiplexing under the test access mechanism bandwidth constraint. The Pareto solution set is combined with a cloud evolutionary algorithm to optimize the test time and power consumption of a three-dimensional network-on-chip (3D NoC). In the proposed method, all individuals in the population are sorted in non-dominated order and allocated to the corresponding level. Individuals with extreme and similar characteristics are then removed. To increase the diversity of the population and prevent the algorithm from becoming stuck around local optima, a competition strategy is designed for the individuals. Finally, we adopt an elite reservation strategy and update the individuals according to the cloud model. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm converges to the optimal Pareto solution set rapidly and accurately. This not only obtains the shortest test time, but also optimizes the power consumption of the 3D NoC.

  20. A Comprehensive Review of Swarm Optimization Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Many swarm optimization algorithms have been introduced since the early 60’s, Evolutionary Programming to the most recent, Grey Wolf Optimization. All of these algorithms have demonstrated their potential to solve many optimization problems. This paper provides an in-depth survey of well-known optimization algorithms. Selected algorithms are briefly explained and compared with each other comprehensively through experiments conducted using thirty well-known benchmark functions. Their advantages and disadvantages are also discussed. A number of statistical tests are then carried out to determine the significant performances. The results indicate the overall advantage of Differential Evolution (DE) and is closely followed by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), compared with other considered approaches. PMID:25992655

  1. Evolutionary Optimization of Yagi-Uda Antennas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lohn, Jason D.; Kraus, William F.; Linden, Derek S.; Colombano, Silvano P.

    2001-01-01

    Yagi-Uda antennas are known to be difficult to design and optimize due to their sensitivity at high gain, and the inclusion of numerous parasitic elements. We present a genetic algorithm-based automated antenna optimization system that uses a fixed Yagi-Uda topology and a byte-encoded antenna representation. The fitness calculation allows the implicit relationship between power gain and sidelobe/backlobe loss to emerge naturally, a technique that is less complex than previous approaches. The genetic operators used are also simpler. Our results include Yagi-Uda antennas that have excellent bandwidth and gain properties with very good impedance characteristics. Results exceeded previous Yagi-Uda antennas produced via evolutionary algorithms by at least 7.8% in mainlobe gain. We also present encouraging preliminary results where a coevolutionary genetic algorithm is used.

  2. Analysis of convergence of an evolutionary algorithm with self-adaptation using a stochastic Lyapunov function.

    PubMed

    Semenov, Mikhail A; Terkel, Dmitri A

    2003-01-01

    This paper analyses the convergence of evolutionary algorithms using a technique which is based on a stochastic Lyapunov function and developed within the martingale theory. This technique is used to investigate the convergence of a simple evolutionary algorithm with self-adaptation, which contains two types of parameters: fitness parameters, belonging to the domain of the objective function; and control parameters, responsible for the variation of fitness parameters. Although both parameters mutate randomly and independently, they converge to the "optimum" due to the direct (for fitness parameters) and indirect (for control parameters) selection. We show that the convergence velocity of the evolutionary algorithm with self-adaptation is asymptotically exponential, similar to the velocity of the optimal deterministic algorithm on the class of unimodal functions. Although some martingale inequalities have not be proved analytically, they have been numerically validated with 0.999 confidence using Monte-Carlo simulations.

  3. RBF neural network based PI pitch controller for a class of 5-MW wind turbines using particle swarm optimization algorithm.

    PubMed

    Poultangari, Iman; Shahnazi, Reza; Sheikhan, Mansour

    2012-09-01

    In order to control the pitch angle of blades in wind turbines, commonly the proportional and integral (PI) controller due to its simplicity and industrial usability is employed. The neural networks and evolutionary algorithms are tools that provide a suitable ground to determine the optimal PI gains. In this paper, a radial basis function (RBF) neural network based PI controller is proposed for collective pitch control (CPC) of a 5-MW wind turbine. In order to provide an optimal dataset to train the RBF neural network, particle swarm optimization (PSO) evolutionary algorithm is used. The proposed method does not need the complexities, nonlinearities and uncertainties of the system under control. The simulation results show that the proposed controller has satisfactory performance. Copyright © 2012 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Packets Distributing Evolutionary Algorithm Based on PSO for Ad Hoc Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Xiao-Feng

    2018-03-01

    Wireless communication network has such features as limited bandwidth, changeful channel and dynamic topology, etc. Ad hoc network has lots of difficulties in accessing control, bandwidth distribution, resource assign and congestion control. Therefore, a wireless packets distributing Evolutionary algorithm based on PSO (DPSO)for Ad Hoc Network is proposed. Firstly, parameters impact on performance of network are analyzed and researched to obtain network performance effective function. Secondly, the improved PSO Evolutionary Algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem from local to global in the process of network packets distributing. The simulation results show that the algorithm can ensure fairness and timeliness of network transmission, as well as improve ad hoc network resource integrated utilization efficiency.

  5. A comparative study of corrugated horn design by evolutionary techniques

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hoorfar, A.

    2003-01-01

    Here an evolutionary programming algorithm is used to optimize the pattern of a corrugated circular horn subject to various constraints on return loss, antenna beamwidth, pattern circularity, and low cross polarization.

  6. An External Archive-Guided Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Qingling; Lin, Qiuzhen; Chen, Weineng; Wong, Ka-Chun; Coello Coello, Carlos A; Li, Jianqiang; Chen, Jianyong; Zhang, Jun

    2017-09-01

    The selection of swarm leaders (i.e., the personal best and global best), is important in the design of a multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm. Such leaders are expected to effectively guide the swarm to approach the true Pareto optimal front. In this paper, we present a novel external archive-guided MOPSO algorithm (AgMOPSO), where the leaders for velocity update are all selected from the external archive. In our algorithm, multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs) are transformed into a set of subproblems using a decomposition approach, and then each particle is assigned accordingly to optimize each subproblem. A novel archive-guided velocity update method is designed to guide the swarm for exploration, and the external archive is also evolved using an immune-based evolutionary strategy. These proposed approaches speed up the convergence of AgMOPSO. The experimental results fully demonstrate the superiority of our proposed AgMOPSO in solving most of the test problems adopted, in terms of two commonly used performance measures. Moreover, the effectiveness of our proposed archive-guided velocity update method and immune-based evolutionary strategy is also experimentally validated on more than 30 test MOPs.

  7. A Novel Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Regression Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Song, Zhiming; Wang, Maocai; Dai, Guangming; Vasile, Massimiliano

    2015-01-01

    As is known, the Pareto set of a continuous multiobjective optimization problem with m objective functions is a piecewise continuous (m − 1)-dimensional manifold in the decision space under some mild conditions. However, how to utilize the regularity to design multiobjective optimization algorithms has become the research focus. In this paper, based on this regularity, a model-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm with regression analysis (MMEA-RA) is put forward to solve continuous multiobjective optimization problems with variable linkages. In the algorithm, the optimization problem is modelled as a promising area in the decision space by a probability distribution, and the centroid of the probability distribution is (m − 1)-dimensional piecewise continuous manifold. The least squares method is used to construct such a model. A selection strategy based on the nondominated sorting is used to choose the individuals to the next generation. The new algorithm is tested and compared with NSGA-II and RM-MEDA. The result shows that MMEA-RA outperforms RM-MEDA and NSGA-II on the test instances with variable linkages. At the same time, MMEA-RA has higher efficiency than the other two algorithms. A few shortcomings of MMEA-RA have also been identified and discussed in this paper. PMID:25874246

  8. Sum-of-squares-based fuzzy controller design using quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Gwo-Ruey; Huang, Yu-Chia; Cheng, Chih-Yung

    2016-07-01

    In the field of fuzzy control, control gains are obtained by solving stabilisation conditions in linear-matrix-inequality-based Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy control method and sum-of-squares-based polynomial fuzzy control method. However, the optimal performance requirements are not considered under those stabilisation conditions. In order to handle specific performance problems, this paper proposes a novel design procedure with regard to polynomial fuzzy controllers using quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms. The first contribution of this paper is a combination of polynomial fuzzy control and quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms to undertake an optimal performance controller design. The second contribution is the proposed stability condition derived from the polynomial Lyapunov function. The proposed design approach is dissimilar to the traditional approach, in which control gains are obtained by solving the stabilisation conditions. The first step of the controller design uses the quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms to determine the control gains with the best performance. Then, the stability of the closed-loop system is analysed under the proposed stability conditions. To illustrate effectiveness and validity, the problem of balancing and the up-swing of an inverted pendulum on a cart is used.

  9. Tools for Accurate and Efficient Analysis of Complex Evolutionary Mechanisms in Microbial Genomes. Final Report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nakhleh, Luay

    I proposed to develop computationally efficient tools for accurate detection and reconstruction of microbes' complex evolutionary mechanisms, thus enabling rapid and accurate annotation, analysis and understanding of their genomes. To achieve this goal, I proposed to address three aspects. (1) Mathematical modeling. A major challenge facing the accurate detection of HGT is that of distinguishing between these two events on the one hand and other events that have similar "effects." I proposed to develop a novel mathematical approach for distinguishing among these events. Further, I proposed to develop a set of novel optimization criteria for the evolutionary analysis of microbialmore » genomes in the presence of these complex evolutionary events. (2) Algorithm design. In this aspect of the project, I proposed to develop an array of e cient and accurate algorithms for analyzing microbial genomes based on the formulated optimization criteria. Further, I proposed to test the viability of the criteria and the accuracy of the algorithms in an experimental setting using both synthetic as well as biological data. (3) Software development. I proposed the nal outcome to be a suite of software tools which implements the mathematical models as well as the algorithms developed.« less

  10. Predicting patchy particle crystals: variable box shape simulations and evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Bianchi, Emanuela; Doppelbauer, Günther; Filion, Laura; Dijkstra, Marjolein; Kahl, Gerhard

    2012-06-07

    We consider several patchy particle models that have been proposed in literature and we investigate their candidate crystal structures in a systematic way. We compare two different algorithms for predicting crystal structures: (i) an approach based on Monte Carlo simulations in the isobaric-isothermal ensemble and (ii) an optimization technique based on ideas of evolutionary algorithms. We show that the two methods are equally successful and provide consistent results on crystalline phases of patchy particle systems.

  11. Multiobjective Optimization of Rocket Engine Pumps Using Evolutionary Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oyama, Akira; Liou, Meng-Sing

    2001-01-01

    A design optimization method for turbopumps of cryogenic rocket engines has been developed. Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) is used for multiobjective pump design optimizations. Performances of design candidates are evaluated by using the meanline pump flow modeling method based on the Euler turbine equation coupled with empirical correlations for rotor efficiency. To demonstrate the feasibility of the present approach, a single stage centrifugal pump design and multistage pump design optimizations are presented. In both cases, the present method obtains very reasonable Pareto-optimal solutions that include some designs outperforming the original design in total head while reducing input power by one percent. Detailed observation of the design results also reveals some important design criteria for turbopumps in cryogenic rocket engines. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the EA-based design optimization method in this field.

  12. Multiobjective Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Using Pareto Differential Evolution and Generalized Response Surface Metamodels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madavan, Nateri K.

    2004-01-01

    Differential Evolution (DE) is a simple, fast, and robust evolutionary algorithm that has proven effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult single-objective optimization problems. The DE algorithm has been recently extended to multiobjective optimization problem by using a Pareto-based approach. In this paper, a Pareto DE algorithm is applied to multiobjective aerodynamic shape optimization problems that are characterized by computationally expensive objective function evaluations. To improve computational expensive the algorithm is coupled with generalized response surface meta-models based on artificial neural networks. Results are presented for some test optimization problems from the literature to demonstrate the capabilities of the method.

  13. A review of estimation of distribution algorithms in bioinformatics

    PubMed Central

    Armañanzas, Rubén; Inza, Iñaki; Santana, Roberto; Saeys, Yvan; Flores, Jose Luis; Lozano, Jose Antonio; Peer, Yves Van de; Blanco, Rosa; Robles, Víctor; Bielza, Concha; Larrañaga, Pedro

    2008-01-01

    Evolutionary search algorithms have become an essential asset in the algorithmic toolbox for solving high-dimensional optimization problems in across a broad range of bioinformatics problems. Genetic algorithms, the most well-known and representative evolutionary search technique, have been the subject of the major part of such applications. Estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) offer a novel evolutionary paradigm that constitutes a natural and attractive alternative to genetic algorithms. They make use of a probabilistic model, learnt from the promising solutions, to guide the search process. In this paper, we set out a basic taxonomy of EDA techniques, underlining the nature and complexity of the probabilistic model of each EDA variant. We review a set of innovative works that make use of EDA techniques to solve challenging bioinformatics problems, emphasizing the EDA paradigm's potential for further research in this domain. PMID:18822112

  14. Spatial multiobjective optimization of agricultural conservation practices using a SWAT model and an evolutionary algorithm.

    PubMed

    Rabotyagov, Sergey; Campbell, Todd; Valcu, Adriana; Gassman, Philip; Jha, Manoj; Schilling, Keith; Wolter, Calvin; Kling, Catherine

    2012-12-09

    Finding the cost-efficient (i.e., lowest-cost) ways of targeting conservation practice investments for the achievement of specific water quality goals across the landscape is of primary importance in watershed management. Traditional economics methods of finding the lowest-cost solution in the watershed context (e.g.,(5,12,20)) assume that off-site impacts can be accurately described as a proportion of on-site pollution generated. Such approaches are unlikely to be representative of the actual pollution process in a watershed, where the impacts of polluting sources are often determined by complex biophysical processes. The use of modern physically-based, spatially distributed hydrologic simulation models allows for a greater degree of realism in terms of process representation but requires a development of a simulation-optimization framework where the model becomes an integral part of optimization. Evolutionary algorithms appear to be a particularly useful optimization tool, able to deal with the combinatorial nature of a watershed simulation-optimization problem and allowing the use of the full water quality model. Evolutionary algorithms treat a particular spatial allocation of conservation practices in a watershed as a candidate solution and utilize sets (populations) of candidate solutions iteratively applying stochastic operators of selection, recombination, and mutation to find improvements with respect to the optimization objectives. The optimization objectives in this case are to minimize nonpoint-source pollution in the watershed, simultaneously minimizing the cost of conservation practices. A recent and expanding set of research is attempting to use similar methods and integrates water quality models with broadly defined evolutionary optimization methods(3,4,9,10,13-15,17-19,22,23,25). In this application, we demonstrate a program which follows Rabotyagov et al.'s approach and integrates a modern and commonly used SWAT water quality model(7) with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm SPEA2(26), and user-specified set of conservation practices and their costs to search for the complete tradeoff frontiers between costs of conservation practices and user-specified water quality objectives. The frontiers quantify the tradeoffs faced by the watershed managers by presenting the full range of costs associated with various water quality improvement goals. The program allows for a selection of watershed configurations achieving specified water quality improvement goals and a production of maps of optimized placement of conservation practices.

  15. Evolutionary Optimization of Quadrifilar Helical and Yagi-Uda Antennas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lohn, Jason D.; Kraus, William F.; Linden, Derek S.; Stoica, Adrian; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    We present optimization results obtained for two type of antennas using evolutionary algorithms. A quadrifilar helical UHF antenna is currently flying aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and is due to reach final Martian orbit insertion in January, 2002. Using this antenna as a benchmark, we ran experiments employing a coevolutionary genetic algorithm to evolve a quadrifilar helical design in-situ - i.e., in the presence of a surrounding structure. Results show a 93% improvement at 400 MHz and a 48% improvement at 438 MHz in the average gain. The evolved antenna is also one-fourth the size. Yagi-Uda antennas are known to be difficult to design and optimize due to their sensitivity at high gain and the inclusion of numerous parasitic elements. Our fitness calculation allows the implicit relationship between power gain and sidelobe/backlobe loss to emerge naturally, a technique that is less complex than previous approaches. Our results include Yagi-Uda antennas that have excellent bandwidth and gain properties with very good impedance characteristics. Results exceeded previous Yagi-Uda antennas produced via evolutionary algorithms by at least 7.8% in mainlobe gain.

  16. Hybridization of Strength Pareto Multiobjective Optimization with Modified Cuckoo Search Algorithm for Rectangular Array

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdul Rani, Khairul Najmy; Abdulmalek, Mohamedfareq; A. Rahim, Hasliza; Siew Chin, Neoh; Abd Wahab, Alawiyah

    2017-04-01

    This research proposes the various versions of modified cuckoo search (MCS) metaheuristic algorithm deploying the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA) multiobjective (MO) optimization technique in rectangular array geometry synthesis. Precisely, the MCS algorithm is proposed by incorporating the Roulette wheel selection operator to choose the initial host nests (individuals) that give better results, adaptive inertia weight to control the positions exploration of the potential best host nests (solutions), and dynamic discovery rate to manage the fraction probability of finding the best host nests in 3-dimensional search space. In addition, the MCS algorithm is hybridized with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) and hill climbing (HC) stochastic techniques along with the standard strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA) forming the MCSPSOSPEA and MCSHCSPEA, respectively. All the proposed MCS-based algorithms are examined to perform MO optimization on Zitzler-Deb-Thiele’s (ZDT’s) test functions. Pareto optimum trade-offs are done to generate a set of three non-dominated solutions, which are locations, excitation amplitudes, and excitation phases of array elements, respectively. Overall, simulations demonstrates that the proposed MCSPSOSPEA outperforms other compatible competitors, in gaining a high antenna directivity, small half-power beamwidth (HPBW), low average side lobe level (SLL) suppression, and/or significant predefined nulls mitigation, simultaneously.

  17. Designing synthetic networks in silico: a generalised evolutionary algorithm approach.

    PubMed

    Smith, Robert W; van Sluijs, Bob; Fleck, Christian

    2017-12-02

    Evolution has led to the development of biological networks that are shaped by environmental signals. Elucidating, understanding and then reconstructing important network motifs is one of the principal aims of Systems & Synthetic Biology. Consequently, previous research has focused on finding optimal network structures and reaction rates that respond to pulses or produce stable oscillations. In this work we present a generalised in silico evolutionary algorithm that simultaneously finds network structures and reaction rates (genotypes) that can satisfy multiple defined objectives (phenotypes). The key step to our approach is to translate a schema/binary-based description of biological networks into systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The ODEs can then be solved numerically to provide dynamic information about an evolved networks functionality. Initially we benchmark algorithm performance by finding optimal networks that can recapitulate concentration time-series data and perform parameter optimisation on oscillatory dynamics of the Repressilator. We go on to show the utility of our algorithm by finding new designs for robust synthetic oscillators, and by performing multi-objective optimisation to find a set of oscillators and feed-forward loops that are optimal at balancing different system properties. In sum, our results not only confirm and build on previous observations but we also provide new designs of synthetic oscillators for experimental construction. In this work we have presented and tested an evolutionary algorithm that can design a biological network to produce desired output. Given that previous designs of synthetic networks have been limited to subregions of network- and parameter-space, the use of our evolutionary optimisation algorithm will enable Synthetic Biologists to construct new systems with the potential to display a wider range of complex responses.

  18. A controllable sensor management algorithm capable of learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osadciw, Lisa A.; Veeramacheneni, Kalyan K.

    2005-03-01

    Sensor management technology progress is challenged by the geographic space it spans, the heterogeneity of the sensors, and the real-time timeframes within which plans controlling the assets are executed. This paper presents a new sensor management paradigm and demonstrates its application in a sensor management algorithm designed for a biometric access control system. This approach consists of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm focused on uncertainty measures, which makes the high level decisions to reduce uncertainties and interfaces with the user, integrated cohesively with a bottom up evolutionary algorithm, which optimizes the sensor network"s operation as determined by the AI algorithm. The sensor management algorithm presented is composed of a Bayesian network, the AI algorithm component, and a swarm optimization algorithm, the evolutionary algorithm. Thus, the algorithm can change its own performance goals in real-time and will modify its own decisions based on observed measures within the sensor network. The definition of the measures as well as the Bayesian network determine the robustness of the algorithm and its utility in reacting dynamically to changes in the global system.

  19. Particle swarm optimization: an alternative in marine propeller optimization?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vesting, F.; Bensow, R. E.

    2018-01-01

    This article deals with improving and evaluating the performance of two evolutionary algorithm approaches for automated engineering design optimization. Here a marine propeller design with constraints on cavitation nuisance is the intended application. For this purpose, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is adapted for multi-objective optimization and constraint handling for use in propeller design. Three PSO algorithms are developed and tested for the optimization of four commercial propeller designs for different ship types. The results are evaluated by interrogating the generation medians and the Pareto front development. The same propellers are also optimized utilizing the well established NSGA-II genetic algorithm to provide benchmark results. The authors' PSO algorithms deliver comparable results to NSGA-II, but converge earlier and enhance the solution in terms of constraints violation.

  20. Turbomachinery Airfoil Design Optimization Using Differential Evolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madavan, Nateri K.; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    An aerodynamic design optimization procedure that is based on a evolutionary algorithm known at Differential Evolution is described. Differential Evolution is a simple, fast, and robust evolutionary strategy that has been proven effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult optimization problems, including highly nonlinear systems with discontinuities and multiple local optima. The method is combined with a Navier-Stokes solver that evaluates the various intermediate designs and provides inputs to the optimization procedure. An efficient constraint handling mechanism is also incorporated. Results are presented for the inverse design of a turbine airfoil from a modern jet engine. The capability of the method to search large design spaces and obtain the optimal airfoils in an automatic fashion is demonstrated. Substantial reductions in the overall computing time requirements are achieved by using the algorithm in conjunction with neural networks.

  1. An adaptive evolutionary multi-objective approach based on simulated annealing.

    PubMed

    Li, H; Landa-Silva, D

    2011-01-01

    A multi-objective optimization problem can be solved by decomposing it into one or more single objective subproblems in some multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms. Each subproblem corresponds to one weighted aggregation function. For example, MOEA/D is an evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) algorithm that attempts to optimize multiple subproblems simultaneously by evolving a population of solutions. However, the performance of MOEA/D highly depends on the initial setting and diversity of the weight vectors. In this paper, we present an improved version of MOEA/D, called EMOSA, which incorporates an advanced local search technique (simulated annealing) and adapts the search directions (weight vectors) corresponding to various subproblems. In EMOSA, the weight vector of each subproblem is adaptively modified at the lowest temperature in order to diversify the search toward the unexplored parts of the Pareto-optimal front. Our computational results show that EMOSA outperforms six other well established multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms on both the (constrained) multi-objective knapsack problem and the (unconstrained) multi-objective traveling salesman problem. Moreover, the effects of the main algorithmic components and parameter sensitivities on the search performance of EMOSA are experimentally investigated.

  2. Fuzzy multi objective transportation problem – evolutionary algorithm approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karthy, T.; Ganesan, K.

    2018-04-01

    This paper deals with fuzzy multi objective transportation problem. An fuzzy optimal compromise solution is obtained by using Fuzzy Genetic Algorithm. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the methodology.

  3. Designing a parallel evolutionary algorithm for inferring gene networks on the cloud computing environment.

    PubMed

    Lee, Wei-Po; Hsiao, Yu-Ting; Hwang, Wei-Che

    2014-01-16

    To improve the tedious task of reconstructing gene networks through testing experimentally the possible interactions between genes, it becomes a trend to adopt the automated reverse engineering procedure instead. Some evolutionary algorithms have been suggested for deriving network parameters. However, to infer large networks by the evolutionary algorithm, it is necessary to address two important issues: premature convergence and high computational cost. To tackle the former problem and to enhance the performance of traditional evolutionary algorithms, it is advisable to use parallel model evolutionary algorithms. To overcome the latter and to speed up the computation, it is advocated to adopt the mechanism of cloud computing as a promising solution: most popular is the method of MapReduce programming model, a fault-tolerant framework to implement parallel algorithms for inferring large gene networks. This work presents a practical framework to infer large gene networks, by developing and parallelizing a hybrid GA-PSO optimization method. Our parallel method is extended to work with the Hadoop MapReduce programming model and is executed in different cloud computing environments. To evaluate the proposed approach, we use a well-known open-source software GeneNetWeaver to create several yeast S. cerevisiae sub-networks and use them to produce gene profiles. Experiments have been conducted and the results have been analyzed. They show that our parallel approach can be successfully used to infer networks with desired behaviors and the computation time can be largely reduced. Parallel population-based algorithms can effectively determine network parameters and they perform better than the widely-used sequential algorithms in gene network inference. These parallel algorithms can be distributed to the cloud computing environment to speed up the computation. By coupling the parallel model population-based optimization method and the parallel computational framework, high quality solutions can be obtained within relatively short time. This integrated approach is a promising way for inferring large networks.

  4. Designing a parallel evolutionary algorithm for inferring gene networks on the cloud computing environment

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background To improve the tedious task of reconstructing gene networks through testing experimentally the possible interactions between genes, it becomes a trend to adopt the automated reverse engineering procedure instead. Some evolutionary algorithms have been suggested for deriving network parameters. However, to infer large networks by the evolutionary algorithm, it is necessary to address two important issues: premature convergence and high computational cost. To tackle the former problem and to enhance the performance of traditional evolutionary algorithms, it is advisable to use parallel model evolutionary algorithms. To overcome the latter and to speed up the computation, it is advocated to adopt the mechanism of cloud computing as a promising solution: most popular is the method of MapReduce programming model, a fault-tolerant framework to implement parallel algorithms for inferring large gene networks. Results This work presents a practical framework to infer large gene networks, by developing and parallelizing a hybrid GA-PSO optimization method. Our parallel method is extended to work with the Hadoop MapReduce programming model and is executed in different cloud computing environments. To evaluate the proposed approach, we use a well-known open-source software GeneNetWeaver to create several yeast S. cerevisiae sub-networks and use them to produce gene profiles. Experiments have been conducted and the results have been analyzed. They show that our parallel approach can be successfully used to infer networks with desired behaviors and the computation time can be largely reduced. Conclusions Parallel population-based algorithms can effectively determine network parameters and they perform better than the widely-used sequential algorithms in gene network inference. These parallel algorithms can be distributed to the cloud computing environment to speed up the computation. By coupling the parallel model population-based optimization method and the parallel computational framework, high quality solutions can be obtained within relatively short time. This integrated approach is a promising way for inferring large networks. PMID:24428926

  5. Optimizing a reconfigurable material via evolutionary computation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilken, Sam; Miskin, Marc Z.; Jaeger, Heinrich M.

    2015-08-01

    Rapid prototyping by combining evolutionary computation with simulations is becoming a powerful tool for solving complex design problems in materials science. This method of optimization operates in a virtual design space that simulates potential material behaviors and after completion needs to be validated by experiment. However, in principle an evolutionary optimizer can also operate on an actual physical structure or laboratory experiment directly, provided the relevant material parameters can be accessed by the optimizer and information about the material's performance can be updated by direct measurements. Here we provide a proof of concept of such direct, physical optimization by showing how a reconfigurable, highly nonlinear material can be tuned to respond to impact. We report on an entirely computer controlled laboratory experiment in which a 6 ×6 grid of electromagnets creates a magnetic field pattern that tunes the local rigidity of a concentrated suspension of ferrofluid and iron filings. A genetic algorithm is implemented and tasked to find field patterns that minimize the force transmitted through the suspension. Searching within a space of roughly 1010 possible configurations, after testing only 1500 independent trials the algorithm identifies an optimized configuration of layered rigid and compliant regions.

  6. Improving Environmental Model Calibration and Prediction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-01-18

    REPORT Final Report - Improving Environmental Model Calibration and Prediction 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: First, we have continued to...develop tools for efficient global optimization of environmental models. Our algorithms are hybrid algorithms that combine evolutionary strategies...toward practical hybrid optimization tools for environmental models. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 18-01-2011 13

  7. Optimal GENCO bidding strategy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Feng

    Electricity industries worldwide are undergoing a period of profound upheaval. The conventional vertically integrated mechanism is being replaced by a competitive market environment. Generation companies have incentives to apply novel technologies to lower production costs, for example: Combined Cycle units. Economic dispatch with Combined Cycle units becomes a non-convex optimization problem, which is difficult if not impossible to solve by conventional methods. Several techniques are proposed here: Mixed Integer Linear Programming, a hybrid method, as well as Evolutionary Algorithms. Evolutionary Algorithms share a common mechanism, stochastic searching per generation. The stochastic property makes evolutionary algorithms robust and adaptive enough to solve a non-convex optimization problem. This research implements GA, EP, and PS algorithms for economic dispatch with Combined Cycle units, and makes a comparison with classical Mixed Integer Linear Programming. The electricity market equilibrium model not only helps Independent System Operator/Regulator analyze market performance and market power, but also provides Market Participants the ability to build optimal bidding strategies based on Microeconomics analysis. Supply Function Equilibrium (SFE) is attractive compared to traditional models. This research identifies a proper SFE model, which can be applied to a multiple period situation. The equilibrium condition using discrete time optimal control is then developed for fuel resource constraints. Finally, the research discusses the issues of multiple equilibria and mixed strategies, which are caused by the transmission network. Additionally, an advantage of the proposed model for merchant transmission planning is discussed. A market simulator is a valuable training and evaluation tool to assist sellers, buyers, and regulators to understand market performance and make better decisions. A traditional optimization model may not be enough to consider the distributed, large-scale, and complex energy market. This research compares the performance and searching paths of different artificial life techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Evolutionary Programming (EP), and Particle Swarm (PS), and look for a proper method to emulate Generation Companies' (GENCOs) bidding strategies. After deregulation, GENCOs face risk and uncertainty associated with the fast-changing market environment. A profit-based bidding decision support system is critical for GENCOs to keep a competitive position in the new environment. Most past research do not pay special attention to the piecewise staircase characteristic of generator offer curves. This research proposes an optimal bidding strategy based on Parametric Linear Programming. The proposed algorithm is able to handle actual piecewise staircase energy offer curves. The proposed method is then extended to incorporate incomplete information based on Decision Analysis. Finally, the author develops an optimal bidding tool (GenBidding) and applies it to the RTS96 test system.

  8. An improved parent-centric mutation with normalized neighborhoods for inducing niching behavior in differential evolution.

    PubMed

    Biswas, Subhodip; Kundu, Souvik; Das, Swagatam

    2014-10-01

    In real life, we often need to find multiple optimally sustainable solutions of an optimization problem. Evolutionary multimodal optimization algorithms can be very helpful in such cases. They detect and maintain multiple optimal solutions during the run by incorporating specialized niching operations in their actual framework. Differential evolution (DE) is a powerful evolutionary algorithm (EA) well-known for its ability and efficiency as a single peak global optimizer for continuous spaces. This article suggests a niching scheme integrated with DE for achieving a stable and efficient niching behavior by combining the newly proposed parent-centric mutation operator with synchronous crowding replacement rule. The proposed approach is designed by considering the difficulties associated with the problem dependent niching parameters (like niche radius) and does not make use of such control parameter. The mutation operator helps to maintain the population diversity at an optimum level by using well-defined local neighborhoods. Based on a comparative study involving 13 well-known state-of-the-art niching EAs tested on an extensive collection of benchmarks, we observe a consistent statistical superiority enjoyed by our proposed niching algorithm.

  9. Evolutionary algorithm for optimization of nonimaging Fresnel lens geometry.

    PubMed

    Yamada, N; Nishikawa, T

    2010-06-21

    In this study, an evolutionary algorithm (EA), which consists of genetic and immune algorithms, is introduced to design the optical geometry of a nonimaging Fresnel lens; this lens generates the uniform flux concentration required for a photovoltaic cell. Herein, a design procedure that incorporates a ray-tracing technique in the EA is described, and the validity of the design is demonstrated. The results show that the EA automatically generated a unique geometry of the Fresnel lens; the use of this geometry resulted in better uniform flux concentration with high optical efficiency.

  10. Framework for computationally efficient optimal irrigation scheduling using ant colony optimization

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    A general optimization framework is introduced with the overall goal of reducing search space size and increasing the computational efficiency of evolutionary algorithm application for optimal irrigation scheduling. The framework achieves this goal by representing the problem in the form of a decisi...

  11. Metaheuristic Optimization and its Applications in Earth Sciences

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Xin-She

    2010-05-01

    A common but challenging task in modelling geophysical and geological processes is to handle massive data and to minimize certain objectives. This can essentially be considered as an optimization problem, and thus many new efficient metaheuristic optimization algorithms can be used. In this paper, we will introduce some modern metaheuristic optimization algorithms such as genetic algorithms, harmony search, firefly algorithm, particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing. We will also discuss how these algorithms can be applied to various applications in earth sciences, including nonlinear least-squares, support vector machine, Kriging, inverse finite element analysis, and data-mining. We will present a few examples to show how different problems can be reformulated as optimization. Finally, we will make some recommendations for choosing various algorithms to suit various problems. References 1) D. H. Wolpert and W. G. Macready, No free lunch theorems for optimization, IEEE Trans. Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 1, 67-82 (1997). 2) X. S. Yang, Nature-Inspired Metaheuristic Algorithms, Luniver Press, (2008). 3) X. S. Yang, Mathematical Modelling for Earth Sciences, Dunedin Academic Press, (2008).

  12. Concepts and applications of "natural computing" techniques in de novo drug and peptide design.

    PubMed

    Hiss, Jan A; Hartenfeller, Markus; Schneider, Gisbert

    2010-05-01

    Evolutionary algorithms, particle swarm optimization, and ant colony optimization have emerged as robust optimization methods for molecular modeling and peptide design. Such algorithms mimic combinatorial molecule assembly by using molecular fragments as building-blocks for compound construction, and relying on adaptation and emergence of desired pharmacological properties in a population of virtual molecules. Nature-inspired algorithms might be particularly suited for bioisosteric replacement or scaffold-hopping from complex natural products to synthetically more easily accessible compounds that are amenable to optimization by medicinal chemistry. The theory and applications of selected nature-inspired algorithms for drug design are reviewed, together with practical applications and a discussion of their advantages and limitations.

  13. A Food Chain Algorithm for Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Recycling in Reverse Logistics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Qiang; Gao, Xuexia; Santos, Emmanuel T.

    2015-12-01

    This paper introduces the capacitated vehicle routing problem with recycling in reverse logistics, and designs a food chain algorithm for it. Some illustrative examples are selected to conduct simulation and comparison. Numerical results show that the performance of the food chain algorithm is better than the genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization as well as quantum evolutionary algorithm.

  14. An Automated Pipeline for Engineering Many-Enzyme Pathways: Computational Sequence Design, Pathway Expression-Flux Mapping, and Scalable Pathway Optimization.

    PubMed

    Halper, Sean M; Cetnar, Daniel P; Salis, Howard M

    2018-01-01

    Engineering many-enzyme metabolic pathways suffers from the design curse of dimensionality. There are an astronomical number of synonymous DNA sequence choices, though relatively few will express an evolutionary robust, maximally productive pathway without metabolic bottlenecks. To solve this challenge, we have developed an integrated, automated computational-experimental pipeline that identifies a pathway's optimal DNA sequence without high-throughput screening or many cycles of design-build-test. The first step applies our Operon Calculator algorithm to design a host-specific evolutionary robust bacterial operon sequence with maximally tunable enzyme expression levels. The second step applies our RBS Library Calculator algorithm to systematically vary enzyme expression levels with the smallest-sized library. After characterizing a small number of constructed pathway variants, measurements are supplied to our Pathway Map Calculator algorithm, which then parameterizes a kinetic metabolic model that ultimately predicts the pathway's optimal enzyme expression levels and DNA sequences. Altogether, our algorithms provide the ability to efficiently map the pathway's sequence-expression-activity space and predict DNA sequences with desired metabolic fluxes. Here, we provide a step-by-step guide to applying the Pathway Optimization Pipeline on a desired multi-enzyme pathway in a bacterial host.

  15. Multi-Objective Community Detection Based on Memetic Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Community detection has drawn a lot of attention as it can provide invaluable help in understanding the function and visualizing the structure of networks. Since single objective optimization methods have intrinsic drawbacks to identifying multiple significant community structures, some methods formulate the community detection as multi-objective problems and adopt population-based evolutionary algorithms to obtain multiple community structures. Evolutionary algorithms have strong global search ability, but have difficulty in locating local optima efficiently. In this study, in order to identify multiple significant community structures more effectively, a multi-objective memetic algorithm for community detection is proposed by combining multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with a local search procedure. The local search procedure is designed by addressing three issues. Firstly, nondominated solutions generated by evolutionary operations and solutions in dominant population are set as initial individuals for local search procedure. Then, a new direction vector named as pseudonormal vector is proposed to integrate two objective functions together to form a fitness function. Finally, a network specific local search strategy based on label propagation rule is expanded to search the local optimal solutions efficiently. The extensive experiments on both artificial and real-world networks evaluate the proposed method from three aspects. Firstly, experiments on influence of local search procedure demonstrate that the local search procedure can speed up the convergence to better partitions and make the algorithm more stable. Secondly, comparisons with a set of classic community detection methods illustrate the proposed method can find single partitions effectively. Finally, the method is applied to identify hierarchical structures of networks which are beneficial for analyzing networks in multi-resolution levels. PMID:25932646

  16. Multi-objective community detection based on memetic algorithm.

    PubMed

    Wu, Peng; Pan, Li

    2015-01-01

    Community detection has drawn a lot of attention as it can provide invaluable help in understanding the function and visualizing the structure of networks. Since single objective optimization methods have intrinsic drawbacks to identifying multiple significant community structures, some methods formulate the community detection as multi-objective problems and adopt population-based evolutionary algorithms to obtain multiple community structures. Evolutionary algorithms have strong global search ability, but have difficulty in locating local optima efficiently. In this study, in order to identify multiple significant community structures more effectively, a multi-objective memetic algorithm for community detection is proposed by combining multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with a local search procedure. The local search procedure is designed by addressing three issues. Firstly, nondominated solutions generated by evolutionary operations and solutions in dominant population are set as initial individuals for local search procedure. Then, a new direction vector named as pseudonormal vector is proposed to integrate two objective functions together to form a fitness function. Finally, a network specific local search strategy based on label propagation rule is expanded to search the local optimal solutions efficiently. The extensive experiments on both artificial and real-world networks evaluate the proposed method from three aspects. Firstly, experiments on influence of local search procedure demonstrate that the local search procedure can speed up the convergence to better partitions and make the algorithm more stable. Secondly, comparisons with a set of classic community detection methods illustrate the proposed method can find single partitions effectively. Finally, the method is applied to identify hierarchical structures of networks which are beneficial for analyzing networks in multi-resolution levels.

  17. Evolving cell models for systems and synthetic biology.

    PubMed

    Cao, Hongqing; Romero-Campero, Francisco J; Heeb, Stephan; Cámara, Miguel; Krasnogor, Natalio

    2010-03-01

    This paper proposes a new methodology for the automated design of cell models for systems and synthetic biology. Our modelling framework is based on P systems, a discrete, stochastic and modular formal modelling language. The automated design of biological models comprising the optimization of the model structure and its stochastic kinetic constants is performed using an evolutionary algorithm. The evolutionary algorithm evolves model structures by combining different modules taken from a predefined module library and then it fine-tunes the associated stochastic kinetic constants. We investigate four alternative objective functions for the fitness calculation within the evolutionary algorithm: (1) equally weighted sum method, (2) normalization method, (3) randomly weighted sum method, and (4) equally weighted product method. The effectiveness of the methodology is tested on four case studies of increasing complexity including negative and positive autoregulation as well as two gene networks implementing a pulse generator and a bandwidth detector. We provide a systematic analysis of the evolutionary algorithm's results as well as of the resulting evolved cell models.

  18. Single- and Multiple-Objective Optimization with Differential Evolution and Neural Networks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rai, Man Mohan

    2006-01-01

    Genetic and evolutionary algorithms have been applied to solve numerous problems in engineering design where they have been used primarily as optimization procedures. These methods have an advantage over conventional gradient-based search procedures became they are capable of finding global optima of multi-modal functions and searching design spaces with disjoint feasible regions. They are also robust in the presence of noisy data. Another desirable feature of these methods is that they can efficiently use distributed and parallel computing resources since multiple function evaluations (flow simulations in aerodynamics design) can be performed simultaneously and independently on ultiple processors. For these reasons genetic and evolutionary algorithms are being used more frequently in design optimization. Examples include airfoil and wing design and compressor and turbine airfoil design. They are also finding increasing use in multiple-objective and multidisciplinary optimization. This lecture will focus on an evolutionary method that is a relatively new member to the general class of evolutionary methods called differential evolution (DE). This method is easy to use and program and it requires relatively few user-specified constants. These constants are easily determined for a wide class of problems. Fine-tuning the constants will off course yield the solution to the optimization problem at hand more rapidly. DE can be efficiently implemented on parallel computers and can be used for continuous, discrete and mixed discrete/continuous optimization problems. It does not require the objective function to be continuous and is noise tolerant. DE and applications to single and multiple-objective optimization will be included in the presentation and lecture notes. A method for aerodynamic design optimization that is based on neural networks will also be included as a part of this lecture. The method offers advantages over traditional optimization methods. It is more flexible than other methods in dealing with design in the context of both steady and unsteady flows, partial and complete data sets, combined experimental and numerical data, inclusion of various constraints and rules of thumb, and other issues that characterize the aerodynamic design process. Neural networks provide a natural framework within which a succession of numerical solutions of increasing fidelity, incorporating more realistic flow physics, can be represented and utilized for optimization. Neural networks also offer an excellent framework for multiple-objective and multi-disciplinary design optimization. Simulation tools from various disciplines can be integrated within this framework and rapid trade-off studies involving one or many disciplines can be performed. The prospect of combining neural network based optimization methods and evolutionary algorithms to obtain a hybrid method with the best properties of both methods will be included in this presentation. Achieving solution diversity and accurate convergence to the exact Pareto front in multiple objective optimization usually requires a significant computational effort with evolutionary algorithms. In this lecture we will also explore the possibility of using neural networks to obtain estimates of the Pareto optimal front using non-dominated solutions generated by DE as training data. Neural network estimators have the potential advantage of reducing the number of function evaluations required to obtain solution accuracy and diversity, thus reducing cost to design.

  19. A hybrid flower pollination algorithm based modified randomized location for multi-threshold medical image segmentation.

    PubMed

    Wang, Rui; Zhou, Yongquan; Zhao, Chengyan; Wu, Haizhou

    2015-01-01

    Multi-threshold image segmentation is a powerful image processing technique that is used for the preprocessing of pattern recognition and computer vision. However, traditional multilevel thresholding methods are computationally expensive because they involve exhaustively searching the optimal thresholds to optimize the objective functions. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a flower pollination algorithm with a randomized location modification. The proposed algorithm is used to find optimal threshold values for maximizing Otsu's objective functions with regard to eight medical grayscale images. When benchmarked against other state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms, the new algorithm proves itself to be robust and effective through numerical experimental results including Otsu's objective values and standard deviations.

  20. Fundamental resource-allocating model in colleges and universities based on Immune Clone Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ye, Mengdie

    2017-05-01

    In this thesis we will seek the combination of antibodies and antigens converted from the optimal course arrangement and make an analogy with Immune Clone Algorithms. According to the character of the Algorithms, we apply clone, clone gene and clone selection to arrange courses. Clone operator can combine evolutionary search and random search, global search and local search. By cloning and clone mutating candidate solutions, we can find the global optimal solution quickly.

  1. Hybrid Microgrid Configuration Optimization with Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lopez, Nicolas

    This dissertation explores the Renewable Energy Integration Problem, and proposes a Genetic Algorithm embedded with a Monte Carlo simulation to solve large instances of the problem that are impractical to solve via full enumeration. The Renewable Energy Integration Problem is defined as finding the optimum set of components to supply the electric demand to a hybrid microgrid. The components considered are solar panels, wind turbines, diesel generators, electric batteries, connections to the power grid and converters, which can be inverters and/or rectifiers. The methodology developed is explained as well as the combinatorial formulation. In addition, 2 case studies of a single objective optimization version of the problem are presented, in order to minimize cost and to minimize global warming potential (GWP) followed by a multi-objective implementation of the offered methodology, by utilizing a non-sorting Genetic Algorithm embedded with a monte Carlo Simulation. The method is validated by solving a small instance of the problem with known solution via a full enumeration algorithm developed by NREL in their software HOMER. The dissertation concludes that the evolutionary algorithms embedded with Monte Carlo simulation namely modified Genetic Algorithms are an efficient form of solving the problem, by finding approximate solutions in the case of single objective optimization, and by approximating the true Pareto front in the case of multiple objective optimization of the Renewable Energy Integration Problem.

  2. EEG/ERP adaptive noise canceller design with controlled search space (CSS) approach in cuckoo and other optimization algorithms.

    PubMed

    Ahirwal, M K; Kumar, Anil; Singh, G K

    2013-01-01

    This paper explores the migration of adaptive filtering with swarm intelligence/evolutionary techniques employed in the field of electroencephalogram/event-related potential noise cancellation or extraction. A new approach is proposed in the form of controlled search space to stabilize the randomness of swarm intelligence techniques especially for the EEG signal. Swarm-based algorithms such as Particles Swarm Optimization, Artificial Bee Colony, and Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm with their variants are implemented to design optimized adaptive noise canceler. The proposed controlled search space technique is tested on each of the swarm intelligence techniques and is found to be more accurate and powerful. Adaptive noise canceler with traditional algorithms such as least-mean-square, normalized least-mean-square, and recursive least-mean-square algorithms are also implemented to compare the results. ERP signals such as simulated visual evoked potential, real visual evoked potential, and real sensorimotor evoked potential are used, due to their physiological importance in various EEG studies. Average computational time and shape measures of evolutionary techniques are observed 8.21E-01 sec and 1.73E-01, respectively. Though, traditional algorithms take negligible time consumption, but are unable to offer good shape preservation of ERP, noticed as average computational time and shape measure difference, 1.41E-02 sec and 2.60E+00, respectively.

  3. Classifier-Guided Sampling for Complex Energy System Optimization

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Backlund, Peter B.; Eddy, John P.

    2015-09-01

    This report documents the results of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) effort enti tled "Classifier - Guided Sampling for Complex Energy System Optimization" that was conducted during FY 2014 and FY 2015. The goal of this proj ect was to develop, implement, and test major improvements to the classifier - guided sampling (CGS) algorithm. CGS is type of evolutionary algorithm for perform ing search and optimization over a set of discrete design variables in the face of one or more objective functions. E xisting evolutionary algorithms, such as genetic algorithms , may require a large number of omore » bjecti ve function evaluations to identify optimal or near - optimal solutions . Reducing the number of evaluations can result in significant time savings, especially if the objective function is computationally expensive. CGS reduce s the evaluation count by us ing a Bayesian network classifier to filter out non - promising candidate designs , prior to evaluation, based on their posterior probabilit ies . In this project, b oth the single - objective and multi - objective version s of the CGS are developed and tested on a set of benchm ark problems. As a domain - specific case study, CGS is used to design a microgrid for use in islanded mode during an extended bulk power grid outage.« less

  4. Improved Evolutionary Programming with Various Crossover Techniques for Optimal Power Flow Problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tangpatiphan, Kritsana; Yokoyama, Akihiko

    This paper presents an Improved Evolutionary Programming (IEP) for solving the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem, which is considered as a non-linear, non-smooth, and multimodal optimization problem in power system operation. The total generator fuel cost is regarded as an objective function to be minimized. The proposed method is an Evolutionary Programming (EP)-based algorithm with making use of various crossover techniques, normally applied in Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA). The effectiveness of the proposed approach is investigated on the IEEE 30-bus system with three different types of fuel cost functions; namely the quadratic cost curve, the piecewise quadratic cost curve, and the quadratic cost curve superimposed by sine component. These three cost curves represent the generator fuel cost functions with a simplified model and more accurate models of a combined-cycle generating unit and a thermal unit with value-point loading effect respectively. The OPF solutions by the proposed method and Pure Evolutionary Programming (PEP) are observed and compared. The simulation results indicate that IEP requires less computing time than PEP with better solutions in some cases. Moreover, the influences of important IEP parameters on the OPF solution are described in details.

  5. δ-Similar Elimination to Enhance Search Performance of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aguirre, Hernán; Sato, Masahiko; Tanaka, Kiyoshi

    In this paper, we propose δ-similar elimination to improve the search performance of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms in combinatorial optimization problems. This method eliminates similar individuals in objective space to fairly distribute selection among the different regions of the instantaneous Pareto front. We investigate four eliminating methods analyzing their effects using NSGA-II. In addition, we compare the search performance of NSGA-II enhanced by our method and NSGA-II enhanced by controlled elitism.

  6. An Empirical Comparison of Seven Iterative and Evolutionary Function Optimization Heuristics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baluja, Shumeet

    1995-01-01

    This report is a repository of the results obtained from a large scale empirical comparison of seven iterative and evolution-based optimization heuristics. Twenty-seven static optimization problems, spanning six sets of problem classes which are commonly explored in genetic algorithm literature, are examined. The problem sets include job-shop scheduling, traveling salesman, knapsack, binpacking, neural network weight optimization, and standard numerical optimization. The search spaces in these problems range from 2368 to 22040. The results indicate that using genetic algorithms for the optimization of static functions does not yield a benefit, in terms of the final answer obtained, over simpler optimization heuristics. Descriptions of the algorithms tested and the encodings of the problems are described in detail for reproducibility.

  7. Range image registration based on hash map and moth-flame optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zou, Li; Ge, Baozhen; Chen, Lei

    2018-03-01

    Over the past decade, evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been introduced to solve range image registration problems because of their robustness and high precision. However, EA-based range image registration algorithms are time-consuming. To reduce the computational time, an EA-based range image registration algorithm using hash map and moth-flame optimization is proposed. In this registration algorithm, a hash map is used to avoid over-exploitation in registration process. Additionally, we present a search equation that is better at exploration and a restart mechanism to avoid being trapped in local minima. We compare the proposed registration algorithm with the registration algorithms using moth-flame optimization and several state-of-the-art EA-based registration algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a lower computational cost than other algorithms and achieves similar registration precision.

  8. Structures vibration control via Tuned Mass Dampers using a co-evolution Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Camacho-Gómez, C.; Magdaleno, A.; Pereira, E.; Lorenzana, A.

    2017-04-01

    In this paper we tackle a problem of optimal design and location of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) for structures subjected to earthquake ground motions, using a novel meta-heuristic algorithm. Specifically, the Coral Reefs Optimization (CRO) with Substrate Layer (CRO-SL) is proposed as a competitive co-evolution algorithm with different exploration procedures within a single population of solutions. The proposed approach is able to solve the TMD design and location problem, by exploiting the combination of different types of searching mechanisms. This promotes a powerful evolutionary-like algorithm for optimization problems, which is shown to be very effective in this particular problem of TMDs tuning. The proposed algorithm's performance has been evaluated and compared with several reference algorithms in two building models with two and four floors, respectively.

  9. Performance and robustness of optimal fractional fuzzy PID controllers for pitch control of a wind turbine using chaotic optimization algorithms.

    PubMed

    Asgharnia, Amirhossein; Shahnazi, Reza; Jamali, Ali

    2018-05-11

    The most studied controller for pitch control of wind turbines is proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. However, due to uncertainties in wind turbine modeling and wind speed profiles, the need for more effective controllers is inevitable. On the other hand, the parameters of PID controller usually are unknown and should be selected by the designer which is neither a straightforward task nor optimal. To cope with these drawbacks, in this paper, two advanced controllers called fuzzy PID (FPID) and fractional-order fuzzy PID (FOFPID) are proposed to improve the pitch control performance. Meanwhile, to find the parameters of the controllers the chaotic evolutionary optimization methods are used. Using evolutionary optimization methods not only gives us the unknown parameters of the controllers but also guarantees the optimality based on the chosen objective function. To improve the performance of the evolutionary algorithms chaotic maps are used. All the optimization procedures are applied to the 2-mass model of 5-MW wind turbine model. The proposed optimal controllers are validated using simulator FAST developed by NREL. Simulation results demonstrate that the FOFPID controller can reach to better performance and robustness while guaranteeing fewer fatigue damages in different wind speeds in comparison to FPID, fractional-order PID (FOPID) and gain-scheduling PID (GSPID) controllers. Copyright © 2018 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Crossover versus mutation: a comparative analysis of the evolutionary strategy of genetic algorithms applied to combinatorial optimization problems.

    PubMed

    Osaba, E; Carballedo, R; Diaz, F; Onieva, E; de la Iglesia, I; Perallos, A

    2014-01-01

    Since their first formulation, genetic algorithms (GAs) have been one of the most widely used techniques to solve combinatorial optimization problems. The basic structure of the GAs is known by the scientific community, and thanks to their easy application and good performance, GAs are the focus of a lot of research works annually. Although throughout history there have been many studies analyzing various concepts of GAs, in the literature there are few studies that analyze objectively the influence of using blind crossover operators for combinatorial optimization problems. For this reason, in this paper a deep study on the influence of using them is conducted. The study is based on a comparison of nine techniques applied to four well-known combinatorial optimization problems. Six of the techniques are GAs with different configurations, and the remaining three are evolutionary algorithms that focus exclusively on the mutation process. Finally, to perform a reliable comparison of these results, a statistical study of them is made, performing the normal distribution z-test.

  11. Crossover versus Mutation: A Comparative Analysis of the Evolutionary Strategy of Genetic Algorithms Applied to Combinatorial Optimization Problems

    PubMed Central

    Osaba, E.; Carballedo, R.; Diaz, F.; Onieva, E.; de la Iglesia, I.; Perallos, A.

    2014-01-01

    Since their first formulation, genetic algorithms (GAs) have been one of the most widely used techniques to solve combinatorial optimization problems. The basic structure of the GAs is known by the scientific community, and thanks to their easy application and good performance, GAs are the focus of a lot of research works annually. Although throughout history there have been many studies analyzing various concepts of GAs, in the literature there are few studies that analyze objectively the influence of using blind crossover operators for combinatorial optimization problems. For this reason, in this paper a deep study on the influence of using them is conducted. The study is based on a comparison of nine techniques applied to four well-known combinatorial optimization problems. Six of the techniques are GAs with different configurations, and the remaining three are evolutionary algorithms that focus exclusively on the mutation process. Finally, to perform a reliable comparison of these results, a statistical study of them is made, performing the normal distribution z-test. PMID:25165731

  12. Development of mathematical models and optimization of the process parameters of laser surface hardened EN25 steel using elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vignesh, S.; Dinesh Babu, P.; Surya, G.; Dinesh, S.; Marimuthu, P.

    2018-02-01

    The ultimate goal of all production entities is to select the process parameters that would be of maximum strength, minimum wear and friction. The friction and wear are serious problems in most of the industries which are influenced by the working set of parameters, oxidation characteristics and mechanism involved in formation of wear. The experimental input parameters such as sliding distance, applied load, and temperature are utilized in finding out the optimized solution for achieving the desired output responses such as coefficient of friction, wear rate, and volume loss. The optimization is performed with the help of a novel method, Elitist Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) based on an evolutionary algorithm. The regression equations obtained using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) are used in determining the optimum process parameters. Further, the results achieved through desirability approach in RSM are compared with that of the optimized solution obtained through NSGA-II. The results conclude that proposed evolutionary technique is much effective and faster than the desirability approach.

  13. Multi-Objectives Optimization of Ventilation Controllers for Passive Cooling in Residential Buildings

    PubMed Central

    Grygierek, Krzysztof; Ferdyn-Grygierek, Joanna

    2018-01-01

    An inappropriate indoor climate, mostly indoor temperature, may cause occupants’ discomfort. There are a great number of air conditioning systems that make it possible to maintain the required thermal comfort. Their installation, however, involves high investment costs and high energy demand. The study analyses the possibilities of limiting too high a temperature in residential buildings using passive cooling by means of ventilation with ambient cool air. A fuzzy logic controller whose aim is to control mechanical ventilation has been proposed and optimized. In order to optimize the controller, the modified Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm, based on the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm, has been adopted. The optimization algorithm has been implemented in MATLAB®, which is coupled by MLE+ with EnergyPlus for performing dynamic co-simulation between the programs. The example of a single detached building shows that the occupants’ thermal comfort in a transitional climate may improve significantly owing to mechanical ventilation controlled by the suggested fuzzy logic controller. When the system is connected to the traditional cooling system, it may further bring about a decrease in cooling demand. PMID:29642525

  14. Application of Neural Network Optimized by Mind Evolutionary Computation in Building Energy Prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Chen; Zhong-Cheng, Wu; Hong, Lv

    2018-03-01

    Building Energy forecasting plays an important role in energy management and plan. Using mind evolutionary algorithm to find the optimal network weights and threshold, to optimize the BP neural network, can overcome the problem of the BP neural network into a local minimum point. The optimized network is used for time series prediction, and the same month forecast, to get two predictive values. Then two kinds of predictive values are put into neural network, to get the final forecast value. The effectiveness of the method was verified by experiment with the energy value of three buildings in Hefei.

  15. Classification of heavy metal ions present in multi-frequency multi-electrode potable water data using evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karkra, Rashmi; Kumar, Prashant; Bansod, Baban K. S.; Bagchi, Sudeshna; Sharma, Pooja; Krishna, C. Rama

    2017-11-01

    Access to potable water for the common people is one of the most challenging tasks in the present era. Contamination of drinking water has become a serious problem due to various anthropogenic and geogenic events. The paper demonstrates the application of evolutionary algorithms, viz., particle swan optimization and genetic algorithm to 24 water samples containing eight different heavy metal ions (Cd, Cu, Co, Pb, Zn, Ar, Cr and Ni) for the optimal estimation of electrode and frequency to classify the heavy metal ions. The work has been carried out on multi-variate data, viz., single electrode multi-frequency, single frequency multi-electrode and multi-frequency multi-electrode water samples. The electrodes used are platinum, gold, silver nanoparticles and glassy carbon electrodes. Various hazardous metal ions present in the water samples have been optimally classified and validated by the application of Davis Bouldin index. Such studies are useful in the segregation of hazardous heavy metal ions found in water resources, thereby quantifying the degree of water quality.

  16. Efficient fractal-based mutation in evolutionary algorithms from iterated function systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Aybar-Ruíz, A.; Camacho-Gómez, C.; Pereira, E.

    2018-03-01

    In this paper we present a new mutation procedure for Evolutionary Programming (EP) approaches, based on Iterated Function Systems (IFSs). The new mutation procedure proposed consists of considering a set of IFS which are able to generate fractal structures in a two-dimensional phase space, and use them to modify a current individual of the EP algorithm, instead of using random numbers from different probability density functions. We test this new proposal in a set of benchmark functions for continuous optimization problems. In this case, we compare the proposed mutation against classical Evolutionary Programming approaches, with mutations based on Gaussian, Cauchy and chaotic maps. We also include a discussion on the IFS-based mutation in a real application of Tuned Mass Dumper (TMD) location and optimization for vibration cancellation in buildings. In both practical cases, the proposed EP with the IFS-based mutation obtained extremely competitive results compared to alternative classical mutation operators.

  17. Decomposition-Based Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm for Community Detection in Dynamic Social Networks

    PubMed Central

    Ma, Jingjing; Liu, Jie; Ma, Wenping; Gong, Maoguo; Jiao, Licheng

    2014-01-01

    Community structure is one of the most important properties in social networks. In dynamic networks, there are two conflicting criteria that need to be considered. One is the snapshot quality, which evaluates the quality of the community partitions at the current time step. The other is the temporal cost, which evaluates the difference between communities at different time steps. In this paper, we propose a decomposition-based multiobjective community detection algorithm to simultaneously optimize these two objectives to reveal community structure and its evolution in dynamic networks. It employs the framework of multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition to simultaneously optimize the modularity and normalized mutual information, which quantitatively measure the quality of the community partitions and temporal cost, respectively. A local search strategy dealing with the problem-specific knowledge is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of the new algorithm. Experiments on computer-generated and real-world networks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can not only find community structure and capture community evolution more accurately, but also be steadier than the two compared algorithms. PMID:24723806

  18. Decomposition-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for community detection in dynamic social networks.

    PubMed

    Ma, Jingjing; Liu, Jie; Ma, Wenping; Gong, Maoguo; Jiao, Licheng

    2014-01-01

    Community structure is one of the most important properties in social networks. In dynamic networks, there are two conflicting criteria that need to be considered. One is the snapshot quality, which evaluates the quality of the community partitions at the current time step. The other is the temporal cost, which evaluates the difference between communities at different time steps. In this paper, we propose a decomposition-based multiobjective community detection algorithm to simultaneously optimize these two objectives to reveal community structure and its evolution in dynamic networks. It employs the framework of multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition to simultaneously optimize the modularity and normalized mutual information, which quantitatively measure the quality of the community partitions and temporal cost, respectively. A local search strategy dealing with the problem-specific knowledge is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of the new algorithm. Experiments on computer-generated and real-world networks demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can not only find community structure and capture community evolution more accurately, but also be steadier than the two compared algorithms.

  19. Application of ant colony optimization to optimal foragaing theory: comparison of simulation and field results

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) refers to the family of algorithms inspired by the behavior of real ants and used to solve combinatorial problems such as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP).Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT) is an evolutionary principle wherein foraging organisms or insect parasites seek ...

  20. A novel model-based evolutionary algorithm for multi-objective deformable image registration with content mismatch and large deformations: benchmarking efficiency and quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bouter, Anton; Alderliesten, Tanja; Bosman, Peter A. N.

    2017-02-01

    Taking a multi-objective optimization approach to deformable image registration has recently gained attention, because such an approach removes the requirement of manually tuning the weights of all the involved objectives. Especially for problems that require large complex deformations, this is a non-trivial task. From the resulting Pareto set of solutions one can then much more insightfully select a registration outcome that is most suitable for the problem at hand. To serve as an internal optimization engine, currently used multi-objective algorithms are competent, but rather inefficient. In this paper we largely improve upon this by introducing a multi-objective real-valued adaptation of the recently introduced Gene-pool Optimal Mixing Evolutionary Algorithm (GOMEA) for discrete optimization. In this work, GOMEA is tailored specifically to the problem of deformable image registration to obtain substantially improved efficiency. This improvement is achieved by exploiting a key strength of GOMEA: iteratively improving small parts of solutions, allowing to faster exploit the impact of such updates on the objectives at hand through partial evaluations. We performed experiments on three registration problems. In particular, an artificial problem containing a disappearing structure, a pair of pre- and post-operative breast CT scans, and a pair of breast MRI scans acquired in prone and supine position were considered. Results show that compared to the previously used evolutionary algorithm, GOMEA obtains a speed-up of up to a factor of 1600 on the tested registration problems while achieving registration outcomes of similar quality.

  1. Product Mix Selection Using AN Evolutionary Technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tsoulos, Ioannis G.; Vasant, Pandian

    2009-08-01

    This paper proposes an evolutionary technique for the solution of a real—life industrial problem and particular for the product mix selection problem. The evolutionary technique is a combination of a genetic algorithm that preserves the feasibility of the trial solutions with penalties and some local optimization method. The goal of this paper has been achieved in finding the best near optimal solution for the profit fitness function respect to vagueness factor and level of satisfaction. The findings of the profit values will be very useful for the decision makers in the industrial engineering sector for the implementation purpose. It's possible to improve the solutions obtained in this study by employing other meta-heuristic methods such as simulated annealing, tabu Search, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization and artificial immune systems.

  2. Wind farm optimization using evolutionary algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ituarte-Villarreal, Carlos M.

    In recent years, the wind power industry has focused its efforts on solving the Wind Farm Layout Optimization (WFLO) problem. Wind resource assessment is a pivotal step in optimizing the wind-farm design and siting and, in determining whether a project is economically feasible or not. In the present work, three (3) different optimization methods are proposed for the solution of the WFLO: (i) A modified Viral System Algorithm applied to the optimization of the proper location of the components in a wind-farm to maximize the energy output given a stated wind environment of the site. The optimization problem is formulated as the minimization of energy cost per unit produced and applies a penalization for the lack of system reliability. The viral system algorithm utilized in this research solves three (3) well-known problems in the wind-energy literature; (ii) a new multiple objective evolutionary algorithm to obtain optimal placement of wind turbines while considering the power output, cost, and reliability of the system. The algorithm presented is based on evolutionary computation and the objective functions considered are the maximization of power output, the minimization of wind farm cost and the maximization of system reliability. The final solution to this multiple objective problem is presented as a set of Pareto solutions and, (iii) A hybrid viral-based optimization algorithm adapted to find the proper component configuration for a wind farm with the introduction of the universal generating function (UGF) analytical approach to discretize the different operating or mechanical levels of the wind turbines in addition to the various wind speed states. The proposed methodology considers the specific probability functions of the wind resource to describe their proper behaviors to account for the stochastic comportment of the renewable energy components, aiming to increase their power output and the reliability of these systems. The developed heuristic considers a variable number of system components and wind turbines with different operating characteristics and sizes, to have a more heterogeneous model that can deal with changes in the layout and in the power generation requirements over the time. Moreover, the approach evaluates the impact of the wind-wake effect of the wind turbines upon one another to describe and evaluate the power production capacity reduction of the system depending on the layout distribution of the wind turbines.

  3. Spatial targeting of agri-environmental policy using bilevel evolutionary optimization

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    In this study we describe the optimal designation of agri-environmental policy as a bilevel optimization problem and propose an integrated solution method using a hybrid genetic algorithm. The problem is characterized by a single leader, the agency, that establishes a policy with the goal of optimiz...

  4. An impatient evolutionary algorithm with probabilistic tabu search for unified solution of some NP-hard problems in graph and set theory via clique finding.

    PubMed

    Guturu, Parthasarathy; Dantu, Ram

    2008-06-01

    Many graph- and set-theoretic problems, because of their tremendous application potential and theoretical appeal, have been well investigated by the researchers in complexity theory and were found to be NP-hard. Since the combinatorial complexity of these problems does not permit exhaustive searches for optimal solutions, only near-optimal solutions can be explored using either various problem-specific heuristic strategies or metaheuristic global-optimization methods, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, etc. In this paper, we propose a unified evolutionary algorithm (EA) to the problems of maximum clique finding, maximum independent set, minimum vertex cover, subgraph and double subgraph isomorphism, set packing, set partitioning, and set cover. In the proposed approach, we first map these problems onto the maximum clique-finding problem (MCP), which is later solved using an evolutionary strategy. The proposed impatient EA with probabilistic tabu search (IEA-PTS) for the MCP integrates the best features of earlier successful approaches with a number of new heuristics that we developed to yield a performance that advances the state of the art in EAs for the exploration of the maximum cliques in a graph. Results of experimentation with the 37 DIMACS benchmark graphs and comparative analyses with six state-of-the-art algorithms, including two from the smaller EA community and four from the larger metaheuristics community, indicate that the IEA-PTS outperforms the EAs with respect to a Pareto-lexicographic ranking criterion and offers competitive performance on some graph instances when individually compared to the other heuristic algorithms. It has also successfully set a new benchmark on one graph instance. On another benchmark suite called Benchmarks with Hidden Optimal Solutions, IEA-PTS ranks second, after a very recent algorithm called COVER, among its peers that have experimented with this suite.

  5. Decontaminate feature for tracking: adaptive tracking via evolutionary feature subset

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Qiaoyuan; Wang, Yuru; Yin, Minghao; Ren, Jinchang; Li, Ruizhi

    2017-11-01

    Although various visual tracking algorithms have been proposed in the last 2-3 decades, it remains a challenging problem for effective tracking with fast motion, deformation, occlusion, etc. Under complex tracking conditions, most tracking models are not discriminative and adaptive enough. When the combined feature vectors are inputted to the visual models, this may lead to redundancy causing low efficiency and ambiguity causing poor performance. An effective tracking algorithm is proposed to decontaminate features for each video sequence adaptively, where the visual modeling is treated as an optimization problem from the perspective of evolution. Every feature vector is compared to a biological individual and then decontaminated via classical evolutionary algorithms. With the optimized subsets of features, the "curse of dimensionality" has been avoided while the accuracy of the visual model has been improved. The proposed algorithm has been tested on several publicly available datasets with various tracking challenges and benchmarked with a number of state-of-the-art approaches. The comprehensive experiments have demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed methodology.

  6. Comparing genomes with rearrangements and segmental duplications.

    PubMed

    Shao, Mingfu; Moret, Bernard M E

    2015-06-15

    Large-scale evolutionary events such as genomic rearrange.ments and segmental duplications form an important part of the evolution of genomes and are widely studied from both biological and computational perspectives. A basic computational problem is to infer these events in the evolutionary history for given modern genomes, a task for which many algorithms have been proposed under various constraints. Algorithms that can handle both rearrangements and content-modifying events such as duplications and losses remain few and limited in their applicability. We study the comparison of two genomes under a model including general rearrangements (through double-cut-and-join) and segmental duplications. We formulate the comparison as an optimization problem and describe an exact algorithm to solve it by using an integer linear program. We also devise a sufficient condition and an efficient algorithm to identify optimal substructures, which can simplify the problem while preserving optimality. Using the optimal substructures with the integer linear program (ILP) formulation yields a practical and exact algorithm to solve the problem. We then apply our algorithm to assign in-paralogs and orthologs (a necessary step in handling duplications) and compare its performance with that of the state-of-the-art method MSOAR, using both simulations and real data. On simulated datasets, our method outperforms MSOAR by a significant margin, and on five well-annotated species, MSOAR achieves high accuracy, yet our method performs slightly better on each of the 10 pairwise comparisons. http://lcbb.epfl.ch/softwares/coser. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

  7. A master-slave parallel hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for groundwater remediation design under general hydrogeological conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, J.; Yang, Y.; Luo, Q.; Wu, J.

    2012-12-01

    This study presents a new hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, the niched Pareto tabu search combined with a genetic algorithm (NPTSGA), whereby the global search ability of niched Pareto tabu search (NPTS) is improved by the diversification of candidate solutions arose from the evolving nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) population. Also, the NPTSGA coupled with the commonly used groundwater flow and transport codes, MODFLOW and MT3DMS, is developed for multi-objective optimal design of groundwater remediation systems. The proposed methodology is then applied to a large-scale field groundwater remediation system for cleanup of large trichloroethylene (TCE) plume at the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Furthermore, a master-slave (MS) parallelization scheme based on the Message Passing Interface (MPI) is incorporated into the NPTSGA to implement objective function evaluations in distributed processor environment, which can greatly improve the efficiency of the NPTSGA in finding Pareto-optimal solutions to the real-world application. This study shows that the MS parallel NPTSGA in comparison with the original NPTS and NSGA-II can balance the tradeoff between diversity and optimality of solutions during the search process and is an efficient and effective tool for optimizing the multi-objective design of groundwater remediation systems under complicated hydrogeologic conditions.

  8. New knowledge-based genetic algorithm for excavator boom structural optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hua, Haiyan; Lin, Shuwen

    2014-03-01

    Due to the insufficiency of utilizing knowledge to guide the complex optimal searching, existing genetic algorithms fail to effectively solve excavator boom structural optimization problem. To improve the optimization efficiency and quality, a new knowledge-based real-coded genetic algorithm is proposed. A dual evolution mechanism combining knowledge evolution with genetic algorithm is established to extract, handle and utilize the shallow and deep implicit constraint knowledge to guide the optimal searching of genetic algorithm circularly. Based on this dual evolution mechanism, knowledge evolution and population evolution can be connected by knowledge influence operators to improve the configurability of knowledge and genetic operators. Then, the new knowledge-based selection operator, crossover operator and mutation operator are proposed to integrate the optimal process knowledge and domain culture to guide the excavator boom structural optimization. Eight kinds of testing algorithms, which include different genetic operators, are taken as examples to solve the structural optimization of a medium-sized excavator boom. By comparing the results of optimization, it is shown that the algorithm including all the new knowledge-based genetic operators can more remarkably improve the evolutionary rate and searching ability than other testing algorithms, which demonstrates the effectiveness of knowledge for guiding optimal searching. The proposed knowledge-based genetic algorithm by combining multi-level knowledge evolution with numerical optimization provides a new effective method for solving the complex engineering optimization problem.

  9. Research on logistics scheduling based on PSO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bao, Huifang; Zhou, Linli; Liu, Lei

    2017-08-01

    With the rapid development of e-commerce based on the network, the logistics distribution support of e-commerce is becoming more and more obvious. The optimization of vehicle distribution routing can improve the economic benefit and realize the scientific of logistics [1]. Therefore, the study of logistics distribution vehicle routing optimization problem is not only of great theoretical significance, but also of considerable value of value. Particle swarm optimization algorithm is a kind of evolutionary algorithm, which is based on the random solution and the optimal solution by iteration, and the quality of the solution is evaluated through fitness. In order to obtain a more ideal logistics scheduling scheme, this paper proposes a logistics model based on particle swarm optimization algorithm.

  10. Comparison of Evolutionary (Genetic) Algorithm and Adjoint Methods for Multi-Objective Viscous Airfoil Optimizations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pulliam, T. H.; Nemec, M.; Holst, T.; Zingg, D. W.; Kwak, Dochan (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    A comparison between an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) and an Adjoint-Gradient (AG) Method applied to a two-dimensional Navier-Stokes code for airfoil design is presented. Both approaches use a common function evaluation code, the steady-state explicit part of the code,ARC2D. The parameterization of the design space is a common B-spline approach for an airfoil surface, which together with a common griding approach, restricts the AG and EA to the same design space. Results are presented for a class of viscous transonic airfoils in which the optimization tradeoff between drag minimization as one objective and lift maximization as another, produces the multi-objective design space. Comparisons are made for efficiency, accuracy and design consistency.

  11. Comparing a Coevolutionary Genetic Algorithm for Multiobjective Optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lohn, Jason D.; Kraus, William F.; Haith, Gary L.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    We present results from a study comparing a recently developed coevolutionary genetic algorithm (CGA) against a set of evolutionary algorithms using a suite of multiobjective optimization benchmarks. The CGA embodies competitive coevolution and employs a simple, straightforward target population representation and fitness calculation based on developmental theory of learning. Because of these properties, setting up the additional population is trivial making implementation no more difficult than using a standard GA. Empirical results using a suite of two-objective test functions indicate that this CGA performs well at finding solutions on convex, nonconvex, discrete, and deceptive Pareto-optimal fronts, while giving respectable results on a nonuniform optimization. On a multimodal Pareto front, the CGA finds a solution that dominates solutions produced by eight other algorithms, yet the CGA has poor coverage across the Pareto front.

  12. An Optimizing Space Data-Communications Scheduling Method and Algorithm with Interference Mitigation, Generalized for a Broad Class of Optimization Problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rash, James L.

    2010-01-01

    NASA's space data-communications infrastructure, the Space Network and the Ground Network, provide scheduled (as well as some limited types of unscheduled) data-communications services to user spacecraft via orbiting relay satellites and ground stations. An implementation of the methods and algorithms disclosed herein will be a system that produces globally optimized schedules with not only optimized service delivery by the space data-communications infrastructure but also optimized satisfaction of all user requirements and prescribed constraints, including radio frequency interference (RFI) constraints. Evolutionary search, a class of probabilistic strategies for searching large solution spaces, constitutes the essential technology in this disclosure. Also disclosed are methods and algorithms for optimizing the execution efficiency of the schedule-generation algorithm itself. The scheduling methods and algorithms as presented are adaptable to accommodate the complexity of scheduling the civilian and/or military data-communications infrastructure. Finally, the problem itself, and the methods and algorithms, are generalized and specified formally, with applicability to a very broad class of combinatorial optimization problems.

  13. An evolutionary computation based algorithm for calculating solar differential rotation by automatic tracking of coronal bright points

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shahamatnia, Ehsan; Dorotovič, Ivan; Fonseca, Jose M.; Ribeiro, Rita A.

    2016-03-01

    Developing specialized software tools is essential to support studies of solar activity evolution. With new space missions such as Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), solar images are being produced in unprecedented volumes. To capitalize on that huge data availability, the scientific community needs a new generation of software tools for automatic and efficient data processing. In this paper a prototype of a modular framework for solar feature detection, characterization, and tracking is presented. To develop an efficient system capable of automatic solar feature tracking and measuring, a hybrid approach combining specialized image processing, evolutionary optimization, and soft computing algorithms is being followed. The specialized hybrid algorithm for tracking solar features allows automatic feature tracking while gathering characterization details about the tracked features. The hybrid algorithm takes advantages of the snake model, a specialized image processing algorithm widely used in applications such as boundary delineation, image segmentation, and object tracking. Further, it exploits the flexibility and efficiency of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a stochastic population based optimization algorithm. PSO has been used successfully in a wide range of applications including combinatorial optimization, control, clustering, robotics, scheduling, and image processing and video analysis applications. The proposed tool, denoted PSO-Snake model, was already successfully tested in other works for tracking sunspots and coronal bright points. In this work, we discuss the application of the PSO-Snake algorithm for calculating the sidereal rotational angular velocity of the solar corona. To validate the results we compare them with published manual results performed by an expert.

  14. Evolutionary Optimization of a Geometrically Refined Truss

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hull, P. V.; Tinker, M. L.; Dozier, G. V.

    2007-01-01

    Structural optimization is a field of research that has experienced noteworthy growth for many years. Researchers in this area have developed optimization tools to successfully design and model structures, typically minimizing mass while maintaining certain deflection and stress constraints. Numerous optimization studies have been performed to minimize mass, deflection, and stress on a benchmark cantilever truss problem. Predominantly traditional optimization theory is applied to this problem. The cross-sectional area of each member is optimized to minimize the aforementioned objectives. This Technical Publication (TP) presents a structural optimization technique that has been previously applied to compliant mechanism design. This technique demonstrates a method that combines topology optimization, geometric refinement, finite element analysis, and two forms of evolutionary computation: genetic algorithms and differential evolution to successfully optimize a benchmark structural optimization problem. A nontraditional solution to the benchmark problem is presented in this TP, specifically a geometrically refined topological solution. The design process begins with an alternate control mesh formulation, multilevel geometric smoothing operation, and an elastostatic structural analysis. The design process is wrapped in an evolutionary computing optimization toolset.

  15. Genetic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Volna, Eva

    2016-06-01

    The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is one of the most challenging combinatorial optimization tasks. This problem consists in designing the optimal set of routes for fleet of vehicles in order to serve a given set of customers. Evolutionary algorithms are general iterative algorithms for combinatorial optimization. These algorithms have been found to be very effective and robust in solving numerous problems from a wide range of application domains. This problem is known to be NP-hard; hence many heuristic procedures for its solution have been suggested. For such problems it is often desirable to obtain approximate solutions, so they can be found fast enough and are sufficiently accurate for the purpose. In this paper we have performed an experimental study that indicates the suitable use of genetic algorithms for the vehicle routing problem.

  16. Multi Objective Optimization of Yarn Quality and Fibre Quality Using Evolutionary Algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghosh, Anindya; Das, Subhasis; Banerjee, Debamalya

    2013-03-01

    The quality and cost of resulting yarn play a significant role to determine its end application. The challenging task of any spinner lies in producing a good quality yarn with added cost benefit. The present work does a multi-objective optimization on two objectives, viz. maximization of cotton yarn strength and minimization of raw material quality. The first objective function has been formulated based on the artificial neural network input-output relation between cotton fibre properties and yarn strength. The second objective function is formulated with the well known regression equation of spinning consistency index. It is obvious that these two objectives are conflicting in nature i.e. not a single combination of cotton fibre parameters does exist which produce maximum yarn strength and minimum cotton fibre quality simultaneously. Therefore, it has several optimal solutions from which a trade-off is needed depending upon the requirement of user. In this work, the optimal solutions are obtained with an elitist multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). These optimum solutions may lead to the efficient exploitation of raw materials to produce better quality yarns at low costs.

  17. Flat-walled multilayered anechoic linings: Optimization and application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Jingfeng; Buchholz, Jörg M.; Fricke, Fergus R.

    2005-11-01

    The concept of flat-walled multilayered absorbent linings for anechoic rooms was proposed three decades ago. Flat-walled linings have the advantage of being less complicated and, hence, less costly to manufacture and install than the individual units such as wedges. However, there are difficulties in optimizing the design of such absorbent linings. In the present work, the design of a flat-walled multilayered anechoic lining that targeted a 250 Hz cut-off frequency and a 300 mm maximum lining thickness was first optimized using an evolutionary algorithm. Sixteen of the most commonly used commercial fibrous building insulation materials available in Australia were investigated and fourteen design options (i.e., material combinations) were found by the evolutionary algorithm. These options were then evaluated in accordance with their costs and measured acoustic absorption performances. Finally, the completed anechoic room, where the optimized design was applied, was qualified and the results showed that a large percentage (75%-85%) of the distance between the sound source and the room boundaries, on the traverses made, were anechoic.

  18. Cloud computing task scheduling strategy based on improved differential evolution algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ge, Junwei; He, Qian; Fang, Yiqiu

    2017-04-01

    In order to optimize the cloud computing task scheduling scheme, an improved differential evolution algorithm for cloud computing task scheduling is proposed. Firstly, the cloud computing task scheduling model, according to the model of the fitness function, and then used improved optimization calculation of the fitness function of the evolutionary algorithm, according to the evolution of generation of dynamic selection strategy through dynamic mutation strategy to ensure the global and local search ability. The performance test experiment was carried out in the CloudSim simulation platform, the experimental results show that the improved differential evolution algorithm can reduce the cloud computing task execution time and user cost saving, good implementation of the optimal scheduling of cloud computing tasks.

  19. Research reactor loading pattern optimization using estimation of distribution algorithms

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jiang, S.; Ziver, K.; AMCG Group, RM Consultants, Abingdon

    2006-07-01

    A new evolutionary search based approach for solving the nuclear reactor loading pattern optimization problems is presented based on the Estimation of Distribution Algorithms. The optimization technique developed is then applied to the maximization of the effective multiplication factor (K{sub eff}) of the Imperial College CONSORT research reactor (the last remaining civilian research reactor in the United Kingdom). A new elitism-guided searching strategy has been developed and applied to improve the local convergence together with some problem-dependent information based on the 'stand-alone K{sub eff} with fuel coupling calculations. A comparison study between the EDAs and a Genetic Algorithm with Heuristicmore » Tie Breaking Crossover operator has shown that the new algorithm is efficient and robust. (authors)« less

  20. Non-Evolutionary Algorithms for Scheduling Dependent Tasks in Distributed Heterogeneous Computing Environments

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wayne F. Boyer; Gurdeep S. Hura

    2005-09-01

    The Problem of obtaining an optimal matching and scheduling of interdependent tasks in distributed heterogeneous computing (DHC) environments is well known to be an NP-hard problem. In a DHC system, task execution time is dependent on the machine to which it is assigned and task precedence constraints are represented by a directed acyclic graph. Recent research in evolutionary techniques has shown that genetic algorithms usually obtain more efficient schedules that other known algorithms. We propose a non-evolutionary random scheduling (RS) algorithm for efficient matching and scheduling of inter-dependent tasks in a DHC system. RS is a succession of randomized taskmore » orderings and a heuristic mapping from task order to schedule. Randomized task ordering is effectively a topological sort where the outcome may be any possible task order for which the task precedent constraints are maintained. A detailed comparison to existing evolutionary techniques (GA and PSGA) shows the proposed algorithm is less complex than evolutionary techniques, computes schedules in less time, requires less memory and fewer tuning parameters. Simulation results show that the average schedules produced by RS are approximately as efficient as PSGA schedules for all cases studied and clearly more efficient than PSGA for certain cases. The standard formulation for the scheduling problem addressed in this paper is Rm|prec|Cmax.,« less

  1. Hybrid glowworm swarm optimization for task scheduling in the cloud environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Jing; Dong, Shoubin

    2018-06-01

    In recent years many heuristic algorithms have been proposed to solve task scheduling problems in the cloud environment owing to their optimization capability. This article proposes a hybrid glowworm swarm optimization (HGSO) based on glowworm swarm optimization (GSO), which uses a technique of evolutionary computation, a strategy of quantum behaviour based on the principle of neighbourhood, offspring production and random walk, to achieve more efficient scheduling with reasonable scheduling costs. The proposed HGSO reduces the redundant computation and the dependence on the initialization of GSO, accelerates the convergence and more easily escapes from local optima. The conducted experiments and statistical analysis showed that in most cases the proposed HGSO algorithm outperformed previous heuristic algorithms to deal with independent tasks.

  2. Artificial Bee Colony Optimization for Short-Term Hydrothermal Scheduling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basu, M.

    2014-12-01

    Artificial bee colony optimization is applied to determine the optimal hourly schedule of power generation in a hydrothermal system. Artificial bee colony optimization is a swarm-based algorithm inspired by the food foraging behavior of honey bees. The algorithm is tested on a multi-reservoir cascaded hydroelectric system having prohibited operating zones and thermal units with valve point loading. The ramp-rate limits of thermal generators are taken into consideration. The transmission losses are also accounted for through the use of loss coefficients. The algorithm is tested on two hydrothermal multi-reservoir cascaded hydroelectric test systems. The results of the proposed approach are compared with those of differential evolution, evolutionary programming and particle swarm optimization. From numerical results, it is found that the proposed artificial bee colony optimization based approach is able to provide better solution.

  3. Proposal of Evolutionary Simplex Method for Global Optimization Problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shimizu, Yoshiaki

    To make an agile decision in a rational manner, role of optimization engineering has been notified increasingly under diversified customer demand. With this point of view, in this paper, we have proposed a new evolutionary method serving as an optimization technique in the paradigm of optimization engineering. The developed method has prospects to solve globally various complicated problem appearing in real world applications. It is evolved from the conventional method known as Nelder and Mead’s Simplex method by virtue of idea borrowed from recent meta-heuristic method such as PSO. Mentioning an algorithm to handle linear inequality constraints effectively, we have validated effectiveness of the proposed method through comparison with other methods using several benchmark problems.

  4. CamOptimus: a tool for exploiting complex adaptive evolution to optimize experiments and processes in biotechnology.

    PubMed

    Cankorur-Cetinkaya, Ayca; Dias, Joao M L; Kludas, Jana; Slater, Nigel K H; Rousu, Juho; Oliver, Stephen G; Dikicioglu, Duygu

    2017-06-01

    Multiple interacting factors affect the performance of engineered biological systems in synthetic biology projects. The complexity of these biological systems means that experimental design should often be treated as a multiparametric optimization problem. However, the available methodologies are either impractical, due to a combinatorial explosion in the number of experiments to be performed, or are inaccessible to most experimentalists due to the lack of publicly available, user-friendly software. Although evolutionary algorithms may be employed as alternative approaches to optimize experimental design, the lack of simple-to-use software again restricts their use to specialist practitioners. In addition, the lack of subsidiary approaches to further investigate critical factors and their interactions prevents the full analysis and exploitation of the biotechnological system. We have addressed these problems and, here, provide a simple-to-use and freely available graphical user interface to empower a broad range of experimental biologists to employ complex evolutionary algorithms to optimize their experimental designs. Our approach exploits a Genetic Algorithm to discover the subspace containing the optimal combination of parameters, and Symbolic Regression to construct a model to evaluate the sensitivity of the experiment to each parameter under investigation. We demonstrate the utility of this method using an example in which the culture conditions for the microbial production of a bioactive human protein are optimized. CamOptimus is available through: (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10257).

  5. Unscented Sampling Techniques For Evolutionary Computation With Applications To Astrodynamic Optimization

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-09-01

    to both genetic algorithms and evolution strategies to achieve these goals. The results of this research offer a promising new set of modified ...abs_all.jsp?arnumber=203904 [163] Z. Michalewicz, C. Z. Janikow, and J. B. Krawczyk, “A modified genetic algo- rithm for optimal control problems...Available: http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/ 2.7053 375 [166] N. Yokoyama and S. Suzuki, “ Modified genetic algorithm for constrained trajectory

  6. Receiver Diversity Combining Using Evolutionary Algorithms in Rayleigh Fading Channel

    PubMed Central

    Akbari, Mohsen; Manesh, Mohsen Riahi

    2014-01-01

    In diversity combining at the receiver, the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is often maximized by using the maximal ratio combining (MRC) provided that the channel is perfectly estimated at the receiver. However, channel estimation is rarely perfect in practice, which results in deteriorating the system performance. In this paper, an imperialistic competitive algorithm (ICA) is proposed and compared with two other evolutionary based algorithms, namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA), for diversity combining of signals travelling across the imperfect channels. The proposed algorithm adjusts the combiner weights of the received signal components in such a way that maximizes the SNR and minimizes the bit error rate (BER). The results indicate that the proposed method eliminates the need of channel estimation and can outperform the conventional diversity combining methods. PMID:25045725

  7. Available Transfer Capability Determination Using Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jirapong, Peeraool; Ongsakul, Weerakorn

    2008-10-01

    This paper proposes a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm (HEA) based on evolutionary programming (EP), tabu search (TS), and simulated annealing (SA) to determine the available transfer capability (ATC) of power transactions between different control areas in deregulated power systems. The optimal power flow (OPF)-based ATC determination is used to evaluate the feasible maximum ATC value within real and reactive power generation limits, line thermal limits, voltage limits, and voltage and angle stability limits. The HEA approach simultaneously searches for real power generations except slack bus in a source area, real power loads in a sink area, and generation bus voltages to solve the OPF-based ATC problem. Test results on the modified IEEE 24-bus reliability test system (RTS) indicate that ATC determination by the HEA could enhance ATC far more than those from EP, TS, hybrid TS/SA, and improved EP (IEP) algorithms, leading to an efficient utilization of the existing transmission system.

  8. Application of multi-objective controller to optimal tuning of PID gains for a hydraulic turbine regulating system using adaptive grid particle swam optimization.

    PubMed

    Chen, Zhihuan; Yuan, Yanbin; Yuan, Xiaohui; Huang, Yuehua; Li, Xianshan; Li, Wenwu

    2015-05-01

    A hydraulic turbine regulating system (HTRS) is one of the most important components of hydropower plant, which plays a key role in maintaining safety, stability and economical operation of hydro-electrical installations. At present, the conventional PID controller is widely applied in the HTRS system for its practicability and robustness, and the primary problem with respect to this control law is how to optimally tune the parameters, i.e. the determination of PID controller gains for satisfactory performance. In this paper, a kind of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, named adaptive grid particle swarm optimization (AGPSO) is applied to solve the PID gains tuning problem of the HTRS system. This newly AGPSO optimized method, which differs from a traditional one-single objective optimization method, is designed to take care of settling time and overshoot level simultaneously, in which a set of non-inferior alternatives solutions (i.e. Pareto solution) is generated. Furthermore, a fuzzy-based membership value assignment method is employed to choose the best compromise solution from the obtained Pareto set. An illustrative example associated with the best compromise solution for parameter tuning of the nonlinear HTRS system is introduced to verify the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed AGPSO-based optimization approach, as compared with two another prominent multi-objective algorithms, i.e. Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGAII) and Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm II (SPEAII), for the quality and diversity of obtained Pareto solutions set. Consequently, simulation results show that this AGPSO optimized approach outperforms than compared methods with higher efficiency and better quality no matter whether the HTRS system works under unload or load conditions. Copyright © 2014 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. An improved shuffled frog leaping algorithm based evolutionary framework for currency exchange rate prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dash, Rajashree

    2017-11-01

    Forecasting purchasing power of one currency with respect to another currency is always an interesting topic in the field of financial time series prediction. Despite the existence of several traditional and computational models for currency exchange rate forecasting, there is always a need for developing simpler and more efficient model, which will produce better prediction capability. In this paper, an evolutionary framework is proposed by using an improved shuffled frog leaping (ISFL) algorithm with a computationally efficient functional link artificial neural network (CEFLANN) for prediction of currency exchange rate. The model is validated by observing the monthly prediction measures obtained for three currency exchange data sets such as USD/CAD, USD/CHF, and USD/JPY accumulated within same period of time. The model performance is also compared with two other evolutionary learning techniques such as Shuffled frog leaping algorithm and Particle Swarm optimization algorithm. Practical analysis of results suggest that, the proposed model developed using the ISFL algorithm with CEFLANN network is a promising predictor model for currency exchange rate prediction compared to other models included in the study.

  10. Modified Backtracking Search Optimization Algorithm Inspired by Simulated Annealing for Constrained Engineering Optimization Problems

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Hailong; Sun, Yuqiu; Su, Qinghua; Xia, Xuewen

    2018-01-01

    The backtracking search optimization algorithm (BSA) is a population-based evolutionary algorithm for numerical optimization problems. BSA has a powerful global exploration capacity while its local exploitation capability is relatively poor. This affects the convergence speed of the algorithm. In this paper, we propose a modified BSA inspired by simulated annealing (BSAISA) to overcome the deficiency of BSA. In the BSAISA, the amplitude control factor (F) is modified based on the Metropolis criterion in simulated annealing. The redesigned F could be adaptively decreased as the number of iterations increases and it does not introduce extra parameters. A self-adaptive ε-constrained method is used to handle the strict constraints. We compared the performance of the proposed BSAISA with BSA and other well-known algorithms when solving thirteen constrained benchmarks and five engineering design problems. The simulation results demonstrated that BSAISA is more effective than BSA and more competitive with other well-known algorithms in terms of convergence speed. PMID:29666635

  11. Parameter optimization of differential evolution algorithm for automatic playlist generation problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alamag, Kaye Melina Natividad B.; Addawe, Joel M.

    2017-11-01

    With the digitalization of music, the number of collection of music increased largely and there is a need to create lists of music that filter the collection according to user preferences, thus giving rise to the Automatic Playlist Generation Problem (APGP). Previous attempts to solve this problem include the use of search and optimization algorithms. If a music database is very large, the algorithm to be used must be able to search the lists thoroughly taking into account the quality of the playlist given a set of user constraints. In this paper we perform an evolutionary meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, Differential Evolution (DE) using different combination of parameter values and select the best performing set when used to solve four standard test functions. Performance of the proposed algorithm is then compared with normal Genetic Algorithm (GA) and a hybrid GA with Tabu Search. Numerical simulations are carried out to show better results from Differential Evolution approach with the optimized parameter values.

  12. An auto-adaptive optimization approach for targeting nonpoint source pollution control practices.

    PubMed

    Chen, Lei; Wei, Guoyuan; Shen, Zhenyao

    2015-10-21

    To solve computationally intensive and technically complex control of nonpoint source pollution, the traditional genetic algorithm was modified into an auto-adaptive pattern, and a new framework was proposed by integrating this new algorithm with a watershed model and an economic module. Although conceptually simple and comprehensive, the proposed algorithm would search automatically for those Pareto-optimality solutions without a complex calibration of optimization parameters. The model was applied in a case study in a typical watershed of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China. The results indicated that the evolutionary process of optimization was improved due to the incorporation of auto-adaptive parameters. In addition, the proposed algorithm outperformed the state-of-the-art existing algorithms in terms of convergence ability and computational efficiency. At the same cost level, solutions with greater pollutant reductions could be identified. From a scientific viewpoint, the proposed algorithm could be extended to other watersheds to provide cost-effective configurations of BMPs.

  13. Automated Antenna Design with Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hornby, Gregory S.; Globus, Al; Linden, Derek S.; Lohn, Jason D.

    2006-01-01

    Current methods of designing and optimizing antennas by hand are time and labor intensive, and limit complexity. Evolutionary design techniques can overcome these limitations by searching the design space and automatically finding effective solutions. In recent years, evolutionary algorithms have shown great promise in finding practical solutions in large, poorly understood design spaces. In particular, spacecraft antenna design has proven tractable to evolutionary design techniques. Researchers have been investigating evolutionary antenna design and optimization since the early 1990s, and the field has grown in recent years as computer speed has increased and electromagnetic simulators have improved. Two requirements-compliant antennas, one for ST5 and another for TDRS-C, have been automatically designed by evolutionary algorithms. The ST5 antenna is slated to fly this year, and a TDRS-C phased array element has been fabricated and tested. Such automated evolutionary design is enabled by medium-to-high quality simulators and fast modern computers to evaluate computer-generated designs. Evolutionary algorithms automate cut-and-try engineering, substituting automated search though millions of potential designs for intelligent search by engineers through a much smaller number of designs. For evolutionary design, the engineer chooses the evolutionary technique, parameters and the basic form of the antenna, e.g., single wire for ST5 and crossed-element Yagi for TDRS-C. Evolutionary algorithms then search for optimal configurations in the space defined by the engineer. NASA's Space Technology 5 (ST5) mission will launch three small spacecraft to test innovative concepts and technologies. Advanced evolutionary algorithms were used to automatically design antennas for ST5. The combination of wide beamwidth for a circularly-polarized wave and wide impedance bandwidth made for a challenging antenna design problem. From past experience in designing wire antennas, we chose to constrain the evolutionary design to a monopole wire antenna. The results of the runs produced requirements-compliant antennas that were subsequently fabricated and tested. The evolved antenna has a number of advantages with regard to power consumption, fabrication time and complexity, and performance. Lower power requirements result from achieving high gain across a wider range of elevation angles, thus allowing a broader range of angles over which maximum data throughput can be achieved. Since the evolved antenna does not require a phasing circuit, less design and fabrication work is required. In terms of overall work, the evolved antenna required approximately three person-months to design and fabricate whereas the conventional antenna required about five. Furthermore, when the mission was modified and new orbital parameters selected, a redesign of the antenna to new requirements was required. The evolutionary system was rapidly modified and a new antenna evolved in a few weeks. The evolved antenna was shown to be compliant to the ST5 mission requirements. It has an unusual organic looking structure, one that expert antenna designers would not likely produce. This antenna has been tested, baselined and is scheduled to fly this year. In addition to the ST5 antenna, our laboratory has evolved an S-band phased array antenna element design that meets the requirements for NASA's TDRS-C communications satellite scheduled for launch early next decade. A combination of fairly broad bandwidth, high efficiency and circular polarization at high gain made for another challenging design problem. We chose to constrain the evolutionary design to a crossed-element Yagi antenna. The specification called for two types of elements, one for receive only and one for transmit/receive. We were able to evolve a single element design that meets both specifications thereby simplifying the antenna and reducing testing and integration costs. The highest performance antenna found using a getic algorithm and stochastic hill-climbing has been fabricated and tested. Laboratory results correspond well with simulation. Aerospace component design is an expensive and important step in space development. Evolutionary design can make a significant contribution wherever sufficiently fast, accurate and capable software simulators are available. We have demonstrated successful real-world design in the spacecraft antenna domain; and there is good reason to believe that these results could be replicated in other design spaces.

  14. MDTS: automatic complex materials design using Monte Carlo tree search.

    PubMed

    M Dieb, Thaer; Ju, Shenghong; Yoshizoe, Kazuki; Hou, Zhufeng; Shiomi, Junichiro; Tsuda, Koji

    2017-01-01

    Complex materials design is often represented as a black-box combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, we present a novel python library called MDTS (Materials Design using Tree Search). Our algorithm employs a Monte Carlo tree search approach, which has shown exceptional performance in computer Go game. Unlike evolutionary algorithms that require user intervention to set parameters appropriately, MDTS has no tuning parameters and works autonomously in various problems. In comparison to a Bayesian optimization package, our algorithm showed competitive search efficiency and superior scalability. We succeeded in designing large Silicon-Germanium (Si-Ge) alloy structures that Bayesian optimization could not deal with due to excessive computational cost. MDTS is available at https://github.com/tsudalab/MDTS.

  15. MDTS: automatic complex materials design using Monte Carlo tree search

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dieb, Thaer M.; Ju, Shenghong; Yoshizoe, Kazuki; Hou, Zhufeng; Shiomi, Junichiro; Tsuda, Koji

    2017-12-01

    Complex materials design is often represented as a black-box combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, we present a novel python library called MDTS (Materials Design using Tree Search). Our algorithm employs a Monte Carlo tree search approach, which has shown exceptional performance in computer Go game. Unlike evolutionary algorithms that require user intervention to set parameters appropriately, MDTS has no tuning parameters and works autonomously in various problems. In comparison to a Bayesian optimization package, our algorithm showed competitive search efficiency and superior scalability. We succeeded in designing large Silicon-Germanium (Si-Ge) alloy structures that Bayesian optimization could not deal with due to excessive computational cost. MDTS is available at https://github.com/tsudalab/MDTS.

  16. DE and NLP Based QPLS Algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Xiaodong; Huang, Dexian; Wang, Xiong; Liu, Bo

    As a novel evolutionary computing technique, Differential Evolution (DE) has been considered to be an effective optimization method for complex optimization problems, and achieved many successful applications in engineering. In this paper, a new algorithm of Quadratic Partial Least Squares (QPLS) based on Nonlinear Programming (NLP) is presented. And DE is used to solve the NLP so as to calculate the optimal input weights and the parameters of inner relationship. The simulation results based on the soft measurement of diesel oil solidifying point on a real crude distillation unit demonstrate that the superiority of the proposed algorithm to linear PLS and QPLS which is based on Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) in terms of fitting accuracy and computational costs.

  17. Circuit Design Optimization Using Genetic Algorithm with Parameterized Uniform Crossover

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bao, Zhiguo; Watanabe, Takahiro

    Evolvable hardware (EHW) is a new research field about the use of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) to construct electronic systems. EHW refers in a narrow sense to use evolutionary mechanisms as the algorithmic drivers for system design, while in a general sense to the capability of the hardware system to develop and to improve itself. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of typical EAs. We propose optimal circuit design by using GA with parameterized uniform crossover (GApuc) and with fitness function composed of circuit complexity, power, and signal delay. Parameterized uniform crossover is much more likely to distribute its disruptive trials in an unbiased manner over larger portions of the space, then it has more exploratory power than one and two-point crossover, so we have more chances of finding better solutions. Its effectiveness is shown by experiments. From the results, we can see that the best elite fitness, the average value of fitness of the correct circuits and the number of the correct circuits of GApuc are better than that of GA with one-point crossover or two-point crossover. The best case of optimal circuits generated by GApuc is 10.18% and 6.08% better in evaluating value than that by GA with one-point crossover and two-point crossover, respectively.

  18. Applications of Evolutionary Technology to Manufacturing and Logistics Systems : State-of-the Art Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gen, Mitsuo; Lin, Lin

    Many combinatorial optimization problems from industrial engineering and operations research in real-world are very complex in nature and quite hard to solve them by conventional techniques. Since the 1960s, there has been an increasing interest in imitating living beings to solve such kinds of hard combinatorial optimization problems. Simulating the natural evolutionary process of human beings results in stochastic optimization techniques called evolutionary algorithms (EAs), which can often outperform conventional optimization methods when applied to difficult real-world problems. In this survey paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the current state-of-the-art in the use of EA in manufacturing and logistics systems. In order to demonstrate the EAs which are powerful and broadly applicable stochastic search and optimization techniques, we deal with the following engineering design problems: transportation planning models, layout design models and two-stage logistics models in logistics systems; job-shop scheduling, resource constrained project scheduling in manufacturing system.

  19. Multi-Objective Control Optimization for Greenhouse Environment Using Evolutionary Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    Hu, Haigen; Xu, Lihong; Wei, Ruihua; Zhu, Bingkun

    2011-01-01

    This paper investigates the issue of tuning the Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) controller parameters for a greenhouse climate control system using an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) based on multiple performance measures such as good static-dynamic performance specifications and the smooth process of control. A model of nonlinear thermodynamic laws between numerous system variables affecting the greenhouse climate is formulated. The proposed tuning scheme is tested for greenhouse climate control by minimizing the integrated time square error (ITSE) and the control increment or rate in a simulation experiment. The results show that by tuning the gain parameters the controllers can achieve good control performance through step responses such as small overshoot, fast settling time, and less rise time and steady state error. Besides, it can be applied to tuning the system with different properties, such as strong interactions among variables, nonlinearities and conflicting performance criteria. The results implicate that it is a quite effective and promising tuning method using multi-objective optimization algorithms in the complex greenhouse production. PMID:22163927

  20. Evolutionary Bi-objective Optimization for Bulldozer and Its Blade in Soil Cutting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharma, Deepak; Barakat, Nada

    2018-02-01

    An evolutionary optimization approach is adopted in this paper for simultaneously achieving the economic and productive soil cutting. The economic aspect is defined by minimizing the power requirement from the bulldozer, and the soil cutting is made productive by minimizing the time of soil cutting. For determining the power requirement, two force models are adopted from the literature to quantify the cutting force on the blade. Three domain-specific constraints are also proposed, which are limiting the power from the bulldozer, limiting the maximum force on the bulldozer blade and achieving the desired production rate. The bi-objective optimization problem is solved using five benchmark multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and one classical optimization technique using the ɛ-constraint method. The Pareto-optimal solutions are obtained with the knee-region. Further, the post-optimal analysis is performed on the obtained solutions to decipher relationships among the objectives and decision variables. Such relationships are later used for making guidelines for selecting the optimal set of input parameters. The obtained results are then compared with the experiment results from the literature that show a close agreement among them.

  1. Restart Operator Meta-heuristics for a Problem-Oriented Evolutionary Strategies Algorithm in Inverse Mathematical MISO Modelling Problem Solving

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryzhikov, I. S.; Semenkin, E. S.

    2017-02-01

    This study is focused on solving an inverse mathematical modelling problem for dynamical systems based on observation data and control inputs. The mathematical model is being searched in the form of a linear differential equation, which determines the system with multiple inputs and a single output, and a vector of the initial point coordinates. The described problem is complex and multimodal and for this reason the proposed evolutionary-based optimization technique, which is oriented on a dynamical system identification problem, was applied. To improve its performance an algorithm restart operator was implemented.

  2. An Efficient Optimization Method for Solving Unsupervised Data Classification Problems.

    PubMed

    Shabanzadeh, Parvaneh; Yusof, Rubiyah

    2015-01-01

    Unsupervised data classification (or clustering) analysis is one of the most useful tools and a descriptive task in data mining that seeks to classify homogeneous groups of objects based on similarity and is used in many medical disciplines and various applications. In general, there is no single algorithm that is suitable for all types of data, conditions, and applications. Each algorithm has its own advantages, limitations, and deficiencies. Hence, research for novel and effective approaches for unsupervised data classification is still active. In this paper a heuristic algorithm, Biogeography-Based Optimization (BBO) algorithm, was adapted for data clustering problems by modifying the main operators of BBO algorithm, which is inspired from the natural biogeography distribution of different species. Similar to other population-based algorithms, BBO algorithm starts with an initial population of candidate solutions to an optimization problem and an objective function that is calculated for them. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm assessment was carried on six medical and real life datasets and was compared with eight well known and recent unsupervised data classification algorithms. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed evolutionary optimization algorithm is efficient for unsupervised data classification.

  3. Exploring the Pareto frontier using multisexual evolutionary algorithms: an application to a flexible manufacturing problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonissone, Stefano R.; Subbu, Raj

    2002-12-01

    In multi-objective optimization (MOO) problems we need to optimize many possibly conflicting objectives. For instance, in manufacturing planning we might want to minimize the cost and production time while maximizing the product's quality. We propose the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to solve these problems. Solutions are represented as individuals in a population and are assigned scores according to a fitness function that determines their relative quality. Strong solutions are selected for reproduction, and pass their genetic material to the next generation. Weak solutions are removed from the population. The fitness function evaluates each solution and returns a related score. In MOO problems, this fitness function is vector-valued, i.e. it returns a value for each objective. Therefore, instead of a global optimum, we try to find the Pareto-optimal or non-dominated frontier. We use multi-sexual EAs with as many genders as optimization criteria. We have created new crossover and gender assignment functions, and experimented with various parameters to determine the best setting (yielding the highest number of non-dominated solutions.) These experiments are conducted using a variety of fitness functions, and the algorithms are later evaluated on a flexible manufacturing problem with total cost and time minimization objectives.

  4. Development of an Evolutionary Algorithm for the ab Initio Discovery of Two-Dimensional Materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Revard, Benjamin Charles

    Crystal structure prediction is an important first step on the path toward computational materials design. Increasingly robust methods have become available in recent years for computing many materials properties, but because properties are largely a function of crystal structure, the structure must be known before these methods can be brought to bear. In addition, structure prediction is particularly useful for identifying low-energy structures of subperiodic materials, such as two-dimensional (2D) materials, which may adopt unexpected structures that differ from those of the corresponding bulk phases. Evolutionary algorithms, which are heuristics for global optimization inspired by biological evolution, have proven to be a fruitful approach for tackling the problem of crystal structure prediction. This thesis describes the development of an improved evolutionary algorithm for structure prediction and several applications of the algorithm to predict the structures of novel low-energy 2D materials. The first part of this thesis contains an overview of evolutionary algorithms for crystal structure prediction and presents our implementation, including details of extending the algorithm to search for clusters, wires, and 2D materials, improvements to efficiency when running in parallel, improved composition space sampling, and the ability to search for partial phase diagrams. We then present several applications of the evolutionary algorithm to 2D systems, including InP, the C-Si and Sn-S phase diagrams, and several group-IV dioxides. This thesis makes use of the Cornell graduate school's "papers" option. Chapters 1 and 3 correspond to the first-author publications of Refs. [131] and [132], respectively, and chapter 2 will soon be submitted as a first-author publication. The material in chapter 4 is taken from Ref. [144], in which I share joint first-authorship. In this case I have included only my own contributions.

  5. Robust electromagnetically guided endoscopic procedure using enhanced particle swarm optimization for multimodal information fusion.

    PubMed

    Luo, Xiongbiao; Wan, Ying; He, Xiangjian

    2015-04-01

    Electromagnetically guided endoscopic procedure, which aims at accurately and robustly localizing the endoscope, involves multimodal sensory information during interventions. However, it still remains challenging in how to integrate these information for precise and stable endoscopic guidance. To tackle such a challenge, this paper proposes a new framework on the basis of an enhanced particle swarm optimization method to effectively fuse these information for accurate and continuous endoscope localization. The authors use the particle swarm optimization method, which is one of stochastic evolutionary computation algorithms, to effectively fuse the multimodal information including preoperative information (i.e., computed tomography images) as a frame of reference, endoscopic camera videos, and positional sensor measurements (i.e., electromagnetic sensor outputs). Since the evolutionary computation method usually limits its possible premature convergence and evolutionary factors, the authors introduce the current (endoscopic camera and electromagnetic sensor's) observation to boost the particle swarm optimization and also adaptively update evolutionary parameters in accordance with spatial constraints and the current observation, resulting in advantageous performance in the enhanced algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the authors' proposed method provides a more accurate and robust endoscopic guidance framework than state-of-the-art methods. The average guidance accuracy of the authors' framework was about 3.0 mm and 5.6° while the previous methods show at least 3.9 mm and 7.0°. The average position and orientation smoothness of their method was 1.0 mm and 1.6°, which is significantly better than the other methods at least with (2.0 mm and 2.6°). Additionally, the average visual quality of the endoscopic guidance was improved to 0.29. A robust electromagnetically guided endoscopy framework was proposed on the basis of an enhanced particle swarm optimization method with using the current observation information and adaptive evolutionary factors. The authors proposed framework greatly reduced the guidance errors from (4.3, 7.8) to (3.0 mm, 5.6°), compared to state-of-the-art methods.

  6. Sail Plan Configuration Optimization for a Modern Clipper Ship

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gerritsen, Margot; Doyle, Tyler; Iaccarino, Gianluca; Moin, Parviz

    2002-11-01

    We investigate the use of gradient-based and evolutionary algorithms for sail shape optimization. We present preliminary results for the optimization of sheeting angles for the rig of the future three-masted clipper yacht Maltese Falcon. This yacht will be equipped with square-rigged masts made up of yards of circular arc cross sections. This design is especially attractive for megayachts because it provides a large sail area while maintaining aerodynamic and structural efficiency. The rig remains almost rigid in a large range of wind conditions and therefore a simple geometrical model can be constructed without accounting for the true flying shape. The sheeting angle optimization studies are performed using both gradient-based cost function minimization and evolutionary algorithms. The fluid flow is modeled by the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the Spallart-Allmaras turbulence model. Unstructured non-conforming grids are used to increase robustness and computational efficiency. The optimization process is automated by integrating the system components (geometry construction, grid generation, flow solver, force calculator, optimization). We compare the optimization results to those done previously by user-controlled parametric studies using simple cost functions and user intuition. We also investigate the effectiveness of various cost functions in the optimization (driving force maximization, ratio of driving force to heeling force maximization).

  7. Development of X-TOOLSS: Preliminary Design of Space Systems Using Evolutionary Computation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schnell, Andrew R.; Hull, Patrick V.; Turner, Mike L.; Dozier, Gerry; Alverson, Lauren; Garrett, Aaron; Reneau, Jarred

    2008-01-01

    Evolutionary computational (EC) techniques such as genetic algorithms (GA) have been identified as promising methods to explore the design space of mechanical and electrical systems at the earliest stages of design. In this paper the authors summarize their research in the use of evolutionary computation to develop preliminary designs for various space systems. An evolutionary computational solver developed over the course of the research, X-TOOLSS (Exploration Toolset for the Optimization of Launch and Space Systems) is discussed. With the success of early, low-fidelity example problems, an outline of work involving more computationally complex models is discussed.

  8. Evolutionary tree reconstruction

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cheeseman, Peter; Kanefsky, Bob

    1990-01-01

    It is described how Minimum Description Length (MDL) can be applied to the problem of DNA and protein evolutionary tree reconstruction. If there is a set of mutations that transform a common ancestor into a set of the known sequences, and this description is shorter than the information to encode the known sequences directly, then strong evidence for an evolutionary relationship has been found. A heuristic algorithm is described that searches for the simplest tree (smallest MDL) that finds close to optimal trees on the test data. Various ways of extending the MDL theory to more complex evolutionary relationships are discussed.

  9. Design and Optimization Method of a Two-Disk Rotor System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jingjing; Zheng, Longxi; Mei, Qing

    2016-04-01

    An integrated analytical method based on multidisciplinary optimization software Isight and general finite element software ANSYS was proposed in this paper. Firstly, a two-disk rotor system was established and the mode, humorous response and transient response at acceleration condition were analyzed with ANSYS. The dynamic characteristics of the two-disk rotor system were achieved. On this basis, the two-disk rotor model was integrated to the multidisciplinary design optimization software Isight. According to the design of experiment (DOE) and the dynamic characteristics, the optimization variables, optimization objectives and constraints were confirmed. After that, the multi-objective design optimization of the transient process was carried out with three different global optimization algorithms including Evolutionary Optimization Algorithm, Multi-Island Genetic Algorithm and Pointer Automatic Optimizer. The optimum position of the two-disk rotor system was obtained at the specified constraints. Meanwhile, the accuracy and calculation numbers of different optimization algorithms were compared. The optimization results indicated that the rotor vibration reached the minimum value and the design efficiency and quality were improved by the multidisciplinary design optimization in the case of meeting the design requirements, which provided the reference to improve the design efficiency and reliability of the aero-engine rotor.

  10. Multiple sequence alignment using multi-objective based bacterial foraging optimization algorithm.

    PubMed

    Rani, R Ranjani; Ramyachitra, D

    2016-12-01

    Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is a widespread approach in computational biology and bioinformatics. MSA deals with how the sequences of nucleotides and amino acids are sequenced with possible alignment and minimum number of gaps between them, which directs to the functional, evolutionary and structural relationships among the sequences. Still the computation of MSA is a challenging task to provide an efficient accuracy and statistically significant results of alignments. In this work, the Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm was employed to align the biological sequences which resulted in a non-dominated optimal solution. It employs Multi-objective, such as: Maximization of Similarity, Non-gap percentage, Conserved blocks and Minimization of gap penalty. BAliBASE 3.0 benchmark database was utilized to examine the proposed algorithm against other methods In this paper, two algorithms have been proposed: Hybrid Genetic Algorithm with Artificial Bee Colony (GA-ABC) and Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm. It was found that Hybrid Genetic Algorithm with Artificial Bee Colony performed better than the existing optimization algorithms. But still the conserved blocks were not obtained using GA-ABC. Then BFO was used for the alignment and the conserved blocks were obtained. The proposed Multi-Objective Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (MO-BFO) was compared with widely used MSA methods Clustal Omega, Kalign, MUSCLE, MAFFT, Genetic Algorithm (GA), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Hybrid Genetic Algorithm with Artificial Bee Colony (GA-ABC). The final results show that the proposed MO-BFO algorithm yields better alignment than most widely used methods. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. An Airway Network Flow Assignment Approach Based on an Efficient Multiobjective Optimization Framework

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Xuejun; Lei, Jiaxing

    2015-01-01

    Considering reducing the airspace congestion and the flight delay simultaneously, this paper formulates the airway network flow assignment (ANFA) problem as a multiobjective optimization model and presents a new multiobjective optimization framework to solve it. Firstly, an effective multi-island parallel evolution algorithm with multiple evolution populations is employed to improve the optimization capability. Secondly, the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II is applied for each population. In addition, a cooperative coevolution algorithm is adapted to divide the ANFA problem into several low-dimensional biobjective optimization problems which are easier to deal with. Finally, in order to maintain the diversity of solutions and to avoid prematurity, a dynamic adjustment operator based on solution congestion degree is specifically designed for the ANFA problem. Simulation results using the real traffic data from China air route network and daily flight plans demonstrate that the proposed approach can improve the solution quality effectively, showing superiority to the existing approaches such as the multiobjective genetic algorithm, the well-known multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition, and a cooperative coevolution multiobjective algorithm as well as other parallel evolution algorithms with different migration topology. PMID:26180840

  12. Automated sequence-specific protein NMR assignment using the memetic algorithm MATCH.

    PubMed

    Volk, Jochen; Herrmann, Torsten; Wüthrich, Kurt

    2008-07-01

    MATCH (Memetic Algorithm and Combinatorial Optimization Heuristics) is a new memetic algorithm for automated sequence-specific polypeptide backbone NMR assignment of proteins. MATCH employs local optimization for tracing partial sequence-specific assignments within a global, population-based search environment, where the simultaneous application of local and global optimization heuristics guarantees high efficiency and robustness. MATCH thus makes combined use of the two predominant concepts in use for automated NMR assignment of proteins. Dynamic transition and inherent mutation are new techniques that enable automatic adaptation to variable quality of the experimental input data. The concept of dynamic transition is incorporated in all major building blocks of the algorithm, where it enables switching between local and global optimization heuristics at any time during the assignment process. Inherent mutation restricts the intrinsically required randomness of the evolutionary algorithm to those regions of the conformation space that are compatible with the experimental input data. Using intact and artificially deteriorated APSY-NMR input data of proteins, MATCH performed sequence-specific resonance assignment with high efficiency and robustness.

  13. Optimizing LX-17 Thermal Decomposition Model Parameters with Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moore, Jason; McClelland, Matthew; Tarver, Craig; Hsu, Peter; Springer, H. Keo

    2017-06-01

    We investigate and model the cook-off behavior of LX-17 because this knowledge is critical to understanding system response in abnormal thermal environments. Thermal decomposition of LX-17 has been explored in conventional ODTX (One-Dimensional Time-to-eXplosion), PODTX (ODTX with pressure-measurement), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), and DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) experiments using varied temperature profiles. These experimental data are the basis for developing multiple reaction schemes with coupled mechanics in LLNL's multi-physics hydrocode, ALE3D (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian code in 2D and 3D). We employ evolutionary algorithms to optimize reaction rate parameters on high performance computing clusters. Once experimentally validated, this model will be scalable to a number of applications involving LX-17 and can be used to develop more sophisticated experimental methods. Furthermore, the optimization methodology developed herein should be applicable to other high explosive materials. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNS, LLC.

  14. Evolutionary algorithms for multi-objective optimization: fuzzy preference aggregation and multisexual EAs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonissone, Stefano R.

    2001-11-01

    There are many approaches to solving multi-objective optimization problems using evolutionary algorithms. We need to select methods for representing and aggregating preferences, as well as choosing strategies for searching in multi-dimensional objective spaces. First we suggest the use of linguistic variables to represent preferences and the use of fuzzy rule systems to implement tradeoff aggregations. After a review of alternatives EA methods for multi-objective optimizations, we explore the use of multi-sexual genetic algorithms (MSGA). In using a MSGA, we need to modify certain parts of the GAs, namely the selection and crossover operations. The selection operator groups solutions according to their gender tag to prepare them for crossover. The crossover is modified by appending a gender tag at the end of the chromosome. We use single and double point crossovers. We determine the gender of the offspring by the amount of genetic material provided by each parent. The parent that contributed the most to the creation of a specific offspring determines the gender that the offspring will inherit. This is still a work in progress, and in the conclusion we examine many future extensions and experiments.

  15. Using evolutionary computation to optimize an SVM used in detecting buried objects in FLIR imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paino, Alex; Popescu, Mihail; Keller, James M.; Stone, Kevin

    2013-06-01

    In this paper we describe an approach for optimizing the parameters of a Support Vector Machine (SVM) as part of an algorithm used to detect buried objects in forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery captured by a camera installed on a moving vehicle. The overall algorithm consists of a spot-finding procedure (to look for potential targets) followed by the extraction of several features from the neighborhood of each spot. The features include local binary pattern (LBP) and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) as these are good at detecting texture classes. Finally, we project and sum each hit into UTM space along with its confidence value (obtained from the SVM), producing a confidence map for ROC analysis. In this work, we use an Evolutionary Computation Algorithm (ECA) to optimize various parameters involved in the system, such as the combination of features used, parameters on the Canny edge detector, the SVM kernel, and various HOG and LBP parameters. To validate our approach, we compare results obtained from an SVM using parameters obtained through our ECA technique with those previously selected by hand through several iterations of "guess and check".

  16. Evolutionary algorithms for the optimization of advective control of contaminated aquifer zones

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bayer, Peter; Finkel, Michael

    2004-06-01

    Simple genetic algorithms (SGAs) and derandomized evolution strategies (DESs) are employed to adapt well capture zones for the hydraulic optimization of pump-and-treat systems. A hypothetical contaminant site in a heterogeneous aquifer serves as an application template. On the basis of the results from numerical flow modeling, particle tracking is applied to delineate the pathways of the contaminants. The objective is to find the minimum pumping rate of up to eight recharge wells within a downgradient well placement area. Both the well coordinates and the pumping rates are subject to optimization, leading to a mixed discrete-continuous problem. This article discusses the ideal formulation of the objective function for which the number of particles and the total pumping rate are used as decision criteria. Boundary updating is introduced, which enables the reorganization of the decision space limits by the incorporation of experience from previous optimization runs. Throughout the study the algorithms' capabilities are evaluated in terms of the number of model runs which are needed to identify optimal and suboptimal solutions. Despite the complexity of the problem both evolutionary algorithm variants prove to be suitable for finding suboptimal solutions. The DES with weighted recombination reveals to be the ideal algorithm to find optimal solutions. Though it works with real-coded decision parameters, it proves to be suitable for adjusting discrete well positions. Principally, the representation of well positions as binary strings in the SGA is ideal. However, even if the SGA takes advantage of bookkeeping, the vital high discretization of pumping rates results in long binary strings, which escalates the model runs that are needed to find an optimal solution. Since the SGA string lengths increase with the number of wells, the DES gains superiority, particularly for an increasing number of wells. As the DES is a self-adaptive algorithm, it proves to be the more robust optimization method for the selected advective control problem than the SGA variants of this study, exhibiting a less stochastic search which is reflected in the minor variability of the found solutions.

  17. Hierarchical Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for RFID Network Planning Optimization

    PubMed Central

    Ma, Lianbo; Chen, Hanning; Hu, Kunyuan; Zhu, Yunlong

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a novel optimization algorithm, namely, hierarchical artificial bee colony optimization, called HABC, to tackle the radio frequency identification network planning (RNP) problem. In the proposed multilevel model, the higher-level species can be aggregated by the subpopulations from lower level. In the bottom level, each subpopulation employing the canonical ABC method searches the part-dimensional optimum in parallel, which can be constructed into a complete solution for the upper level. At the same time, the comprehensive learning method with crossover and mutation operators is applied to enhance the global search ability between species. Experiments are conducted on a set of 10 benchmark optimization problems. The results demonstrate that the proposed HABC obtains remarkable performance on most chosen benchmark functions when compared to several successful swarm intelligence and evolutionary algorithms. Then HABC is used for solving the real-world RNP problem on two instances with different scales. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior for solving RNP, in terms of optimization accuracy and computation robustness. PMID:24592200

  18. Hierarchical artificial bee colony algorithm for RFID network planning optimization.

    PubMed

    Ma, Lianbo; Chen, Hanning; Hu, Kunyuan; Zhu, Yunlong

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a novel optimization algorithm, namely, hierarchical artificial bee colony optimization, called HABC, to tackle the radio frequency identification network planning (RNP) problem. In the proposed multilevel model, the higher-level species can be aggregated by the subpopulations from lower level. In the bottom level, each subpopulation employing the canonical ABC method searches the part-dimensional optimum in parallel, which can be constructed into a complete solution for the upper level. At the same time, the comprehensive learning method with crossover and mutation operators is applied to enhance the global search ability between species. Experiments are conducted on a set of 10 benchmark optimization problems. The results demonstrate that the proposed HABC obtains remarkable performance on most chosen benchmark functions when compared to several successful swarm intelligence and evolutionary algorithms. Then HABC is used for solving the real-world RNP problem on two instances with different scales. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior for solving RNP, in terms of optimization accuracy and computation robustness.

  19. Closed-loop optimization of chromatography column sizing strategies in biopharmaceutical manufacture.

    PubMed

    Allmendinger, Richard; Simaria, Ana S; Turner, Richard; Farid, Suzanne S

    2014-10-01

    This paper considers a real-world optimization problem involving the identification of cost-effective equipment sizing strategies for the sequence of chromatography steps employed to purify biopharmaceuticals. Tackling this problem requires solving a combinatorial optimization problem subject to multiple constraints, uncertain parameters, and time-consuming fitness evaluations. An industrially-relevant case study is used to illustrate that evolutionary algorithms can identify chromatography sizing strategies with significant improvements in performance criteria related to process cost, time and product waste over the base case. The results demonstrate also that evolutionary algorithms perform best when infeasible solutions are repaired intelligently, the population size is set appropriately, and elitism is combined with a low number of Monte Carlo trials (needed to account for uncertainty). Adopting this setup turns out to be more important for scenarios where less time is available for the purification process. Finally, a data-visualization tool is employed to illustrate how user preferences can be accounted for when it comes to selecting a sizing strategy to be implemented in a real industrial setting. This work demonstrates that closed-loop evolutionary optimization, when tuned properly and combined with a detailed manufacturing cost model, acts as a powerful decisional tool for the identification of cost-effective purification strategies. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

  20. Closed-loop optimization of chromatography column sizing strategies in biopharmaceutical manufacture

    PubMed Central

    Allmendinger, Richard; Simaria, Ana S; Turner, Richard; Farid, Suzanne S

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND This paper considers a real-world optimization problem involving the identification of cost-effective equipment sizing strategies for the sequence of chromatography steps employed to purify biopharmaceuticals. Tackling this problem requires solving a combinatorial optimization problem subject to multiple constraints, uncertain parameters, and time-consuming fitness evaluations. RESULTS An industrially-relevant case study is used to illustrate that evolutionary algorithms can identify chromatography sizing strategies with significant improvements in performance criteria related to process cost, time and product waste over the base case. The results demonstrate also that evolutionary algorithms perform best when infeasible solutions are repaired intelligently, the population size is set appropriately, and elitism is combined with a low number of Monte Carlo trials (needed to account for uncertainty). Adopting this setup turns out to be more important for scenarios where less time is available for the purification process. Finally, a data-visualization tool is employed to illustrate how user preferences can be accounted for when it comes to selecting a sizing strategy to be implemented in a real industrial setting. CONCLUSION This work demonstrates that closed-loop evolutionary optimization, when tuned properly and combined with a detailed manufacturing cost model, acts as a powerful decisional tool for the identification of cost-effective purification strategies. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. PMID:25506115

  1. Evolutionary Multiobjective Query Workload Optimization of Cloud Data Warehouses

    PubMed Central

    Dokeroglu, Tansel; Sert, Seyyit Alper; Cinar, Muhammet Serkan

    2014-01-01

    With the advent of Cloud databases, query optimizers need to find paretooptimal solutions in terms of response time and monetary cost. Our novel approach minimizes both objectives by deploying alternative virtual resources and query plans making use of the virtual resource elasticity of the Cloud. We propose an exact multiobjective branch-and-bound and a robust multiobjective genetic algorithm for the optimization of distributed data warehouse query workloads on the Cloud. In order to investigate the effectiveness of our approach, we incorporate the devised algorithms into a prototype system. Finally, through several experiments that we have conducted with different workloads and virtual resource configurations, we conclude remarkable findings of alternative deployments as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the multiobjective algorithms we propose. PMID:24892048

  2. Irrigation water allocation optimization using multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) - a review

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fanuel, Ibrahim Mwita; Mushi, Allen; Kajunguri, Damian

    2018-03-01

    This paper analyzes more than 40 papers with a restricted area of application of Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II and Multi-Objective Differential Evolution (MODE) to solve the multi-objective problem in agricultural water management. The paper focused on different application aspects which include water allocation, irrigation planning, crop pattern and allocation of available land. The performance and results of these techniques are discussed. The review finds that there is a potential to use MODE to analyzed the multi-objective problem, the application is more significance due to its advantage of being simple and powerful technique than any Evolutionary Algorithm. The paper concludes with the hopeful new trend of research that demand effective use of MODE; inclusion of benefits derived from farm byproducts and production costs into the model.

  3. CamOptimus: a tool for exploiting complex adaptive evolution to optimize experiments and processes in biotechnology

    PubMed Central

    Cankorur-Cetinkaya, Ayca; Dias, Joao M. L.; Kludas, Jana; Slater, Nigel K. H.; Rousu, Juho; Dikicioglu, Duygu

    2017-01-01

    Multiple interacting factors affect the performance of engineered biological systems in synthetic biology projects. The complexity of these biological systems means that experimental design should often be treated as a multiparametric optimization problem. However, the available methodologies are either impractical, due to a combinatorial explosion in the number of experiments to be performed, or are inaccessible to most experimentalists due to the lack of publicly available, user-friendly software. Although evolutionary algorithms may be employed as alternative approaches to optimize experimental design, the lack of simple-to-use software again restricts their use to specialist practitioners. In addition, the lack of subsidiary approaches to further investigate critical factors and their interactions prevents the full analysis and exploitation of the biotechnological system. We have addressed these problems and, here, provide a simple‐to‐use and freely available graphical user interface to empower a broad range of experimental biologists to employ complex evolutionary algorithms to optimize their experimental designs. Our approach exploits a Genetic Algorithm to discover the subspace containing the optimal combination of parameters, and Symbolic Regression to construct a model to evaluate the sensitivity of the experiment to each parameter under investigation. We demonstrate the utility of this method using an example in which the culture conditions for the microbial production of a bioactive human protein are optimized. CamOptimus is available through: (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10257). PMID:28635591

  4. Aggregation Pheromone System: A Real-parameter Optimization Algorithm using Aggregation Pheromones as the Base Metaphor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tsutsui, Shigeyosi

    This paper proposes an aggregation pheromone system (APS) for solving real-parameter optimization problems using the collective behavior of individuals which communicate using aggregation pheromones. APS was tested on several test functions used in evolutionary computation. The results showed APS could solve real-parameter optimization problems fairly well. The sensitivity analysis of control parameters of APS is also studied.

  5. Hybrid Artificial Root Foraging Optimizer Based Multilevel Threshold for Image Segmentation

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Yang; Liu, Junfei

    2016-01-01

    This paper proposes a new plant-inspired optimization algorithm for multilevel threshold image segmentation, namely, hybrid artificial root foraging optimizer (HARFO), which essentially mimics the iterative root foraging behaviors. In this algorithm the new growth operators of branching, regrowing, and shrinkage are initially designed to optimize continuous space search by combining root-to-root communication and coevolution mechanism. With the auxin-regulated scheme, various root growth operators are guided systematically. With root-to-root communication, individuals exchange information in different efficient topologies, which essentially improve the exploration ability. With coevolution mechanism, the hierarchical spatial population driven by evolutionary pressure of multiple subpopulations is structured, which ensure that the diversity of root population is well maintained. The comparative results on a suit of benchmarks show the superiority of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the proposed HARFO algorithm is applied to handle the complex image segmentation problem based on multilevel threshold. Computational results of this approach on a set of tested images show the outperformance of the proposed algorithm in terms of optimization accuracy computation efficiency. PMID:27725826

  6. Hybrid Artificial Root Foraging Optimizer Based Multilevel Threshold for Image Segmentation.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yang; Liu, Junfei; Tian, Liwei; Ma, Lianbo

    2016-01-01

    This paper proposes a new plant-inspired optimization algorithm for multilevel threshold image segmentation, namely, hybrid artificial root foraging optimizer (HARFO), which essentially mimics the iterative root foraging behaviors. In this algorithm the new growth operators of branching, regrowing, and shrinkage are initially designed to optimize continuous space search by combining root-to-root communication and coevolution mechanism. With the auxin-regulated scheme, various root growth operators are guided systematically. With root-to-root communication, individuals exchange information in different efficient topologies, which essentially improve the exploration ability. With coevolution mechanism, the hierarchical spatial population driven by evolutionary pressure of multiple subpopulations is structured, which ensure that the diversity of root population is well maintained. The comparative results on a suit of benchmarks show the superiority of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the proposed HARFO algorithm is applied to handle the complex image segmentation problem based on multilevel threshold. Computational results of this approach on a set of tested images show the outperformance of the proposed algorithm in terms of optimization accuracy computation efficiency.

  7. Accelerated optimization and automated discovery with covariance matrix adaptation for experimental quantum control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roslund, Jonathan; Shir, Ofer M.; Bäck, Thomas; Rabitz, Herschel

    2009-10-01

    Optimization of quantum systems by closed-loop adaptive pulse shaping offers a rich domain for the development and application of specialized evolutionary algorithms. Derandomized evolution strategies (DESs) are presented here as a robust class of optimizers for experimental quantum control. The combination of stochastic and quasi-local search embodied by these algorithms is especially amenable to the inherent topology of quantum control landscapes. Implementation of DES in the laboratory results in efficiency gains of up to ˜9 times that of the standard genetic algorithm, and thus is a promising tool for optimization of unstable or fragile systems. The statistical learning upon which these algorithms are predicated also provide the means for obtaining a control problem’s Hessian matrix with no additional experimental overhead. The forced optimal covariance adaptive learning (FOCAL) method is introduced to enable retrieval of the Hessian matrix, which can reveal information about the landscape’s local structure and dynamic mechanism. Exploitation of such algorithms in quantum control experiments should enhance their efficiency and provide additional fundamental insights.

  8. Discovery of Novel HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors Using QSAR-Based Virtual Screening of the NCI Open Database.

    PubMed

    Ko, Gene M; Garg, Rajni; Bailey, Barbara A; Kumar, Sunil

    2016-01-01

    Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models can be used as a predictive tool for virtual screening of chemical libraries to identify novel drug candidates. The aims of this paper were to report the results of a study performed for descriptor selection, QSAR model development, and virtual screening for identifying novel HIV-1 integrase inhibitor drug candidates. First, three evolutionary algorithms were compared for descriptor selection: differential evolution-binary particle swarm optimization (DE-BPSO), binary particle swarm optimization, and genetic algorithms. Next, three QSAR models were developed from an ensemble of multiple linear regression, partial least squares, and extremely randomized trees models. A comparison of the performances of three evolutionary algorithms showed that DE-BPSO has a significant improvement over the other two algorithms. QSAR models developed in this study were used in consensus as a predictive tool for virtual screening of the NCI Open Database containing 265,242 compounds to identify potential novel HIV-1 integrase inhibitors. Six compounds were predicted to be highly active (plC50 > 6) by each of the three models. The use of a hybrid evolutionary algorithm (DE-BPSO) for descriptor selection and QSAR model development in drug design is a novel approach. Consensus modeling may provide better predictivity by taking into account a broader range of chemical properties within the data set conducive for inhibition that may be missed by an individual model. The six compounds identified provide novel drug candidate leads in the design of next generation HIV- 1 integrase inhibitors targeting drug resistant mutant viruses.

  9. Multiobjective evolutionary optimization of water distribution systems: Exploiting diversity with infeasible solutions.

    PubMed

    Tanyimboh, Tiku T; Seyoum, Alemtsehay G

    2016-12-01

    This article investigates the computational efficiency of constraint handling in multi-objective evolutionary optimization algorithms for water distribution systems. The methodology investigated here encourages the co-existence and simultaneous development including crossbreeding of subpopulations of cost-effective feasible and infeasible solutions based on Pareto dominance. This yields a boundary search approach that also promotes diversity in the gene pool throughout the progress of the optimization by exploiting the full spectrum of non-dominated infeasible solutions. The relative effectiveness of small and moderate population sizes with respect to the number of decision variables is investigated also. The results reveal the optimization algorithm to be efficient, stable and robust. It found optimal and near-optimal solutions reliably and efficiently. The real-world system based optimization problem involved multiple variable head supply nodes, 29 fire-fighting flows, extended period simulation and multiple demand categories including water loss. The least cost solutions found satisfied the flow and pressure requirements consistently. The best solutions achieved indicative savings of 48.1% and 48.2% based on the cost of the pipes in the existing network, for populations of 200 and 1000, respectively. The population of 1000 achieved slightly better results overall. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  10. Evaluating and Improving Automatic Sleep Spindle Detection by Using Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Min-Yin; Huang, Adam; Huang, Norden E.

    2017-01-01

    Sleep spindles are brief bursts of brain activity in the sigma frequency range (11–16 Hz) measured by electroencephalography (EEG) mostly during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage 2 sleep. These oscillations are of great biological and clinical interests because they potentially play an important role in identifying and characterizing the processes of various neurological disorders. Conventionally, sleep spindles are identified by expert sleep clinicians via visual inspection of EEG signals. The process is laborious and the results are inconsistent among different experts. To resolve the problem, numerous computerized methods have been developed to automate the process of sleep spindle identification. Still, the performance of these automated sleep spindle detection methods varies inconsistently from study to study. There are two reasons: (1) the lack of common benchmark databases, and (2) the lack of commonly accepted evaluation metrics. In this study, we focus on tackling the second problem by proposing to evaluate the performance of a spindle detector in a multi-objective optimization context and hypothesize that using the resultant Pareto fronts for deriving evaluation metrics will improve automatic sleep spindle detection. We use a popular multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA), the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA2), to optimize six existing frequency-based sleep spindle detection algorithms. They include three Fourier, one continuous wavelet transform (CWT), and two Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) based algorithms. We also explore three hybrid approaches. Trained and tested on open-access DREAMS and MASS databases, two new hybrid methods of combining Fourier with HHT algorithms show significant performance improvement with F1-scores of 0.726–0.737. PMID:28572762

  11. Evolution, learning, and cognition

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lee, Y.C.

    1988-01-01

    The book comprises more than fifteen articles in the areas of neural networks and connectionist systems, classifier systems, adaptive network systems, genetic algorithm, cellular automata, artificial immune systems, evolutionary genetics, cognitive science, optical computing, combinatorial optimization, and cybernetics.

  12. Application of the gravity search algorithm to multi-reservoir operation optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bozorg-Haddad, Omid; Janbaz, Mahdieh; Loáiciga, Hugo A.

    2016-12-01

    Complexities in river discharge, variable rainfall regime, and drought severity merit the use of advanced optimization tools in multi-reservoir operation. The gravity search algorithm (GSA) is an evolutionary optimization algorithm based on the law of gravity and mass interactions. This paper explores the GSA's efficacy for solving benchmark functions, single reservoir, and four-reservoir operation optimization problems. The GSA's solutions are compared with those of the well-known genetic algorithm (GA) in three optimization problems. The results show that the GSA's results are closer to the optimal solutions than the GA's results in minimizing the benchmark functions. The average values of the objective function equal 1.218 and 1.746 with the GSA and GA, respectively, in solving the single-reservoir hydropower operation problem. The global solution equals 1.213 for this same problem. The GSA converged to 99.97% of the global solution in its average-performing history, while the GA converged to 97% of the global solution of the four-reservoir problem. Requiring fewer parameters for algorithmic implementation and reaching the optimal solution in fewer number of functional evaluations are additional advantages of the GSA over the GA. The results of the three optimization problems demonstrate a superior performance of the GSA for optimizing general mathematical problems and the operation of reservoir systems.

  13. Optimal Solution for an Engineering Applications Using Modified Artificial Immune System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Padmanabhan, S.; Chandrasekaran, M.; Ganesan, S.; patan, Mahamed Naveed Khan; Navakanth, Polina

    2017-03-01

    An Engineering optimization leads a essential role in several engineering application areas like process design, product design, re-engineering and new product development, etc. In engineering, an awfully best answer is achieved by comparison to some completely different solutions by utilization previous downside information. An optimization algorithms provide systematic associate degreed economical ways that within which of constructing and comparison new design solutions so on understand at best vogue, thus on best solution efficiency and acquire the foremost wonderful design impact. In this paper, a new evolutionary based Modified Artificial Immune System (MAIS) algorithm used to optimize an engineering application of gear drive design. The results are compared with existing design.

  14. A Hybrid Optimization Framework with POD-based Order Reduction and Design-Space Evolution Scheme

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghoman, Satyajit S.

    The main objective of this research is to develop an innovative multi-fidelity multi-disciplinary design, analysis and optimization suite that integrates certain solution generation codes and newly developed innovative tools to improve the overall optimization process. The research performed herein is divided into two parts: (1) the development of an MDAO framework by integration of variable fidelity physics-based computational codes, and (2) enhancements to such a framework by incorporating innovative features extending its robustness. The first part of this dissertation describes the development of a conceptual Multi-Fidelity Multi-Strategy and Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization Environment (M3 DOE), in context of aircraft wing optimization. M 3 DOE provides the user a capability to optimize configurations with a choice of (i) the level of fidelity desired, (ii) the use of a single-step or multi-step optimization strategy, and (iii) combination of a series of structural and aerodynamic analyses. The modularity of M3 DOE allows it to be a part of other inclusive optimization frameworks. The M 3 DOE is demonstrated within the context of shape and sizing optimization of the wing of a Generic Business Jet aircraft. Two different optimization objectives, viz. dry weight minimization, and cruise range maximization are studied by conducting one low-fidelity and two high-fidelity optimization runs to demonstrate the application scope of M3 DOE. The second part of this dissertation describes the development of an innovative hybrid optimization framework that extends the robustness of M 3 DOE by employing a proper orthogonal decomposition-based design-space order reduction scheme combined with the evolutionary algorithm technique. The POD method of extracting dominant modes from an ensemble of candidate configurations is used for the design-space order reduction. The snapshot of candidate population is updated iteratively using evolutionary algorithm technique of fitness-driven retention. This strategy capitalizes on the advantages of evolutionary algorithm as well as POD-based reduced order modeling, while overcoming the shortcomings inherent with these techniques. When linked with M3 DOE, this strategy offers a computationally efficient methodology for problems with high level of complexity and a challenging design-space. This newly developed framework is demonstrated for its robustness on a nonconventional supersonic tailless air vehicle wing shape optimization problem.

  15. Evolutionary engineering for industrial microbiology.

    PubMed

    Vanee, Niti; Fisher, Adam B; Fong, Stephen S

    2012-01-01

    Superficially, evolutionary engineering is a paradoxical field that balances competing interests. In natural settings, evolution iteratively selects and enriches subpopulations that are best adapted to a particular ecological niche using random processes such as genetic mutation. In engineering desired approaches utilize rational prospective design to address targeted problems. When considering details of evolutionary and engineering processes, more commonality can be found. Engineering relies on detailed knowledge of the problem parameters and design properties in order to predict design outcomes that would be an optimized solution. When detailed knowledge of a system is lacking, engineers often employ algorithmic search strategies to identify empirical solutions. Evolution epitomizes this iterative optimization by continuously diversifying design options from a parental design, and then selecting the progeny designs that represent satisfactory solutions. In this chapter, the technique of applying the natural principles of evolution to engineer microbes for industrial applications is discussed to highlight the challenges and principles of evolutionary engineering.

  16. Exploratory power of the harmony search algorithm: analysis and improvements for global numerical optimization.

    PubMed

    Das, Swagatam; Mukhopadhyay, Arpan; Roy, Anwit; Abraham, Ajith; Panigrahi, Bijaya K

    2011-02-01

    The theoretical analysis of evolutionary algorithms is believed to be very important for understanding their internal search mechanism and thus to develop more efficient algorithms. This paper presents a simple mathematical analysis of the explorative search behavior of a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm called harmony search (HS). HS is a derivative-free real parameter optimization algorithm, and it draws inspiration from the musical improvisation process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. This paper analyzes the evolution of the population-variance over successive generations in HS and thereby draws some important conclusions regarding the explorative power of HS. A simple but very useful modification to the classical HS has been proposed in light of the mathematical analysis undertaken here. A comparison with the most recently published variants of HS and four other state-of-the-art optimization algorithms over 15 unconstrained and five constrained benchmark functions reflects the efficiency of the modified HS in terms of final accuracy, convergence speed, and robustness.

  17. A combined NLP-differential evolution algorithm approach for the optimization of looped water distribution systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Feifei; Simpson, Angus R.; Zecchin, Aaron C.

    2011-08-01

    This paper proposes a novel optimization approach for the least cost design of looped water distribution systems (WDSs). Three distinct steps are involved in the proposed optimization approach. In the first step, the shortest-distance tree within the looped network is identified using the Dijkstra graph theory algorithm, for which an extension is proposed to find the shortest-distance tree for multisource WDSs. In the second step, a nonlinear programming (NLP) solver is employed to optimize the pipe diameters for the shortest-distance tree (chords of the shortest-distance tree are allocated the minimum allowable pipe sizes). Finally, in the third step, the original looped water network is optimized using a differential evolution (DE) algorithm seeded with diameters in the proximity of the continuous pipe sizes obtained in step two. As such, the proposed optimization approach combines the traditional deterministic optimization technique of NLP with the emerging evolutionary algorithm DE via the proposed network decomposition. The proposed methodology has been tested on four looped WDSs with the number of decision variables ranging from 21 to 454. Results obtained show the proposed approach is able to find optimal solutions with significantly less computational effort than other optimization techniques.

  18. Support Vector Machines Trained with Evolutionary Algorithms Employing Kernel Adatron for Large Scale Classification of Protein Structures.

    PubMed

    Arana-Daniel, Nancy; Gallegos, Alberto A; López-Franco, Carlos; Alanís, Alma Y; Morales, Jacob; López-Franco, Adriana

    2016-01-01

    With the increasing power of computers, the amount of data that can be processed in small periods of time has grown exponentially, as has the importance of classifying large-scale data efficiently. Support vector machines have shown good results classifying large amounts of high-dimensional data, such as data generated by protein structure prediction, spam recognition, medical diagnosis, optical character recognition and text classification, etc. Most state of the art approaches for large-scale learning use traditional optimization methods, such as quadratic programming or gradient descent, which makes the use of evolutionary algorithms for training support vector machines an area to be explored. The present paper proposes an approach that is simple to implement based on evolutionary algorithms and Kernel-Adatron for solving large-scale classification problems, focusing on protein structure prediction. The functional properties of proteins depend upon their three-dimensional structures. Knowing the structures of proteins is crucial for biology and can lead to improvements in areas such as medicine, agriculture and biofuels.

  19. Maximizing Submodular Functions under Matroid Constraints by Evolutionary Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Friedrich, Tobias; Neumann, Frank

    2015-01-01

    Many combinatorial optimization problems have underlying goal functions that are submodular. The classical goal is to find a good solution for a given submodular function f under a given set of constraints. In this paper, we investigate the runtime of a simple single objective evolutionary algorithm called (1 + 1) EA and a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm called GSEMO until they have obtained a good approximation for submodular functions. For the case of monotone submodular functions and uniform cardinality constraints, we show that the GSEMO achieves a (1 - 1/e)-approximation in expected polynomial time. For the case of monotone functions where the constraints are given by the intersection of K ≥ 2 matroids, we show that the (1 + 1) EA achieves a (1/k + δ)-approximation in expected polynomial time for any constant δ > 0. Turning to nonmonotone symmetric submodular functions with k ≥ 1 matroid intersection constraints, we show that the GSEMO achieves a 1/((k + 2)(1 + ε))-approximation in expected time O(n(k + 6)log(n)/ε.

  20. Committee-Based Active Learning for Surrogate-Assisted Particle Swarm Optimization of Expensive Problems.

    PubMed

    Wang, Handing; Jin, Yaochu; Doherty, John

    2017-09-01

    Function evaluations (FEs) of many real-world optimization problems are time or resource consuming, posing a serious challenge to the application of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to solve these problems. To address this challenge, the research on surrogate-assisted EAs has attracted increasing attention from both academia and industry over the past decades. However, most existing surrogate-assisted EAs (SAEAs) either still require thousands of expensive FEs to obtain acceptable solutions, or are only applied to very low-dimensional problems. In this paper, a novel surrogate-assisted particle swarm optimization (PSO) inspired from committee-based active learning (CAL) is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, a global model management strategy inspired from CAL is developed, which searches for the best and most uncertain solutions according to a surrogate ensemble using a PSO algorithm and evaluates these solutions using the expensive objective function. In addition, a local surrogate model is built around the best solution obtained so far. Then, a PSO algorithm searches on the local surrogate to find its optimum and evaluates it. The evolutionary search using the global model management strategy switches to the local search once no further improvement can be observed, and vice versa. This iterative search process continues until the computational budget is exhausted. Experimental results comparing the proposed algorithm with a few state-of-the-art SAEAs on both benchmark problems up to 30 decision variables as well as an airfoil design problem demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to achieve better or competitive solutions with a limited budget of hundreds of exact FEs.

  1. CMOS analogue amplifier circuits optimisation using hybrid backtracking search algorithm with differential evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mallick, S.; Kar, R.; Mandal, D.; Ghoshal, S. P.

    2016-07-01

    This paper proposes a novel hybrid optimisation algorithm which combines the recently proposed evolutionary algorithm Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA) with another widely accepted evolutionary algorithm, namely, Differential Evolution (DE). The proposed algorithm called BSA-DE is employed for the optimal designs of two commonly used analogue circuits, namely Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) differential amplifier circuit with current mirror load and CMOS two-stage operational amplifier (op-amp) circuit. BSA has a simple structure that is effective, fast and capable of solving multimodal problems. DE is a stochastic, population-based heuristic approach, having the capability to solve global optimisation problems. In this paper, the transistors' sizes are optimised using the proposed BSA-DE to minimise the areas occupied by the circuits and to improve the performances of the circuits. The simulation results justify the superiority of BSA-DE in global convergence properties and fine tuning ability, and prove it to be a promising candidate for the optimal design of the analogue CMOS amplifier circuits. The simulation results obtained for both the amplifier circuits prove the effectiveness of the proposed BSA-DE-based approach over DE, harmony search (HS), artificial bee colony (ABC) and PSO in terms of convergence speed, design specifications and design parameters of the optimal design of the analogue CMOS amplifier circuits. It is shown that BSA-DE-based design technique for each amplifier circuit yields the least MOS transistor area, and each designed circuit is shown to have the best performance parameters such as gain, power dissipation, etc., as compared with those of other recently reported literature.

  2. Multidimensional scaling for evolutionary algorithms--visualization of the path through search space and solution space using Sammon mapping.

    PubMed

    Pohlheim, Hartmut

    2006-01-01

    Multidimensional scaling as a technique for the presentation of high-dimensional data with standard visualization techniques is presented. The technique used is often known as Sammon mapping. We explain the mathematical foundations of multidimensional scaling and its robust calculation. We also demonstrate the use of this technique in the area of evolutionary algorithms. First, we present the visualization of the path through the search space of the best individuals during an optimization run. We then apply multidimensional scaling to the comparison of multiple runs regarding the variables of individuals and multi-criteria objective values (path through the solution space).

  3. Bi-directional evolutionary optimization for photonic band gap structures

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Meng, Fei; School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075; Huang, Xiaodong, E-mail: huang.xiaodong@rmit.edu.au

    2015-12-01

    Toward an efficient and easy-implement optimization for photonic band gap structures, this paper extends the bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method for maximizing photonic band gaps. Photonic crystals are assumed to be periodically composed of two dielectric materials with the different permittivity. Based on the finite element analysis and sensitivity analysis, BESO starts from a simple initial design without any band gap and gradually re-distributes dielectric materials within the unit cell so that the resulting photonic crystal possesses a maximum band gap between two specified adjacent bands. Numerical examples demonstrated the proposed optimization algorithm can successfully obtain the band gapsmore » from the first to the tenth band for both transverse magnetic and electric polarizations. Some optimized photonic crystals exhibit novel patterns markedly different from traditional designs of photonic crystals.« less

  4. Optimal lunar soft landing trajectories using taboo evolutionary programming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mutyalarao, M.; Raj, M. Xavier James

    A safe lunar landing is a key factor to undertake an effective lunar exploration. Lunar lander consists of four phases such as launch phase, the earth-moon transfer phase, circumlunar phase and landing phase. The landing phase can be either hard landing or soft landing. Hard landing means the vehicle lands under the influence of gravity without any deceleration measures. However, soft landing reduces the vertical velocity of the vehicle before landing. Therefore, for the safety of the astronauts as well as the vehicle lunar soft landing with an acceptable velocity is very much essential. So it is important to design the optimal lunar soft landing trajectory with minimum fuel consumption. Optimization of Lunar Soft landing is a complex optimal control problem. In this paper, an analysis related to lunar soft landing from a parking orbit around Moon has been carried out. A two-dimensional trajectory optimization problem is attempted. The problem is complex due to the presence of system constraints. To solve the time-history of control parameters, the problem is converted into two point boundary value problem by using the maximum principle of Pontrygen. Taboo Evolutionary Programming (TEP) technique is a stochastic method developed in recent years and successfully implemented in several fields of research. It combines the features of taboo search and single-point mutation evolutionary programming. Identifying the best unknown parameters of the problem under consideration is the central idea for many space trajectory optimization problems. The TEP technique is used in the present methodology for the best estimation of initial unknown parameters by minimizing objective function interms of fuel requirements. The optimal estimation subsequently results into an optimal trajectory design of a module for soft landing on the Moon from a lunar parking orbit. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach is highly efficient and it reduces the minimum fuel consumption. The results are compared with the available results in literature shows that the solution of present algorithm is better than some of the existing algorithms. Keywords: soft landing, trajectory optimization, evolutionary programming, control parameters, Pontrygen principle.

  5. Gender approaches to evolutionary multi-objective optimization using pre-selection of criteria

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kowalczuk, Zdzisław; Białaszewski, Tomasz

    2018-01-01

    A novel idea to perform evolutionary computations (ECs) for solving highly dimensional multi-objective optimization (MOO) problems is proposed. Following the general idea of evolution, it is proposed that information about gender is used to distinguish between various groups of objectives and identify the (aggregate) nature of optimality of individuals (solutions). This identification is drawn out of the fitness of individuals and applied during parental crossover in the processes of evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMOO). The article introduces the principles of the genetic-gender approach (GGA) and virtual gender approach (VGA), which are not just evolutionary techniques, but constitute a completely new rule (philosophy) for use in solving MOO tasks. The proposed approaches are validated against principal representatives of the EMOO algorithms of the state of the art in solving benchmark problems in the light of recognized EC performance criteria. The research shows the superiority of the gender approach in terms of effectiveness, reliability, transparency, intelligibility and MOO problem simplification, resulting in the great usefulness and practicability of GGA and VGA. Moreover, an important feature of GGA and VGA is that they alleviate the 'curse' of dimensionality typical of many engineering designs.

  6. On Improving Efficiency of Differential Evolution for Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madavan, Nateri K.

    2004-01-01

    Differential Evolution (DE) is a simple and robust evolutionary strategy that has been provEn effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult optimization problems. Although DE offers several advantages over traditional optimization approaches, its use in applications such as aerodynamic shape optimization where the objective function evaluations are computationally expensive is limited by the large number of function evaluations often required. In this paper various approaches for improving the efficiency of DE are reviewed and discussed. Several approaches that have proven effective for other evolutionary algorithms are modified and implemented in a DE-based aerodynamic shape optimization method that uses a Navier-Stokes solver for the objective function evaluations. Parallelization techniques on distributed computers are used to reduce turnaround times. Results are presented for standard test optimization problems and for the inverse design of a turbine airfoil. The efficiency improvements achieved by the different approaches are evaluated and compared.

  7. Optimal time points sampling in pathway modelling.

    PubMed

    Hu, Shiyan

    2004-01-01

    Modelling cellular dynamics based on experimental data is at the heart of system biology. Considerable progress has been made to dynamic pathway modelling as well as the related parameter estimation. However, few of them gives consideration for the issue of optimal sampling time selection for parameter estimation. Time course experiments in molecular biology rarely produce large and accurate data sets and the experiments involved are usually time consuming and expensive. Therefore, to approximate parameters for models with only few available sampling data is of significant practical value. For signal transduction, the sampling intervals are usually not evenly distributed and are based on heuristics. In the paper, we investigate an approach to guide the process of selecting time points in an optimal way to minimize the variance of parameter estimates. In the method, we first formulate the problem to a nonlinear constrained optimization problem by maximum likelihood estimation. We then modify and apply a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm, which combines the advantages of both quantum computing and evolutionary computing, to solve the optimization problem. The new algorithm does not suffer from the morass of selecting good initial values and being stuck into local optimum as usually accompanied with the conventional numerical optimization techniques. The simulation results indicate the soundness of the new method.

  8. Multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem using variable neighborhood evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Chun; Ji, Zhicheng; Wang, Yan

    2017-07-01

    In this paper, multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem (MOFJSP) was studied with the objects to minimize makespan, total workload and critical workload. A variable neighborhood evolutionary algorithm (VNEA) was proposed to obtain a set of Pareto optimal solutions. First, two novel crowded operators in terms of the decision space and object space were proposed, and they were respectively used in mating selection and environmental selection. Then, two well-designed neighborhood structures were used in local search, which consider the problem characteristics and can hold fast convergence. Finally, extensive comparison was carried out with the state-of-the-art methods specially presented for solving MOFJSP on well-known benchmark instances. The results show that the proposed VNEA is more effective than other algorithms in solving MOFJSP.

  9. On the suitability of different representations of solid catalysts for combinatorial library design by genetic algorithms.

    PubMed

    Gobin, Oliver C; Schüth, Ferdi

    2008-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are widely used to solve and optimize combinatorial problems and are more often applied for library design in combinatorial chemistry. Because of their flexibility, however, their implementation can be challenging. In this study, the influence of the representation of solid catalysts on the performance of genetic algorithms was systematically investigated on the basis of a new, constrained, multiobjective, combinatorial test problem with properties common to problems in combinatorial materials science. Constraints were satisfied by penalty functions, repair algorithms, or special representations. The tests were performed using three state-of-the-art evolutionary multiobjective algorithms by performing 100 optimization runs for each algorithm and test case. Experimental data obtained during the optimization of a noble metal-free solid catalyst system active in the selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide with propene was used to build up a predictive model to validate the results of the theoretical test problem. A significant influence of the representation on the optimization performance was observed. Binary encodings were found to be the preferred encoding in most of the cases, and depending on the experimental test unit, repair algorithms or penalty functions performed best.

  10. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithm with many tables for purely ab initio protein structure prediction.

    PubMed

    Brasil, Christiane Regina Soares; Delbem, Alexandre Claudio Botazzo; da Silva, Fernando Luís Barroso

    2013-07-30

    This article focuses on the development of an approach for ab initio protein structure prediction (PSP) without using any earlier knowledge from similar protein structures, as fragment-based statistics or inference of secondary structures. Such an approach is called purely ab initio prediction. The article shows that well-designed multiobjective evolutionary algorithms can predict relevant protein structures in a purely ab initio way. One challenge for purely ab initio PSP is the prediction of structures with β-sheets. To work with such proteins, this research has also developed procedures to efficiently estimate hydrogen bond and solvation contribution energies. Considering van der Waals, electrostatic, hydrogen bond, and solvation contribution energies, the PSP is a problem with four energetic terms to be minimized. Each interaction energy term can be considered an objective of an optimization method. Combinatorial problems with four objectives have been considered too complex for the available multiobjective optimization (MOO) methods. The proposed approach, called "Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms with many tables" (MEAMT), can efficiently deal with four objectives through the combination thereof, performing a more adequate sampling of the objective space. Therefore, this method can better map the promising regions in this space, predicting structures in a purely ab initio way. In other words, MEAMT is an efficient optimization method for MOO, which explores simultaneously the search space as well as the objective space. MEAMT can predict structures with one or two domains with RMSDs comparable to values obtained by recently developed ab initio methods (GAPFCG , I-PAES, and Quark) that use different levels of earlier knowledge. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Evolutionary computation applied to the reconstruction of 3-D surface topography in the SEM.

    PubMed

    Kodama, Tetsuji; Li, Xiaoyuan; Nakahira, Kenji; Ito, Dai

    2005-10-01

    A genetic algorithm has been applied to the line profile reconstruction from the signals of the standard secondary electron (SE) and/or backscattered electron detectors in a scanning electron microscope. This method solves the topographical surface reconstruction problem as one of combinatorial optimization. To extend this optimization approach for three-dimensional (3-D) surface topography, this paper considers the use of a string coding where a 3-D surface topography is represented by a set of coordinates of vertices. We introduce the Delaunay triangulation, which attains the minimum roughness for any set of height data to capture the fundamental features of the surface being probed by an electron beam. With this coding, the strings are processed with a class of hybrid optimization algorithms that combine genetic algorithms and simulated annealing algorithms. Experimental results on SE images are presented.

  12. Pareto Design of State Feedback Tracking Control of a Biped Robot via Multiobjective PSO in Comparison with Sigma Method and Genetic Algorithms: Modified NSGAII and MATLAB's Toolbox

    PubMed Central

    Mahmoodabadi, M. J.; Taherkhorsandi, M.; Bagheri, A.

    2014-01-01

    An optimal robust state feedback tracking controller is introduced to control a biped robot. In the literature, the parameters of the controller are usually determined by a tedious trial and error process. To eliminate this process and design the parameters of the proposed controller, the multiobjective evolutionary algorithms, that is, the proposed method, modified NSGAII, Sigma method, and MATLAB's Toolbox MOGA, are employed in this study. Among the used evolutionary optimization algorithms to design the controller for biped robots, the proposed method operates better in the aspect of designing the controller since it provides ample opportunities for designers to choose the most appropriate point based upon the design criteria. Three points are chosen from the nondominated solutions of the obtained Pareto front based on two conflicting objective functions, that is, the normalized summation of angle errors and normalized summation of control effort. Obtained results elucidate the efficiency of the proposed controller in order to control a biped robot. PMID:24616619

  13. Using RGB-D sensors and evolutionary algorithms for the optimization of workstation layouts.

    PubMed

    Diego-Mas, Jose Antonio; Poveda-Bautista, Rocio; Garzon-Leal, Diana

    2017-11-01

    RGB-D sensors can collect postural data in an automatized way. However, the application of these devices in real work environments requires overcoming problems such as lack of accuracy or body parts' occlusion. This work presents the use of RGB-D sensors and genetic algorithms for the optimization of workstation layouts. RGB-D sensors are used to capture workers' movements when they reach objects on workbenches. Collected data are then used to optimize workstation layout by means of genetic algorithms considering multiple ergonomic criteria. Results show that typical drawbacks of using RGB-D sensors for body tracking are not a problem for this application, and that the combination with intelligent algorithms can automatize the layout design process. The procedure described can be used to automatically suggest new layouts when workers or processes of production change, to adapt layouts to specific workers based on their ways to do the tasks, or to obtain layouts simultaneously optimized for several production processes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Training radial basis function networks for wind speed prediction using PSO enhanced differential search optimizer

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents an integrated hybrid optimization algorithm for training the radial basis function neural network (RBF NN). Training of neural networks is still a challenging exercise in machine learning domain. Traditional training algorithms in general suffer and trap in local optima and lead to premature convergence, which makes them ineffective when applied for datasets with diverse features. Training algorithms based on evolutionary computations are becoming popular due to their robust nature in overcoming the drawbacks of the traditional algorithms. Accordingly, this paper proposes a hybrid training procedure with differential search (DS) algorithm functionally integrated with the particle swarm optimization (PSO). To surmount the local trapping of the search procedure, a new population initialization scheme is proposed using Logistic chaotic sequence, which enhances the population diversity and aid the search capability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RBF hybrid training algorithm, experimental analysis on publicly available 7 benchmark datasets are performed. Subsequently, experiments were conducted on a practical application case for wind speed prediction to expound the superiority of the proposed RBF training algorithm in terms of prediction accuracy. PMID:29768463

  15. Training radial basis function networks for wind speed prediction using PSO enhanced differential search optimizer.

    PubMed

    Rani R, Hannah Jessie; Victoire T, Aruldoss Albert

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents an integrated hybrid optimization algorithm for training the radial basis function neural network (RBF NN). Training of neural networks is still a challenging exercise in machine learning domain. Traditional training algorithms in general suffer and trap in local optima and lead to premature convergence, which makes them ineffective when applied for datasets with diverse features. Training algorithms based on evolutionary computations are becoming popular due to their robust nature in overcoming the drawbacks of the traditional algorithms. Accordingly, this paper proposes a hybrid training procedure with differential search (DS) algorithm functionally integrated with the particle swarm optimization (PSO). To surmount the local trapping of the search procedure, a new population initialization scheme is proposed using Logistic chaotic sequence, which enhances the population diversity and aid the search capability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RBF hybrid training algorithm, experimental analysis on publicly available 7 benchmark datasets are performed. Subsequently, experiments were conducted on a practical application case for wind speed prediction to expound the superiority of the proposed RBF training algorithm in terms of prediction accuracy.

  16. Mathematical model and metaheuristics for simultaneous balancing and sequencing of a robotic mixed-model assembly line

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Zixiang; Janardhanan, Mukund Nilakantan; Tang, Qiuhua; Nielsen, Peter

    2018-05-01

    This article presents the first method to simultaneously balance and sequence robotic mixed-model assembly lines (RMALB/S), which involves three sub-problems: task assignment, model sequencing and robot allocation. A new mixed-integer programming model is developed to minimize makespan and, using CPLEX solver, small-size problems are solved for optimality. Two metaheuristics, the restarted simulated annealing algorithm and co-evolutionary algorithm, are developed and improved to address this NP-hard problem. The restarted simulated annealing method replaces the current temperature with a new temperature to restart the search process. The co-evolutionary method uses a restart mechanism to generate a new population by modifying several vectors simultaneously. The proposed algorithms are tested on a set of benchmark problems and compared with five other high-performing metaheuristics. The proposed algorithms outperform their original editions and the benchmarked methods. The proposed algorithms are able to solve the balancing and sequencing problem of a robotic mixed-model assembly line effectively and efficiently.

  17. Heuristic algorithms for the minmax regret flow-shop problem with interval processing times.

    PubMed

    Ćwik, Michał; Józefczyk, Jerzy

    2018-01-01

    An uncertain version of the permutation flow-shop with unlimited buffers and the makespan as a criterion is considered. The investigated parametric uncertainty is represented by given interval-valued processing times. The maximum regret is used for the evaluation of uncertainty. Consequently, the minmax regret discrete optimization problem is solved. Due to its high complexity, two relaxations are applied to simplify the optimization procedure. First of all, a greedy procedure is used for calculating the criterion's value, as such calculation is NP-hard problem itself. Moreover, the lower bound is used instead of solving the internal deterministic flow-shop. The constructive heuristic algorithm is applied for the relaxed optimization problem. The algorithm is compared with previously elaborated other heuristic algorithms basing on the evolutionary and the middle interval approaches. The conducted computational experiments showed the advantage of the constructive heuristic algorithm with regards to both the criterion and the time of computations. The Wilcoxon paired-rank statistical test confirmed this conclusion.

  18. Differential evolution-simulated annealing for multiple sequence alignment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Addawe, R. C.; Addawe, J. M.; Sueño, M. R. K.; Magadia, J. C.

    2017-10-01

    Multiple sequence alignments (MSA) are used in the analysis of molecular evolution and sequence structure relationships. In this paper, a hybrid algorithm, Differential Evolution - Simulated Annealing (DESA) is applied in optimizing multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) based on structural information, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns. DESA is a robust algorithm characterized by self-organization, mutation, crossover, and SA-like selection scheme of the strategy parameters. Here, the MSA problem is treated as a multi-objective optimization problem of the hybrid evolutionary algorithm, DESA. Thus, we name the algorithm as DESA-MSA. Simulated sequences and alignments were generated to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of DESA-MSA using different indel sizes, sequence lengths, deletion rates and insertion rates. The proposed hybrid algorithm obtained acceptable solutions particularly for the MSA problem evaluated based on the three objectives.

  19. Multi-strategy coevolving aging particle optimization.

    PubMed

    Iacca, Giovanni; Caraffini, Fabio; Neri, Ferrante

    2014-02-01

    We propose Multi-Strategy Coevolving Aging Particles (MS-CAP), a novel population-based algorithm for black-box optimization. In a memetic fashion, MS-CAP combines two components with complementary algorithm logics. In the first stage, each particle is perturbed independently along each dimension with a progressively shrinking (decaying) radius, and attracted towards the current best solution with an increasing force. In the second phase, the particles are mutated and recombined according to a multi-strategy approach in the fashion of the ensemble of mutation strategies in Differential Evolution. The proposed algorithm is tested, at different dimensionalities, on two complete black-box optimization benchmarks proposed at the Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2010 and 2013. To demonstrate the applicability of the approach, we also test MS-CAP to train a Feedforward Neural Network modeling the kinematics of an 8-link robot manipulator. The numerical results show that MS-CAP, for the setting considered in this study, tends to outperform the state-of-the-art optimization algorithms on a large set of problems, thus resulting in a robust and versatile optimizer.

  20. An efficient identification approach for stable and unstable nonlinear systems using Colliding Bodies Optimization algorithm.

    PubMed

    Pal, Partha S; Kar, R; Mandal, D; Ghoshal, S P

    2015-11-01

    This paper presents an efficient approach to identify different stable and practically useful Hammerstein models as well as unstable nonlinear process along with its stable closed loop counterpart with the help of an evolutionary algorithm as Colliding Bodies Optimization (CBO) optimization algorithm. The performance measures of the CBO based optimization approach such as precision, accuracy are justified with the minimum output mean square value (MSE) which signifies that the amount of bias and variance in the output domain are also the least. It is also observed that the optimization of output MSE in the presence of outliers has resulted in a very close estimation of the output parameters consistently, which also justifies the effective general applicability of the CBO algorithm towards the system identification problem and also establishes the practical usefulness of the applied approach. Optimum values of the MSEs, computational times and statistical information of the MSEs are all found to be the superior as compared with those of the other existing similar types of stochastic algorithms based approaches reported in different recent literature, which establish the robustness and efficiency of the applied CBO based identification scheme. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Using Hybridized Differential Evolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madavan, Nateri K.

    2003-01-01

    An aerodynamic shape optimization method that uses an evolutionary algorithm known at Differential Evolution (DE) in conjunction with various hybridization strategies is described. DE is a simple and robust evolutionary strategy that has been proven effective in determining the global optimum for several difficult optimization problems. Various hybridization strategies for DE are explored, including the use of neural networks as well as traditional local search methods. A Navier-Stokes solver is used to evaluate the various intermediate designs and provide inputs to the hybrid DE optimizer. The method is implemented on distributed parallel computers so that new designs can be obtained within reasonable turnaround times. Results are presented for the inverse design of a turbine airfoil from a modern jet engine. (The final paper will include at least one other aerodynamic design application). The capability of the method to search large design spaces and obtain the optimal airfoils in an automatic fashion is demonstrated.

  2. Mono and multi-objective optimization techniques applied to a large range of industrial test cases using Metamodel assisted Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fourment, Lionel; Ducloux, Richard; Marie, Stéphane; Ejday, Mohsen; Monnereau, Dominique; Massé, Thomas; Montmitonnet, Pierre

    2010-06-01

    The use of material processing numerical simulation allows a strategy of trial and error to improve virtual processes without incurring material costs or interrupting production and therefore save a lot of money, but it requires user time to analyze the results, adjust the operating conditions and restart the simulation. Automatic optimization is the perfect complement to simulation. Evolutionary Algorithm coupled with metamodelling makes it possible to obtain industrially relevant results on a very large range of applications within a few tens of simulations and without any specific automatic optimization technique knowledge. Ten industrial partners have been selected to cover the different area of the mechanical forging industry and provide different examples of the forming simulation tools. It aims to demonstrate that it is possible to obtain industrially relevant results on a very large range of applications within a few tens of simulations and without any specific automatic optimization technique knowledge. The large computational time is handled by a metamodel approach. It allows interpolating the objective function on the entire parameter space by only knowing the exact function values at a reduced number of "master points". Two algorithms are used: an evolution strategy combined with a Kriging metamodel and a genetic algorithm combined with a Meshless Finite Difference Method. The later approach is extended to multi-objective optimization. The set of solutions, which corresponds to the best possible compromises between the different objectives, is then computed in the same way. The population based approach allows using the parallel capabilities of the utilized computer with a high efficiency. An optimization module, fully embedded within the Forge2009 IHM, makes possible to cover all the defined examples, and the use of new multi-core hardware to compute several simulations at the same time reduces the needed time dramatically. The presented examples demonstrate the method versatility. They include billet shape optimization of a common rail, the cogging of a bar and a wire drawing problem.

  3. Robust electromagnetically guided endoscopic procedure using enhanced particle swarm optimization for multimodal information fusion

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Luo, Xiongbiao, E-mail: xluo@robarts.ca, E-mail: Ying.Wan@student.uts.edu.au; Wan, Ying, E-mail: xluo@robarts.ca, E-mail: Ying.Wan@student.uts.edu.au; He, Xiangjian

    Purpose: Electromagnetically guided endoscopic procedure, which aims at accurately and robustly localizing the endoscope, involves multimodal sensory information during interventions. However, it still remains challenging in how to integrate these information for precise and stable endoscopic guidance. To tackle such a challenge, this paper proposes a new framework on the basis of an enhanced particle swarm optimization method to effectively fuse these information for accurate and continuous endoscope localization. Methods: The authors use the particle swarm optimization method, which is one of stochastic evolutionary computation algorithms, to effectively fuse the multimodal information including preoperative information (i.e., computed tomography images) asmore » a frame of reference, endoscopic camera videos, and positional sensor measurements (i.e., electromagnetic sensor outputs). Since the evolutionary computation method usually limits its possible premature convergence and evolutionary factors, the authors introduce the current (endoscopic camera and electromagnetic sensor’s) observation to boost the particle swarm optimization and also adaptively update evolutionary parameters in accordance with spatial constraints and the current observation, resulting in advantageous performance in the enhanced algorithm. Results: The experimental results demonstrate that the authors’ proposed method provides a more accurate and robust endoscopic guidance framework than state-of-the-art methods. The average guidance accuracy of the authors’ framework was about 3.0 mm and 5.6° while the previous methods show at least 3.9 mm and 7.0°. The average position and orientation smoothness of their method was 1.0 mm and 1.6°, which is significantly better than the other methods at least with (2.0 mm and 2.6°). Additionally, the average visual quality of the endoscopic guidance was improved to 0.29. Conclusions: A robust electromagnetically guided endoscopy framework was proposed on the basis of an enhanced particle swarm optimization method with using the current observation information and adaptive evolutionary factors. The authors proposed framework greatly reduced the guidance errors from (4.3, 7.8) to (3.0 mm, 5.6°), compared to state-of-the-art methods.« less

  4. Research on Novel Algorithms for Smart Grid Reliability Assessment and Economic Dispatch

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Wenjin

    In this dissertation, several studies of electric power system reliability and economy assessment methods are presented. To be more precise, several algorithms in evaluating power system reliability and economy are studied. Furthermore, two novel algorithms are applied to this field and their simulation results are compared with conventional results. As the electrical power system develops towards extra high voltage, remote distance, large capacity and regional networking, the application of a number of new technique equipments and the electric market system have be gradually established, and the results caused by power cut has become more and more serious. The electrical power system needs the highest possible reliability due to its complication and security. In this dissertation the Boolean logic Driven Markov Process (BDMP) method is studied and applied to evaluate power system reliability. This approach has several benefits. It allows complex dynamic models to be defined, while maintaining its easy readability as conventional methods. This method has been applied to evaluate IEEE reliability test system. The simulation results obtained are close to IEEE experimental data which means that it could be used for future study of the system reliability. Besides reliability, modern power system is expected to be more economic. This dissertation presents a novel evolutionary algorithm named as quantum evolutionary membrane algorithm (QEPS), which combines the concept and theory of quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm and membrane computation, to solve the economic dispatch problem in renewable power system with on land and offshore wind farms. The case derived from real data is used for simulation tests. Another conventional evolutionary algorithm is also used to solve the same problem for comparison. The experimental results show that the proposed method is quick and accurate to obtain the optimal solution which is the minimum cost for electricity supplied by wind farm system.

  5. Computer-Automated Evolution of Spacecraft X-Band Antennas

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lohn, Jason D.; Homby, Gregory S.; Linden, Derek S.

    2010-01-01

    A document discusses the use of computer- aided evolution in arriving at a design for X-band communication antennas for NASA s three Space Technology 5 (ST5) satellites, which were launched on March 22, 2006. Two evolutionary algorithms, incorporating different representations of the antenna design and different fitness functions, were used to automatically design and optimize an X-band antenna design. A set of antenna designs satisfying initial ST5 mission requirements was evolved by use these algorithms. The two best antennas - one from each evolutionary algorithm - were built. During flight-qualification testing of these antennas, the mission requirements were changed. After minimal changes in the evolutionary algorithms - mostly in the fitness functions - new antenna designs satisfying the changed mission requirements were evolved and within one month of this change, two new antennas were designed and prototypes of the antennas were built and tested. One of these newly evolved antennas was approved for deployment on the ST5 mission, and flight-qualified versions of this design were built and installed on the spacecraft. At the time of writing the document, these antennas were the first computer-evolved hardware in outer space.

  6. Design and implementation of EP-based PID controller for chaos synchronization of Rikitake circuit systems.

    PubMed

    Hou, Yi-You

    2017-09-01

    This article addresses an evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm technique-based and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control methods are established to guarantee synchronization of the master and slave Rikitake chaotic systems. For PID synchronous control, the evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm is used to find the optimal PID controller parameters k p , k i , k d by integrated absolute error (IAE) method for the convergence conditions. In order to verify the system performance, the basic electronic components containing operational amplifiers (OPAs), resistors, and capacitors are used to implement the proposed chaotic Rikitake systems. Finally, the experimental results validate the proposed Rikitake chaotic synchronization approach. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  7. Neural-network-enhanced evolutionary algorithm applied to supported metal nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolsbjerg, E. L.; Peterson, A. A.; Hammer, B.

    2018-05-01

    We show that approximate structural relaxation with a neural network enables orders of magnitude faster global optimization with an evolutionary algorithm in a density functional theory framework. The increased speed facilitates reliable identification of global minimum energy structures, as exemplified by our finding of a hollow Pt13 nanoparticle on an MgO support. We highlight the importance of knowing the correct structure when studying the catalytic reactivity of the different particle shapes. The computational speedup further enables screening of hundreds of different pathways in the search for optimum kinetic transitions between low-energy conformers and hence pushes the limits of the insight into thermal ensembles that can be obtained from theory.

  8. Enhancing Data Assimilation by Evolutionary Particle Filter and Markov Chain Monte Carlo

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moradkhani, H.; Abbaszadeh, P.; Yan, H.

    2016-12-01

    Particle Filters (PFs) have received increasing attention by the researchers from different disciplines in hydro-geosciences as an effective method to improve model predictions in nonlinear and non-Gaussian dynamical systems. The implication of dual state and parameter estimation by means of data assimilation in hydrology and geoscience has evolved since 2005 from SIR-PF to PF-MCMC and now to the most effective and robust framework through evolutionary PF approach based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), the so-called EPF-MCMC. In this framework, the posterior distribution undergoes an evolutionary process to update an ensemble of prior states that more closely resemble realistic posterior probability distribution. The premise of this approach is that the particles move to optimal position using the GA optimization coupled with MCMC increasing the number of effective particles, hence the particle degeneracy is avoided while the particle diversity is improved. The proposed algorithm is applied on a conceptual and highly nonlinear hydrologic model and the effectiveness, robustness and reliability of the method in jointly estimating the states and parameters and also reducing the uncertainty is demonstrated for few river basins across the United States.

  9. Swainsonine, a novel fungal metabolite: optimization of fermentative production and bioreactor operations using evolutionary programming.

    PubMed

    Singh, Digar; Kaur, Gurvinder

    2014-08-01

    The optimization of bioreactor operations towards swainsonine production was performed using an artificial neural network coupled evolutionary program (EP)-based optimization algorithm fitted with experimental one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) results. The effects of varying agitation (300-500 rpm) and aeration (0.5-2.0 vvm) rates for different incubation hours (72-108 h) were evaluated in bench top bioreactor. Prominent scale-up parameters, gassed power per unit volume (P g/V L, W/m(3)) and volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient (K L a, s(-1)) were correlated with optimized conditions. A maximum of 6.59 ± 0.10 μg/mL of swainsonine production was observed at 400 rpm-1.5 vvm at 84 h in OFAT experiments with corresponding P g/VL and K L a values of 91.66 W/m(3) and 341.48 × 10(-4) s(-1), respectively. The EP optimization algorithm predicted a maximum of 10.08 μg/mL of swainsonine at 325.47 rpm, 1.99 vvm and 80.75 h against the experimental production of 7.93 ± 0.52 μg/mL at constant K L a (349.25 × 10(-4) s(-1)) and significantly reduced P g/V L (33.33 W/m(3)) drawn by the impellers.

  10. Real Time Optima Tracking Using Harvesting Models of the Genetic Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baskaran, Subbiah; Noever, D.

    1999-01-01

    Tracking optima in real time propulsion control, particularly for non-stationary optimization problems is a challenging task. Several approaches have been put forward for such a study including the numerical method called the genetic algorithm. In brief, this approach is built upon Darwinian-style competition between numerical alternatives displayed in the form of binary strings, or by analogy to 'pseudogenes'. Breeding of improved solution is an often cited parallel to natural selection in.evolutionary or soft computing. In this report we present our results of applying a novel model of a genetic algorithm for tracking optima in propulsion engineering and in real time control. We specialize the algorithm to mission profiling and planning optimizations, both to select reduced propulsion needs through trajectory planning and to explore time or fuel conservation strategies.

  11. Evolving a Behavioral Repertoire for a Walking Robot.

    PubMed

    Cully, A; Mouret, J-B

    2016-01-01

    Numerous algorithms have been proposed to allow legged robots to learn to walk. However, most of these algorithms are devised to learn walking in a straight line, which is not sufficient to accomplish any real-world mission. Here we introduce the Transferability-based Behavioral Repertoire Evolution algorithm (TBR-Evolution), a novel evolutionary algorithm that simultaneously discovers several hundreds of simple walking controllers, one for each possible direction. By taking advantage of solutions that are usually discarded by evolutionary processes, TBR-Evolution is substantially faster than independently evolving each controller. Our technique relies on two methods: (1) novelty search with local competition, which searches for both high-performing and diverse solutions, and (2) the transferability approach, which combines simulations and real tests to evolve controllers for a physical robot. We evaluate this new technique on a hexapod robot. Results show that with only a few dozen short experiments performed on the robot, the algorithm learns a repertoire of controllers that allows the robot to reach every point in its reachable space. Overall, TBR-Evolution introduced a new kind of learning algorithm that simultaneously optimizes all the achievable behaviors of a robot.

  12. A Grey Wolf Optimizer for Modular Granular Neural Networks for Human Recognition

    PubMed Central

    Sánchez, Daniela; Melin, Patricia

    2017-01-01

    A grey wolf optimizer for modular neural network (MNN) with a granular approach is proposed. The proposed method performs optimal granulation of data and design of modular neural networks architectures to perform human recognition, and to prove its effectiveness benchmark databases of ear, iris, and face biometric measures are used to perform tests and comparisons against other works. The design of a modular granular neural network (MGNN) consists in finding optimal parameters of its architecture; these parameters are the number of subgranules, percentage of data for the training phase, learning algorithm, goal error, number of hidden layers, and their number of neurons. Nowadays, there is a great variety of approaches and new techniques within the evolutionary computing area, and these approaches and techniques have emerged to help find optimal solutions to problems or models and bioinspired algorithms are part of this area. In this work a grey wolf optimizer is proposed for the design of modular granular neural networks, and the results are compared against a genetic algorithm and a firefly algorithm in order to know which of these techniques provides better results when applied to human recognition. PMID:28894461

  13. A Grey Wolf Optimizer for Modular Granular Neural Networks for Human Recognition.

    PubMed

    Sánchez, Daniela; Melin, Patricia; Castillo, Oscar

    2017-01-01

    A grey wolf optimizer for modular neural network (MNN) with a granular approach is proposed. The proposed method performs optimal granulation of data and design of modular neural networks architectures to perform human recognition, and to prove its effectiveness benchmark databases of ear, iris, and face biometric measures are used to perform tests and comparisons against other works. The design of a modular granular neural network (MGNN) consists in finding optimal parameters of its architecture; these parameters are the number of subgranules, percentage of data for the training phase, learning algorithm, goal error, number of hidden layers, and their number of neurons. Nowadays, there is a great variety of approaches and new techniques within the evolutionary computing area, and these approaches and techniques have emerged to help find optimal solutions to problems or models and bioinspired algorithms are part of this area. In this work a grey wolf optimizer is proposed for the design of modular granular neural networks, and the results are compared against a genetic algorithm and a firefly algorithm in order to know which of these techniques provides better results when applied to human recognition.

  14. Developing a Shuffled Complex-Self Adaptive Hybrid Evolution (SC-SAHEL) Framework for Water Resources Management and Water-Energy System Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahnamay Naeini, M.; Sadegh, M.; AghaKouchak, A.; Hsu, K. L.; Sorooshian, S.; Yang, T.

    2017-12-01

    Meta-Heuristic optimization algorithms have gained a great deal of attention in a wide variety of fields. Simplicity and flexibility of these algorithms, along with their robustness, make them attractive tools for solving optimization problems. Different optimization methods, however, hold algorithm-specific strengths and limitations. Performance of each individual algorithm obeys the "No-Free-Lunch" theorem, which means a single algorithm cannot consistently outperform all possible optimization problems over a variety of problems. From users' perspective, it is a tedious process to compare, validate, and select the best-performing algorithm for a specific problem or a set of test cases. In this study, we introduce a new hybrid optimization framework, entitled Shuffled Complex-Self Adaptive Hybrid EvoLution (SC-SAHEL), which combines the strengths of different evolutionary algorithms (EAs) in a parallel computing scheme, and allows users to select the most suitable algorithm tailored to the problem at hand. The concept of SC-SAHEL is to execute different EAs as separate parallel search cores, and let all participating EAs to compete during the course of the search. The newly developed SC-SAHEL algorithm is designed to automatically select, the best performing algorithm for the given optimization problem. This algorithm is rigorously effective in finding the global optimum for several strenuous benchmark test functions, and computationally efficient as compared to individual EAs. We benchmark the proposed SC-SAHEL algorithm over 29 conceptual test functions, and two real-world case studies - one hydropower reservoir model and one hydrological model (SAC-SMA). Results show that the proposed framework outperforms individual EAs in an absolute majority of the test problems, and can provide competitive results to the fittest EA algorithm with more comprehensive information during the search. The proposed framework is also flexible for merging additional EAs, boundary-handling techniques, and sampling schemes, and has good potential to be used in Water-Energy system optimal operation and management.

  15. Multiobjective generalized extremal optimization algorithm for simulation of daylight illuminants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Srividya Ravindra; Kurian, Ciji Pearl; Gomes-Borges, Marcos Eduardo

    2017-10-01

    Daylight illuminants are widely used as references for color quality testing and optical vision testing applications. Presently used daylight simulators make use of fluorescent bulbs that are not tunable and occupy more space inside the quality testing chambers. By designing a spectrally tunable LED light source with an optimal number of LEDs, cost, space, and energy can be saved. This paper describes an application of the generalized extremal optimization (GEO) algorithm for selection of the appropriate quantity and quality of LEDs that compose the light source. The multiobjective approach of this algorithm tries to get the best spectral simulation with minimum fitness error toward the target spectrum, correlated color temperature (CCT) the same as the target spectrum, high color rendering index (CRI), and luminous flux as required for testing applications. GEO is a global search algorithm based on phenomena of natural evolution and is especially designed to be used in complex optimization problems. Several simulations have been conducted to validate the performance of the algorithm. The methodology applied to model the LEDs, together with the theoretical basis for CCT and CRI calculation, is presented in this paper. A comparative result analysis of M-GEO evolutionary algorithm with the Levenberg-Marquardt conventional deterministic algorithm is also presented.

  16. An efficient non-dominated sorting method for evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Fang, Hongbing; Wang, Qian; Tu, Yi-Cheng; Horstemeyer, Mark F

    2008-01-01

    We present a new non-dominated sorting algorithm to generate the non-dominated fronts in multi-objective optimization with evolutionary algorithms, particularly the NSGA-II. The non-dominated sorting algorithm used by NSGA-II has a time complexity of O(MN(2)) in generating non-dominated fronts in one generation (iteration) for a population size N and M objective functions. Since generating non-dominated fronts takes the majority of total computational time (excluding the cost of fitness evaluations) of NSGA-II, making this algorithm faster will significantly improve the overall efficiency of NSGA-II and other genetic algorithms using non-dominated sorting. The new non-dominated sorting algorithm proposed in this study reduces the number of redundant comparisons existing in the algorithm of NSGA-II by recording the dominance information among solutions from their first comparisons. By utilizing a new data structure called the dominance tree and the divide-and-conquer mechanism, the new algorithm is faster than NSGA-II for different numbers of objective functions. Although the number of solution comparisons by the proposed algorithm is close to that of NSGA-II when the number of objectives becomes large, the total computational time shows that the proposed algorithm still has better efficiency because of the adoption of the dominance tree structure and the divide-and-conquer mechanism.

  17. Elements of an algorithm for optimizing a parameter-structural neural network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mrówczyńska, Maria

    2016-06-01

    The field of processing information provided by measurement results is one of the most important components of geodetic technologies. The dynamic development of this field improves classic algorithms for numerical calculations in the aspect of analytical solutions that are difficult to achieve. Algorithms based on artificial intelligence in the form of artificial neural networks, including the topology of connections between neurons have become an important instrument connected to the problem of processing and modelling processes. This concept results from the integration of neural networks and parameter optimization methods and makes it possible to avoid the necessity to arbitrarily define the structure of a network. This kind of extension of the training process is exemplified by the algorithm called the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH), which belongs to the class of evolutionary algorithms. The article presents a GMDH type network, used for modelling deformations of the geometrical axis of a steel chimney during its operation.

  18. Genetic Algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problem with Modified Cycle Crossover Operator

    PubMed Central

    Mohamd Shoukry, Alaa; Gani, Showkat

    2017-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are evolutionary techniques used for optimization purposes according to survival of the fittest idea. These methods do not ensure optimal solutions; however, they give good approximation usually in time. The genetic algorithms are useful for NP-hard problems, especially the traveling salesman problem. The genetic algorithm depends on selection criteria, crossover, and mutation operators. To tackle the traveling salesman problem using genetic algorithms, there are various representations such as binary, path, adjacency, ordinal, and matrix representations. In this article, we propose a new crossover operator for traveling salesman problem to minimize the total distance. This approach has been linked with path representation, which is the most natural way to represent a legal tour. Computational results are also reported with some traditional path representation methods like partially mapped and order crossovers along with new cycle crossover operator for some benchmark TSPLIB instances and found improvements. PMID:29209364

  19. Genetic Algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problem with Modified Cycle Crossover Operator.

    PubMed

    Hussain, Abid; Muhammad, Yousaf Shad; Nauman Sajid, M; Hussain, Ijaz; Mohamd Shoukry, Alaa; Gani, Showkat

    2017-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are evolutionary techniques used for optimization purposes according to survival of the fittest idea. These methods do not ensure optimal solutions; however, they give good approximation usually in time. The genetic algorithms are useful for NP-hard problems, especially the traveling salesman problem. The genetic algorithm depends on selection criteria, crossover, and mutation operators. To tackle the traveling salesman problem using genetic algorithms, there are various representations such as binary, path, adjacency, ordinal, and matrix representations. In this article, we propose a new crossover operator for traveling salesman problem to minimize the total distance. This approach has been linked with path representation, which is the most natural way to represent a legal tour. Computational results are also reported with some traditional path representation methods like partially mapped and order crossovers along with new cycle crossover operator for some benchmark TSPLIB instances and found improvements.

  20. An Optimizing Space Data-Communications Scheduling Method and Algorithm with Interference Mitigation, Generalized for a Broad Class of Optimization Problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rash, James

    2014-01-01

    NASA's space data-communications infrastructure-the Space Network and the Ground Network-provide scheduled (as well as some limited types of unscheduled) data-communications services to user spacecraft. The Space Network operates several orbiting geostationary platforms (the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)), each with its own servicedelivery antennas onboard. The Ground Network operates service-delivery antennas at ground stations located around the world. Together, these networks enable data transfer between user spacecraft and their mission control centers on Earth. Scheduling data-communications events for spacecraft that use the NASA communications infrastructure-the relay satellites and the ground stations-can be accomplished today with software having an operational heritage dating from the 1980s or earlier. An implementation of the scheduling methods and algorithms disclosed and formally specified herein will produce globally optimized schedules with not only optimized service delivery by the space data-communications infrastructure but also optimized satisfaction of all user requirements and prescribed constraints, including radio frequency interference (RFI) constraints. Evolutionary algorithms, a class of probabilistic strategies for searching large solution spaces, is the essential technology invoked and exploited in this disclosure. Also disclosed are secondary methods and algorithms for optimizing the execution efficiency of the schedule-generation algorithms themselves. The scheduling methods and algorithms as presented are adaptable to accommodate the complexity of scheduling the civilian and/or military data-communications infrastructure within the expected range of future users and space- or ground-based service-delivery assets. Finally, the problem itself, and the methods and algorithms, are generalized and specified formally. The generalized methods and algorithms are applicable to a very broad class of combinatorial-optimization problems that encompasses, among many others, the problem of generating optimal space-data communications schedules.

  1. Sensitivity Analysis of Genetic Algorithm Parameters for Optimal Groundwater Monitoring Network Design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdeh-Kolahchi, A.; Satish, M.; Datta, B.

    2004-05-01

    A state art groundwater monitoring network design is introduced. The method combines groundwater flow and transport results with optimization Genetic Algorithm (GA) to identify optimal monitoring well locations. Optimization theory uses different techniques to find a set of parameter values that minimize or maximize objective functions. The suggested groundwater optimal monitoring network design is based on the objective of maximizing the probability of tracking a transient contamination plume by determining sequential monitoring locations. The MODFLOW and MT3DMS models included as separate modules within the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) are used to develop three dimensional groundwater flow and contamination transport simulation. The groundwater flow and contamination simulation results are introduced as input to the optimization model, using Genetic Algorithm (GA) to identify the groundwater optimal monitoring network design, based on several candidate monitoring locations. The groundwater monitoring network design model is used Genetic Algorithms with binary variables representing potential monitoring location. As the number of decision variables and constraints increase, the non-linearity of the objective function also increases which make difficulty to obtain optimal solutions. The genetic algorithm is an evolutionary global optimization technique, which is capable of finding the optimal solution for many complex problems. In this study, the GA approach capable of finding the global optimal solution to a groundwater monitoring network design problem involving 18.4X 1018 feasible solutions will be discussed. However, to ensure the efficiency of the solution process and global optimality of the solution obtained using GA, it is necessary that appropriate GA parameter values be specified. The sensitivity analysis of genetic algorithms parameters such as random number, crossover probability, mutation probability, and elitism are discussed for solution of monitoring network design.

  2. Evolutionary algorithm based optimization of hydraulic machines utilizing a state-of-the-art block coupled CFD solver and parametric geometry and mesh generation tools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    S, Kyriacou; E, Kontoleontos; S, Weissenberger; L, Mangani; E, Casartelli; I, Skouteropoulou; M, Gattringer; A, Gehrer; M, Buchmayr

    2014-03-01

    An efficient hydraulic optimization procedure, suitable for industrial use, requires an advanced optimization tool (EASY software), a fast solver (block coupled CFD) and a flexible geometry generation tool. EASY optimization software is a PCA-driven metamodel-assisted Evolutionary Algorithm (MAEA (PCA)) that can be used in both single- (SOO) and multiobjective optimization (MOO) problems. In MAEAs, low cost surrogate evaluation models are used to screen out non-promising individuals during the evolution and exclude them from the expensive, problem specific evaluation, here the solution of Navier-Stokes equations. For additional reduction of the optimization CPU cost, the PCA technique is used to identify dependences among the design variables and to exploit them in order to efficiently drive the application of the evolution operators. To further enhance the hydraulic optimization procedure, a very robust and fast Navier-Stokes solver has been developed. This incompressible CFD solver employs a pressure-based block-coupled approach, solving the governing equations simultaneously. This method, apart from being robust and fast, also provides a big gain in terms of computational cost. In order to optimize the geometry of hydraulic machines, an automatic geometry and mesh generation tool is necessary. The geometry generation tool used in this work is entirely based on b-spline curves and surfaces. In what follows, the components of the tool chain are outlined in some detail and the optimization results of hydraulic machine components are shown in order to demonstrate the performance of the presented optimization procedure.

  3. Fuzzy Controller Design Using Evolutionary Techniques for Twin Rotor MIMO System: A Comparative Study.

    PubMed

    Hashim, H A; Abido, M A

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a comparative study of fuzzy controller design for the twin rotor multi-input multioutput (MIMO) system (TRMS) considering most promising evolutionary techniques. These are gravitational search algorithm (GSA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), and differential evolution (DE). In this study, the gains of four fuzzy proportional derivative (PD) controllers for TRMS have been optimized using the considered techniques. The optimization techniques are developed to identify the optimal control parameters for system stability enhancement, to cancel high nonlinearities in the model, to reduce the coupling effect, and to drive TRMS pitch and yaw angles into the desired tracking trajectory efficiently and accurately. The most effective technique in terms of system response due to different disturbances has been investigated. In this work, it is observed that GSA is the most effective technique in terms of solution quality and convergence speed.

  4. Fuzzy Controller Design Using Evolutionary Techniques for Twin Rotor MIMO System: A Comparative Study

    PubMed Central

    Hashim, H. A.; Abido, M. A.

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a comparative study of fuzzy controller design for the twin rotor multi-input multioutput (MIMO) system (TRMS) considering most promising evolutionary techniques. These are gravitational search algorithm (GSA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), and differential evolution (DE). In this study, the gains of four fuzzy proportional derivative (PD) controllers for TRMS have been optimized using the considered techniques. The optimization techniques are developed to identify the optimal control parameters for system stability enhancement, to cancel high nonlinearities in the model, to reduce the coupling effect, and to drive TRMS pitch and yaw angles into the desired tracking trajectory efficiently and accurately. The most effective technique in terms of system response due to different disturbances has been investigated. In this work, it is observed that GSA is the most effective technique in terms of solution quality and convergence speed. PMID:25960738

  5. [Multi-mathematical modelings for compatibility optimization of Jiangzhi granules].

    PubMed

    Yang, Ming; Zhang, Li; Ge, Yingli; Lu, Yanliu; Ji, Guang

    2011-12-01

    To investigate into the method of "multi activity index evaluation and combination optimized of mult-component" for Chinese herbal formulas. According to the scheme of uniform experimental design, efficacy experiment, multi index evaluation, least absolute shrinkage, selection operator (LASSO) modeling, evolutionary optimization algorithm, validation experiment, we optimized the combination of Jiangzhi granules based on the activity indexes of blood serum ALT, ALT, AST, TG, TC, HDL, LDL and TG level of liver tissues, ratio of liver tissue to body. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) combining with criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) for multi activity index evaluation was more reasonable and objective, it reflected the information of activity index's order and objective sample data. LASSO algorithm modeling could accurately reflect the relationship between different combination of Jiangzhi granule and the activity comprehensive indexes. The optimized combination of Jiangzhi granule showed better values of the activity comprehensive indexed than the original formula after the validation experiment. AHP combining with CRITIC can be used for multi activity index evaluation and LASSO algorithm, it is suitable for combination optimized of Chinese herbal formulas.

  6. An image segmentation method based on fuzzy C-means clustering and Cuckoo search algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Mingwei; Wan, Youchuan; Gao, Xianjun; Ye, Zhiwei; Chen, Maolin

    2018-04-01

    Image segmentation is a significant step in image analysis and machine vision. Many approaches have been presented in this topic; among them, fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering is one of the most widely used methods for its high efficiency and ambiguity of images. However, the success of FCM could not be guaranteed because it easily traps into local optimal solution. Cuckoo search (CS) is a novel evolutionary algorithm, which has been tested on some optimization problems and proved to be high-efficiency. Therefore, a new segmentation technique using FCM and blending of CS algorithm is put forward in the paper. Further, the proposed method has been measured on several images and compared with other existing FCM techniques such as genetic algorithm (GA) based FCM and particle swarm optimization (PSO) based FCM in terms of fitness value. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is robust, adaptive and exhibits the better performance than other methods involved in the paper.

  7. Continuous Adaptive Population Reduction (CAPR) for Differential Evolution Optimization.

    PubMed

    Wong, Ieong; Liu, Wenjia; Ho, Chih-Ming; Ding, Xianting

    2017-06-01

    Differential evolution (DE) has been applied extensively in drug combination optimization studies in the past decade. It allows for identification of desired drug combinations with minimal experimental effort. This article proposes an adaptive population-sizing method for the DE algorithm. Our new method presents improvements in terms of efficiency and convergence over the original DE algorithm and constant stepwise population reduction-based DE algorithm, which would lead to a reduced number of cells and animals required to identify an optimal drug combination. The method continuously adjusts the reduction of the population size in accordance with the stage of the optimization process. Our adaptive scheme limits the population reduction to occur only at the exploitation stage. We believe that continuously adjusting for a more effective population size during the evolutionary process is the major reason for the significant improvement in the convergence speed of the DE algorithm. The performance of the method is evaluated through a set of unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions. In combining with self-adaptive schemes for mutation and crossover constants, this adaptive population reduction method can help shed light on the future direction of a completely parameter tune-free self-adaptive DE algorithm.

  8. Improved understanding of the searching behavior of ant colony optimization algorithms applied to the water distribution design problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zecchin, A. C.; Simpson, A. R.; Maier, H. R.; Marchi, A.; Nixon, J. B.

    2012-09-01

    Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been applied successfully to many water resource problems, such as system design, management decision formulation, and model calibration. The performance of an EA with respect to a particular problem type is dependent on how effectively its internal operators balance the exploitation/exploration trade-off to iteratively find solutions of an increasing quality. For a given problem, different algorithms are observed to produce a variety of different final performances, but there have been surprisingly few investigations into characterizing how the different internal mechanisms alter the algorithm's searching behavior, in both the objective and decision space, to arrive at this final performance. This paper presents metrics for analyzing the searching behavior of ant colony optimization algorithms, a particular type of EA, for the optimal water distribution system design problem, which is a classical NP-hard problem in civil engineering. Using the proposed metrics, behavior is characterized in terms of three different attributes: (1) the effectiveness of the search in improving its solution quality and entering into optimal or near-optimal regions of the search space, (2) the extent to which the algorithm explores as it converges to solutions, and (3) the searching behavior with respect to the feasible and infeasible regions. A range of case studies is considered, where a number of ant colony optimization variants are applied to a selection of water distribution system optimization problems. The results demonstrate the utility of the proposed metrics to give greater insight into how the internal operators affect each algorithm's searching behavior.

  9. A conceptual evolutionary aseismic decision support framework for hospitals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Yufeng; Dargush, Gary F.; Shao, Xiaoyun

    2012-12-01

    In this paper, aconceptual evolutionary framework for aseismic decision support for hospitalsthat attempts to integrate a range of engineering and sociotechnical models is presented. Genetic algorithms are applied to find the optimal decision sets. A case study is completed to demonstrate how the frameworkmay applytoa specific hospital.The simulations show that the proposed evolutionary decision support framework is able to discover robust policy sets in either uncertain or fixed environments. The framework also qualitatively identifies some of the characteristicbehavior of the critical care organization. Thus, by utilizing the proposedframework, the decision makers are able to make more informed decisions, especially toenhance the seismic safety of the hospitals.

  10. Decentralized diagnostics based on a distributed micro-genetic algorithm for transducer networks monitoring large experimental systems.

    PubMed

    Arpaia, P; Cimmino, P; Girone, M; La Commara, G; Maisto, D; Manna, C; Pezzetti, M

    2014-09-01

    Evolutionary approach to centralized multiple-faults diagnostics is extended to distributed transducer networks monitoring large experimental systems. Given a set of anomalies detected by the transducers, each instance of the multiple-fault problem is formulated as several parallel communicating sub-tasks running on different transducers, and thus solved one-by-one on spatially separated parallel processes. A micro-genetic algorithm merges evaluation time efficiency, arising from a small-size population distributed on parallel-synchronized processors, with the effectiveness of centralized evolutionary techniques due to optimal mix of exploitation and exploration. In this way, holistic view and effectiveness advantages of evolutionary global diagnostics are combined with reliability and efficiency benefits of distributed parallel architectures. The proposed approach was validated both (i) by simulation at CERN, on a case study of a cold box for enhancing the cryogeny diagnostics of the Large Hadron Collider, and (ii) by experiments, under the framework of the industrial research project MONDIEVOB (Building Remote Monitoring and Evolutionary Diagnostics), co-funded by EU and the company Del Bo srl, Napoli, Italy.

  11. Control of wavepacket dynamics in mixed alkali metal clusters by optimally shaped fs pulses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bartelt, A.; Minemoto, S.; Lupulescu, C.; Vajda, Š.; Wöste, L.

    We have performed adaptive feedback optimization of phase-shaped femtosecond laser pulses to control the wavepacket dynamics of small mixed alkali-metal clusters. An optimization algorithm based on Evolutionary Strategies was used to maximize the ion intensities. The optimized pulses for NaK and Na2K converged to pulse trains consisting of numerous peaks. The timing of the elements of the pulse trains corresponds to integer and half integer numbers of the vibrational periods of the molecules, reflecting the wavepacket dynamics in their excited states.

  12. Evolutionary optimization of radial basis function classifiers for data mining applications.

    PubMed

    Buchtala, Oliver; Klimek, Manuel; Sick, Bernhard

    2005-10-01

    In many data mining applications that address classification problems, feature and model selection are considered as key tasks. That is, appropriate input features of the classifier must be selected from a given (and often large) set of possible features and structure parameters of the classifier must be adapted with respect to these features and a given data set. This paper describes an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that performs feature and model selection simultaneously for radial basis function (RBF) classifiers. In order to reduce the optimization effort, various techniques are integrated that accelerate and improve the EA significantly: hybrid training of RBF networks, lazy evaluation, consideration of soft constraints by means of penalty terms, and temperature-based adaptive control of the EA. The feasibility and the benefits of the approach are demonstrated by means of four data mining problems: intrusion detection in computer networks, biometric signature verification, customer acquisition with direct marketing methods, and optimization of chemical production processes. It is shown that, compared to earlier EA-based RBF optimization techniques, the runtime is reduced by up to 99% while error rates are lowered by up to 86%, depending on the application. The algorithm is independent of specific applications so that many ideas and solutions can be transferred to other classifier paradigms.

  13. Artificial evolution by viability rather than competition.

    PubMed

    Maesani, Andrea; Fernando, Pradeep Ruben; Floreano, Dario

    2014-01-01

    Evolutionary algorithms are widespread heuristic methods inspired by natural evolution to solve difficult problems for which analytical approaches are not suitable. In many domains experimenters are not only interested in discovering optimal solutions, but also in finding the largest number of different solutions satisfying minimal requirements. However, the formulation of an effective performance measure describing these requirements, also known as fitness function, represents a major challenge. The difficulty of combining and weighting multiple problem objectives and constraints of possibly varying nature and scale into a single fitness function often leads to unsatisfactory solutions. Furthermore, selective reproduction of the fittest solutions, which is inspired by competition-based selection in nature, leads to loss of diversity within the evolving population and premature convergence of the algorithm, hindering the discovery of many different solutions. Here we present an alternative abstraction of artificial evolution, which does not require the formulation of a composite fitness function. Inspired from viability theory in dynamical systems, natural evolution and ethology, the proposed method puts emphasis on the elimination of individuals that do not meet a set of changing criteria, which are defined on the problem objectives and constraints. Experimental results show that the proposed method maintains higher diversity in the evolving population and generates more unique solutions when compared to classical competition-based evolutionary algorithms. Our findings suggest that incorporating viability principles into evolutionary algorithms can significantly improve the applicability and effectiveness of evolutionary methods to numerous complex problems of science and engineering, ranging from protein structure prediction to aircraft wing design.

  14. On the usefulness of gradient information in multi-objective deformable image registration using a B-spline-based dual-dynamic transformation model: comparison of three optimization algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pirpinia, Kleopatra; Bosman, Peter A. N.; Sonke, Jan-Jakob; van Herk, Marcel; Alderliesten, Tanja

    2015-03-01

    The use of gradient information is well-known to be highly useful in single-objective optimization-based image registration methods. However, its usefulness has not yet been investigated for deformable image registration from a multi-objective optimization perspective. To this end, within a previously introduced multi-objective optimization framework, we use a smooth B-spline-based dual-dynamic transformation model that allows us to derive gradient information analytically, while still being able to account for large deformations. Within the multi-objective framework, we previously employed a powerful evolutionary algorithm (EA) that computes and advances multiple outcomes at once, resulting in a set of solutions (a so-called Pareto front) that represents efficient trade-offs between the objectives. With the addition of the B-spline-based transformation model, we studied the usefulness of gradient information in multiobjective deformable image registration using three different optimization algorithms: the (gradient-less) EA, a gradientonly algorithm, and a hybridization of these two. We evaluated the algorithms to register highly deformed images: 2D MRI slices of the breast in prone and supine positions. Results demonstrate that gradient-based multi-objective optimization significantly speeds up optimization in the initial stages of optimization. However, allowing sufficient computational resources, better results could still be obtained with the EA. Ultimately, the hybrid EA found the best overall approximation of the optimal Pareto front, further indicating that adding gradient-based optimization for multiobjective optimization-based deformable image registration can indeed be beneficial

  15. Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization for the optimal design of photovoltaic grid-connected systems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kornelakis, Aris

    2010-12-15

    Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a highly efficient evolutionary optimization algorithm. In this paper a multiobjective optimization algorithm based on PSO applied to the optimal design of photovoltaic grid-connected systems (PVGCSs) is presented. The proposed methodology intends to suggest the optimal number of system devices and the optimal PV module installation details, such that the economic and environmental benefits achieved during the system's operational lifetime period are both maximized. The objective function describing the economic benefit of the proposed optimization process is the lifetime system's total net profit which is calculated according to the method of the Net Present Valuemore » (NPV). The second objective function, which corresponds to the environmental benefit, equals to the pollutant gas emissions avoided due to the use of the PVGCS. The optimization's decision variables are the optimal number of the PV modules, the PV modules optimal tilt angle, the optimal placement of the PV modules within the available installation area and the optimal distribution of the PV modules among the DC/AC converters. (author)« less

  16. Using traveling salesman problem algorithms for evolutionary tree construction.

    PubMed

    Korostensky, C; Gonnet, G H

    2000-07-01

    The construction of evolutionary trees is one of the major problems in computational biology, mainly due to its complexity. We present a new tree construction method that constructs a tree with minimum score for a given set of sequences, where the score is the amount of evolution measured in PAM distances. To do this, the problem of tree construction is reduced to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The input for the TSP algorithm are the pairwise distances of the sequences and the output is a circular tour through the optimal, unknown tree plus the minimum score of the tree. The circular order and the score can be used to construct the topology of the optimal tree. Our method can be used for any scoring function that correlates to the amount of changes along the branches of an evolutionary tree, for instance it could also be used for parsimony scores, but it cannot be used for least squares fit of distances. A TSP solution reduces the space of all possible trees to 2n. Using this order, we can guarantee that we reconstruct a correct evolutionary tree if the absolute value of the error for each distance measurement is smaller than f2.gif" BORDER="0">, where f3.gif" BORDER="0">is the length of the shortest edge in the tree. For data sets with large errors, a dynamic programming approach is used to reconstruct the tree. Finally simulations and experiments with real data are shown.

  17. Inferring duplications, losses, transfers and incomplete lineage sorting with nonbinary species trees.

    PubMed

    Stolzer, Maureen; Lai, Han; Xu, Minli; Sathaye, Deepa; Vernot, Benjamin; Durand, Dannie

    2012-09-15

    Gene duplication (D), transfer (T), loss (L) and incomplete lineage sorting (I) are crucial to the evolution of gene families and the emergence of novel functions. The history of these events can be inferred via comparison of gene and species trees, a process called reconciliation, yet current reconciliation algorithms model only a subset of these evolutionary processes. We present an algorithm to reconcile a binary gene tree with a nonbinary species tree under a DTLI parsimony criterion. This is the first reconciliation algorithm to capture all four evolutionary processes driving tree incongruence and the first to reconcile non-binary species trees with a transfer model. Our algorithm infers all optimal solutions and reports complete, temporally feasible event histories, giving the gene and species lineages in which each event occurred. It is fixed-parameter tractable, with polytime complexity when the maximum species outdegree is fixed. Application of our algorithms to prokaryotic and eukaryotic data show that use of an incomplete event model has substantial impact on the events inferred and resulting biological conclusions. Our algorithms have been implemented in Notung, a freely available phylogenetic reconciliation software package, available at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~durand/Notung. mstolzer@andrew.cmu.edu.

  18. A constraint-based evolutionary learning approach to the expectation maximization for optimal estimation of the hidden Markov model for speech signal modeling.

    PubMed

    Huda, Shamsul; Yearwood, John; Togneri, Roberto

    2009-02-01

    This paper attempts to overcome the tendency of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to locate a local rather than global maximum when applied to estimate the hidden Markov model (HMM) parameters in speech signal modeling. We propose a hybrid algorithm for estimation of the HMM in automatic speech recognition (ASR) using a constraint-based evolutionary algorithm (EA) and EM, the CEL-EM. The novelty of our hybrid algorithm (CEL-EM) is that it is applicable for estimation of the constraint-based models with many constraints and large numbers of parameters (which use EM) like HMM. Two constraint-based versions of the CEL-EM with different fusion strategies have been proposed using a constraint-based EA and the EM for better estimation of HMM in ASR. The first one uses a traditional constraint-handling mechanism of EA. The other version transforms a constrained optimization problem into an unconstrained problem using Lagrange multipliers. Fusion strategies for the CEL-EM use a staged-fusion approach where EM has been plugged with the EA periodically after the execution of EA for a specific period of time to maintain the global sampling capabilities of EA in the hybrid algorithm. A variable initialization approach (VIA) has been proposed using a variable segmentation to provide a better initialization for EA in the CEL-EM. Experimental results on the TIMIT speech corpus show that CEL-EM obtains higher recognition accuracies than the traditional EM algorithm as well as a top-standard EM (VIA-EM, constructed by applying the VIA to EM).

  19. A note on bound constraints handling for the IEEE CEC'05 benchmark function suite.

    PubMed

    Liao, Tianjun; Molina, Daniel; de Oca, Marco A Montes; Stützle, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    The benchmark functions and some of the algorithms proposed for the special session on real parameter optimization of the 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC'05) have played and still play an important role in the assessment of the state of the art in continuous optimization. In this article, we show that if bound constraints are not enforced for the final reported solutions, state-of-the-art algorithms produce infeasible best candidate solutions for the majority of functions of the IEEE CEC'05 benchmark function suite. This occurs even though the optima of the CEC'05 functions are within the specified bounds. This phenomenon has important implications on algorithm comparisons, and therefore on algorithm designs. This article's goal is to draw the attention of the community to the fact that some authors might have drawn wrong conclusions from experiments using the CEC'05 problems.

  20. Multiscale global identification of porous structures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hatłas, Marcin; Beluch, Witold

    2018-01-01

    The paper is devoted to the evolutionary identification of the material constants of porous structures based on measurements conducted on a macro scale. Numerical homogenization with the RVE concept is used to determine the equivalent properties of a macroscopically homogeneous material. Finite element method software is applied to solve the boundary-value problem in both scales. Global optimization methods in form of evolutionary algorithm are employed to solve the identification task. Modal analysis is performed to collect the data necessary for the identification. A numerical example presenting the effectiveness of proposed attitude is attached.

  1. Continuum topology optimization considering uncertainties in load locations based on the cloud model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Jie; Wen, Guilin

    2018-06-01

    Few researchers have paid attention to designing structures in consideration of uncertainties in the loading locations, which may significantly influence the structural performance. In this work, cloud models are employed to depict the uncertainties in the loading locations. A robust algorithm is developed in the context of minimizing the expectation of the structural compliance, while conforming to a material volume constraint. To guarantee optimal solutions, sufficient cloud drops are used, which in turn leads to low efficiency. An innovative strategy is then implemented to enormously improve the computational efficiency. A modified soft-kill bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization method using derived sensitivity numbers is used to output the robust novel configurations. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

  2. Prediction of protein-protein interaction network using a multi-objective optimization approach.

    PubMed

    Chowdhury, Archana; Rakshit, Pratyusha; Konar, Amit

    2016-06-01

    Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) are very important as they coordinate almost all cellular processes. This paper attempts to formulate PPI prediction problem in a multi-objective optimization framework. The scoring functions for the trial solution deal with simultaneous maximization of functional similarity, strength of the domain interaction profiles, and the number of common neighbors of the proteins predicted to be interacting. The above optimization problem is solved using the proposed Firefly Algorithm with Nondominated Sorting. Experiments undertaken reveal that the proposed PPI prediction technique outperforms existing methods, including gene ontology-based Relative Specific Similarity, multi-domain-based Domain Cohesion Coupling method, domain-based Random Decision Forest method, Bagging with REP Tree, and evolutionary/swarm algorithm-based approaches, with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score.

  3. In-Space Radiator Shape Optimization using Genetic Algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hull, Patrick V.; Kittredge, Ken; Tinker, Michael; SanSoucie, Michael

    2006-01-01

    Future space exploration missions will require the development of more advanced in-space radiators. These radiators should be highly efficient and lightweight, deployable heat rejection systems. Typical radiators for in-space heat mitigation commonly comprise a substantial portion of the total vehicle mass. A small mass savings of even 5-10% can greatly improve vehicle performance. The objective of this paper is to present the development of detailed tools for the analysis and design of in-space radiators using evolutionary computation techniques. The optimality criterion is defined as a two-dimensional radiator with a shape demonstrating the smallest mass for the greatest overall heat transfer, thus the end result is a set of highly functional radiator designs. This cross-disciplinary work combines topology optimization and thermal analysis design by means of a genetic algorithm The proposed design tool consists of the following steps; design parameterization based on the exterior boundary of the radiator, objective function definition (mass minimization and heat loss maximization), objective function evaluation via finite element analysis (thermal radiation analysis) and optimization based on evolutionary algorithms. The radiator design problem is defined as follows: the input force is a driving temperature and the output reaction is heat loss. Appropriate modeling of the space environment is added to capture its effect on the radiator. The design parameters chosen for this radiator shape optimization problem fall into two classes, variable height along the width of the radiator and a spline curve defining the -material boundary of the radiator. The implementation of multiple design parameter schemes allows the user to have more confidence in the radiator optimization tool upon demonstration of convergence between the two design parameter schemes. This tool easily allows the user to manipulate the driving temperature regions thus permitting detailed design of in-space radiators for unique situations. Preliminary results indicate an optimized shape following that of the temperature distribution regions in the "cooler" portions of the radiator. The results closely follow the expected radiator shape.

  4. Real coded genetic algorithm for fuzzy time series prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jain, Shilpa; Bisht, Dinesh C. S.; Singh, Phool; Mathpal, Prakash C.

    2017-10-01

    Genetic Algorithm (GA) forms a subset of evolutionary computing, rapidly growing area of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Some variants of GA are binary GA, real GA, messy GA, micro GA, saw tooth GA, differential evolution GA. This research article presents a real coded GA for predicting enrollments of University of Alabama. Data of Alabama University is a fuzzy time series. Here, fuzzy logic is used to predict enrollments of Alabama University and genetic algorithm optimizes fuzzy intervals. Results are compared to other eminent author works and found satisfactory, and states that real coded GA are fast and accurate.

  5. A rapid application of GA-MODFLOW combined approach to optimization of well placement and operation for drought-ready groundwater reservoir design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, C.; Kim, Y.; Jang, H.

    2016-12-01

    Poor temporal distribution of precipitation increases winter drought risks in mountain valley areas in Korea. Since perennial streams or reservoirs for water use are rare in the areas, groundwater is usually a major water resource. Significant amount of the precipitation contributing groundwater recharge mostly occurs during the summer season. However, a volume of groundwater recharge is limited by rapid runoff because of the topographic characteristics such as steep hill and slope. A groundwater reservoir using artificial recharge method with rain water reuse can be a suitable solution to secure water resource for the mountain valley areas. Successful groundwater reservoir design depends on optimization of well placement and operation. This study introduces a combined approach using GA (Genetic Algorithm) and MODFLOW and its rapid application. The methodology is based on RAD (Rapid Application Development) concept in order to minimize the cost of implementation. DEAP (Distributed Evolutionary Algorithms in Python), a framework for prototyping and testing evolutionary algorithms, is applied for quick code development and CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a parallel computing platform using GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), is introduced to reduce runtime. The application was successfully applied to Samdeok-ri, Gosung, Korea. The site is located in a mountain valley area and unconfined aquifers are major source of water use. The results of the application produced the best location and optimized operation schedule of wells including pumping and injecting.

  6. Optimum oil production planning using infeasibility driven evolutionary algorithm.

    PubMed

    Singh, Hemant Kumar; Ray, Tapabrata; Sarker, Ruhul

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we discuss a practical oil production planning optimization problem. For oil wells with insufficient reservoir pressure, gas is usually injected to artificially lift oil, a practice commonly referred to as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The total gas that can be used for oil extraction is constrained by daily availability limits. The oil extracted from each well is known to be a nonlinear function of the gas injected into the well and varies between wells. The problem is to identify the optimal amount of gas that needs to be injected into each well to maximize the amount of oil extracted subject to the constraint on the total daily gas availability. The problem has long been of practical interest to all major oil exploration companies as it has the potential to derive large financial benefit. In this paper, an infeasibility driven evolutionary algorithm is used to solve a 56 well reservoir problem which demonstrates its efficiency in solving constrained optimization problems. Furthermore, a multi-objective formulation of the problem is posed and solved using a number of algorithms, which eliminates the need for solving the (single objective) problem on a regular basis. Lastly, a modified single objective formulation of the problem is also proposed, which aims to maximize the profit instead of the quantity of oil. It is shown that even with a lesser amount of oil extracted, more economic benefits can be achieved through the modified formulation.

  7. Evolutionary and biological metaphors for engineering design

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jakiela, M.

    1994-12-31

    Since computing became generally available, there has been strong interest in using computers to assist and automate engineering design processes. Specifically, for design optimization and automation, nonlinear programming and artificial intelligence techniques have been extensively studied. New computational techniques, based upon the natural processes of evolution, adaptation, and learing, are showing promise because of their generality and robustness. This presentation will describe the use of two such techniques, genetic algorithms and classifier systems, for a variety of engineering design problems. Structural topology optimization, meshing, and general engineering optimization are shown as example applications.

  8. Capturing planar shapes by approximating their outlines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarfraz, M.; Riyazuddin, M.; Baig, M. H.

    2006-05-01

    A non-deterministic evolutionary approach for approximating the outlines of planar shapes has been developed. Non-uniform Rational B-splines (NURBS) have been utilized as an underlying approximation curve scheme. Simulated Annealing heuristic is used as an evolutionary methodology. In addition to independent studies of the optimization of weight and knot parameters of the NURBS, a separate scheme has also been developed for the optimization of weights and knots simultaneously. The optimized NURBS models have been fitted over the contour data of the planar shapes for the ultimate and automatic output. The output results are visually pleasing with respect to the threshold provided by the user. A web-based system has also been developed for the effective and worldwide utilization. The objective of this system is to provide the facility to visualize the output to the whole world through internet by providing the freedom to the user for various desired input parameters setting in the algorithm designed.

  9. Modeling an aquatic ecosystem: application of an evolutionary algorithm with genetic doping to reduce prediction uncertainty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Friedel, Michael; Buscema, Massimo

    2016-04-01

    Aquatic ecosystem models can potentially be used to understand the influence of stresses on catchment resource quality. Given that catchment responses are functions of natural and anthropogenic stresses reflected in sparse and spatiotemporal biological, physical, and chemical measurements, an ecosystem is difficult to model using statistical or numerical methods. We propose an artificial adaptive systems approach to model ecosystems. First, an unsupervised machine-learning (ML) network is trained using the set of available sparse and disparate data variables. Second, an evolutionary algorithm with genetic doping is applied to reduce the number of ecosystem variables to an optimal set. Third, the optimal set of ecosystem variables is used to retrain the ML network. Fourth, a stochastic cross-validation approach is applied to quantify and compare the nonlinear uncertainty in selected predictions of the original and reduced models. Results are presented for aquatic ecosystems (tens of thousands of square kilometers) undergoing landscape change in the USA: Upper Illinois River Basin and Central Colorado Assessment Project Area, and Southland region, NZ.

  10. Evolutionary Algorithm Based Feature Optimization for Multi-Channel EEG Classification.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yubo; Veluvolu, Kalyana C

    2017-01-01

    The most BCI systems that rely on EEG signals employ Fourier based methods for time-frequency decomposition for feature extraction. The band-limited multiple Fourier linear combiner is well-suited for such band-limited signals due to its real-time applicability. Despite the improved performance of these techniques in two channel settings, its application in multiple-channel EEG is not straightforward and challenging. As more channels are available, a spatial filter will be required to eliminate the noise and preserve the required useful information. Moreover, multiple-channel EEG also adds the high dimensionality to the frequency feature space. Feature selection will be required to stabilize the performance of the classifier. In this paper, we develop a new method based on Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to solve these two problems simultaneously. The real-valued EA encodes both the spatial filter estimates and the feature selection into its solution and optimizes it with respect to the classification error. Three Fourier based designs are tested in this paper. Our results show that the combination of Fourier based method with covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) has the best overall performance.

  11. MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks Using a Genetic Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Elizarraras, Omar; Panduro, Marco; Méndez, Aldo L.

    2014-01-01

    The problem of obtaining the transmission rate in an ad hoc network consists in adjusting the power of each node to ensure the signal to interference ratio (SIR) and the energy required to transmit from one node to another is obtained at the same time. Therefore, an optimal transmission rate for each node in a medium access control (MAC) protocol based on CSMA-CDMA (carrier sense multiple access-code division multiple access) for ad hoc networks can be obtained using evolutionary optimization. This work proposes a genetic algorithm for the transmission rate election considering a perfect power control, and our proposition achieves improvement of 10% compared with the scheme that handles the handshaking phase to adjust the transmission rate. Furthermore, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm that solves the problem of power combining, interference, data rate, and energy ensuring the signal to interference ratio in an ad hoc network. The result of the proposed genetic algorithm has a better performance (15%) compared to the CSMA-CDMA protocol without optimizing. Therefore, we show by simulation the effectiveness of the proposed protocol in terms of the throughput. PMID:25140339

  12. Geomagnetic Navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Based on Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm.

    PubMed

    Li, Hong; Liu, Mingyong; Zhang, Feihu

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm of bio-inspired geomagnetic navigation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Inspired by the biological navigation behavior, the solution was proposed without using a priori information, simply by magnetotaxis searching. However, the existence of the geomagnetic anomalies has significant influence on the geomagnetic navigation system, which often disrupts the distribution of the geomagnetic field. An extreme value region may easily appear in abnormal regions, which makes AUV lost in the navigation phase. This paper proposes an improved bio-inspired algorithm with behavior constraints, for sake of making AUV escape from the abnormal region. First, the navigation problem is considered as the optimization problem. Second, the environmental monitoring operator is introduced, to determine whether the algorithm falls into the geomagnetic anomaly region. Then, the behavior constraint operator is employed to get out of the abnormal region. Finally, the termination condition is triggered. Compared to the state-of- the-art, the proposed approach effectively overcomes the disturbance of the geomagnetic abnormal. The simulation result demonstrates the reliability and feasibility of the proposed approach in complex environments.

  13. Geomagnetic Navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Based on Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Li, Hong; Liu, Mingyong; Zhang, Feihu

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm of bio-inspired geomagnetic navigation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Inspired by the biological navigation behavior, the solution was proposed without using a priori information, simply by magnetotaxis searching. However, the existence of the geomagnetic anomalies has significant influence on the geomagnetic navigation system, which often disrupts the distribution of the geomagnetic field. An extreme value region may easily appear in abnormal regions, which makes AUV lost in the navigation phase. This paper proposes an improved bio-inspired algorithm with behavior constraints, for sake of making AUV escape from the abnormal region. First, the navigation problem is considered as the optimization problem. Second, the environmental monitoring operator is introduced, to determine whether the algorithm falls into the geomagnetic anomaly region. Then, the behavior constraint operator is employed to get out of the abnormal region. Finally, the termination condition is triggered. Compared to the state-of- the-art, the proposed approach effectively overcomes the disturbance of the geomagnetic abnormal. The simulation result demonstrates the reliability and feasibility of the proposed approach in complex environments. PMID:28747884

  14. Assessment of Masonry Buildings Subjected to Landslide-Induced Settlements: From Load Path Method to Evolutionary Optimization Method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Palmisano, Fabrizio; Elia, Angelo

    2017-10-01

    One of the main difficulties, when dealing with landslide structural vulnerability, is the diagnosis of the causes of crack patterns. This is also due to the excessive complexity of models based on classical structural mechanics that makes them inappropriate especially when there is the necessity to perform a rapid vulnerability assessment at the territorial scale. This is why, a new approach, based on a ‘simple model’ (i.e. the Load Path Method, LPM), has been proposed by Palmisano and Elia for the interpretation of the behaviour of masonry buildings subjected to landslide-induced settlements. However, the LPM is very useful for rapidly finding the 'most plausible solution' instead of the exact solution. To find the solution, optimization algorithms are necessary. In this scenario, this article aims to show how the Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimization method by Huang and Xie, can be very useful to optimize the strut-and-tie models obtained by using the Load Path Method.

  15. Using evolutionary algorithms for fitting high-dimensional models to neuronal data.

    PubMed

    Svensson, Carl-Magnus; Coombes, Stephen; Peirce, Jonathan Westley

    2012-04-01

    In the study of neurosciences, and of complex biological systems in general, there is frequently a need to fit mathematical models with large numbers of parameters to highly complex datasets. Here we consider algorithms of two different classes, gradient following (GF) methods and evolutionary algorithms (EA) and examine their performance in fitting a 9-parameter model of a filter-based visual neuron to real data recorded from a sample of 107 neurons in macaque primary visual cortex (V1). Although the GF method converged very rapidly on a solution, it was highly susceptible to the effects of local minima in the error surface and produced relatively poor fits unless the initial estimates of the parameters were already very good. Conversely, although the EA required many more iterations of evaluating the model neuron's response to a series of stimuli, it ultimately found better solutions in nearly all cases and its performance was independent of the starting parameters of the model. Thus, although the fitting process was lengthy in terms of processing time, the relative lack of human intervention in the evolutionary algorithm, and its ability ultimately to generate model fits that could be trusted as being close to optimal, made it far superior in this particular application than the gradient following methods. This is likely to be the case in many further complex systems, as are often found in neuroscience.

  16. How Crossover Speeds up Building Block Assembly in Genetic Algorithms.

    PubMed

    Sudholt, Dirk

    2017-01-01

    We reinvestigate a fundamental question: How effective is crossover in genetic algorithms in combining building blocks of good solutions? Although this has been discussed controversially for decades, we are still lacking a rigorous and intuitive answer. We provide such answers for royal road functions and OneMax, where every bit is a building block. For the latter, we show that using crossover makes every ([Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]) genetic algorithm at least twice as fast as the fastest evolutionary algorithm using only standard bit mutation, up to small-order terms and for moderate [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Crossover is beneficial because it can capitalize on mutations that have both beneficial and disruptive effects on building blocks: crossover is able to repair the disruptive effects of mutation in later generations. Compared to mutation-based evolutionary algorithms, this makes multibit mutations more useful. Introducing crossover changes the optimal mutation rate on OneMax from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]. This holds both for uniform crossover and k-point crossover. Experiments and statistical tests confirm that our findings apply to a broad class of building block functions.

  17. Evolutionary design of a generalized polynomial neural network for modelling sediment transport in clean pipes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ebtehaj, Isa; Bonakdari, Hossein; Khoshbin, Fatemeh

    2016-10-01

    To determine the minimum velocity required to prevent sedimentation, six different models were proposed to estimate the densimetric Froude number (Fr). The dimensionless parameters of the models were applied along with a combination of the group method of data handling (GMDH) and the multi-target genetic algorithm. Therefore, an evolutionary design of the generalized GMDH was developed using a genetic algorithm with a specific coding scheme so as not to restrict connectivity configurations to abutting layers only. In addition, a new preserving mechanism by the multi-target genetic algorithm was utilized for the Pareto optimization of GMDH. The results indicated that the most accurate model was the one that used the volumetric concentration of sediment (CV), relative hydraulic radius (d/R), dimensionless particle number (Dgr) and overall sediment friction factor (λs) in estimating Fr. Furthermore, the comparison between the proposed method and traditional equations indicated that GMDH is more accurate than existing equations.

  18. Optimization lighting layout based on gene density improved genetic algorithm for indoor visible light communications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Huanlin; Wang, Xin; Chen, Yong; Kong, Deqian; Xia, Peijie

    2017-05-01

    For indoor visible light communication system, the layout of LED lamps affects the uniformity of the received power on communication plane. In order to find an optimized lighting layout that meets both the lighting needs and communication needs, a gene density genetic algorithm (GDGA) is proposed. In GDGA, a gene indicates a pair of abscissa and ordinate of a LED, and an individual represents a LED layout in the room. The segmented crossover operation and gene mutation strategy based on gene density are put forward to make the received power on communication plane more uniform and increase the population's diversity. A weighted differences function between individuals is designed as the fitness function of GDGA for reserving the population having the useful LED layout genetic information and ensuring the global convergence of GDGA. Comparing square layout and circular layout, with the optimized layout achieved by the GDGA, the power uniformity increases by 83.3%, 83.1% and 55.4%, respectively. Furthermore, the convergence of GDGA is verified compared with evolutionary algorithm (EA). Experimental results show that GDGA can quickly find an approximation of optimal layout.

  19. Multi Sensor Fusion Using Fitness Adaptive Differential Evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giri, Ritwik; Ghosh, Arnob; Chowdhury, Aritra; Das, Swagatam

    The rising popularity of multi-source, multi-sensor networks supports real-life applications calls for an efficient and intelligent approach to information fusion. Traditional optimization techniques often fail to meet the demands. The evolutionary approach provides a valuable alternative due to its inherent parallel nature and its ability to deal with difficult problems. We present a new evolutionary approach based on a modified version of Differential Evolution (DE), called Fitness Adaptive Differential Evolution (FiADE). FiADE treats sensors in the network as distributed intelligent agents with various degrees of autonomy. Existing approaches based on intelligent agents cannot completely answer the question of how their agents could coordinate their decisions in a complex environment. The proposed approach is formulated to produce good result for the problems that are high-dimensional, highly nonlinear, and random. The proposed approach gives better result in case of optimal allocation of sensors. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with an evolutionary algorithm coordination generalized particle model (C-GPM).

  20. Evolutionary algorithm optimization of biological learning parameters in a biomimetic neuroprosthesis

    PubMed Central

    Dura-Bernal, S.; Neymotin, S. A.; Kerr, C. C.; Sivagnanam, S.; Majumdar, A.; Francis, J. T.; Lytton, W. W.

    2017-01-01

    Biomimetic simulation permits neuroscientists to better understand the complex neuronal dynamics of the brain. Embedding a biomimetic simulation in a closed-loop neuroprosthesis, which can read and write signals from the brain, will permit applications for amelioration of motor, psychiatric, and memory-related brain disorders. Biomimetic neuroprostheses require real-time adaptation to changes in the external environment, thus constituting an example of a dynamic data-driven application system. As model fidelity increases, so does the number of parameters and the complexity of finding appropriate parameter configurations. Instead of adapting synaptic weights via machine learning, we employed major biological learning methods: spike-timing dependent plasticity and reinforcement learning. We optimized the learning metaparameters using evolutionary algorithms, which were implemented in parallel and which used an island model approach to obtain sufficient speed. We employed these methods to train a cortical spiking model to utilize macaque brain activity, indicating a selected target, to drive a virtual musculoskeletal arm with realistic anatomical and biomechanical properties to reach to that target. The optimized system was able to reproduce macaque data from a comparable experimental motor task. These techniques can be used to efficiently tune the parameters of multiscale systems, linking realistic neuronal dynamics to behavior, and thus providing a useful tool for neuroscience and neuroprosthetics. PMID:29200477

  1. Enhanced production of medicinal polysaccharide by submerged fermentation of Lingzhi or Reishi medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidium (W.Curt.:Fr.) P. Karst. Using statistical and evolutionary optimization methods.

    PubMed

    Baskar, Gurunathan; Sathya, Shree Rajesh K

    2011-01-01

    Statistical and evolutionary optimization of media composition was employed for the production of medicinal exopolysaccharide (EPS) by Lingzhi or Reishi medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidium MTCC 1039 using soya bean meal flour as low-cost substrate. Soya bean meal flour, ammonium chloride, glucose, and pH were identified as the most important variables for EPS yield using the two-level Plackett-Burman design and further optimized using the central composite design (CCD) and the artificial neural network (ANN)-linked genetic algorithm (GA). The high value of coefficient of determination of ANN (R² = 0.982) indicates that the ANN model was more accurate than the second-order polynomial model of CCD (R² = 0.91) for representing the effect of media composition on EPS yield. The predicted optimum media composition using ANN-linked GA was soybean meal flour 2.98%, glucose 3.26%, ammonium chloride 0.25%, and initial pH 7.5 for the maximum predicted EPS yield of 1005.55 mg/L. The experimental EPS yield obtained using the predicted optimum media composition was 1012.36 mg/L, which validates the high degree of accuracy of evolutionary optimization for enhanced production of EPS by submerged fermentation of G. lucidium.

  2. On the effect of response transformations in sequential parameter optimization.

    PubMed

    Wagner, Tobias; Wessing, Simon

    2012-01-01

    Parameter tuning of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) is attracting more and more interest. In particular, the sequential parameter optimization (SPO) framework for the model-assisted tuning of stochastic optimizers has resulted in established parameter tuning algorithms. In this paper, we enhance the SPO framework by introducing transformation steps before the response aggregation and before the actual modeling. Based on design-of-experiments techniques, we empirically analyze the effect of integrating different transformations. We show that in particular, a rank transformation of the responses provides significant improvements. A deeper analysis of the resulting models and additional experiments with adaptive procedures indicates that the rank and the Box-Cox transformation are able to improve the properties of the resultant distributions with respect to symmetry and normality of the residuals. Moreover, model-based effect plots document a higher discriminatory power obtained by the rank transformation.

  3. Reduction of the Nonlinear Phase Shift Induced by Stimulated Brillouin Scattering for Bi-Directional Pumping Configuration System Using Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Al-Asadi, H. A.

    2013-02-01

    We present a theoretical analysis of an additional nonlinear phase shift of backward Stokes wave based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in the system with a bi-directional pumping scheme. We optimize three parameters of the system: the numerical aperture, the optical loss and the pumping wavelength to minimize an additional nonlinear phase shift of backward Stokes waves due to stimulated Brillouin scattering. The optimization is performed with various Brillouin pump powers and the optical reflectivity values are based on the modern, global evolutionary computation algorithm, particle swarm optimization. It is shown that the additional nonlinear phase shift of backward Stokes wave varies with different optical fiber lengths, and can be minimized to less than 0.07 rad according to the particle swarm optimization algorithm for 5 km. The bi-directional pumping configuration system is shown to be efficient when it is possible to transmit the power output to advanced when frequency detuning is negative and delayed when it is positive, with the optimum values of the three parameters to achieve the reduction of an additional nonlinear phase shift.

  4. Discrete particle swarm optimization for identifying community structures in signed social networks.

    PubMed

    Cai, Qing; Gong, Maoguo; Shen, Bo; Ma, Lijia; Jiao, Licheng

    2014-10-01

    Modern science of networks has facilitated us with enormous convenience to the understanding of complex systems. Community structure is believed to be one of the notable features of complex networks representing real complicated systems. Very often, uncovering community structures in networks can be regarded as an optimization problem, thus, many evolutionary algorithms based approaches have been put forward. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is an artificial intelligent algorithm originated from social behavior such as birds flocking and fish schooling. PSO has been proved to be an effective optimization technique. However, PSO was originally designed for continuous optimization which confounds its applications to discrete contexts. In this paper, a novel discrete PSO algorithm is suggested for identifying community structures in signed networks. In the suggested method, particles' status has been redesigned in discrete form so as to make PSO proper for discrete scenarios, and particles' updating rules have been reformulated by making use of the topology of the signed network. Extensive experiments compared with three state-of-the-art approaches on both synthetic and real-world signed networks demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and promising. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Evolutionary Optimization of Centrifugal Nozzles for Organic Vapours

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Persico, Giacomo

    2017-03-01

    This paper discusses the shape-optimization of non-conventional centrifugal turbine nozzles for Organic Rankine Cycle applications. The optimal aerodynamic design is supported by the use of a non-intrusive, gradient-free technique specifically developed for shape optimization of turbomachinery profiles. The method is constructed as a combination of a geometrical parametrization technique based on B-Splines, a high-fidelity and experimentally validated Computational Fluid Dynamic solver, and a surrogate-based evolutionary algorithm. The non-ideal gas behaviour featuring the flow of organic fluids in the cascades of interest is introduced via a look-up-table approach, which is rigorously applied throughout the whole optimization process. Two transonic centrifugal nozzles are considered, featuring very different loading and radial extension. The use of a systematic and automatic design method to such a non-conventional configuration highlights the character of centrifugal cascades; the blades require a specific and non-trivial definition of the shape, especially in the rear part, to avoid the onset of shock waves. It is shown that the optimization acts in similar way for the two cascades, identifying an optimal curvature of the blade that both provides a relevant increase of cascade performance and a reduction of downstream gradients.

  6. The concept of ageing in evolutionary algorithms: Discussion and inspirations for human ageing.

    PubMed

    Dimopoulos, Christos; Papageorgis, Panagiotis; Boustras, George; Efstathiades, Christodoulos

    2017-04-01

    This paper discusses the concept of ageing as this applies to the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, and examines its relationship to the concept of ageing as this is understood for human beings. Evolutionary Algorithms constitute a family of search algorithms which base their operation on an analogy from the evolution of species in nature. The paper initially provides the necessary knowledge on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms, focusing on the use of ageing strategies during the implementation of the evolutionary process. Background knowledge on the concept of ageing, as this is defined scientifically for biological systems, is subsequently presented. Based on this information, the paper provides a comparison between the two ageing concepts, and discusses the philosophical inspirations which can be drawn for human ageing based on the operation of Evolutionary Algorithms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Parallel evolution of image processing tools for multispectral imagery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harvey, Neal R.; Brumby, Steven P.; Perkins, Simon J.; Porter, Reid B.; Theiler, James P.; Young, Aaron C.; Szymanski, John J.; Bloch, Jeffrey J.

    2000-11-01

    We describe the implementation and performance of a parallel, hybrid evolutionary-algorithm-based system, which optimizes image processing tools for feature-finding tasks in multi-spectral imagery (MSI) data sets. Our system uses an integrated spatio-spectral approach and is capable of combining suitably-registered data from different sensors. We investigate the speed-up obtained by parallelization of the evolutionary process via multiple processors (a workstation cluster) and develop a model for prediction of run-times for different numbers of processors. We demonstrate our system on Landsat Thematic Mapper MSI , covering the recent Cerro Grande fire at Los Alamos, NM, USA.

  8. A hybrid neural learning algorithm using evolutionary learning and derivative free local search method.

    PubMed

    Ghosh, Ranadhir; Yearwood, John; Ghosh, Moumita; Bagirov, Adil

    2006-06-01

    In this paper we investigate a hybrid model based on the Discrete Gradient method and an evolutionary strategy for determining the weights in a feed forward artificial neural network. Also we discuss different variants for hybrid models using the Discrete Gradient method and an evolutionary strategy for determining the weights in a feed forward artificial neural network. The Discrete Gradient method has the advantage of being able to jump over many local minima and find very deep local minima. However, earlier research has shown that a good starting point for the discrete gradient method can improve the quality of the solution point. Evolutionary algorithms are best suited for global optimisation problems. Nevertheless they are cursed with longer training times and often unsuitable for real world application. For optimisation problems such as weight optimisation for ANNs in real world applications the dimensions are large and time complexity is critical. Hence the idea of a hybrid model can be a suitable option. In this paper we propose different fusion strategies for hybrid models combining the evolutionary strategy with the discrete gradient method to obtain an optimal solution much quicker. Three different fusion strategies are discussed: a linear hybrid model, an iterative hybrid model and a restricted local search hybrid model. Comparative results on a range of standard datasets are provided for different fusion hybrid models.

  9. Forced evolution in silico by artificial transposons and their genetic operators: The ant navigation problem.

    PubMed

    Zamdborg, Leonid; Holloway, David M; Merelo, Juan J; Levchenko, Vladimir F; Spirov, Alexander V

    2015-06-10

    Modern evolutionary computation utilizes heuristic optimizations based upon concepts borrowed from the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Their demonstrated efficacy has reawakened an interest in other aspects of contemporary biology as an inspiration for new algorithms. However, amongst the many excellent candidates for study, contemporary models of biological macroevolution attract special attention. We believe that a vital direction in this field must be algorithms that model the activity of "genomic parasites", such as transposons, in biological evolution. Many evolutionary biologists posit that it is the co-evolution of populations with their genomic parasites that permits the high efficiency of evolutionary searches found in the living world. This publication is our first step in the direction of developing a minimal assortment of algorithms that simulate the role of genomic parasites. Specifically, we started in the domain of genetic algorithms (GA) and selected the Artificial Ant Problem as a test case. This navigation problem is widely known as a classical benchmark test and possesses a large body of literature. We add new objects to the standard toolkit of GA - artificial transposons and a collection of operators that operate on them. We define these artificial transposons as a fragment of an ant's code with properties that cause it to stand apart from the rest. The minimal set of operators for transposons is a transposon mutation operator, and a transposon reproduction operator that causes a transposon to multiply within the population of hosts. An analysis of the population dynamics of transposons within the course of ant evolution showed that transposons are involved in the processes of propagation and selection of blocks of ant navigation programs. During this time, the speed of evolutionary search increases significantly. We concluded that artificial transposons, analogous to real transposons, are truly capable of acting as intelligent mutators that adapt in response to an evolutionary problem in the course of co-evolution with their hosts.

  10. Forced evolution in silico by artificial transposons and their genetic operators: The ant navigation problem

    PubMed Central

    Zamdborg, Leonid; Holloway, David M.; Merelo, Juan J.; Levchenko, Vladimir F.; Spirov, Alexander V.

    2015-01-01

    Modern evolutionary computation utilizes heuristic optimizations based upon concepts borrowed from the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Their demonstrated efficacy has reawakened an interest in other aspects of contemporary biology as an inspiration for new algorithms. However, amongst the many excellent candidates for study, contemporary models of biological macroevolution attract special attention. We believe that a vital direction in this field must be algorithms that model the activity of “genomic parasites”, such as transposons, in biological evolution. Many evolutionary biologists posit that it is the co-evolution of populations with their genomic parasites that permits the high efficiency of evolutionary searches found in the living world. This publication is our first step in the direction of developing a minimal assortment of algorithms that simulate the role of genomic parasites. Specifically, we started in the domain of genetic algorithms (GA) and selected the Artificial Ant Problem as a test case. This navigation problem is widely known as a classical benchmark test and possesses a large body of literature. We add new objects to the standard toolkit of GA - artificial transposons and a collection of operators that operate on them. We define these artificial transposons as a fragment of an ant's code with properties that cause it to stand apart from the rest. The minimal set of operators for transposons is a transposon mutation operator, and a transposon reproduction operator that causes a transposon to multiply within the population of hosts. An analysis of the population dynamics of transposons within the course of ant evolution showed that transposons are involved in the processes of propagation and selection of blocks of ant navigation programs. During this time, the speed of evolutionary search increases significantly. We concluded that artificial transposons, analogous to real transposons, are truly capable of acting as intelligent mutators that adapt in response to an evolutionary problem in the course of co-evolution with their hosts. PMID:25767296

  11. On a biologically inspired topology optimization method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kobayashi, Marcelo H.

    2010-03-01

    This work concerns the development of a biologically inspired methodology for the study of topology optimization in engineering and natural systems. The methodology is based on L systems and its turtle interpretation for the genotype-phenotype modeling of the topology development. The topology is analyzed using the finite element method, and optimized using an evolutionary algorithm with the genetic encoding of the L system and its turtle interpretation, as well as, body shape and physical characteristics. The test cases considered in this work clearly show the suitability of the proposed method for the study of engineering and natural complex systems.

  12. An Adaptive Image Enhancement Technique by Combining Cuckoo Search and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Ye, Zhiwei; Wang, Mingwei; Hu, Zhengbing; Liu, Wei

    2015-01-01

    Image enhancement is an important procedure of image processing and analysis. This paper presents a new technique using a modified measure and blending of cuckoo search and particle swarm optimization (CS-PSO) for low contrast images to enhance image adaptively. In this way, contrast enhancement is obtained by global transformation of the input intensities; it employs incomplete Beta function as the transformation function and a novel criterion for measuring image quality considering three factors which are threshold, entropy value, and gray-level probability density of the image. The enhancement process is a nonlinear optimization problem with several constraints. CS-PSO is utilized to maximize the objective fitness criterion in order to enhance the contrast and detail in an image by adapting the parameters of a novel extension to a local enhancement technique. The performance of the proposed method has been compared with other existing techniques such as linear contrast stretching, histogram equalization, and evolutionary computing based image enhancement methods like backtracking search algorithm, differential search algorithm, genetic algorithm, and particle swarm optimization in terms of processing time and image quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust and adaptive and exhibits the better performance than other methods involved in the paper. PMID:25784928

  13. An adaptive image enhancement technique by combining cuckoo search and particle swarm optimization algorithm.

    PubMed

    Ye, Zhiwei; Wang, Mingwei; Hu, Zhengbing; Liu, Wei

    2015-01-01

    Image enhancement is an important procedure of image processing and analysis. This paper presents a new technique using a modified measure and blending of cuckoo search and particle swarm optimization (CS-PSO) for low contrast images to enhance image adaptively. In this way, contrast enhancement is obtained by global transformation of the input intensities; it employs incomplete Beta function as the transformation function and a novel criterion for measuring image quality considering three factors which are threshold, entropy value, and gray-level probability density of the image. The enhancement process is a nonlinear optimization problem with several constraints. CS-PSO is utilized to maximize the objective fitness criterion in order to enhance the contrast and detail in an image by adapting the parameters of a novel extension to a local enhancement technique. The performance of the proposed method has been compared with other existing techniques such as linear contrast stretching, histogram equalization, and evolutionary computing based image enhancement methods like backtracking search algorithm, differential search algorithm, genetic algorithm, and particle swarm optimization in terms of processing time and image quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust and adaptive and exhibits the better performance than other methods involved in the paper.

  14. A comparative study between control strategies for a solar sailcraft in an Earth-Mars transfer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mainenti-Lopes, I.; Souza, L. C. Gadelha; De Sousa, Fabiano. L.

    2016-10-01

    The goal of this work was a comparative study of solar sail trajectory optimization using different control strategies. Solar sailcraft is propulsion system with great interest in space engineering, since it uses solar radiation to propulsion. So there is no need for propellant to be used, thus it can remains active throughout the entire transfer maneuver. This type of propulsion system opens the possibility to reduce the cost of exploration missions in the solar system. In its simplest configuration, a Flat Solar Sail (FSS) consists of a large and thin structure generally composed by a film fixed to flexible rods. The performance of these vehicles depends largely on the sails attitude relative to the Sun. Using a FSS as propulsion, an Earth-Mars transfer optimization problem was tackled by the algorithms GEOreal1 and GEOreal2 (Generalized Extremal Optimization with real codification). Those algorithms are Evolutionary Algorithms (AE) based on the theory of Self-Organized Criticality. They were used to optimize the FSS attitude angle so it could reach Mars orbit in minimum time. It was considered that the FSS could perform up to ten attitude maneuvers during orbital transfer. Moreover, the time between maneuvers can be different. So, the algorithms had to optimize an objective function with 20 design variables. The results obtained in this work were compared with previously results that considered constant values of time between maneuvers.

  15. XTALOPT: An open-source evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lonie, David C.; Zurek, Eva

    2011-02-01

    The implementation and testing of XTALOPT, an evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction, is outlined. We present our new periodic displacement (ripple) operator which is ideally suited to extended systems. It is demonstrated that hybrid operators, which combine two pure operators, reduce the number of duplicate structures in the search. This allows for better exploration of the potential energy surface of the system in question, while simultaneously zooming in on the most promising regions. A continuous workflow, which makes better use of computational resources as compared to traditional generation based algorithms, is employed. Various parameters in XTALOPT are optimized using a novel benchmarking scheme. XTALOPT is available under the GNU Public License, has been interfaced with various codes commonly used to study extended systems, and has an easy to use, intuitive graphical interface. Program summaryProgram title:XTALOPT Catalogue identifier: AEGX_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEGX_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GPL v2.1 or later [1] No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 36 849 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1 149 399 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++ Computer: PCs, workstations, or clusters Operating system: Linux Classification: 7.7 External routines: QT [2], OpenBabel [3], AVOGADRO [4], SPGLIB [8] and one of: VASP [5], PWSCF [6], GULP [7]. Nature of problem: Predicting the crystal structure of a system from its stoichiometry alone remains a grand challenge in computational materials science, chemistry, and physics. Solution method: Evolutionary algorithms are stochastic search techniques which use concepts from biological evolution in order to locate the global minimum on their potential energy surface. Our evolutionary algorithm, XTALOPT, is freely available to the scientific community for use and collaboration under the GNU Public License. Running time: User dependent. The program runs until stopped by the user.

  16. Evolutionary game based control for biological systems with applications in drug delivery.

    PubMed

    Li, Xiaobo; Lenaghan, Scott C; Zhang, Mingjun

    2013-06-07

    Control engineering and analysis of biological systems have become increasingly important for systems and synthetic biology. Unfortunately, no widely accepted control framework is currently available for these systems, especially at the cell and molecular levels. This is partially due to the lack of appropriate mathematical models to describe the unique dynamics of biological systems, and the lack of implementation techniques, such as ultra-fast and ultra-small devices and corresponding control algorithms. This paper proposes a control framework for biological systems subject to dynamics that exhibit adaptive behavior under evolutionary pressures. The control framework was formulated based on evolutionary game based modeling, which integrates both the internal dynamics and the population dynamics. In the proposed control framework, the adaptive behavior was characterized as an internal dynamic, and the external environment was regarded as an external control input. The proposed open-interface control framework can be integrated with additional control algorithms for control of biological systems. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, an optimal control strategy was developed and validated for drug delivery using the pathogen Giardia lamblia as a test case. In principle, the proposed control framework can be applied to any biological system exhibiting adaptive behavior under evolutionary pressures. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. How Do Severe Constraints Affect the Search Ability of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms in Water Resources?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clarkin, T. J.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Raseman, W. J.; Herman, J. D.

    2015-12-01

    This study contributes a diagnostic assessment of multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) search on a set of water resources problem formulations with different configurations of constraints. Unlike constraints in classical optimization modeling, constraints within MOEA simulation-optimization represent limits on acceptable performance that delineate whether solutions within the search problem are feasible. Constraints are relevant because of the emergent pressures on water resources systems: increasing public awareness of their sustainability, coupled with regulatory pressures on water management agencies. In this study, we test several state-of-the-art MOEAs that utilize restricted tournament selection for constraint handling on varying configurations of water resources planning problems. For example, a problem that has no constraints on performance levels will be compared with a problem with several severe constraints, and a problem with constraints that have less severe values on the constraint thresholds. One such problem, Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) portfolio planning, has been solved with a suite of constraints that ensure high reliability, low cost variability, and acceptable performance in a single year severe drought. But to date, it is unclear whether or not the constraints are negatively affecting MOEAs' ability to solve the problem effectively. Two categories of results are explored. The first category uses control maps of algorithm performance to determine if the algorithm's performance is sensitive to user-defined parameters. The second category uses run-time performance metrics to determine the time required for the algorithm to reach sufficient levels of convergence and diversity on the solution sets. Our work exploring the effect of constraints will better enable practitioners to define MOEA problem formulations for real-world systems, especially when stakeholders are concerned with achieving fixed levels of performance according to one or more metrics.

  18. 1/f Noise in the Simple Genetic Algorithm Applied to a Traveling Salesman Problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamada, Mitsuhiro

    Complex dynamical systems are observed in physics, biology, and even economics. Such systems in balance are considered to be in a critical state, and 1/f noise is considered to be a footprint. Complex dynamical systems have also been investigated in the field of evolutionary algorithms inspired by biological evolution. The genetic algorithm (GA) is a well-known evolutionary algorithm in which many individuals interact, and the simplest GA is referred to as the simple GA (SGA). However, the GA has not been examined from the viewpoint of the emergence of 1/f noise. In the present paper, the SGA is applied to a traveling salesman problem in order to investigate the SGA from such a viewpoint. The timecourses of the fitness of the candidate solution were examined. As a result, when the mutation and crossover probabilities were optimal, the system evolved toward a critical state in which the average maximum fitness over all trial runs was maximum. In this situation, the fluctuation of the fitness of the candidate solution resulted in the 1/f power spectrum, and the dynamics of the system had no intrinsic time or length scale.

  19. Parallel optimization algorithm for drone inspection in the building industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Walczyński, Maciej; BoŻejko, Wojciech; Skorupka, Dariusz

    2017-07-01

    In this paper we present an approach for Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones (VRPD) in case of building inspection from the air. In autonomic inspection process there is a need to determine of the optimal route for inspection drone. This is especially important issue because of the very limited flight time of modern multicopters. The method of determining solutions for Traveling Salesman Problem(TSP), described in this paper bases on Parallel Evolutionary Algorithm (ParEA)with cooperative and independent approach for communication between threads. This method described first by Bożejko and Wodecki [1] bases on the observation that if exists some number of elements on certain positions in a number of permutations which are local minima, then those elements will be in the same position in the optimal solution for TSP problem. Numerical experiments were made on BEM computational cluster with using MPI library.

  20. Structural optimization procedure of a composite wind turbine blade for reducing both material cost and blade weight

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Weifei; Park, Dohyun; Choi, DongHoon

    2013-12-01

    A composite blade structure for a 2 MW horizontal axis wind turbine is optimally designed. Design requirements are simultaneously minimizing material cost and blade weight while satisfying the constraints on stress ratio, tip deflection, fatigue life and laminate layup requirements. The stress ratio and tip deflection under extreme gust loads and the fatigue life under a stochastic normal wind load are evaluated. A blade element wind load model is proposed to explain the wind pressure difference due to blade height change during rotor rotation. For fatigue life evaluation, the stress result of an implicit nonlinear dynamic analysis under a time-varying fluctuating wind is converted to the histograms of mean and amplitude of maximum stress ratio using the rainflow counting algorithm Miner's rule is employed to predict the fatigue life. After integrating and automating the whole analysis procedure an evolutionary algorithm is used to solve the discrete optimization problem.

  1. Evolutionary combinatorial chemistry, a novel tool for SAR studies on peptide transport across the blood-brain barrier. Part 2. Design, synthesis and evaluation of a first generation of peptides.

    PubMed

    Teixidó, Meritxell; Belda, Ignasi; Zurita, Esther; Llorà, Xavier; Fabre, Myriam; Vilaró, Senén; Albericio, Fernando; Giralt, Ernest

    2005-12-01

    The use of high-throughput methods in drug discovery allows the generation and testing of a large number of compounds, but at the price of providing redundant information. Evolutionary combinatorial chemistry combines the selection and synthesis of biologically active compounds with artificial intelligence optimization methods, such as genetic algorithms (GA). Drug candidates for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders must overcome the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This paper reports a new genetic algorithm that searches for the optimal physicochemical properties for peptide transport across the blood-brain barrier. A first generation of peptides has been generated and synthesized. Due to the high content of N-methyl amino acids present in most of these peptides, their syntheses were especially challenging due to over-incorporations, deletions and DKP formations. Distinct fragmentation patterns during peptide cleavage have been identified. The first generation of peptides has been studied by evaluation techniques such as immobilized artificial membrane chromatography (IAMC), a cell-based assay, log Poctanol/water calculations, etc. Finally, a second generation has been proposed. (c) 2005 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  2. The evolutionary origins of Lévy walk foraging

    PubMed Central

    Wosniack, Marina E.

    2017-01-01

    We study through a reaction-diffusion algorithm the influence of landscape diversity on the efficiency of search dynamics. Remarkably, the identical optimal search strategy arises in a wide variety of environments, provided the target density is sparse and the searcher’s information is restricted to its close vicinity. Our results strongly impact the current debate on the emergentist vs. evolutionary origins of animal foraging. The inherent character of the optimal solution (i.e., independent on the landscape for the broad scenarios assumed here) suggests an interpretation favoring the evolutionary view, as originally implied by the Lévy flight foraging hypothesis. The latter states that, under conditions of scarcity of information and sparse resources, some organisms must have evolved to exploit optimal strategies characterized by heavy-tailed truncated power-law distributions of move lengths. These results strongly suggest that Lévy strategies—and hence the selection pressure for the relevant adaptations—are robust with respect to large changes in habitat. In contrast, the usual emergentist explanation seems not able to explain how very similar Lévy walks can emerge from all the distinct non-Lévy foraging strategies that are needed for the observed large variety of specific environments. We also report that deviations from Lévy can take place in plentiful ecosystems, where locomotion truncation is very frequent due to high encounter rates. So, in this case normal diffusion strategies—performing as effectively as the optimal one—can naturally emerge from Lévy. Our results constitute the strongest theoretical evidence to date supporting the evolutionary origins of experimentally observed Lévy walks. PMID:28972973

  3. Derived heuristics-based consistent optimization of material flow in a gold processing plant

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Myburgh, Christie; Deb, Kalyanmoy

    2018-01-01

    Material flow in a chemical processing plant often follows complicated control laws and involves plant capacity constraints. Importantly, the process involves discrete scenarios which when modelled in a programming format involves if-then-else statements. Therefore, a formulation of an optimization problem of such processes becomes complicated with nonlinear and non-differentiable objective and constraint functions. In handling such problems using classical point-based approaches, users often have to resort to modifications and indirect ways of representing the problem to suit the restrictions associated with classical methods. In a particular gold processing plant optimization problem, these facts are demonstrated by showing results from MATLAB®'s well-known fmincon routine. Thereafter, a customized evolutionary optimization procedure which is capable of handling all complexities offered by the problem is developed. Although the evolutionary approach produced results with comparatively less variance over multiple runs, the performance has been enhanced by introducing derived heuristics associated with the problem. In this article, the development and usage of derived heuristics in a practical problem are presented and their importance in a quick convergence of the overall algorithm is demonstrated.

  4. Multi-objective optimization of a low specific speed centrifugal pump using an evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    An, Zhao; Zhounian, Lai; Peng, Wu; Linlin, Cao; Dazhuan, Wu

    2016-07-01

    This paper describes the shape optimization of a low specific speed centrifugal pump at the design point. The target pump has already been manually modified on the basis of empirical knowledge. A genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) with certain enhancements is adopted to improve its performance further with respect to two goals. In order to limit the number of design variables without losing geometric information, the impeller is parametrized using the Bézier curve and a B-spline. Numerical simulation based on a Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulent model is done in parallel to evaluate the flow field. A back-propagating neural network is constructed as a surrogate for performance prediction to save computing time, while initial samples are selected according to an orthogonal array. Then global Pareto-optimal solutions are obtained and analysed. The results manifest that unexpected flow structures, such as the secondary flow on the meridian plane, have diminished or vanished in the optimized pump.

  5. MONSS: A multi-objective nonlinear simplex search approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zapotecas-Martínez, Saúl; Coello Coello, Carlos A.

    2016-01-01

    This article presents a novel methodology for dealing with continuous box-constrained multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs). The proposed algorithm adopts a nonlinear simplex search scheme in order to obtain multiple elements of the Pareto optimal set. The search is directed by a well-distributed set of weight vectors, each of which defines a scalarization problem that is solved by deforming a simplex according to the movements described by Nelder and Mead's method. Considering an MOP with n decision variables, the simplex is constructed using n+1 solutions which minimize different scalarization problems defined by n+1 neighbor weight vectors. All solutions found in the search are used to update a set of solutions considered to be the minima for each separate problem. In this way, the proposed algorithm collectively obtains multiple trade-offs among the different conflicting objectives, while maintaining a proper representation of the Pareto optimal front. In this article, it is shown that a well-designed strategy using just mathematical programming techniques can be competitive with respect to the state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms against which it was compared.

  6. A Novel, Real-Valued Genetic Algorithm for Optimizing Radar Absorbing Materials

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hall, John Michael

    2004-01-01

    A novel, real-valued Genetic Algorithm (GA) was designed and implemented to minimize the reflectivity and/or transmissivity of an arbitrary number of homogeneous, lossy dielectric or magnetic layers of arbitrary thickness positioned at either the center of an infinitely long rectangular waveguide, or adjacent to the perfectly conducting backplate of a semi-infinite, shorted-out rectangular waveguide. Evolutionary processes extract the optimal physioelectric constants falling within specified constraints which minimize reflection and/or transmission over the frequency band of interest. This GA extracted the unphysical dielectric and magnetic constants of three layers of fictitious material placed adjacent to the conducting backplate of a shorted-out waveguide such that the reflectivity of the configuration was 55 dB or less over the entire X-band. Examples of the optimization of realistic multi-layer absorbers are also presented. Although typical Genetic Algorithms require populations of many thousands in order to function properly and obtain correct results, verified correct results were obtained for all test cases using this GA with a population of only four.

  7. Evolving Non-Dominated Parameter Sets for Computational Models from Multiple Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lane, Peter C. R.; Gobet, Fernand

    2013-03-01

    Creating robust, reproducible and optimal computational models is a key challenge for theorists in many sciences. Psychology and cognitive science face particular challenges as large amounts of data are collected and many models are not amenable to analytical techniques for calculating parameter sets. Particular problems are to locate the full range of acceptable model parameters for a given dataset, and to confirm the consistency of model parameters across different datasets. Resolving these problems will provide a better understanding of the behaviour of computational models, and so support the development of general and robust models. In this article, we address these problems using evolutionary algorithms to develop parameters for computational models against multiple sets of experimental data; in particular, we propose the `speciated non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm' for evolving models in several theories. We discuss the problem of developing a model of categorisation using twenty-nine sets of data and models drawn from four different theories. We find that the evolutionary algorithms generate high quality models, adapted to provide a good fit to all available data.

  8. A new strategy of glucose supply in a microbial fermentation model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kasbawati, Gunawan, A. Y.; Sidarto, K. A.; Hertadi, R.

    2015-09-01

    Strategy of glucose supply to achieve an optimal productivity of ethanol production of a yeast cell is one of the main features in a microbial fermentation process. Beside a known continuous glucose supply, in this study we consider a new supply strategy so called the on-off supply. An optimal control theory is applied to the fermentation system to find the optimal rate of glucose supply and time of supply. The optimization problem is solved numerically using Differential Evolutionary algorithm. We find two alternative solutions that we can choose to get the similar result: either long period process with low supply or short period process with high glucose supply.

  9. Solving Large-scale Spatial Optimization Problems in Water Resources Management through Spatial Evolutionary Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, J.; Cai, X.

    2007-12-01

    A water resources system can be defined as a large-scale spatial system, within which distributed ecological system interacts with the stream network and ground water system. Water resources management, the causative factors and hence the solutions to be developed have a significant spatial dimension. This motivates a modeling analysis of water resources management within a spatial analytical framework, where data is usually geo- referenced and in the form of a map. One of the important functions of Geographic information systems (GIS) is to identify spatial patterns of environmental variables. The role of spatial patterns in water resources management has been well established in the literature particularly regarding how to design better spatial patterns for satisfying the designated objectives of water resources management. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) have been demonstrated to be successful in solving complex optimization models for water resources management due to its flexibility to incorporate complex simulation models in the optimal search procedure. The idea of combining GIS and EA motivates the development and application of spatial evolutionary algorithms (SEA). SEA assimilates spatial information into EA, and even changes the representation and operators of EA. In an EA used for water resources management, the mathematical optimization model should be modified to account the spatial patterns; however, spatial patterns are usually implicit, and it is difficult to impose appropriate patterns to spatial data. Also it is difficult to express complex spatial patterns by explicit constraints included in the EA. The GIS can help identify the spatial linkages and correlations based on the spatial knowledge of the problem. These linkages are incorporated in the fitness function for the preference of the compatible vegetation distribution. Unlike a regular GA for spatial models, the SEA employs a special hierarchical hyper-population and spatial genetic operators to represent spatial variables in a more efficient way. The hyper-population consists of a set of populations, which correspond to the spatial distributions of the individual agents (organisms). Furthermore spatial crossover and mutation operators are designed in accordance with the tree representation and then applied to both organisms and populations. This study applies the SEA to a specific problem of water resources management- maximizing the riparian vegetation coverage in accordance with the distributed groundwater system in an arid region. The vegetation coverage is impacted greatly by the nonlinear feedbacks and interactions between vegetation and groundwater and the spatial variability of groundwater. The SEA is applied to search for an optimal vegetation configuration compatible to the groundwater flow. The results from this example demonstrate the effectiveness of the SEA. Extension of the algorithm for other water resources management problems is discussed.

  10. Investigation of effective decision criteria for multiobjective optimization in IMRT.

    PubMed

    Holdsworth, Clay; Stewart, Robert D; Kim, Minsun; Liao, Jay; Phillips, Mark H

    2011-06-01

    To investigate how using different sets of decision criteria impacts the quality of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans obtained by multiobjective optimization. A multiobjective optimization evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) was used to produce sets of IMRT plans. The MOEA consisted of two interacting algorithms: (i) a deterministic inverse planning optimization of beamlet intensities that minimizes a weighted sum of quadratic penalty objectives to generate IMRT plans and (ii) an evolutionary algorithm that selects the superior IMRT plans using decision criteria and uses those plans to determine the new weights and penalty objectives of each new plan. Plans resulting from the deterministic algorithm were evaluated by the evolutionary algorithm using a set of decision criteria for both targets and organs at risk (OARs). Decision criteria used included variation in the target dose distribution, mean dose, maximum dose, generalized equivalent uniform dose (gEUD), an equivalent uniform dose (EUD(alpha,beta) formula derived from the linear-quadratic survival model, and points on dose volume histograms (DVHs). In order to quantatively compare results from trials using different decision criteria, a neutral set of comparison metrics was used. For each set of decision criteria investigated, IMRT plans were calculated for four different cases: two simple prostate cases, one complex prostate Case, and one complex head and neck Case. When smaller numbers of decision criteria, more descriptive decision criteria, or less anti-correlated decision criteria were used to characterize plan quality during multiobjective optimization, dose to OARs and target dose variation were reduced in the final population of plans. Mean OAR dose and gEUD (a = 4) decision criteria were comparable. Using maximum dose decision criteria for OARs near targets resulted in inferior populations that focused solely on low target variance at the expense of high OAR dose. Target dose range, (D(max) - D(min)), decision criteria were found to be most effective for keeping targets uniform. Using target gEUD decision criteria resulted in much lower OAR doses but much higher target dose variation. EUD(alpha,beta) based decision criteria focused on a region of plan space that was a compromise between target and OAR objectives. None of these target decision criteria dominated plans using other criteria, but only focused on approaching a different area of the Pareto front. The choice of decision criteria implemented in the MOEA had a significant impact on the region explored and the rate of convergence toward the Pareto front. When more decision criteria, anticorrelated decision criteria, or decision criteria with insufficient information were implemented, inferior populations are resulted. When more informative decision criteria were used, such as gEUD, EUD(alpha,beta), target dose range, and mean dose, MOEA optimizations focused on approaching different regions of the Pareto front, but did not dominate each other. Using simple OAR decision criteria and target EUD(alpha,beta) decision criteria demonstrated the potential to generate IMRT plans that significantly reduce dose to OARs while achieving the same or better tumor control when clinical requirements on target dose variance can be met or relaxed.

  11. Multi-objective AGV scheduling in an FMS using a hybrid of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization.

    PubMed

    Mousavi, Maryam; Yap, Hwa Jen; Musa, Siti Nurmaya; Tahriri, Farzad; Md Dawal, Siti Zawiah

    2017-01-01

    Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) enhances the firm's flexibility and responsiveness to the ever-changing customer demand by providing a fast product diversification capability. Performance of an FMS is highly dependent upon the accuracy of scheduling policy for the components of the system, such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs). An AGV as a mobile robot provides remarkable industrial capabilities for material and goods transportation within a manufacturing facility or a warehouse. Allocating AGVs to tasks, while considering the cost and time of operations, defines the AGV scheduling process. Multi-objective scheduling of AGVs, unlike single objective practices, is a complex and combinatorial process. In the main draw of the research, a mathematical model was developed and integrated with evolutionary algorithms (genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and hybrid GA-PSO) to optimize the task scheduling of AGVs with the objectives of minimizing makespan and number of AGVs while considering the AGVs' battery charge. Assessment of the numerical examples' scheduling before and after the optimization proved the applicability of all the three algorithms in decreasing the makespan and AGV numbers. The hybrid GA-PSO produced the optimum result and outperformed the other two algorithms, in which the mean of AGVs operation efficiency was found to be 69.4, 74, and 79.8 percent in PSO, GA, and hybrid GA-PSO, respectively. Evaluation and validation of the model was performed by simulation via Flexsim software.

  12. Multi-objective AGV scheduling in an FMS using a hybrid of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization

    PubMed Central

    Yap, Hwa Jen; Musa, Siti Nurmaya; Tahriri, Farzad; Md Dawal, Siti Zawiah

    2017-01-01

    Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) enhances the firm’s flexibility and responsiveness to the ever-changing customer demand by providing a fast product diversification capability. Performance of an FMS is highly dependent upon the accuracy of scheduling policy for the components of the system, such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs). An AGV as a mobile robot provides remarkable industrial capabilities for material and goods transportation within a manufacturing facility or a warehouse. Allocating AGVs to tasks, while considering the cost and time of operations, defines the AGV scheduling process. Multi-objective scheduling of AGVs, unlike single objective practices, is a complex and combinatorial process. In the main draw of the research, a mathematical model was developed and integrated with evolutionary algorithms (genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and hybrid GA-PSO) to optimize the task scheduling of AGVs with the objectives of minimizing makespan and number of AGVs while considering the AGVs’ battery charge. Assessment of the numerical examples’ scheduling before and after the optimization proved the applicability of all the three algorithms in decreasing the makespan and AGV numbers. The hybrid GA-PSO produced the optimum result and outperformed the other two algorithms, in which the mean of AGVs operation efficiency was found to be 69.4, 74, and 79.8 percent in PSO, GA, and hybrid GA-PSO, respectively. Evaluation and validation of the model was performed by simulation via Flexsim software. PMID:28263994

  13. Advancing X-ray scattering metrology using inverse genetic algorithms.

    PubMed

    Hannon, Adam F; Sunday, Daniel F; Windover, Donald; Kline, R Joseph

    2016-01-01

    We compare the speed and effectiveness of two genetic optimization algorithms to the results of statistical sampling via a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to find which is the most robust method for determining real space structure in periodic gratings measured using critical dimension small angle X-ray scattering. Both a covariance matrix adaptation evolutionary strategy and differential evolution algorithm are implemented and compared using various objective functions. The algorithms and objective functions are used to minimize differences between diffraction simulations and measured diffraction data. These simulations are parameterized with an electron density model known to roughly correspond to the real space structure of our nanogratings. The study shows that for X-ray scattering data, the covariance matrix adaptation coupled with a mean-absolute error log objective function is the most efficient combination of algorithm and goodness of fit criterion for finding structures with little foreknowledge about the underlying fine scale structure features of the nanograting.

  14. Tag SNP selection via a genetic algorithm.

    PubMed

    Mahdevar, Ghasem; Zahiri, Javad; Sadeghi, Mehdi; Nowzari-Dalini, Abbas; Ahrabian, Hayedeh

    2010-10-01

    Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) provide valuable information on human evolutionary history and may lead us to identify genetic variants responsible for human complex diseases. Unfortunately, molecular haplotyping methods are costly, laborious, and time consuming; therefore, algorithms for constructing full haplotype patterns from small available data through computational methods, Tag SNP selection problem, are convenient and attractive. This problem is proved to be an NP-hard problem, so heuristic methods may be useful. In this paper we present a heuristic method based on genetic algorithm to find reasonable solution within acceptable time. The algorithm was tested on a variety of simulated and experimental data. In comparison with the exact algorithm, based on brute force approach, results show that our method can obtain optimal solutions in almost all cases and runs much faster than exact algorithm when the number of SNP sites is large. Our software is available upon request to the corresponding author.

  15. Reconstructing Networks from Profit Sequences in Evolutionary Games via a Multiobjective Optimization Approach with Lasso Initialization

    PubMed Central

    Wu, Kai; Liu, Jing; Wang, Shuai

    2016-01-01

    Evolutionary games (EG) model a common type of interactions in various complex, networked, natural and social systems. Given such a system with only profit sequences being available, reconstructing the interacting structure of EG networks is fundamental to understand and control its collective dynamics. Existing approaches used to handle this problem, such as the lasso, a convex optimization method, need a user-defined constant to control the tradeoff between the natural sparsity of networks and measurement error (the difference between observed data and simulated data). However, a shortcoming of these approaches is that it is not easy to determine these key parameters which can maximize the performance. In contrast to these approaches, we first model the EG network reconstruction problem as a multiobjective optimization problem (MOP), and then develop a framework which involves multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA), followed by solution selection based on knee regions, termed as MOEANet, to solve this MOP. We also design an effective initialization operator based on the lasso for MOEA. We apply the proposed method to reconstruct various types of synthetic and real-world networks, and the results show that our approach is effective to avoid the above parameter selecting problem and can reconstruct EG networks with high accuracy. PMID:27886244

  16. Improving hospital bed occupancy and resource utilization through queuing modeling and evolutionary computation.

    PubMed

    Belciug, Smaranda; Gorunescu, Florin

    2015-02-01

    Scarce healthcare resources require carefully made policies ensuring optimal bed allocation, quality healthcare service, and adequate financial support. This paper proposes a complex analysis of the resource allocation in a hospital department by integrating in the same framework a queuing system, a compartmental model, and an evolutionary-based optimization. The queuing system shapes the flow of patients through the hospital, the compartmental model offers a feasible structure of the hospital department in accordance to the queuing characteristics, and the evolutionary paradigm provides the means to optimize the bed-occupancy management and the resource utilization using a genetic algorithm approach. The paper also focuses on a "What-if analysis" providing a flexible tool to explore the effects on the outcomes of the queuing system and resource utilization through systematic changes in the input parameters. The methodology was illustrated using a simulation based on real data collected from a geriatric department of a hospital from London, UK. In addition, the paper explores the possibility of adapting the methodology to different medical departments (surgery, stroke, and mental illness). Moreover, the paper also focuses on the practical use of the model from the healthcare point of view, by presenting a simulated application. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Reconstructing Networks from Profit Sequences in Evolutionary Games via a Multiobjective Optimization Approach with Lasso Initialization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Kai; Liu, Jing; Wang, Shuai

    2016-11-01

    Evolutionary games (EG) model a common type of interactions in various complex, networked, natural and social systems. Given such a system with only profit sequences being available, reconstructing the interacting structure of EG networks is fundamental to understand and control its collective dynamics. Existing approaches used to handle this problem, such as the lasso, a convex optimization method, need a user-defined constant to control the tradeoff between the natural sparsity of networks and measurement error (the difference between observed data and simulated data). However, a shortcoming of these approaches is that it is not easy to determine these key parameters which can maximize the performance. In contrast to these approaches, we first model the EG network reconstruction problem as a multiobjective optimization problem (MOP), and then develop a framework which involves multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA), followed by solution selection based on knee regions, termed as MOEANet, to solve this MOP. We also design an effective initialization operator based on the lasso for MOEA. We apply the proposed method to reconstruct various types of synthetic and real-world networks, and the results show that our approach is effective to avoid the above parameter selecting problem and can reconstruct EG networks with high accuracy.

  18. Modern meta-heuristics based on nonlinear physics processes: A review of models and design procedures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salcedo-Sanz, S.

    2016-10-01

    Meta-heuristic algorithms are problem-solving methods which try to find good-enough solutions to very hard optimization problems, at a reasonable computation time, where classical approaches fail, or cannot even been applied. Many existing meta-heuristics approaches are nature-inspired techniques, which work by simulating or modeling different natural processes in a computer. Historically, many of the most successful meta-heuristic approaches have had a biological inspiration, such as evolutionary computation or swarm intelligence paradigms, but in the last few years new approaches based on nonlinear physics processes modeling have been proposed and applied with success. Non-linear physics processes, modeled as optimization algorithms, are able to produce completely new search procedures, with extremely effective exploration capabilities in many cases, which are able to outperform existing optimization approaches. In this paper we review the most important optimization algorithms based on nonlinear physics, how they have been constructed from specific modeling of a real phenomena, and also their novelty in terms of comparison with alternative existing algorithms for optimization. We first review important concepts on optimization problems, search spaces and problems' difficulty. Then, the usefulness of heuristics and meta-heuristics approaches to face hard optimization problems is introduced, and some of the main existing classical versions of these algorithms are reviewed. The mathematical framework of different nonlinear physics processes is then introduced as a preparatory step to review in detail the most important meta-heuristics based on them. A discussion on the novelty of these approaches, their main computational implementation and design issues, and the evaluation of a novel meta-heuristic based on Strange Attractors mutation will be carried out to complete the review of these techniques. We also describe some of the most important application areas, in broad sense, of meta-heuristics, and describe free-accessible software frameworks which can be used to make easier the implementation of these algorithms.

  19. Optimal marker placement in hadrontherapy: intelligent optimization strategies with augmented Lagrangian pattern search.

    PubMed

    Altomare, Cristina; Guglielmann, Raffaella; Riboldi, Marco; Bellazzi, Riccardo; Baroni, Guido

    2015-02-01

    In high precision photon radiotherapy and in hadrontherapy, it is crucial to minimize the occurrence of geometrical deviations with respect to the treatment plan in each treatment session. To this end, point-based infrared (IR) optical tracking for patient set-up quality assessment is performed. Such tracking depends on external fiducial points placement. The main purpose of our work is to propose a new algorithm based on simulated annealing and augmented Lagrangian pattern search (SAPS), which is able to take into account prior knowledge, such as spatial constraints, during the optimization process. The SAPS algorithm was tested on data related to head and neck and pelvic cancer patients, and that were fitted with external surface markers for IR optical tracking applied for patient set-up preliminary correction. The integrated algorithm was tested considering optimality measures obtained with Computed Tomography (CT) images (i.e. the ratio between the so-called target registration error and fiducial registration error, TRE/FRE) and assessing the marker spatial distribution. Comparison has been performed with randomly selected marker configuration and with the GETS algorithm (Genetic Evolutionary Taboo Search), also taking into account the presence of organs at risk. The results obtained with SAPS highlight improvements with respect to the other approaches: (i) TRE/FRE ratio decreases; (ii) marker distribution satisfies both marker visibility and spatial constraints. We have also investigated how the TRE/FRE ratio is influenced by the number of markers, obtaining significant TRE/FRE reduction with respect to the random configurations, when a high number of markers is used. The SAPS algorithm is a valuable strategy for fiducial configuration optimization in IR optical tracking applied for patient set-up error detection and correction in radiation therapy, showing that taking into account prior knowledge is valuable in this optimization process. Further work will be focused on the computational optimization of the SAPS algorithm toward fast point-of-care applications. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Optimizing of In Situ Bioremediation Technology to Manage Perchlorate-Contaminated Groundwater

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2003-03-01

    template using the best fitness values. MOMGA then executes another cycle of initialization, primordial, and juxtapositional phases ( Van Veldhuizen ...Implementation of In Situ Remediation Technologies,” Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 37(3): 295-317, 1999. Coello Coello, A. C., D.A. Van Veldhuizen , and G.B...Environmental Management. 56: 79-95, 1999. Van Veldhuizen , David A. Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms: Classifications, Analyses, and New

  1. NEUTRON STAR MASS–RADIUS CONSTRAINTS USING EVOLUTIONARY OPTIMIZATION

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stevens, A. L.; Morsink, S. M.; Fiege, J. D.

    The equation of state of cold supra-nuclear-density matter, such as in neutron stars, is an open question in astrophysics. A promising method for constraining the neutron star equation of state is modeling pulse profiles of thermonuclear X-ray burst oscillations from hot spots on accreting neutron stars. The pulse profiles, constructed using spherical and oblate neutron star models, are comparable to what would be observed by a next-generation X-ray timing instrument like ASTROSAT , NICER , or a mission similar to LOFT . In this paper, we showcase the use of an evolutionary optimization algorithm to fit pulse profiles to determinemore » the best-fit masses and radii. By fitting synthetic data, we assess how well the optimization algorithm can recover the input parameters. Multiple Poisson realizations of the synthetic pulse profiles, constructed with 1.6 million counts and no background, were fitted with the Ferret algorithm to analyze both statistical and degeneracy-related uncertainty and to explore how the goodness of fit depends on the input parameters. For the regions of parameter space sampled by our tests, the best-determined parameter is the projected velocity of the spot along the observer’s line of sight, with an accuracy of ≤3% compared to the true value and with ≤5% statistical uncertainty. The next best determined are the mass and radius; for a neutron star with a spin frequency of 600 Hz, the best-fit mass and radius are accurate to ≤5%, with respective uncertainties of ≤7% and ≤10%. The accuracy and precision depend on the observer inclination and spot colatitude, with values of ∼1% achievable in mass and radius if both the inclination and colatitude are ≳60°.« less

  2. Inclusion of the fitness sharing technique in an evolutionary algorithm to analyze the fitness landscape of the genetic code adaptability.

    PubMed

    Santos, José; Monteagudo, Ángel

    2017-03-27

    The canonical code, although prevailing in complex genomes, is not universal. It was shown the canonical genetic code superior robustness compared to random codes, but it is not clearly determined how it evolved towards its current form. The error minimization theory considers the minimization of point mutation adverse effect as the main selection factor in the evolution of the code. We have used simulated evolution in a computer to search for optimized codes, which helps to obtain information about the optimization level of the canonical code in its evolution. A genetic algorithm searches for efficient codes in a fitness landscape that corresponds with the adaptability of possible hypothetical genetic codes. The lower the effects of errors or mutations in the codon bases of a hypothetical code, the more efficient or optimal is that code. The inclusion of the fitness sharing technique in the evolutionary algorithm allows the extent to which the canonical genetic code is in an area corresponding to a deep local minimum to be easily determined, even in the high dimensional spaces considered. The analyses show that the canonical code is not in a deep local minimum and that the fitness landscape is not a multimodal fitness landscape with deep and separated peaks. Moreover, the canonical code is clearly far away from the areas of higher fitness in the landscape. Given the non-presence of deep local minima in the landscape, although the code could evolve and different forces could shape its structure, the fitness landscape nature considered in the error minimization theory does not explain why the canonical code ended its evolution in a location which is not an area of a localized deep minimum of the huge fitness landscape.

  3. The optimal design of UAV wing structure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Długosz, Adam; Klimek, Wiktor

    2018-01-01

    The paper presents an optimal design of UAV wing, made of composite materials. The aim of the optimization is to improve strength and stiffness together with reduction of the weight of the structure. Three different types of functionals, which depend on stress, stiffness and the total mass are defined. The paper presents an application of the in-house implementation of the evolutionary multi-objective algorithm in optimization of the UAV wing structure. Values of the functionals are calculated on the basis of results obtained from numerical simulations. Numerical FEM model, consisting of different composite materials is created. Adequacy of the numerical model is verified by results obtained from the experiment, performed on a tensile testing machine. Examples of multi-objective optimization by means of Pareto-optimal set of solutions are presented.

  4. Multi-objective Optimization of Pulsed Gas Metal Arc Welding Process Using Neuro NSGA-II

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pal, Kamal; Pal, Surjya K.

    2018-05-01

    Weld quality is a critical issue in fabrication industries where products are custom-designed. Multi-objective optimization results number of solutions in the pareto-optimal front. Mathematical regression model based optimization methods are often found to be inadequate for highly non-linear arc welding processes. Thus, various global evolutionary approaches like artificial neural network, genetic algorithm (GA) have been developed. The present work attempts with elitist non-dominated sorting GA (NSGA-II) for optimization of pulsed gas metal arc welding process using back propagation neural network (BPNN) based weld quality feature models. The primary objective to maintain butt joint weld quality is the maximization of tensile strength with minimum plate distortion. BPNN has been used to compute the fitness of each solution after adequate training, whereas NSGA-II algorithm generates the optimum solutions for two conflicting objectives. Welding experiments have been conducted on low carbon steel using response surface methodology. The pareto-optimal front with three ranked solutions after 20th generations was considered as the best without further improvement. The joint strength as well as transverse shrinkage was found to be drastically improved over the design of experimental results as per validated pareto-optimal solutions obtained.

  5. A particle swarm optimization variant with an inner variable learning strategy.

    PubMed

    Wu, Guohua; Pedrycz, Witold; Ma, Manhao; Qiu, Dishan; Li, Haifeng; Liu, Jin

    2014-01-01

    Although Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has demonstrated competitive performance in solving global optimization problems, it exhibits some limitations when dealing with optimization problems with high dimensionality and complex landscape. In this paper, we integrate some problem-oriented knowledge into the design of a certain PSO variant. The resulting novel PSO algorithm with an inner variable learning strategy (PSO-IVL) is particularly efficient for optimizing functions with symmetric variables. Symmetric variables of the optimized function have to satisfy a certain quantitative relation. Based on this knowledge, the inner variable learning (IVL) strategy helps the particle to inspect the relation among its inner variables, determine the exemplar variable for all other variables, and then make each variable learn from the exemplar variable in terms of their quantitative relations. In addition, we design a new trap detection and jumping out strategy to help particles escape from local optima. The trap detection operation is employed at the level of individual particles whereas the trap jumping out strategy is adaptive in its nature. Experimental simulations completed for some representative optimization functions demonstrate the excellent performance of PSO-IVL. The effectiveness of the PSO-IVL stresses a usefulness of augmenting evolutionary algorithms by problem-oriented domain knowledge.

  6. a New Hybrid Yin-Yang Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Uncapacitated Warehouse Location Problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heidari, A. A.; Kazemizade, O.; Hakimpour, F.

    2017-09-01

    Yin-Yang-pair optimization (YYPO) is one of the latest metaheuristic algorithms (MA) proposed in 2015 that tries to inspire the philosophy of balance between conflicting concepts. Particle swarm optimizer (PSO) is one of the first population-based MA inspired by social behaviors of birds. In spite of PSO, the YYPO is not a nature inspired optimizer. It has a low complexity and starts with only two initial positions and can produce more points with regard to the dimension of target problem. Due to unique advantages of these methodologies and to mitigate the immature convergence and local optima (LO) stagnation problems in PSO, in this work, a continuous hybrid strategy based on the behaviors of PSO and YYPO is proposed to attain the suboptimal solutions of uncapacitated warehouse location (UWL) problems. This efficient hierarchical PSO-based optimizer (PSOYPO) can improve the effectiveness of PSO on spatial optimization tasks such as the family of UWL problems. The performance of the proposed PSOYPO is verified according to some UWL benchmark cases. These test cases have been used in several works to evaluate the efficacy of different MA. Then, the PSOYPO is compared to the standard PSO, genetic algorithm (GA), harmony search (HS), modified HS (OBCHS), and evolutionary simulated annealing (ESA). The experimental results demonstrate that the PSOYPO can reveal a better or competitive efficacy compared to the PSO and other MA.

  7. A New Artificial Neural Network Enhanced by the Shuffled Complex Evolution Optimization with Principal Component Analysis (SP-UCI) for Water Resources Management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayatbini, N.; Faridzad, M.; Yang, T.; Akbari Asanjan, A.; Gao, X.; Sorooshian, S.

    2016-12-01

    The Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are useful in many fields, including water resources engineering and management. However, due to the non-linear and chaotic characteristics associated with natural processes and human decision making, the use of ANNs in real-world applications is still limited, and its performance needs to be further improved for a broader practical use. The commonly used Back-Propagation (BP) scheme and gradient-based optimization in training the ANNs have already found to be problematic in some cases. The BP scheme and gradient-based optimization methods are associated with the risk of premature convergence, stuck in local optimums, and the searching is highly dependent on initial conditions. Therefore, as an alternative to BP and gradient-based searching scheme, we propose an effective and efficient global searching method, termed the Shuffled Complex Evolutionary Global optimization algorithm with Principal Component Analysis (SP-UCI), to train the ANN connectivity weights. Large number of real-world datasets are tested with the SP-UCI-based ANN, as well as various popular Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs)-enhanced ANNs, i.e., Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-, Genetic Algorithm (GA)-, Simulated Annealing (SA)-, and Differential Evolution (DE)-enhanced ANNs. Results show that SP-UCI-enhanced ANN is generally superior over other EA-enhanced ANNs with regard to the convergence and computational performance. In addition, we carried out a case study for hydropower scheduling in the Trinity Lake in the western U.S. In this case study, multiple climate indices are used as predictors for the SP-UCI-enhanced ANN. The reservoir inflows and hydropower releases are predicted up to sub-seasonal to seasonal scale. Results show that SP-UCI-enhanced ANN is able to achieve better statistics than other EAs-based ANN, which implies the usefulness and powerfulness of proposed SP-UCI-enhanced ANN for reservoir operation, water resources engineering and management. The SP-UCI-enhanced ANN is universally applicable to many other regression and prediction problems, and it has a good potential to be an alternative to the classical BP scheme and gradient-based optimization methods.

  8. Evolutionary algorithms for the optimal management of coastal groundwater: A comparative study toward future challenges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ketabchi, Hamed; Ataie-Ashtiani, Behzad

    2015-01-01

    This paper surveys the literature associated with the application of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) in coastal groundwater management problems (CGMPs). This review demonstrates that previous studies were mostly relied on the application of limited and particular EAs, mainly genetic algorithm (GA) and its variants, to a number of specific problems. The exclusive investigation of these problems is often not the representation of the variety of feasible processes may be occurred in coastal aquifers. In this study, eight EAs are evaluated for CGMPs. The considered EAs are: GA, continuous ant colony optimization (CACO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), artificial bee colony optimization (ABC), harmony search (HS), shuffled complex evolution (SCE), and simplex simulated annealing (SIMPSA). The first application of PSO, ABC, HS, and SCE in CGMPs is reported here. Moreover, the four benchmark problems with different degree of difficulty and variety are considered to address the important issues of groundwater resources in coastal regions. Hence, the wide ranges of popular objective functions and constraints with the number of decision variables ranging from 4 to 15 are included. These benchmark problems are applied in the combined simulation-optimization model to examine the optimization scenarios. Some preliminary experiments are performed to select the most efficient parameters values for EAs to set a fair comparison. The specific capabilities of each EA toward CGMPs in terms of results quality and required computational time are compared. The evaluation of the results highlights EA's applicability in CGMPs, besides the remarkable strengths and weaknesses of them. The comparisons show that SCE, CACO, and PSO yield superior solutions among the EAs according to the quality of solutions whereas ABC presents the poor performance. CACO provides the better solutions (up to 17%) than the worst EA (ABC) for the problem with the highest decision variables and more complexity. In terms of computational time, PSO and SIMPSA are the fastest. SCE needs the highest computational time, even up to four times in comparison to the fastest EAs. CACO and PSO can be recommended for application in CGMPs, in terms of both abovementioned criteria.

  9. Exact Algorithms for Duplication-Transfer-Loss Reconciliation with Non-Binary Gene Trees.

    PubMed

    Kordi, Misagh; Bansal, Mukul S

    2017-06-01

    Duplication-Transfer-Loss (DTL) reconciliation is a powerful method for studying gene family evolution in the presence of horizontal gene transfer. DTL reconciliation seeks to reconcile gene trees with species trees by postulating speciation, duplication, transfer, and loss events. Efficient algorithms exist for finding optimal DTL reconciliations when the gene tree is binary. In practice, however, gene trees are often non-binary due to uncertainty in the gene tree topologies, and DTL reconciliation with non-binary gene trees is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we present the first exact algorithms for DTL reconciliation with non-binary gene trees. Specifically, we (i) show that the DTL reconciliation problem for non-binary gene trees is fixed-parameter tractable in the maximum degree of the gene tree, (ii) present an exponential-time, but in-practice efficient, algorithm to track and enumerate all optimal binary resolutions of a non-binary input gene tree, and (iii) apply our algorithms to a large empirical data set of over 4700 gene trees from 100 species to study the impact of gene tree uncertainty on DTL-reconciliation and to demonstrate the applicability and utility of our algorithms. The new techniques and algorithms introduced in this paper will help biologists avoid incorrect evolutionary inferences caused by gene tree uncertainty.

  10. Hybrid intelligent methodology to design translation invariant morphological operators for Brazilian stock market prediction.

    PubMed

    Araújo, Ricardo de A

    2010-12-01

    This paper presents a hybrid intelligent methodology to design increasing translation invariant morphological operators applied to Brazilian stock market prediction (overcoming the random walk dilemma). The proposed Translation Invariant Morphological Robust Automatic phase-Adjustment (TIMRAA) method consists of a hybrid intelligent model composed of a Modular Morphological Neural Network (MMNN) with a Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm (QIEA), which searches for the best time lags to reconstruct the phase space of the time series generator phenomenon and determines the initial (sub-optimal) parameters of the MMNN. Each individual of the QIEA population is further trained by the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm to improve the MMNN parameters supplied by the QIEA. Also, for each prediction model generated, it uses a behavioral statistical test and a phase fix procedure to adjust time phase distortions observed in stock market time series. Furthermore, an experimental analysis is conducted with the proposed method through four Brazilian stock market time series, and the achieved results are discussed and compared to results found with random walk models and the previously introduced Time-delay Added Evolutionary Forecasting (TAEF) and Morphological-Rank-Linear Time-lag Added Evolutionary Forecasting (MRLTAEF) methods. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Automatic Combination of Operators in a Genetic Algorithm to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem.

    PubMed

    Contreras-Bolton, Carlos; Parada, Victor

    2015-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are powerful search methods inspired by Darwinian evolution. To date, they have been applied to the solution of many optimization problems because of the easy use of their properties and their robustness in finding good solutions to difficult problems. The good operation of genetic algorithms is due in part to its two main variation operators, namely, crossover and mutation operators. Typically, in the literature, we find the use of a single crossover and mutation operator. However, there are studies that have shown that using multi-operators produces synergy and that the operators are mutually complementary. Using multi-operators is not a simple task because which operators to use and how to combine them must be determined, which in itself is an optimization problem. In this paper, it is proposed that the task of exploring the different combinations of the crossover and mutation operators can be carried out by evolutionary computing. The crossover and mutation operators used are those typically used for solving the traveling salesman problem. The process of searching for good combinations was effective, yielding appropriate and synergic combinations of the crossover and mutation operators. The numerical results show that the use of the combination of operators obtained by evolutionary computing is better than the use of a single operator and the use of multi-operators combined in the standard way. The results were also better than those of the last operators reported in the literature.

  12. Automatic Combination of Operators in a Genetic Algorithm to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are powerful search methods inspired by Darwinian evolution. To date, they have been applied to the solution of many optimization problems because of the easy use of their properties and their robustness in finding good solutions to difficult problems. The good operation of genetic algorithms is due in part to its two main variation operators, namely, crossover and mutation operators. Typically, in the literature, we find the use of a single crossover and mutation operator. However, there are studies that have shown that using multi-operators produces synergy and that the operators are mutually complementary. Using multi-operators is not a simple task because which operators to use and how to combine them must be determined, which in itself is an optimization problem. In this paper, it is proposed that the task of exploring the different combinations of the crossover and mutation operators can be carried out by evolutionary computing. The crossover and mutation operators used are those typically used for solving the traveling salesman problem. The process of searching for good combinations was effective, yielding appropriate and synergic combinations of the crossover and mutation operators. The numerical results show that the use of the combination of operators obtained by evolutionary computing is better than the use of a single operator and the use of multi-operators combined in the standard way. The results were also better than those of the last operators reported in the literature. PMID:26367182

  13. Recent developments of axial flow compressors under transonic flow conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Srinivas, G.; Raghunandana, K.; Satish Shenoy, B.

    2017-05-01

    The objective of this paper is to give a holistic view of the most advanced technology and procedures that are practiced in the field of turbomachinery design. Compressor flow solver is the turbulence model used in the CFD to solve viscous problems. The popular techniques like Jameson’s rotated difference scheme was used to solve potential flow equation in transonic condition for two dimensional aero foils and later three dimensional wings. The gradient base method is also a popular method especially for compressor blade shape optimization. Various other types of optimization techniques available are Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) and Response surface methodology (RSM). It is observed that in order to improve compressor flow solver and to get agreeable results careful attention need to be paid towards viscous relations, grid resolution, turbulent modeling and artificial viscosity, in CFD. The advanced techniques like Jameson’s rotated difference had most substantial impact on wing design and aero foil. For compressor blade shape optimization, Evolutionary algorithm is quite simple than gradient based technique because it can solve the parameters simultaneously by searching from multiple points in the given design space. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a method basically used to design empirical models of the response that were observed and to study systematically the experimental data. This methodology analyses the correct relationship between expected responses (output) and design variables (input). RSM solves the function systematically in a series of mathematical and statistical processes. For turbomachinery blade optimization recently RSM has been implemented successfully. The well-designed high performance axial flow compressors finds its application in any air-breathing jet engines.

  14. Wind Farm Layout Optimization through a Crossover-Elitist Evolutionary Algorithm performed over a High Performing Analytical Wake Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kirchner-Bossi, Nicolas; Porté-Agel, Fernando

    2017-04-01

    Wind turbine wakes can significantly disrupt the performance of further downstream turbines in a wind farm, thus seriously limiting the overall wind farm power output. Such effect makes the layout design of a wind farm to play a crucial role on the whole performance of the project. An accurate definition of the wake interactions added to a computationally compromised layout optimization strategy can result in an efficient resource when addressing the problem. This work presents a novel soft-computing approach to optimize the wind farm layout by minimizing the overall wake effects that the installed turbines exert on one another. An evolutionary algorithm with an elitist sub-optimization crossover routine and an unconstrained (continuous) turbine positioning set up is developed and tested over an 80-turbine offshore wind farm over the North Sea off Denmark (Horns Rev I). Within every generation of the evolution, the wind power output (cost function) is computed through a recently developed and validated analytical wake model with a Gaussian profile velocity deficit [1], which has shown to outperform the traditionally employed wake models through different LES simulations and wind tunnel experiments. Two schemes with slightly different perimeter constraint conditions (full or partial) are tested. Results show, compared to the baseline, gridded layout, a wind power output increase between 5.5% and 7.7%. In addition, it is observed that the electric cable length at the facilities is reduced by up to 21%. [1] Bastankhah, Majid, and Fernando Porté-Agel. "A new analytical model for wind-turbine wakes." Renewable Energy 70 (2014): 116-123.

  15. A Novel Flexible Inertia Weight Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm.

    PubMed

    Amoshahy, Mohammad Javad; Shamsi, Mousa; Sedaaghi, Mohammad Hossein

    2016-01-01

    Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is an evolutionary computing method based on intelligent collective behavior of some animals. It is easy to implement and there are few parameters to adjust. The performance of PSO algorithm depends greatly on the appropriate parameter selection strategies for fine tuning its parameters. Inertia weight (IW) is one of PSO's parameters used to bring about a balance between the exploration and exploitation characteristics of PSO. This paper proposes a new nonlinear strategy for selecting inertia weight which is named Flexible Exponential Inertia Weight (FEIW) strategy because according to each problem we can construct an increasing or decreasing inertia weight strategy with suitable parameters selection. The efficacy and efficiency of PSO algorithm with FEIW strategy (FEPSO) is validated on a suite of benchmark problems with different dimensions. Also FEIW is compared with best time-varying, adaptive, constant and random inertia weights. Experimental results and statistical analysis prove that FEIW improves the search performance in terms of solution quality as well as convergence rate.

  16. A Novel Flexible Inertia Weight Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Shamsi, Mousa; Sedaaghi, Mohammad Hossein

    2016-01-01

    Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is an evolutionary computing method based on intelligent collective behavior of some animals. It is easy to implement and there are few parameters to adjust. The performance of PSO algorithm depends greatly on the appropriate parameter selection strategies for fine tuning its parameters. Inertia weight (IW) is one of PSO’s parameters used to bring about a balance between the exploration and exploitation characteristics of PSO. This paper proposes a new nonlinear strategy for selecting inertia weight which is named Flexible Exponential Inertia Weight (FEIW) strategy because according to each problem we can construct an increasing or decreasing inertia weight strategy with suitable parameters selection. The efficacy and efficiency of PSO algorithm with FEIW strategy (FEPSO) is validated on a suite of benchmark problems with different dimensions. Also FEIW is compared with best time-varying, adaptive, constant and random inertia weights. Experimental results and statistical analysis prove that FEIW improves the search performance in terms of solution quality as well as convergence rate. PMID:27560945

  17. Genetic algorithm optimized triply compensated pulses in NMR spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manu, V. S.; Veglia, Gianluigi

    2015-11-01

    Sensitivity and resolution in NMR experiments are affected by magnetic field inhomogeneities (of both external and RF), errors in pulse calibration, and offset effects due to finite length of RF pulses. To remedy these problems, built-in compensation mechanisms for these experimental imperfections are often necessary. Here, we propose a new family of phase-modulated constant-amplitude broadband pulses with high compensation for RF inhomogeneity and heteronuclear coupling evolution. These pulses were optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA), which consists in a global optimization method inspired by Nature's evolutionary processes. The newly designed π and π / 2 pulses belong to the 'type A' (or general rotors) symmetric composite pulses. These GA-optimized pulses are relatively short compared to other general rotors and can be used for excitation and inversion, as well as refocusing pulses in spin-echo experiments. The performance of the GA-optimized pulses was assessed in Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR experiments using a crystalline U-13C, 15N NAVL peptide as well as U-13C, 15N microcrystalline ubiquitin. GA optimization of NMR pulse sequences opens a window for improving current experiments and designing new robust pulse sequences.

  18. Sampling solution traces for the problem of sorting permutations by signed reversals

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Traditional algorithms to solve the problem of sorting by signed reversals output just one optimal solution while the space of all optimal solutions can be huge. A so-called trace represents a group of solutions which share the same set of reversals that must be applied to sort the original permutation following a partial ordering. By using traces, we therefore can represent the set of optimal solutions in a more compact way. Algorithms for enumerating the complete set of traces of solutions were developed. However, due to their exponential complexity, their practical use is limited to small permutations. A partial enumeration of traces is a sampling of the complete set of traces and can be an alternative for the study of distinct evolutionary scenarios of big permutations. Ideally, the sampling should be done uniformly from the space of all optimal solutions. This is however conjectured to be ♯P-complete. Results We propose and evaluate three algorithms for producing a sampling of the complete set of traces that instead can be shown in practice to preserve some of the characteristics of the space of all solutions. The first algorithm (RA) performs the construction of traces through a random selection of reversals on the list of optimal 1-sequences. The second algorithm (DFALT) consists in a slight modification of an algorithm that performs the complete enumeration of traces. Finally, the third algorithm (SWA) is based on a sliding window strategy to improve the enumeration of traces. All proposed algorithms were able to enumerate traces for permutations with up to 200 elements. Conclusions We analysed the distribution of the enumerated traces with respect to their height and average reversal length. Various works indicate that the reversal length can be an important aspect in genome rearrangements. The algorithms RA and SWA show a tendency to lose traces with high average reversal length. Such traces are however rare, and qualitatively our results show that, for testable-sized permutations, the algorithms DFALT and SWA produce distributions which approximate the reversal length distributions observed with a complete enumeration of the set of traces. PMID:22704580

  19. Integrated pipeline for inferring the evolutionary history of a gene family embedded in the species tree: a case study on the STIMATE gene family.

    PubMed

    Song, Jia; Zheng, Sisi; Nguyen, Nhung; Wang, Youjun; Zhou, Yubin; Lin, Kui

    2017-10-03

    Because phylogenetic inference is an important basis for answering many evolutionary problems, a large number of algorithms have been developed. Some of these algorithms have been improved by integrating gene evolution models with the expectation of accommodating the hierarchy of evolutionary processes. To the best of our knowledge, however, there still is no single unifying model or algorithm that can take all evolutionary processes into account through a stepwise or simultaneous method. On the basis of three existing phylogenetic inference algorithms, we built an integrated pipeline for inferring the evolutionary history of a given gene family; this pipeline can model gene sequence evolution, gene duplication-loss, gene transfer and multispecies coalescent processes. As a case study, we applied this pipeline to the STIMATE (TMEM110) gene family, which has recently been reported to play an important role in store-operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE) mediated by ORAI and STIM proteins. We inferred their phylogenetic trees in 69 sequenced chordate genomes. By integrating three tree reconstruction algorithms with diverse evolutionary models, a pipeline for inferring the evolutionary history of a gene family was developed, and its application was demonstrated.

  20. Multivariable optimization of an auto-thermal ammonia synthesis reactor using genetic algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anh-Nga, Nguyen T.; Tuan-Anh, Nguyen; Tien-Dung, Vu; Kim-Trung, Nguyen

    2017-09-01

    The ammonia synthesis system is an important chemical process used in the manufacture of fertilizers, chemicals, explosives, fibers, plastics, refrigeration. In the literature, many works approaching the modeling, simulation and optimization of an auto-thermal ammonia synthesis reactor can be found. However, they just focus on the optimization of the reactor length while keeping the others parameters constant. In this study, the other parameters are also considered in the optimization problem such as the temperature of feed gas enters the catalyst zone. The optimal problem requires the maximization of a multivariable objective function which subjects to a number of equality constraints involving the solution of coupled differential equations and also inequality constraints. The solution of an optimization problem can be found through, among others, deterministic or stochastic approaches. The stochastic methods, such as evolutionary algorithm (EA), which is based on natural phenomenon, can overcome the drawbacks such as the requirement of the derivatives of the objective function and/or constraints, or being not efficient in non-differentiable or discontinuous problems. Genetic algorithm (GA) which is a class of EA, exceptionally simple, robust at numerical optimization and is more likely to find a true global optimum. In this study, the genetic algorithm is employed to find the optimum profit of the process. The inequality constraints were treated using penalty method. The coupled differential equations system was solved using Runge-Kutta 4th order method. The results showed that the presented numerical method could be applied to model the ammonia synthesis reactor. The optimum economic profit obtained from this study are also compared to the results from the literature. It suggests that the process should be operated at higher temperature of feed gas in catalyst zone and the reactor length is slightly longer.

  1. Inversion method based on stochastic optimization for particle sizing.

    PubMed

    Sánchez-Escobar, Juan Jaime; Barbosa-Santillán, Liliana Ibeth; Vargas-Ubera, Javier; Aguilar-Valdés, Félix

    2016-08-01

    A stochastic inverse method is presented based on a hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm (HEOA) to retrieve a monomodal particle-size distribution (PSD) from the angular distribution of scattered light. By solving an optimization problem, the HEOA (with the Fraunhofer approximation) retrieves the PSD from an intensity pattern generated by Mie theory. The analyzed light-scattering pattern can be attributed to unimodal normal, gamma, or lognormal distribution of spherical particles covering the interval of modal size parameters 46≤α≤150. The HEOA ensures convergence to the near-optimal solution during the optimization of a real-valued objective function by combining the advantages of a multimember evolution strategy and locally weighted linear regression. The numerical results show that our HEOA can be satisfactorily applied to solve the inverse light-scattering problem.

  2. Evolutionary Algorithms Approach to the Solution of Damage Detection Problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salazar Pinto, Pedro Yoajim; Begambre, Oscar

    2010-09-01

    In this work is proposed a new Self-Configured Hybrid Algorithm by combining the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The aim of the proposed strategy is to increase the stability and accuracy of the search. The central idea is the concept of Guide Particle, this particle (the best PSO global in each generation) transmits its information to a particle of the following PSO generation, which is controlled by the GA. Thus, the proposed hybrid has an elitism feature that improves its performance and guarantees the convergence of the procedure. In different test carried out in benchmark functions, reported in the international literature, a better performance in stability and accuracy was observed; therefore the new algorithm was used to identify damage in a simple supported beam using modal data. Finally, it is worth noting that the algorithm is independent of the initial definition of heuristic parameters.

  3. Hybrid Robust Multi-Objective Evolutionary Optimization Algorithm

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-03-10

    pp. 594-606. 8. Inverse Approaches to Drying of Thin Bodies With Significant Shrinkage Effects (with G. H. Kanevce, L. P. Kanevce, V. B. Mitrevski ...Kanevce, L. Kanevce, V. Mitrevski ), ICCES󈧌: International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 17...Miami Beach, FL, April 16-18, 2007. 16. Inverse Approaches to Drying of Sliced Foods (with Kanevce, G. H., Kanevce, Lj. P., and Mitrevski , V. B

  4. Fractional two-compartmental model for articaine serum levels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petronijevic, Branislava; Sarcev, Ivan; Zorica, Dusan; Janev, Marko; Atanackovic, Teodor M.

    2016-06-01

    Two fractional two-compartmental models are applied to the pharmacokinetics of articaine. Integer order derivatives are replaced by fractional derivatives, either of different, or of same orders. Models are formulated so that the mass balance is preserved. Explicit forms of the solutions are obtained in terms of the Mittag-Leffler functions. Pharmacokinetic parameters are determined by the use of the evolutionary algorithm and trust regions optimization to recover the experimental data.

  5. Combining Interactive Infrastructure Modeling and Evolutionary Algorithm Optimization for Sustainable Water Resources Design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, R.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Zagona, E. A.

    2013-12-01

    Population growth and climate change, combined with difficulties in building new infrastructure, motivate portfolio-based solutions to ensuring sufficient water supply. Powerful simulation models with graphical user interfaces (GUI) are often used to evaluate infrastructure portfolios; these GUI based models require manual modification of the system parameters, such as reservoir operation rules, water transfer schemes, or system capacities. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) based optimization can be employed to balance multiple objectives and automatically suggest designs for infrastructure systems, but MOEA based decision support typically uses a fixed problem formulation (i.e., a single set of objectives, decisions, and constraints). This presentation suggests a dynamic framework for linking GUI-based infrastructure models with MOEA search. The framework begins with an initial formulation which is solved using a MOEA. Then, stakeholders can interact with candidate solutions, viewing their properties in the GUI model. This is followed by changes in the formulation which represent users' evolving understanding of exigent system properties. Our case study is built using RiverWare, an object-oriented, data-centered model that facilitates the representation of a diverse array of water resources systems. Results suggest that assumptions within the initial MOEA search are violated after investigating tradeoffs and reveal how formulations should be modified to better capture stakeholders' preferences.

  6. Hybrid Disease Diagnosis Using Multiobjective Optimization with Evolutionary Parameter Optimization

    PubMed Central

    Nalluri, MadhuSudana Rao; K., Kannan; M., Manisha

    2017-01-01

    With the widespread adoption of e-Healthcare and telemedicine applications, accurate, intelligent disease diagnosis systems have been profoundly coveted. In recent years, numerous individual machine learning-based classifiers have been proposed and tested, and the fact that a single classifier cannot effectively classify and diagnose all diseases has been almost accorded with. This has seen a number of recent research attempts to arrive at a consensus using ensemble classification techniques. In this paper, a hybrid system is proposed to diagnose ailments using optimizing individual classifier parameters for two classifier techniques, namely, support vector machine (SVM) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) technique. We employ three recent evolutionary algorithms to optimize the parameters of the classifiers above, leading to six alternative hybrid disease diagnosis systems, also referred to as hybrid intelligent systems (HISs). Multiple objectives, namely, prediction accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, have been considered to assess the efficacy of the proposed hybrid systems with existing ones. The proposed model is evaluated on 11 benchmark datasets, and the obtained results demonstrate that our proposed hybrid diagnosis systems perform better in terms of disease prediction accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Pertinent statistical tests were carried out to substantiate the efficacy of the obtained results. PMID:29065626

  7. Bio-inspired algorithms applied to molecular docking simulations.

    PubMed

    Heberlé, G; de Azevedo, W F

    2011-01-01

    Nature as a source of inspiration has been shown to have a great beneficial impact on the development of new computational methodologies. In this scenario, analyses of the interactions between a protein target and a ligand can be simulated by biologically inspired algorithms (BIAs). These algorithms mimic biological systems to create new paradigms for computation, such as neural networks, evolutionary computing, and swarm intelligence. This review provides a description of the main concepts behind BIAs applied to molecular docking simulations. Special attention is devoted to evolutionary algorithms, guided-directed evolutionary algorithms, and Lamarckian genetic algorithms. Recent applications of these methodologies to protein targets identified in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome are described.

  8. Hybrid Pareto artificial bee colony algorithm for multi-objective single machine group scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times and learning effects.

    PubMed

    Yue, Lei; Guan, Zailin; Saif, Ullah; Zhang, Fei; Wang, Hao

    2016-01-01

    Group scheduling is significant for efficient and cost effective production system. However, there exist setup times between the groups, which require to decrease it by sequencing groups in an efficient way. Current research is focused on a sequence dependent group scheduling problem with an aim to minimize the makespan in addition to minimize the total weighted tardiness simultaneously. In most of the production scheduling problems, the processing time of jobs is assumed as fixed. However, the actual processing time of jobs may be reduced due to "learning effect". The integration of sequence dependent group scheduling problem with learning effects has been rarely considered in literature. Therefore, current research considers a single machine group scheduling problem with sequence dependent setup times and learning effects simultaneously. A novel hybrid Pareto artificial bee colony algorithm (HPABC) with some steps of genetic algorithm is proposed for current problem to get Pareto solutions. Furthermore, five different sizes of test problems (small, small medium, medium, large medium, large) are tested using proposed HPABC. Taguchi method is used to tune the effective parameters of the proposed HPABC for each problem category. The performance of HPABC is compared with three famous multi objective optimization algorithms, improved strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2), non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGAII) and particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). Results indicate that HPABC outperforms SPEA2, NSGAII and PSO and gives better Pareto optimal solutions in terms of diversity and quality for almost all the instances of the different sizes of problems.

  9. Parallel evolutionary computation in bioinformatics applications.

    PubMed

    Pinho, Jorge; Sobral, João Luis; Rocha, Miguel

    2013-05-01

    A large number of optimization problems within the field of Bioinformatics require methods able to handle its inherent complexity (e.g. NP-hard problems) and also demand increased computational efforts. In this context, the use of parallel architectures is a necessity. In this work, we propose ParJECoLi, a Java based library that offers a large set of metaheuristic methods (such as Evolutionary Algorithms) and also addresses the issue of its efficient execution on a wide range of parallel architectures. The proposed approach focuses on the easiness of use, making the adaptation to distinct parallel environments (multicore, cluster, grid) transparent to the user. Indeed, this work shows how the development of the optimization library can proceed independently of its adaptation for several architectures, making use of Aspect-Oriented Programming. The pluggable nature of parallelism related modules allows the user to easily configure its environment, adding parallelism modules to the base source code when needed. The performance of the platform is validated with two case studies within biological model optimization. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Using string invariants for prediction searching for optimal parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bundzel, Marek; Kasanický, Tomáš; Pinčák, Richard

    2016-02-01

    We have developed a novel prediction method based on string invariants. The method does not require learning but a small set of parameters must be set to achieve optimal performance. We have implemented an evolutionary algorithm for the parametric optimization. We have tested the performance of the method on artificial and real world data and compared the performance to statistical methods and to a number of artificial intelligence methods. We have used data and the results of a prediction competition as a benchmark. The results show that the method performs well in single step prediction but the method's performance for multiple step prediction needs to be improved. The method works well for a wide range of parameters.

  11. Sensitivity analysis of multi-objective optimization of CPG parameters for quadruped robot locomotion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oliveira, Miguel; Santos, Cristina P.; Costa, Lino

    2012-09-01

    In this paper, a study based on sensitivity analysis is performed for a gait multi-objective optimization system that combines bio-inspired Central Patterns Generators (CPGs) and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on NSGA-II. In this system, CPGs are modeled as autonomous differential equations, that generate the necessary limb movement to perform the required walking gait. In order to optimize the walking gait, a multi-objective problem with three conflicting objectives is formulated: maximization of the velocity, the wide stability margin and the behavioral diversity. The experimental results highlight the effectiveness of this multi-objective approach and the importance of the objectives to find different walking gait solutions for the quadruped robot.

  12. A global optimization perspective on molecular clusters.

    PubMed

    Marques, J M C; Pereira, F B; Llanio-Trujillo, J L; Abreu, P E; Albertí, M; Aguilar, A; Pirani, F; Bartolomei, M

    2017-04-28

    Although there is a long history behind the idea of chemical structure, this is a key concept that continues to challenge chemists. Chemical structure is fundamental to understanding most of the properties of matter and its knowledge for complex systems requires the use of state-of-the-art techniques, either experimental or theoretical. From the theoretical view point, one needs to establish the interaction potential among the atoms or molecules of the system, which contains all the information regarding the energy landscape, and employ optimization algorithms to discover the relevant stationary points. In particular, global optimization methods are of major importance to search for the low-energy structures of molecular aggregates. We review the application of global optimization techniques to several molecular clusters; some new results are also reported. Emphasis is given to evolutionary algorithms and their application in the study of the microsolvation of alkali-metal and Ca 2+ ions with various types of solvents.This article is part of the themed issue 'Theoretical and computational studies of non-equilibrium and non-statistical dynamics in the gas phase, in the condensed phase and at interfaces'. © 2017 The Author(s).

  13. A global optimization perspective on molecular clusters

    PubMed Central

    Pereira, F. B.; Llanio-Trujillo, J. L.; Abreu, P. E.; Albertí, M.; Aguilar, A.; Pirani, F.; Bartolomei, M.

    2017-01-01

    Although there is a long history behind the idea of chemical structure, this is a key concept that continues to challenge chemists. Chemical structure is fundamental to understanding most of the properties of matter and its knowledge for complex systems requires the use of state-of-the-art techniques, either experimental or theoretical. From the theoretical view point, one needs to establish the interaction potential among the atoms or molecules of the system, which contains all the information regarding the energy landscape, and employ optimization algorithms to discover the relevant stationary points. In particular, global optimization methods are of major importance to search for the low-energy structures of molecular aggregates. We review the application of global optimization techniques to several molecular clusters; some new results are also reported. Emphasis is given to evolutionary algorithms and their application in the study of the microsolvation of alkali-metal and Ca2+ ions with various types of solvents. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Theoretical and computational studies of non-equilibrium and non-statistical dynamics in the gas phase, in the condensed phase and at interfaces’. PMID:28320902

  14. Multidisciplinary design optimization using genetic algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Unal, Resit

    1994-01-01

    Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) is an important step in the conceptual design and evaluation of launch vehicles since it can have a significant impact on performance and life cycle cost. The objective is to search the system design space to determine values of design variables that optimize the performance characteristic subject to system constraints. Gradient-based optimization routines have been used extensively for aerospace design optimization. However, one limitation of gradient based optimizers is their need for gradient information. Therefore, design problems which include discrete variables can not be studied. Such problems are common in launch vehicle design. For example, the number of engines and material choices must be integer values or assume only a few discrete values. In this study, genetic algorithms are investigated as an approach to MDO problems involving discrete variables and discontinuous domains. Optimization by genetic algorithms (GA) uses a search procedure which is fundamentally different from those gradient based methods. Genetic algorithms seek to find good solutions in an efficient and timely manner rather than finding the best solution. GA are designed to mimic evolutionary selection. A population of candidate designs is evaluated at each iteration, and each individual's probability of reproduction (existence in the next generation) depends on its fitness value (related to the value of the objective function). Progress toward the optimum is achieved by the crossover and mutation operations. GA is attractive since it uses only objective function values in the search process, so gradient calculations are avoided. Hence, GA are able to deal with discrete variables. Studies report success in the use of GA for aircraft design optimization studies, trajectory analysis, space structure design and control systems design. In these studies reliable convergence was achieved, but the number of function evaluations was large compared with efficient gradient methods. Applicaiton of GA is underway for a cost optimization study for a launch-vehicle fuel-tank and structural design of a wing. The strengths and limitations of GA for launch vehicle design optimization is studied.

  15. Pareto-optimal phylogenetic tree reconciliation

    PubMed Central

    Libeskind-Hadas, Ran; Wu, Yi-Chieh; Bansal, Mukul S.; Kellis, Manolis

    2014-01-01

    Motivation: Phylogenetic tree reconciliation is a widely used method for reconstructing the evolutionary histories of gene families and species, hosts and parasites and other dependent pairs of entities. Reconciliation is typically performed using maximum parsimony, in which each evolutionary event type is assigned a cost and the objective is to find a reconciliation of minimum total cost. It is generally understood that reconciliations are sensitive to event costs, but little is understood about the relationship between event costs and solutions. Moreover, choosing appropriate event costs is a notoriously difficult problem. Results: We address this problem by giving an efficient algorithm for computing Pareto-optimal sets of reconciliations, thus providing the first systematic method for understanding the relationship between event costs and reconciliations. This, in turn, results in new techniques for computing event support values and, for cophylogenetic analyses, performing robust statistical tests. We provide new software tools and demonstrate their use on a number of datasets from evolutionary genomic and cophylogenetic studies. Availability and implementation: Our Python tools are freely available at www.cs.hmc.edu/∼hadas/xscape. Contact: mukul@engr.uconn.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:24932009

  16. Towards resolving the complete fern tree of life.

    PubMed

    Lehtonen, Samuli

    2011-01-01

    In the past two decades, molecular systematic studies have revolutionized our understanding of the evolutionary history of ferns. The availability of large molecular data sets together with efficient computer algorithms, now enables us to reconstruct evolutionary histories with previously unseen completeness. Here, the most comprehensive fern phylogeny to date, representing over one-fifth of the extant global fern diversity, is inferred based on four plastid genes. Parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses provided a mostly congruent results and in general supported the prevailing view on the higher-level fern systematics. At a deep phylogenetic level, the position of horsetails depended on the optimality criteria chosen, with horsetails positioned as the sister group either of Marattiopsida-Polypodiopsida clade or of the Polypodiopsida. The analyses demonstrate the power of using a 'supermatrix' approach to resolve large-scale phylogenies and reveal questionable taxonomies. These results provide a valuable background for future research on fern systematics, ecology, biogeography and other evolutionary studies.

  17. An alternative approach for neural network evolution with a genetic algorithm: crossover by combinatorial optimization.

    PubMed

    García-Pedrajas, Nicolás; Ortiz-Boyer, Domingo; Hervás-Martínez, César

    2006-05-01

    In this work we present a new approach to crossover operator in the genetic evolution of neural networks. The most widely used evolutionary computation paradigm for neural network evolution is evolutionary programming. This paradigm is usually preferred due to the problems caused by the application of crossover to neural network evolution. However, crossover is the most innovative operator within the field of evolutionary computation. One of the most notorious problems with the application of crossover to neural networks is known as the permutation problem. This problem occurs due to the fact that the same network can be represented in a genetic coding by many different codifications. Our approach modifies the standard crossover operator taking into account the special features of the individuals to be mated. We present a new model for mating individuals that considers the structure of the hidden layer and redefines the crossover operator. As each hidden node represents a non-linear projection of the input variables, we approach the crossover as a problem on combinatorial optimization. We can formulate the problem as the extraction of a subset of near-optimal projections to create the hidden layer of the new network. This new approach is compared to a classical crossover in 25 real-world problems with an excellent performance. Moreover, the networks obtained are much smaller than those obtained with classical crossover operator.

  18. How evolutionary crystal structure prediction works--and why.

    PubMed

    Oganov, Artem R; Lyakhov, Andriy O; Valle, Mario

    2011-03-15

    Once the crystal structure of a chemical substance is known, many properties can be predicted reliably and routinely. Therefore if researchers could predict the crystal structure of a material before it is synthesized, they could significantly accelerate the discovery of new materials. In addition, the ability to predict crystal structures at arbitrary conditions of pressure and temperature is invaluable for the study of matter at extreme conditions, where experiments are difficult. Crystal structure prediction (CSP), the problem of finding the most stable arrangement of atoms given only the chemical composition, has long remained a major unsolved scientific problem. Two problems are entangled here: search, the efficient exploration of the multidimensional energy landscape, and ranking, the correct calculation of relative energies. For organic crystals, which contain a few molecules in the unit cell, search can be quite simple as long as a researcher does not need to include many possible isomers or conformations of the molecules; therefore ranking becomes the main challenge. For inorganic crystals, quantum mechanical methods often provide correct relative energies, making search the most critical problem. Recent developments provide useful practical methods for solving the search problem to a considerable extent. One can use simulated annealing, metadynamics, random sampling, basin hopping, minima hopping, and data mining. Genetic algorithms have been applied to crystals since 1995, but with limited success, which necessitated the development of a very different evolutionary algorithm. This Account reviews CSP using one of the major techniques, the hybrid evolutionary algorithm USPEX (Universal Structure Predictor: Evolutionary Xtallography). Using recent developments in the theory of energy landscapes, we unravel the reasons evolutionary techniques work for CSP and point out their limitations. We demonstrate that the energy landscapes of chemical systems have an overall shape and explore their intrinsic dimensionalities. Because of the inverse relationships between order and energy and between the dimensionality and diversity of an ensemble of crystal structures, the chances that a random search will find the ground state decrease exponentially with increasing system size. A well-designed evolutionary algorithm allows for much greater computational efficiency. We illustrate the power of evolutionary CSP through applications that examine matter at high pressure, where new, unexpected phenomena take place. Evolutionary CSP has allowed researchers to make unexpected discoveries such as a transparent phase of sodium, a partially ionic form of boron, complex superconducting forms of calcium, a novel superhard allotrope of carbon, polymeric modifications of nitrogen, and a new class of compounds, perhydrides. These methods have also led to the discovery of novel hydride superconductors including the "impossible" LiH(n) (n=2, 6, 8) compounds, and CaLi(2). We discuss extensions of the method to molecular crystals, systems of variable composition, and the targeted optimization of specific physical properties. © 2011 American Chemical Society

  19. Infrastructure system restoration planning using evolutionary algorithms

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Corns, Steven; Long, Suzanna K.; Shoberg, Thomas G.

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm to address restoration issues for supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure. Rapid restoration of infrastructure after a large-scale disaster is necessary to sustaining a nation's economy and security, but such long-term restoration has not been investigated as thoroughly as initial rescue and recovery efforts. A model of the Greater Saint Louis Missouri area was created and a disaster scenario simulated. An evolutionary algorithm is used to determine the order in which the bridges should be repaired based on indirect costs. Solutions were evaluated based on the reduction of indirect costs and the restoration of transportation capacity. When compared to a greedy algorithm, the evolutionary algorithm solution reduced indirect costs by approximately 12.4% by restoring automotive travel routes for workers and re-establishing the flow of commodities across the three rivers in the Saint Louis area.

  20. Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of an Evolutionary Social-Learning Game

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-01-13

    Nettle outlines the circumstances in which verbal communication is evolutionarily adaptive, and why few species have developed the ability to use...language despite its apparent advantages [28]. Nettle uses a significantly simpler model than the Cultaptation game, but provides insight that may be useful...provided by Kearns et al. was designed as an online algorithm, so it only returns the near-optimal action for the state at the root of the search tree

  1. Balancing Exploration, Uncertainty Representation and Computational Time in Many-Objective Reservoir Policy Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zatarain-Salazar, J.; Reed, P. M.; Quinn, J.; Giuliani, M.; Castelletti, A.

    2016-12-01

    As we confront the challenges of managing river basin systems with a large number of reservoirs and increasingly uncertain tradeoffs impacting their operations (due to, e.g. climate change, changing energy markets, population pressures, ecosystem services, etc.), evolutionary many-objective direct policy search (EMODPS) solution strategies will need to address the computational demands associated with simulating more uncertainties and therefore optimizing over increasingly noisy objective evaluations. Diagnostic assessments of state-of-the-art many-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to support EMODPS have highlighted that search time (or number of function evaluations) and auto-adaptive search are key features for successful optimization. Furthermore, auto-adaptive MOEA search operators are themselves sensitive to having a sufficient number of function evaluations to learn successful strategies for exploring complex spaces and for escaping from local optima when stagnation is detected. Fortunately, recent parallel developments allow coordinated runs that enhance auto-adaptive algorithmic learning and can handle scalable and reliable search with limited wall-clock time, but at the expense of the total number of function evaluations. In this study, we analyze this tradeoff between parallel coordination and depth of search using different parallelization schemes of the Multi-Master Borg on a many-objective stochastic control problem. We also consider the tradeoff between better representing uncertainty in the stochastic optimization, and simplifying this representation to shorten the function evaluation time and allow for greater search. Our analysis focuses on the Lower Susquehanna River Basin (LSRB) system where multiple competing objectives for hydropower production, urban water supply, recreation and environmental flows need to be balanced. Our results provide guidance for balancing exploration, uncertainty, and computational demands when using the EMODPS framework to discover key tradeoffs within the LSRB system.

  2. Balancing exploration, uncertainty and computational demands in many objective reservoir optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zatarain Salazar, Jazmin; Reed, Patrick M.; Quinn, Julianne D.; Giuliani, Matteo; Castelletti, Andrea

    2017-11-01

    Reservoir operations are central to our ability to manage river basin systems serving conflicting multi-sectoral demands under increasingly uncertain futures. These challenges motivate the need for new solution strategies capable of effectively and efficiently discovering the multi-sectoral tradeoffs that are inherent to alternative reservoir operation policies. Evolutionary many-objective direct policy search (EMODPS) is gaining importance in this context due to its capability of addressing multiple objectives and its flexibility in incorporating multiple sources of uncertainties. This simulation-optimization framework has high potential for addressing the complexities of water resources management, and it can benefit from current advances in parallel computing and meta-heuristics. This study contributes a diagnostic assessment of state-of-the-art parallel strategies for the auto-adaptive Borg Multi Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) to support EMODPS. Our analysis focuses on the Lower Susquehanna River Basin (LSRB) system where multiple sectoral demands from hydropower production, urban water supply, recreation and environmental flows need to be balanced. Using EMODPS with different parallel configurations of the Borg MOEA, we optimize operating policies over different size ensembles of synthetic streamflows and evaporation rates. As we increase the ensemble size, we increase the statistical fidelity of our objective function evaluations at the cost of higher computational demands. This study demonstrates how to overcome the mathematical and computational barriers associated with capturing uncertainties in stochastic multiobjective reservoir control optimization, where parallel algorithmic search serves to reduce the wall-clock time in discovering high quality representations of key operational tradeoffs. Our results show that emerging self-adaptive parallelization schemes exploiting cooperative search populations are crucial. Such strategies provide a promising new set of tools for effectively balancing exploration, uncertainty, and computational demands when using EMODPS.

  3. Pruning Neural Networks with Distribution Estimation Algorithms

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cantu-Paz, E

    2003-01-15

    This paper describes the application of four evolutionary algorithms to the pruning of neural networks used in classification problems. Besides of a simple genetic algorithm (GA), the paper considers three distribution estimation algorithms (DEAs): a compact GA, an extended compact GA, and the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm. The objective is to determine if the DEAs present advantages over the simple GA in terms of accuracy or speed in this problem. The experiments used a feed forward neural network trained with standard back propagation and public-domain and artificial data sets. The pruned networks seemed to have better or equal accuracy than themore » original fully-connected networks. Only in a few cases, pruning resulted in less accurate networks. We found few differences in the accuracy of the networks pruned by the four EAs, but found important differences in the execution time. The results suggest that a simple GA with a small population might be the best algorithm for pruning networks on the data sets we tested.« less

  4. EvOligo: A Novel Software to Design and Group Libraries of Oligonucleotides Applicable for Nucleic Acid-Based Experiments.

    PubMed

    Milewski, Marek C; Kamel, Karol; Kurzynska-Kokorniak, Anna; Chmielewski, Marcin K; Figlerowicz, Marek

    2017-10-01

    Experimental methods based on DNA and RNA hybridization, such as multiplex polymerase chain reaction, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, or microarray analysis, require the use of mixtures of multiple oligonucleotides (primers or probes) in a single test tube. To provide an optimal reaction environment, minimal self- and cross-hybridization must be achieved among these oligonucleotides. To address this problem, we developed EvOligo, which is a software package that provides the means to design and group DNA and RNA molecules with defined lengths. EvOligo combines two modules. The first module performs oligonucleotide design, and the second module performs oligonucleotide grouping. The software applies a nearest-neighbor model of nucleic acid interactions coupled with a parallel evolutionary algorithm to construct individual oligonucleotides, and to group the molecules that are characterized by the weakest possible cross-interactions. To provide optimal solutions, the evolutionary algorithm sorts oligonucleotides into sets, preserves preselected parts of the oligonucleotides, and shapes their remaining parts. In addition, the oligonucleotide sets can be designed and grouped based on their melting temperatures. For the user's convenience, EvOligo is provided with a user-friendly graphical interface. EvOligo was used to design individual oligonucleotides, oligonucleotide pairs, and groups of oligonucleotide pairs that are characterized by the following parameters: (1) weaker cross-interactions between the non-complementary oligonucleotides and (2) more uniform ranges of the oligonucleotide pair melting temperatures than other available software products. In addition, in contrast to other grouping algorithms, EvOligo offers time-efficient sorting of paired and unpaired oligonucleotides based on various parameters defined by the user.

  5. Design Optimization of a Centrifugal Fan with Splitter Blades

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heo, Man-Woong; Kim, Jin-Hyuk; Kim, Kwang-Yong

    2015-05-01

    Multi-objective optimization of a centrifugal fan with additionally installed splitter blades was performed to simultaneously maximize the efficiency and pressure rise using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. Two design variables defining the location of splitter, and the height ratio between inlet and outlet of impeller were selected for the optimization. In addition, the aerodynamic characteristics of the centrifugal fan were investigated with the variation of design variables in the design space. Latin hypercube sampling was used to select the training points, and response surface approximation models were constructed as surrogate models of the objective functions. With the optimization, both the efficiency and pressure rise of the centrifugal fan with splitter blades were improved considerably compared to the reference model.

  6. A Novel Handwritten Letter Recognizer Using Enhanced Evolutionary Neural Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mahmoudi, Fariborz; Mirzashaeri, Mohsen; Shahamatnia, Ehsan; Faridnia, Saed

    This paper introduces a novel design for handwritten letter recognition by employing a hybrid back-propagation neural network with an enhanced evolutionary algorithm. Feeding the neural network consists of a new approach which is invariant to translation, rotation, and scaling of input letters. Evolutionary algorithm is used for the global search of the search space and the back-propagation algorithm is used for the local search. The results have been computed by implementing this approach for recognizing 26 English capital letters in the handwritings of different people. The computational results show that the neural network reaches very satisfying results with relatively scarce input data and a promising performance improvement in convergence of the hybrid evolutionary back-propagation algorithms is exhibited.

  7. Scheduling Earth Observing Fleets Using Evolutionary Algorithms: Problem Description and Approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Globus, Al; Crawford, James; Lohn, Jason; Morris, Robert; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    We describe work in progress concerning multi-instrument, multi-satellite scheduling. Most, although not all, Earth observing instruments currently in orbit are unique. In the relatively near future, however, we expect to see fleets of Earth observing spacecraft, many carrying nearly identical instruments. This presents a substantially new scheduling challenge. Inspired by successful commercial applications of evolutionary algorithms in scheduling domains, this paper presents work in progress regarding the use of evolutionary algorithms to solve a set of Earth observing related model problems. Both the model problems and the software are described. Since the larger problems will require substantial computation and evolutionary algorithms are embarrassingly parallel, we discuss our parallelization techniques using dedicated and cycle-scavenged workstations.

  8. Method for identifying known materials within a mixture of unknowns

    DOEpatents

    Wagner, John S.

    2000-01-01

    One or both of two methods and systems are used to determine concentration of a known material in an unknown mixture on the basis of the measured interaction of electromagnetic waves upon the mixture. One technique is to utilize a multivariate analysis patch technique to develop a library of optimized patches of spectral signatures of known materials containing only those pixels most descriptive of the known materials by an evolutionary algorithm. Identity and concentration of the known materials within the unknown mixture is then determined by minimizing the residuals between the measurements from the library of optimized patches and the measurements from the same pixels from the unknown mixture. Another technique is to train a neural network by the genetic algorithm to determine the identity and concentration of known materials in the unknown mixture. The two techniques may be combined into an expert system providing cross checks for accuracy.

  9. System for identifying known materials within a mixture of unknowns

    DOEpatents

    Wagner, John S.

    1999-01-01

    One or both of two methods and systems are used to determine concentration of a known material in an unknown mixture on the basis of the measured interaction of electromagnetic waves upon the mixture. One technique is to utilize a multivariate analysis patch technique to develop a library of optimized patches of spectral signatures of known materials containing only those pixels most descriptive of the known materials by an evolutionary algorithm. Identity and concentration of the known materials within the unknown mixture is then determined by minimizing the residuals between the measurements from the library of optimized patches and the measurements from the same pixels from the unknown mixture. Another technique is to train a neural network by the genetic algorithm to determine the identity and concentration of known materials in the unknown mixture. The two techniques may be combined into an expert system providing cross checks for accuracy.

  10. System for identifying known materials within a mixture of unknowns

    DOEpatents

    Wagner, J.S.

    1999-07-20

    One or both of two methods and systems are used to determine concentration of a known material in an unknown mixture on the basis of the measured interaction of electromagnetic waves upon the mixture. One technique is to utilize a multivariate analysis patch technique to develop a library of optimized patches of spectral signatures of known materials containing only those pixels most descriptive of the known materials by an evolutionary algorithm. Identity and concentration of the known materials within the unknown mixture is then determined by minimizing the residuals between the measurements from the library of optimized patches and the measurements from the same pixels from the unknown mixture. Another technique is to train a neural network by the genetic algorithm to determine the identity and concentration of known materials in the unknown mixture. The two techniques may be combined into an expert system providing cross checks for accuracy. 37 figs.

  11. A Discrete Fruit Fly Optimization Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Zi-Bin; Yang, Qiong

    2016-01-01

    The fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) is a newly developed bio-inspired algorithm. The continuous variant version of FOA has been proven to be a powerful evolutionary approach to determining the optima of a numerical function on a continuous definition domain. In this study, a discrete FOA (DFOA) is developed and applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP), a common combinatorial problem. In the DFOA, the TSP tour is represented by an ordering of city indices, and the bio-inspired meta-heuristic search processes are executed with two elaborately designed main procedures: the smelling and tasting processes. In the smelling process, an effective crossover operator is used by the fruit fly group to search for the neighbors of the best-known swarm location. During the tasting process, an edge intersection elimination (EXE) operator is designed to improve the neighbors of the non-optimum food location in order to enhance the exploration performance of the DFOA. In addition, benchmark instances from the TSPLIB are classified in order to test the searching ability of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed DFOA is compared to that of other meta-heuristic algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed DFOA can be effectively used to solve TSPs, especially large-scale problems.

  12. A Discrete Fruit Fly Optimization Algorithm for the Traveling Salesman Problem

    PubMed Central

    Jiang, Zi-bin; Yang, Qiong

    2016-01-01

    The fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) is a newly developed bio-inspired algorithm. The continuous variant version of FOA has been proven to be a powerful evolutionary approach to determining the optima of a numerical function on a continuous definition domain. In this study, a discrete FOA (DFOA) is developed and applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP), a common combinatorial problem. In the DFOA, the TSP tour is represented by an ordering of city indices, and the bio-inspired meta-heuristic search processes are executed with two elaborately designed main procedures: the smelling and tasting processes. In the smelling process, an effective crossover operator is used by the fruit fly group to search for the neighbors of the best-known swarm location. During the tasting process, an edge intersection elimination (EXE) operator is designed to improve the neighbors of the non-optimum food location in order to enhance the exploration performance of the DFOA. In addition, benchmark instances from the TSPLIB are classified in order to test the searching ability of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed DFOA is compared to that of other meta-heuristic algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed DFOA can be effectively used to solve TSPs, especially large-scale problems. PMID:27812175

  13. Optimal design of structures for earthquake loads by a hybrid RBF-BPSO method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salajegheh, Eysa; Gholizadeh, Saeed; Khatibinia, Mohsen

    2008-03-01

    The optimal seismic design of structures requires that time history analyses (THA) be carried out repeatedly. This makes the optimal design process inefficient, in particular, if an evolutionary algorithm is used. To reduce the overall time required for structural optimization, two artificial intelligence strategies are employed. In the first strategy, radial basis function (RBF) neural networks are used to predict the time history responses of structures in the optimization flow. In the second strategy, a binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) is used to find the optimum design. Combining the RBF and BPSO, a hybrid RBF-BPSO optimization method is proposed in this paper, which achieves fast optimization with high computational performance. Two examples are presented and compared to determine the optimal weight of structures under earthquake loadings using both exact and approximate analyses. The numerical results demonstrate the computational advantages and effectiveness of the proposed hybrid RBF-BPSO optimization method for the seismic design of structures.

  14. Computational evolution: taking liberties.

    PubMed

    Correia, Luís

    2010-09-01

    Evolution has, for a long time, inspired computer scientists to produce computer models mimicking its behavior. Evolutionary algorithm (EA) is one of the areas where this approach has flourished. EAs have been used to model and study evolution, but they have been especially developed for their aptitude as optimization tools for engineering. Developed models are quite simple in comparison with their natural sources of inspiration. However, since EAs run on computers, we have the freedom, especially in optimization models, to test approaches both realistic and outright speculative, from the biological point of view. In this article, we discuss different common evolutionary algorithm models, and then present some alternatives of interest. These include biologically inspired models, such as co-evolution and, in particular, symbiogenetics and outright artificial operators and representations. In each case, the advantages of the modifications to the standard model are identified. The other area of computational evolution, which has allowed us to study basic principles of evolution and ecology dynamics, is the development of artificial life platforms for open-ended evolution of artificial organisms. With these platforms, biologists can test theories by directly manipulating individuals and operators, observing the resulting effects in a realistic way. An overview of the most prominent of such environments is also presented. If instead of artificial platforms we use the real world for evolving artificial life, then we are dealing with evolutionary robotics (ERs). A brief description of this area is presented, analyzing its relations to biology. Finally, we present the conclusions and identify future research avenues in the frontier of computation and biology. Hopefully, this will help to draw the attention of more biologists and computer scientists to the benefits of such interdisciplinary research.

  15. Design of synthetic biological logic circuits based on evolutionary algorithm.

    PubMed

    Chuang, Chia-Hua; Lin, Chun-Liang; Chang, Yen-Chang; Jennawasin, Tanagorn; Chen, Po-Kuei

    2013-08-01

    The construction of an artificial biological logic circuit using systematic strategy is recognised as one of the most important topics for the development of synthetic biology. In this study, a real-structured genetic algorithm (RSGA), which combines general advantages of the traditional real genetic algorithm with those of the structured genetic algorithm, is proposed to deal with the biological logic circuit design problem. A general model with the cis-regulatory input function and appropriate promoter activity functions is proposed to synthesise a wide variety of fundamental logic gates such as NOT, Buffer, AND, OR, NAND, NOR and XOR. The results obtained can be extended to synthesise advanced combinational and sequential logic circuits by topologically distinct connections. The resulting optimal design of these logic gates and circuits are established via the RSGA. The in silico computer-based modelling technology has been verified showing its great advantages in the purpose.

  16. Hybridization of decomposition and local search for multiobjective optimization.

    PubMed

    Ke, Liangjun; Zhang, Qingfu; Battiti, Roberto

    2014-10-01

    Combining ideas from evolutionary algorithms, decomposition approaches, and Pareto local search, this paper suggests a simple yet efficient memetic algorithm for combinatorial multiobjective optimization problems: memetic algorithm based on decomposition (MOMAD). It decomposes a combinatorial multiobjective problem into a number of single objective optimization problems using an aggregation method. MOMAD evolves three populations: 1) population P(L) for recording the current solution to each subproblem; 2) population P(P) for storing starting solutions for Pareto local search; and 3) an external population P(E) for maintaining all the nondominated solutions found so far during the search. A problem-specific single objective heuristic can be applied to these subproblems to initialize the three populations. At each generation, a Pareto local search method is first applied to search a neighborhood of each solution in P(P) to update P(L) and P(E). Then a single objective local search is applied to each perturbed solution in P(L) for improving P(L) and P(E), and reinitializing P(P). The procedure is repeated until a stopping condition is met. MOMAD provides a generic hybrid multiobjective algorithmic framework in which problem specific knowledge, well developed single objective local search and heuristics and Pareto local search methods can be hybridized. It is a population based iterative method and thus an anytime algorithm. Extensive experiments have been conducted in this paper to study MOMAD and compare it with some other state-of-the-art algorithms on the multiobjective traveling salesman problem and the multiobjective knapsack problem. The experimental results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms or performs similarly to the best so far heuristics on these two problems.

  17. An Evolutionary Optimization of the Refueling Simulation for a CANDU Reactor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Do, Q. B.; Choi, H.; Roh, G. H.

    2006-10-01

    This paper presents a multi-cycle and multi-objective optimization method for the refueling simulation of a 713 MWe Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU-6) reactor based on a genetic algorithm, an elitism strategy and a heuristic rule. The proposed algorithm searches for the optimal refueling patterns for a single cycle that maximizes the average discharge burnup, minimizes the maximum channel power and minimizes the change in the zone controller unit water fills while satisfying the most important safety-related neutronic parameters of the reactor core. The heuristic rule generates an initial population of individuals very close to a feasible solution and it reduces the computing time of the optimization process. The multi-cycle optimization is carried out based on a single cycle refueling simulation. The proposed approach was verified by a refueling simulation of a natural uranium CANDU-6 reactor for an operation period of 6 months at an equilibrium state and compared with the experience-based automatic refueling simulation and the generalized perturbation theory. The comparison has shown that the simulation results are consistent from each other and the proposed approach is a reasonable optimization method of the refueling simulation that controls all the safety-related parameters of the reactor core during the simulation

  18. The System of Simulation and Multi-objective Optimization for the Roller Kiln

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, He; Chen, Xishen; Li, Wugang; Li, Zhuoqiu

    It is somewhat a difficult researching problem, to get the building parameters of the ceramic roller kiln simulation model. A system integrated of evolutionary algorithms (PSO, DE and DEPSO) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), is proposed to solve the problem. And the temperature field uniformity and the environment disruption are studied in this paper. With the help of the efficient parallel calculation, the ceramic roller kiln temperature field uniformity and the NOx emissions field have been researched in the system at the same time. A multi-objective optimization example of the industrial roller kiln proves that the system is of excellent parameter exploration capability.

  19. Memetic Approaches for Optimizing Hidden Markov Models: A Case Study in Time Series Prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bui, Lam Thu; Barlow, Michael

    We propose a methodology for employing memetics (local search) within the framework of evolutionary algorithms to optimize parameters of hidden markov models. With this proposal, the rate and frequency of using local search are automatically changed over time either at a population or individual level. At the population level, we allow the rate of using local search to decay over time to zero (at the final generation). At the individual level, each individual is equipped with information of when it will do local search and for how long. This information evolves over time alongside the main elements of the chromosome representing the individual.

  20. A practical approximation algorithm for solving massive instances of hybridization number for binary and nonbinary trees.

    PubMed

    van Iersel, Leo; Kelk, Steven; Lekić, Nela; Scornavacca, Celine

    2014-05-05

    Reticulate events play an important role in determining evolutionary relationships. The problem of computing the minimum number of such events to explain discordance between two phylogenetic trees is a hard computational problem. Even for binary trees, exact solvers struggle to solve instances with reticulation number larger than 40-50. Here we present CycleKiller and NonbinaryCycleKiller, the first methods to produce solutions verifiably close to optimality for instances with hundreds or even thousands of reticulations. Using simulations, we demonstrate that these algorithms run quickly for large and difficult instances, producing solutions that are very close to optimality. As a spin-off from our simulations we also present TerminusEst, which is the fastest exact method currently available that can handle nonbinary trees: this is used to measure the accuracy of the NonbinaryCycleKiller algorithm. All three methods are based on extensions of previous theoretical work (SIDMA 26(4):1635-1656, TCBB 10(1):18-25, SIDMA 28(1):49-66) and are publicly available. We also apply our methods to real data.

  1. Material identification based on electrostatic sensing technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Kai; Chen, Xi; Li, Jingnan

    2018-04-01

    When the robot travels on the surface of different media, the uncertainty of the medium will seriously affect the autonomous action of the robot. In this paper, the distribution characteristics of multiple electrostatic charges on the surface of materials are detected, so as to improve the accuracy of the existing electrostatic signal material identification methods, which is of great significance to help the robot optimize the control algorithm. In this paper, based on the electrostatic signal material identification method proposed by predecessors, the multi-channel detection circuit is used to obtain the electrostatic charge distribution at different positions of the material surface, the weights are introduced into the eigenvalue matrix, and the weight distribution is optimized by the evolutionary algorithm, which makes the eigenvalue matrix more accurately reflect the surface charge distribution characteristics of the material. The matrix is used as the input of the k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN)classification algorithm to classify the dielectric materials. The experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the recognition rate of the existing electrostatic signal material recognition methods.

  2. Convergence analysis of evolutionary algorithms that are based on the paradigm of information geometry.

    PubMed

    Beyer, Hans-Georg

    2014-01-01

    The convergence behaviors of so-called natural evolution strategies (NES) and of the information-geometric optimization (IGO) approach are considered. After a review of the NES/IGO ideas, which are based on information geometry, the implications of this philosophy w.r.t. optimization dynamics are investigated considering the optimization performance on the class of positive quadratic objective functions (the ellipsoid model). Exact differential equations describing the approach to the optimizer are derived and solved. It is rigorously shown that the original NES philosophy optimizing the expected value of the objective functions leads to very slow (i.e., sublinear) convergence toward the optimizer. This is the real reason why state of the art implementations of IGO algorithms optimize the expected value of transformed objective functions, for example, by utility functions based on ranking. It is shown that these utility functions are localized fitness functions that change during the IGO flow. The governing differential equations describing this flow are derived. In the case of convergence, the solutions to these equations exhibit an exponentially fast approach to the optimizer (i.e., linear convergence order). Furthermore, it is proven that the IGO philosophy leads to an adaptation of the covariance matrix that equals in the asymptotic limit-up to a scalar factor-the inverse of the Hessian of the objective function considered.

  3. Optimization of sequence alignment for simple sequence repeat regions.

    PubMed

    Jighly, Abdulqader; Hamwieh, Aladdin; Ogbonnaya, Francis C

    2011-07-20

    Microsatellites, or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), are tandemly repeated DNA sequences, including tandem copies of specific sequences no longer than six bases, that are distributed in the genome. SSR has been used as a molecular marker because it is easy to detect and is used in a range of applications, including genetic diversity, genome mapping, and marker assisted selection. It is also very mutable because of slipping in the DNA polymerase during DNA replication. This unique mutation increases the insertion/deletion (INDELs) mutation frequency to a high ratio - more than other types of molecular markers such as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs).SNPs are more frequent than INDELs. Therefore, all designed algorithms for sequence alignment fit the vast majority of the genomic sequence without considering microsatellite regions, as unique sequences that require special consideration. The old algorithm is limited in its application because there are many overlaps between different repeat units which result in false evolutionary relationships. To overcome the limitation of the aligning algorithm when dealing with SSR loci, a new algorithm was developed using PERL script with a Tk graphical interface. This program is based on aligning sequences after determining the repeated units first, and the last SSR nucleotides positions. This results in a shifting process according to the inserted repeated unit type.When studying the phylogenic relations before and after applying the new algorithm, many differences in the trees were obtained by increasing the SSR length and complexity. However, less distance between different linage had been observed after applying the new algorithm. The new algorithm produces better estimates for aligning SSR loci because it reflects more reliable evolutionary relations between different linages. It reduces overlapping during SSR alignment, which results in a more realistic phylogenic relationship.

  4. Dominant takeover regimes for genetic algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Noever, David; Baskaran, Subbiah

    1995-01-01

    The genetic algorithm (GA) is a machine-based optimization routine which connects evolutionary learning to natural genetic laws. The present work addresses the problem of obtaining the dominant takeover regimes in the GA dynamics. Estimated GA run times are computed for slow and fast convergence in the limits of high and low fitness ratios. Using Euler's device for obtaining partial sums in closed forms, the result relaxes the previously held requirements for long time limits. Analytical solution reveal that appropriately accelerated regimes can mark the ascendancy of the most fit solution. In virtually all cases, the weak (logarithmic) dependence of convergence time on problem size demonstrates the potential for the GA to solve large N-P complete problems.

  5. Automatically Generated Algorithms for the Vertex Coloring Problem

    PubMed Central

    Contreras Bolton, Carlos; Gatica, Gustavo; Parada, Víctor

    2013-01-01

    The vertex coloring problem is a classical problem in combinatorial optimization that consists of assigning a color to each vertex of a graph such that no adjacent vertices share the same color, minimizing the number of colors used. Despite the various practical applications that exist for this problem, its NP-hardness still represents a computational challenge. Some of the best computational results obtained for this problem are consequences of hybridizing the various known heuristics. Automatically revising the space constituted by combining these techniques to find the most adequate combination has received less attention. In this paper, we propose exploring the heuristics space for the vertex coloring problem using evolutionary algorithms. We automatically generate three new algorithms by combining elementary heuristics. To evaluate the new algorithms, a computational experiment was performed that allowed comparing them numerically with existing heuristics. The obtained algorithms present an average 29.97% relative error, while four other heuristics selected from the literature present a 59.73% error, considering 29 of the more difficult instances in the DIMACS benchmark. PMID:23516506

  6. MRI segmentation using dialectical optimization.

    PubMed

    dos Santos, Wellington P; de Assis, Francisco M; de Souza, Ricardo E

    2009-01-01

    Biology, Psychology and Social Sciences are intrinsically connected to the very roots of the development of algorithms and methods in Computational Intelligence, as it is easily seen in approaches like genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming and particle swarm optimization. In this work we propose a new optimization method based on dialectics using fuzzy membership functions to model the influence of interactions between integrating poles in the status of each pole. Poles are the basic units composing dialectical systems. In order to validate our proposal we designed a segmentation method based on the optimization of k-means using dialectics for the segmentation of MR images. As a case study we used 181 MR synthetic multispectral images composed by proton density, T(1)- and T(2)-weighted synthetic brain images of 181 slices with 1 mm, resolution of 1 mm(3), for a normal brain and a noiseless MR tomographic system without field inhomogeneities, amounting a total of 543 images, generated by the simulator BrainWeb [2]. Our principal target here is comparing our proposal to k-means, fuzzy c-means, and Kohonen's self-organized maps, concerning the quantization error, we proved that our method can improved results obtained using k-means.

  7. A simulation-optimization model for Stone column-supported embankment stability considering rainfall effect

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Deb, Kousik, E-mail: kousik@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in; Dhar, Anirban, E-mail: anirban@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in; Purohit, Sandip, E-mail: sandip.purohit91@gmail.com

    Landslide due to rainfall has been and continues to be one of the most important concerns of geotechnical engineering. The paper presents the variation of factor of safety of stone column-supported embankment constructed over soft soil due to change in water level for an incessant period of rainfall. A combined simulation-optimization based methodology has been proposed to predict the critical surface of failure of the embankment and to optimize the corresponding factor of safety under rainfall conditions using an evolutionary genetic algorithm NSGA-II (Non-Dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm-II). It has been observed that the position of water table can be reliablymore » estimated with varying periods of infiltration using developed numerical method. The parametric study is presented to study the optimum factor of safety of the embankment and its corresponding critical failure surface under the steady-state infiltration condition. Results show that in case of floating stone columns, period of infiltration has no effect on factor of safety. Even critical failure surfaces for a particular floating column length remain same irrespective of rainfall duration.« less

  8. Detection of Foreign Matter in Transfusion Solution Based on Gaussian Background Modeling and an Optimized BP Neural Network

    PubMed Central

    Zhou, Fuqiang; Su, Zhen; Chai, Xinghua; Chen, Lipeng

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes a new method to detect and identify foreign matter mixed in a plastic bottle filled with transfusion solution. A spin-stop mechanism and mixed illumination style are applied to obtain high contrast images between moving foreign matter and a static transfusion background. The Gaussian mixture model is used to model the complex background of the transfusion image and to extract moving objects. A set of features of moving objects are extracted and selected by the ReliefF algorithm, and optimal feature vectors are fed into the back propagation (BP) neural network to distinguish between foreign matter and bubbles. The mind evolutionary algorithm (MEA) is applied to optimize the connection weights and thresholds of the BP neural network to obtain a higher classification accuracy and faster convergence rate. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively detect visible foreign matter in 250-mL transfusion bottles. The misdetection rate and false alarm rate are low, and the detection accuracy and detection speed are satisfactory. PMID:25347581

  9. Comparison of optimization strategy and similarity metric in atlas-to-subject registration using statistical deformation model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Otake, Y.; Murphy, R. J.; Grupp, R. B.; Sato, Y.; Taylor, R. H.; Armand, M.

    2015-03-01

    A robust atlas-to-subject registration using a statistical deformation model (SDM) is presented. The SDM uses statistics of voxel-wise displacement learned from pre-computed deformation vectors of a training dataset. This allows an atlas instance to be directly translated into an intensity volume and compared with a patient's intensity volume. Rigid and nonrigid transformation parameters were simultaneously optimized via the Covariance Matrix Adaptation - Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES), with image similarity used as the objective function. The algorithm was tested on CT volumes of the pelvis from 55 female subjects. A performance comparison of the CMA-ES and Nelder-Mead downhill simplex optimization algorithms with the mutual information and normalized cross correlation similarity metrics was conducted. Simulation studies using synthetic subjects were performed, as well as leave-one-out cross validation studies. Both studies suggested that mutual information and CMA-ES achieved the best performance. The leave-one-out test demonstrated 4.13 mm error with respect to the true displacement field, and 26,102 function evaluations in 180 seconds, on average.

  10. Evolutionary search for new high-k dielectric materials: methodology and applications to hafnia-based oxides.

    PubMed

    Zeng, Qingfeng; Oganov, Artem R; Lyakhov, Andriy O; Xie, Congwei; Zhang, Xiaodong; Zhang, Jin; Zhu, Qiang; Wei, Bingqing; Grigorenko, Ilya; Zhang, Litong; Cheng, Laifei

    2014-02-01

    High-k dielectric materials are important as gate oxides in microelectronics and as potential dielectrics for capacitors. In order to enable computational discovery of novel high-k dielectric materials, we propose a fitness model (energy storage density) that includes the dielectric constant, bandgap, and intrinsic breakdown field. This model, used as a fitness function in conjunction with first-principles calculations and the global optimization evolutionary algorithm USPEX, efficiently leads to practically important results. We found a number of high-fitness structures of SiO2 and HfO2, some of which correspond to known phases and some of which are new. The results allow us to propose characteristics (genes) common to high-fitness structures--these are the coordination polyhedra and their degree of distortion. Our variable-composition searches in the HfO2-SiO2 system uncovered several high-fitness states. This hybrid algorithm opens up a new avenue for discovering novel high-k dielectrics with both fixed and variable compositions, and will speed up the process of materials discovery.

  11. Constructing Robust Cooperative Networks using a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Shuai; Liu, Jing

    2017-01-01

    The design and construction of network structures oriented towards different applications has attracted much attention recently. The existing studies indicated that structural heterogeneity plays different roles in promoting cooperation and robustness. Compared with rewiring a predefined network, it is more flexible and practical to construct new networks that satisfy the desired properties. Therefore, in this paper, we study a method for constructing robust cooperative networks where the only constraint is that the number of nodes and links is predefined. We model this network construction problem as a multi-objective optimization problem and propose a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, named MOEA-Netrc, to generate the desired networks from arbitrary initializations. The performance of MOEA-Netrc is validated on several synthetic and real-world networks. The results show that MOEA-Netrc can construct balanced candidates and is insensitive to the initializations. MOEA-Netrc can find the Pareto fronts for networks with different levels of cooperation and robustness. In addition, further investigation of the robustness of the constructed networks revealed the impact on other aspects of robustness during the construction process. PMID:28134314

  12. Evolutionary algorithm for vehicle driving cycle generation.

    PubMed

    Perhinschi, Mario G; Marlowe, Christopher; Tamayo, Sergio; Tu, Jun; Wayne, W Scott

    2011-09-01

    Modeling transit bus emissions and fuel economy requires a large amount of experimental data over wide ranges of operational conditions. Chassis dynamometer tests are typically performed using representative driving cycles defined based on vehicle instantaneous speed as sequences of "microtrips", which are intervals between consecutive vehicle stops. Overall significant parameters of the driving cycle, such as average speed, stops per mile, kinetic intensity, and others, are used as independent variables in the modeling process. Performing tests at all the necessary combinations of parameters is expensive and time consuming. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for building driving cycles at prescribed independent variable values using experimental data through the concatenation of "microtrips" isolated from a limited number of standard chassis dynamometer test cycles. The selection of the adequate "microtrips" is achieved through a customized evolutionary algorithm. The genetic representation uses microtrip definitions as genes. Specific mutation, crossover, and karyotype alteration operators have been defined. The Roulette-Wheel selection technique with elitist strategy drives the optimization process, which consists of minimizing the errors to desired overall cycle parameters. This utility is part of the Integrated Bus Information System developed at West Virginia University.

  13. Community detection in complex networks by using membrane algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Chuang; Fan, Linan; Liu, Zhou; Dai, Xiang; Xu, Jiamei; Chang, Baoren

    Community detection in complex networks is a key problem of network analysis. In this paper, a new membrane algorithm is proposed to solve the community detection in complex networks. The proposed algorithm is based on membrane systems, which consists of objects, reaction rules, and a membrane structure. Each object represents a candidate partition of a complex network, and the quality of objects is evaluated according to network modularity. The reaction rules include evolutionary rules and communication rules. Evolutionary rules are responsible for improving the quality of objects, which employ the differential evolutionary algorithm to evolve objects. Communication rules implement the information exchanged among membranes. Finally, the proposed algorithm is evaluated on synthetic, real-world networks with real partitions known and the large-scaled networks with real partitions unknown. The experimental results indicate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison with other experimental algorithms.

  14. More efficient evolutionary strategies for model calibration with watershed model for demonstration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baggett, J. S.; Skahill, B. E.

    2008-12-01

    Evolutionary strategies allow automatic calibration of more complex models than traditional gradient based approaches, but they are more computationally intensive. We present several efficiency enhancements for evolution strategies, many of which are not new, but when combined have been shown to dramatically decrease the number of model runs required for calibration of synthetic problems. To reduce the number of expensive model runs we employ a surrogate objective function for an adaptively determined fraction of the population at each generation (Kern et al., 2006). We demonstrate improvements to the adaptive ranking strategy that increase its efficiency while sacrificing little reliability and further reduce the number of model runs required in densely sampled parts of parameter space. Furthermore, we include a gradient individual in each generation that is usually not selected when the search is in a global phase or when the derivatives are poorly approximated, but when selected near a smooth local minimum can dramatically increase convergence speed (Tahk et al., 2007). Finally, the selection of the gradient individual is used to adapt the size of the population near local minima. We show, by incorporating these enhancements into the Covariance Matrix Adaption Evolution Strategy (CMAES; Hansen, 2006), that their synergetic effect is greater than their individual parts. This hybrid evolutionary strategy exploits smooth structure when it is present but degrades to an ordinary evolutionary strategy, at worst, if smoothness is not present. Calibration of 2D-3D synthetic models with the modified CMAES requires approximately 10%-25% of the model runs of ordinary CMAES. Preliminary demonstration of this hybrid strategy will be shown for watershed model calibration problems. Hansen, N. (2006). The CMA Evolution Strategy: A Comparing Review. In J.A. Lozano, P. Larrañga, I. Inza and E. Bengoetxea (Eds.). Towards a new evolutionary computation. Advances in estimation of distribution algorithms. pp. 75-102, Springer Kern, S., N. Hansen and P. Koumoutsakos (2006). Local Meta-Models for Optimization Using Evolution Strategies. In Ninth International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature PPSN IX, Proceedings, pp.939-948, Berlin: Springer. Tahk, M., Woo, H., and Park. M, (2007). A hybrid optimization of evolutionary and gradient search. Engineering Optimization, (39), 87-104.

  15. An evolutionary algorithm that constructs recurrent neural networks.

    PubMed

    Angeline, P J; Saunders, G M; Pollack, J B

    1994-01-01

    Standard methods for simultaneously inducing the structure and weights of recurrent neural networks limit every task to an assumed class of architectures. Such a simplification is necessary since the interactions between network structure and function are not well understood. Evolutionary computations, which include genetic algorithms and evolutionary programming, are population-based search methods that have shown promise in many similarly complex tasks. This paper argues that genetic algorithms are inappropriate for network acquisition and describes an evolutionary program, called GNARL, that simultaneously acquires both the structure and weights for recurrent networks. GNARL's empirical acquisition method allows for the emergence of complex behaviors and topologies that are potentially excluded by the artificial architectural constraints imposed in standard network induction methods.

  16. The role of crossover operator in evolutionary-based approach to the problem of genetic code optimization.

    PubMed

    Błażej, Paweł; Wnȩtrzak, Małgorzata; Mackiewicz, Paweł

    2016-12-01

    One of theories explaining the present structure of canonical genetic code assumes that it was optimized to minimize harmful effects of amino acid replacements resulting from nucleotide substitutions and translational errors. A way to testify this concept is to find the optimal code under given criteria and compare it with the canonical genetic code. Unfortunately, the huge number of possible alternatives makes it impossible to find the optimal code using exhaustive methods in sensible time. Therefore, heuristic methods should be applied to search the space of possible solutions. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) seem to be ones of such promising approaches. This class of methods is founded both on mutation and crossover operators, which are responsible for creating and maintaining the diversity of candidate solutions. These operators possess dissimilar characteristics and consequently play different roles in the process of finding the best solutions under given criteria. Therefore, the effective searching for the potential solutions can be improved by applying both of them, especially when these operators are devised specifically for a given problem. To study this subject, we analyze the effectiveness of algorithms for various combinations of mutation and crossover probabilities under three models of the genetic code assuming different restrictions on its structure. To achieve that, we adapt the position based crossover operator for the most restricted model and develop a new type of crossover operator for the more general models. The applied fitness function describes costs of amino acid replacement regarding their polarity. Our results indicate that the usage of crossover operators can significantly improve the quality of the solutions. Moreover, the simulations with the crossover operator optimize the fitness function in the smaller number of generations than simulations without this operator. The optimal genetic codes without restrictions on their structure minimize the costs about 2.7 times better than the canonical genetic code. Interestingly, the optimal codes are dominated by amino acids characterized by polarity close to its average value for all amino acids. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Development of antibiotic regimens using graph based evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Corns, Steven M; Ashlock, Daniel A; Bryden, Kenneth M

    2013-12-01

    This paper examines the use of evolutionary algorithms in the development of antibiotic regimens given to production animals. A model is constructed that combines the lifespan of the animal and the bacteria living in the animal's gastro-intestinal tract from the early finishing stage until the animal reaches market weight. This model is used as the fitness evaluation for a set of graph based evolutionary algorithms to assess the impact of diversity control on the evolving antibiotic regimens. The graph based evolutionary algorithms have two objectives: to find an antibiotic treatment regimen that maintains the weight gain and health benefits of antibiotic use and to reduce the risk of spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria. This study examines different regimens of tylosin phosphate use on bacteria populations divided into Gram positive and Gram negative types, with a focus on Campylobacter spp. Treatment regimens were found that provided decreased antibiotic resistance relative to conventional methods while providing nearly the same benefits as conventional antibiotic regimes. By using a graph to control the information flow in the evolutionary algorithm, a variety of solutions along the Pareto front can be found automatically for this and other multi-objective problems. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Novel analytical model for optimizing the pull-in voltage in a flexured MEMS switch incorporating beam perforation effect

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guha, K.; Laskar, N. M.; Gogoi, H. J.; Borah, A. K.; Baishnab, K. L.; Baishya, S.

    2017-11-01

    This paper presents a new method for the design, modelling and optimization of a uniform serpentine meander based MEMS shunt capacitive switch with perforation on upper beam. The new approach is proposed to improve the Pull-in Voltage performance in a MEMS switch. First a new analytical model of the Pull-in Voltage is proposed using the modified Mejis-Fokkema capacitance model taking care of the nonlinear electrostatic force, the fringing field effect due to beam thickness and etched holes on the beam simultaneously followed by the validation of same with the simulated results of benchmark full 3D FEM solver CoventorWare in a wide range of structural parameter variations. It shows a good agreement with the simulated results. Secondly, an optimization method is presented to determine the optimum configuration of switch for achieving minimum Pull-in voltage considering the proposed analytical mode as objective function. Some high performance Evolutionary Optimization Algorithms have been utilized to obtain the optimum dimensions with less computational cost and complexity. Upon comparing the applied algorithms between each other, the Dragonfly Algorithm is found to be most suitable in terms of minimum Pull-in voltage and higher convergence speed. Optimized values are validated against the simulated results of CoventorWare which shows a very satisfactory results with a small deviation of 0.223 V. In addition to these, the paper proposes, for the first time, a novel algorithmic approach for uniform arrangement of square holes in a given beam area of RF MEMS switch for perforation. The algorithm dynamically accommodates all the square holes within a given beam area such that the maximum space is utilized. This automated arrangement of perforation holes will further improve the computational complexity and design accuracy of the complex design of perforated MEMS switch.

  19. Application of Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm and Genetic Algorithm for the Optimization of Urban Stormwater Drainage

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, S.; Kaushal, D. R.; Gosain, A. K.

    2017-12-01

    Urban hydrology will have an increasing role to play in the sustainability of human settlements. Expansion of urban areas brings significant changes in physical characteristics of landuse. Problems with administration of urban flooding have their roots in concentration of population within a relatively small area. As watersheds are urbanized, infiltration decreases, pattern of surface runoff is changed generating high peak flows, large runoff volumes from urban areas. Conceptual rainfall-runoff models have become a foremost tool for predicting surface runoff and flood forecasting. Manual calibration is often time consuming and tedious because of the involved subjectivity, which makes automatic approach more preferable. The calibration of parameters usually includes numerous criteria for evaluating the performances with respect to the observed data. Moreover, derivation of objective function assosciat6ed with the calibration of model parameters is quite challenging. Various studies dealing with optimization methods has steered the embracement of evolution based optimization algorithms. In this paper, a systematic comparison of two evolutionary approaches to multi-objective optimization namely shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) and genetic algorithms (GA) is done. SFLA is a cooperative search metaphor, stimulated by natural memetics based on the population while, GA is based on principle of survival of the fittest and natural evolution. SFLA and GA has been employed for optimizing the major parameters i.e. width, imperviousness, Manning's coefficient and depression storage for the highly urbanized catchment of Delhi, India. The study summarizes the auto-tuning of a widely used storm water management model (SWMM), by internal coupling of SWMM with SFLA and GA separately. The values of statistical parameters such as, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and Percent Bias (PBIAS) were found to lie within the acceptable limit, indicating reasonably good model performance. Overall, this study proved promising for assessing risk in urban drainage systems and should prove useful to improve integrity of the urban system, its reliability and provides guidance for inundation preparedness.Keywords: Hydrologic model, SWMM, Urbanization, SFLA and GA.

  20. A novel JEAnS analysis of the Fornax dwarf using evolutionary algorithms: mass follows light with signs of an off-centre merger

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diakogiannis, Foivos I.; Lewis, Geraint F.; Ibata, Rodrigo A.; Guglielmo, Magda; Kafle, Prajwal R.; Wilkinson, Mark I.; Power, Chris

    2017-09-01

    Dwarf galaxies, among the most dark matter dominated structures of our Universe, are excellent test-beds for dark matter theories. Unfortunately, mass modelling of these systems suffers from the well-documented mass-velocity anisotropy degeneracy. For the case of spherically symmetric systems, we describe a method for non-parametric modelling of the radial and tangential velocity moments. The method is a numerical velocity anisotropy 'inversion', with parametric mass models, where the radial velocity dispersion profile, σrr2, is modelled as a B-spline, and the optimization is a three-step process that consists of (I) an evolutionary modelling to determine the mass model form and the best B-spline basis to represent σrr2; (II) an optimization of the smoothing parameters and (III) a Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to determine the physical parameters. The mass-anisotropy degeneracy is reduced into mass model inference, irrespective of kinematics. We test our method using synthetic data. Our algorithm constructs the best kinematic profile and discriminates between competing dark matter models. We apply our method to the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Using a King brightness profile and testing various dark matter mass models, our model inference favours a simple mass-follows-light system. We find that the anisotropy profile of Fornax is tangential (β(r) < 0) and we estimate a total mass of M_{tot} = 1.613^{+0.050}_{-0.075} × 10^8 M_{⊙}, and a mass-to-light ratio of Υ_V = 8.93 ^{+0.32}_{-0.47} (M_{⊙}/L_{⊙}). The algorithm we present is a robust and computationally inexpensive method for non-parametric modelling of spherical clusters independent of the mass-anisotropy degeneracy.

  1. A study of optimization techniques in HDR brachytherapy for the prostate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pokharel, Ghana Shyam

    Several studies carried out thus far are in favor of dose escalation to the prostate gland to have better local control of the disease. But optimal way of delivery of higher doses of radiation therapy to the prostate without hurting neighboring critical structures is still debatable. In this study, we proposed that real time high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy with highly efficient and effective optimization could be an alternative means of precise delivery of such higher doses. This approach of delivery eliminates the critical issues such as treatment setup uncertainties and target localization as in external beam radiation therapy. Likewise, dosimetry in HDR brachytherapy is not influenced by organ edema and potential source migration as in permanent interstitial implants. Moreover, the recent report of radiobiological parameters further strengthen the argument of using hypofractionated HDR brachytherapy for the management of prostate cancer. Firstly, we studied the essential features and requirements of real time HDR brachytherapy treatment planning system. Automating catheter reconstruction with fast editing tools, fast yet accurate dose engine, robust and fast optimization and evaluation engine are some of the essential requirements for such procedures. Moreover, in most of the cases we performed, treatment plan optimization took significant amount of time of overall procedure. So, making treatment plan optimization automatic or semi-automatic with sufficient speed and accuracy was the goal of the remaining part of the project. Secondly, we studied the role of optimization function and constraints in overall quality of optimized plan. We have studied the gradient based deterministic algorithm with dose volume histogram (DVH) and more conventional variance based objective functions for optimization. In this optimization strategy, the relative weight of particular objective in aggregate objective function signifies its importance with respect to other objectives. Based on our study, DVH based objective function performed better than traditional variance based objective function in creating a clinically acceptable plan when executed under identical conditions. Thirdly, we studied the multiobjective optimization strategy using both DVH and variance based objective functions. The optimization strategy was to create several Pareto optimal solutions by scanning the clinically relevant part of the Pareto front. This strategy was adopted to decouple optimization from decision such that user could select final solution from the pool of alternative solutions based on his/her clinical goals. The overall quality of treatment plan improved using this approach compared to traditional class solution approach. In fact, the final optimized plan selected using decision engine with DVH based objective was comparable to typical clinical plan created by an experienced physicist. Next, we studied the hybrid technique comprising both stochastic and deterministic algorithm to optimize both dwell positions and dwell times. The simulated annealing algorithm was used to find optimal catheter distribution and the DVH based algorithm was used to optimize 3D dose distribution for given catheter distribution. This unique treatment planning and optimization tool was capable of producing clinically acceptable highly reproducible treatment plans in clinically reasonable time. As this algorithm was able to create clinically acceptable plans within clinically reasonable time automatically, it is really appealing for real time procedures. Next, we studied the feasibility of multiobjective optimization using evolutionary algorithm for real time HDR brachytherapy for the prostate. The algorithm with properly tuned algorithm specific parameters was able to create clinically acceptable plans within clinically reasonable time. However, the algorithm was let to run just for limited number of generations not considered optimal, in general, for such algorithms. This was done to keep time window desirable for real time procedures. Therefore, it requires further study with improved conditions to realize the full potential of the algorithm.

  2. Online Build-Order Optimization for Real-Time Strategy Agents using Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-03-27

    Their chromosome representation is a binary string of 13 actions or 39 bits. Plans consist of a limited number of build actions for the creation of...injected via case-injection which resembles case-base reasoning. Expert actions are recorded and then transformed into chromosomes for injection into GAPs...sites supply a finite amount of a resource. For example, a gold mine in AOE will disappear after a player’s workers have extracted the finite amount of

  3. Topology optimization analysis based on the direct coupling of the boundary element method and the level set method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vitório, Paulo Cezar; Leonel, Edson Denner

    2017-12-01

    The structural design must ensure suitable working conditions by attending for safe and economic criteria. However, the optimal solution is not easily available, because these conditions depend on the bodies' dimensions, materials strength and structural system configuration. In this regard, topology optimization aims for achieving the optimal structural geometry, i.e. the shape that leads to the minimum requirement of material, respecting constraints related to the stress state at each material point. The present study applies an evolutionary approach for determining the optimal geometry of 2D structures using the coupling of the boundary element method (BEM) and the level set method (LSM). The proposed algorithm consists of mechanical modelling, topology optimization approach and structural reconstruction. The mechanical model is composed of singular and hyper-singular BEM algebraic equations. The topology optimization is performed through the LSM. Internal and external geometries are evolved by the LS function evaluated at its zero level. The reconstruction process concerns the remeshing. Because the structural boundary moves at each iteration, the body's geometry change and, consequently, a new mesh has to be defined. The proposed algorithm, which is based on the direct coupling of such approaches, introduces internal cavities automatically during the optimization process, according to the intensity of Von Mises stress. The developed optimization model was applied in two benchmarks available in the literature. Good agreement was observed among the results, which demonstrates its efficiency and accuracy.

  4. XtalOpt  version r9: An open-source evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction

    DOE PAGES

    Falls, Zackary; Lonie, David C.; Avery, Patrick; ...

    2015-10-23

    This is a new version of XtalOpt, an evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction available for download from the CPC library or the XtalOpt website, http://xtalopt.github.io. XtalOpt is published under the Gnu Public License (GPL), which is an open source license that is recognized by the Open Source Initiative. We have detailed the new version incorporates many bug-fixes and new features here and predict the crystal structure of a system from its stoichiometry alone, using evolutionary algorithms.

  5. Multi-point optimization of recirculation flow type casing treatment in centrifugal compressors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tun, Min Thaw; Sakaguchi, Daisaku

    2016-06-01

    High-pressure ratio and wide operating range are highly required for a turbocharger in diesel engines. A recirculation flow type casing treatment is effective for flow range enhancement of centrifugal compressors. Two ring grooves on a suction pipe and a shroud casing wall are connected by means of an annular passage and stable recirculation flow is formed at small flow rates from the downstream groove toward the upstream groove through the annular bypass. The shape of baseline recirculation flow type casing is modified and optimized by using a multi-point optimization code with a metamodel assisted evolutionary algorithm embedding a commercial CFD code CFX from ANSYS. The numerical optimization results give the optimized design of casing with improving adiabatic efficiency in wide operating flow rate range. Sensitivity analysis of design parameters as a function of efficiency has been performed. It is found that the optimized casing design provides optimized recirculation flow rate, in which an increment of entropy rise is minimized at grooves and passages of the rotating impeller.

  6. Kramers problem in evolutionary strategies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dunkel, J.; Ebeling, W.; Schimansky-Geier, L.; Hänggi, P.

    2003-06-01

    We calculate the escape rates of different dynamical processes for the case of a one-dimensional symmetric double-well potential. In particular, we compare the escape rates of a Smoluchowski process, i.e., a corresponding overdamped Brownian motion dynamics in a metastable potential landscape, with the escape rates obtained for a biologically motivated model known as the Fisher-Eigen process. The main difference between the two models is that the dynamics of the Smoluchowski process is determined by local quantities, whereas the Fisher-Eigen process is based on a global coupling (nonlocal interaction). If considered in the context of numerical optimization algorithms, both processes can be interpreted as archetypes of physically or biologically inspired evolutionary strategies. In this sense, the results discussed in this work are utile in order to evaluate the efficiency of such strategies with regard to the problem of surmounting various barriers. We find that a combination of both scenarios, starting with the Fisher-Eigen strategy, provides a most effective evolutionary strategy.

  7. An Approach to Economic Dispatch with Multiple Fuels Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sriyanyong, Pichet

    2011-06-01

    Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a stochastic optimization technique, shows superiority to other evolutionary computation techniques in terms of less computation time, easy implementation with high quality solution, stable convergence characteristic and independent from initialization. For this reason, this paper proposes the application of PSO to the Economic Dispatch (ED) problem, which occurs in the operational planning of power systems. In this study, ED problem can be categorized according to the different characteristics of its cost function that are ED problem with smooth cost function and ED problem with multiple fuels. Taking the multiple fuels into account will make the problem more realistic. The experimental results show that the proposed PSO algorithm is more efficient than previous approaches under consideration as well as highly promising in real world applications.

  8. Controlling laser driven protons acceleration using a deformable mirror at a high repetition rate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Noaman-ul-Haq, M.; Sokollik, T.; Ahmed, H.; Braenzel, J.; Ehrentraut, L.; Mirzaie, M.; Yu, L.-L.; Sheng, Z. M.; Chen, L. M.; Schnürer, M.; Zhang, J.

    2018-03-01

    We present results from a proof-of-principle experiment to optimize laser driven protons acceleration by directly feeding back its spectral information to a deformable mirror (DM) controlled by evolutionary algorithms (EAs). By irradiating a stable high-repetition rate tape driven target with ultra-intense pulses of intensities ∼1020 W/ cm2, we optimize the maximum energy of the accelerated protons with a stability of less than ∼5% fluctuations near optimum value. Moreover, due to spatio-temporal development of the sheath field, modulations in the spectrum are also observed. Particularly, a prominent narrow peak is observed with a spread of ∼15% (FWHM) at low energy part of the spectrum. These results are helpful to develop high repetition rate optimization techniques required for laser-driven ion accelerators.

  9. Particle Swarm Optimization of Low-Thrust, Geocentric-to-Halo-Orbit Transfers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abraham, Andrew J.

    Missions to Lagrange points are becoming increasingly popular amongst spacecraft mission planners. Lagrange points are locations in space where the gravity force from two bodies, and the centrifugal force acting on a third body, cancel. To date, all spacecraft that have visited a Lagrange point have done so using high-thrust, chemical propulsion. Due to the increasing availability of low-thrust (high efficiency) propulsive devices, and their increasing capability in terms of fuel efficiency and instantaneous thrust, it has now become possible for a spacecraft to reach a Lagrange point orbit without the aid of chemical propellant. While at any given time there are many paths for a low-thrust trajectory to take, only one is optimal. The traditional approach to spacecraft trajectory optimization utilizes some form of gradient-based algorithm. While these algorithms offer numerous advantages, they also have a few significant shortcomings. The three most significant shortcomings are: (1) the fact that an initial guess solution is required to initialize the algorithm, (2) the radius of convergence can be quite small and can allow the algorithm to become trapped in local minima, and (3) gradient information is not always assessable nor always trustworthy for a given problem. To avoid these problems, this dissertation is focused on optimizing a low-thrust transfer trajectory from a geocentric orbit to an Earth-Moon, L1, Lagrange point orbit using the method of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The PSO method is an evolutionary heuristic that was originally written to model birds swarming to locate hidden food sources. This PSO method will enable the exploration of the invariant stable manifold of the target Lagrange point orbit in an effort to optimize the spacecraft's low-thrust trajectory. Examples of these optimized trajectories are presented and contrasted with those found using traditional, gradient-based approaches. In summary, the results of this dissertation find that the PSO method does, indeed, successfully optimize the low-thrust trajectory transfer problem without the need for initial guessing. Furthermore, a two-degree-of-freedom PSO problem formulation significantly outperformed a one-degree-of-freedom formulation by at least an order of magnitude, in terms of CPU time. Finally, the PSO method is also used to solve a traditional, two-burn, impulsive transfer to a Lagrange point orbit using a hybrid optimization algorithm that incorporates a gradient-based shooting algorithm as a pre-optimizer. Surprisingly, the results of this study show that "fast" transfers outperform "slow" transfers in terms of both Deltav and time of flight.

  10. Scope of Gradient and Genetic Algorithms in Multivariable Function Optimization

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shaykhian, Gholam Ali; Sen, S. K.

    2007-01-01

    Global optimization of a multivariable function - constrained by bounds specified on each variable and also unconstrained - is an important problem with several real world applications. Deterministic methods such as the gradient algorithms as well as the randomized methods such as the genetic algorithms may be employed to solve these problems. In fact, there are optimization problems where a genetic algorithm/an evolutionary approach is preferable at least from the quality (accuracy) of the results point of view. From cost (complexity) point of view, both gradient and genetic approaches are usually polynomial-time; there are no serious differences in this regard, i.e., the computational complexity point of view. However, for certain types of problems, such as those with unacceptably erroneous numerical partial derivatives and those with physically amplified analytical partial derivatives whose numerical evaluation involves undesirable errors and/or is messy, a genetic (stochastic) approach should be a better choice. We have presented here the pros and cons of both the approaches so that the concerned reader/user can decide which approach is most suited for the problem at hand. Also for the function which is known in a tabular form, instead of an analytical form, as is often the case in an experimental environment, we attempt to provide an insight into the approaches focusing our attention toward accuracy. Such an insight will help one to decide which method, out of several available methods, should be employed to obtain the best (least error) output. *

  11. Multi-Objective Algorithm for Blood Supply via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to the Wounded in an Emergency Situation

    PubMed Central

    Wen, Tingxi; Zhang, Zhongnan; Wong, Kelvin K. L.

    2016-01-01

    Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been widely used in many industries. In the medical environment, especially in some emergency situations, UAVs play an important role such as the supply of medicines and blood with speed and efficiency. In this paper, we study the problem of multi-objective blood supply by UAVs in such emergency situations. This is a complex problem that includes maintenance of the supply blood’s temperature model during transportation, the UAVs’ scheduling and routes’ planning in case of multiple sites requesting blood, and limited carrying capacity. Most importantly, we need to study the blood’s temperature change due to the external environment, the heating agent (or refrigerant) and time factor during transportation, and propose an optimal method for calculating the mixing proportion of blood and appendage in different circumstances and delivery conditions. Then, by introducing the idea of transportation appendage into the traditional Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP), this new problem is proposed according to the factors of distance and weight. Algorithmically, we use the combination of decomposition-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm and local search method to perform a series of experiments on the CVRP public dataset. By comparing our technique with the traditional ones, our algorithm can obtain better optimization results and time performance. PMID:27163361

  12. Multi-Objective Algorithm for Blood Supply via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to the Wounded in an Emergency Situation.

    PubMed

    Wen, Tingxi; Zhang, Zhongnan; Wong, Kelvin K L

    2016-01-01

    Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been widely used in many industries. In the medical environment, especially in some emergency situations, UAVs play an important role such as the supply of medicines and blood with speed and efficiency. In this paper, we study the problem of multi-objective blood supply by UAVs in such emergency situations. This is a complex problem that includes maintenance of the supply blood's temperature model during transportation, the UAVs' scheduling and routes' planning in case of multiple sites requesting blood, and limited carrying capacity. Most importantly, we need to study the blood's temperature change due to the external environment, the heating agent (or refrigerant) and time factor during transportation, and propose an optimal method for calculating the mixing proportion of blood and appendage in different circumstances and delivery conditions. Then, by introducing the idea of transportation appendage into the traditional Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP), this new problem is proposed according to the factors of distance and weight. Algorithmically, we use the combination of decomposition-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm and local search method to perform a series of experiments on the CVRP public dataset. By comparing our technique with the traditional ones, our algorithm can obtain better optimization results and time performance.

  13. Estimating the ratios of the stationary distribution values for Markov chains modeling evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Mitavskiy, Boris; Cannings, Chris

    2009-01-01

    The evolutionary algorithm stochastic process is well-known to be Markovian. These have been under investigation in much of the theoretical evolutionary computing research. When the mutation rate is positive, the Markov chain modeling of an evolutionary algorithm is irreducible and, therefore, has a unique stationary distribution. Rather little is known about the stationary distribution. In fact, the only quantitative facts established so far tell us that the stationary distributions of Markov chains modeling evolutionary algorithms concentrate on uniform populations (i.e., those populations consisting of a repeated copy of the same individual). At the same time, knowing the stationary distribution may provide some information about the expected time it takes for the algorithm to reach a certain solution, assessment of the biases due to recombination and selection, and is of importance in population genetics to assess what is called a "genetic load" (see the introduction for more details). In the recent joint works of the first author, some bounds have been established on the rates at which the stationary distribution concentrates on the uniform populations. The primary tool used in these papers is the "quotient construction" method. It turns out that the quotient construction method can be exploited to derive much more informative bounds on ratios of the stationary distribution values of various subsets of the state space. In fact, some of the bounds obtained in the current work are expressed in terms of the parameters involved in all the three main stages of an evolutionary algorithm: namely, selection, recombination, and mutation.

  14. Multiobjective synchronization of coupled systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Yang; Wang, Zidong; Wong, W. K.; Kurths, Jürgen; Fang, Jian-an

    2011-06-01

    In this paper, multiobjective synchronization of chaotic systems is investigated by especially simultaneously minimizing optimization of control cost and convergence speed. The coupling form and coupling strength are optimized by an improved multiobjective evolutionary approach that includes a hybrid chromosome representation. The hybrid encoding scheme combines binary representation with real number representation. The constraints on the coupling form are also considered by converting the multiobjective synchronization into a multiobjective constraint problem. In addition, the performances of the adaptive learning method and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II as well as the effectiveness and contributions of the proposed approach are analyzed and validated through the Rössler system in a chaotic or hyperchaotic regime and delayed chaotic neural networks.

  15. The Infobiotics Workbench: an integrated in silico modelling platform for Systems and Synthetic Biology.

    PubMed

    Blakes, Jonathan; Twycross, Jamie; Romero-Campero, Francisco Jose; Krasnogor, Natalio

    2011-12-01

    The Infobiotics Workbench is an integrated software suite incorporating model specification, simulation, parameter optimization and model checking for Systems and Synthetic Biology. A modular model specification allows for straightforward creation of large-scale models containing many compartments and reactions. Models are simulated either using stochastic simulation or numerical integration, and visualized in time and space. Model parameters and structure can be optimized with evolutionary algorithms, and model properties calculated using probabilistic model checking. Source code and binaries for Linux, Mac and Windows are available at http://www.infobiotics.org/infobiotics-workbench/; released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. Natalio.Krasnogor@nottingham.ac.uk.

  16. Stochastic injection-strategy optimization for the preliminary assessment of candidate geological storage sites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cody, Brent M.; Baù, Domenico; González-Nicolás, Ana

    2015-09-01

    Geological carbon sequestration (GCS) has been identified as having the potential to reduce increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, a global impact will only be achieved if GCS is cost-effectively and safely implemented on a massive scale. This work presents a computationally efficient methodology for identifying optimal injection strategies at candidate GCS sites having uncertainty associated with caprock permeability, effective compressibility, and aquifer permeability. A multi-objective evolutionary optimization algorithm is used to heuristically determine non-dominated solutions between the following two competing objectives: (1) maximize mass of CO2 sequestered and (2) minimize project cost. A semi-analytical algorithm is used to estimate CO2 leakage mass rather than a numerical model, enabling the study of GCS sites having vastly different domain characteristics. The stochastic optimization framework presented herein is applied to a feasibility study of GCS in a brine aquifer in the Michigan Basin (MB), USA. Eight optimization test cases are performed to investigate the impact of decision-maker (DM) preferences on Pareto-optimal objective-function values and carbon-injection strategies. This analysis shows that the feasibility of GCS at the MB test site is highly dependent upon the DM's risk-adversity preference and degree of uncertainty associated with caprock integrity. Finally, large gains in computational efficiency achieved using parallel processing and archiving are discussed.

  17. A New Algorithm Using the Non-Dominated Tree to Improve Non-Dominated Sorting.

    PubMed

    Gustavsson, Patrik; Syberfeldt, Anna

    2018-01-01

    Non-dominated sorting is a technique often used in evolutionary algorithms to determine the quality of solutions in a population. The most common algorithm is the Fast Non-dominated Sort (FNS). This algorithm, however, has the drawback that its performance deteriorates when the population size grows. The same drawback applies also to other non-dominating sorting algorithms such as the Efficient Non-dominated Sort with Binary Strategy (ENS-BS). An algorithm suggested to overcome this drawback is the Divide-and-Conquer Non-dominated Sort (DCNS) which works well on a limited number of objectives but deteriorates when the number of objectives grows. This article presents a new, more efficient algorithm called the Efficient Non-dominated Sort with Non-Dominated Tree (ENS-NDT). ENS-NDT is an extension of the ENS-BS algorithm and uses a novel Non-Dominated Tree (NDTree) to speed up the non-dominated sorting. ENS-NDT is able to handle large population sizes and a large number of objectives more efficiently than existing algorithms for non-dominated sorting. In the article, it is shown that with ENS-NDT the runtime of multi-objective optimization algorithms such as the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) can be substantially reduced.

  18. Distributed autonomous systems: resource management, planning, and control algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, James F., III; Nguyen, ThanhVu H.

    2005-05-01

    Distributed autonomous systems, i.e., systems that have separated distributed components, each of which, exhibit some degree of autonomy are increasingly providing solutions to naval and other DoD problems. Recently developed control, planning and resource allocation algorithms for two types of distributed autonomous systems will be discussed. The first distributed autonomous system (DAS) to be discussed consists of a collection of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are under fuzzy logic control. The UAVs fly and conduct meteorological sampling in a coordinated fashion determined by their fuzzy logic controllers to determine the atmospheric index of refraction. Once in flight no human intervention is required. A fuzzy planning algorithm determines the optimal trajectory, sampling rate and pattern for the UAVs and an interferometer platform while taking into account risk, reliability, priority for sampling in certain regions, fuel limitations, mission cost, and related uncertainties. The real-time fuzzy control algorithm running on each UAV will give the UAV limited autonomy allowing it to change course immediately without consulting with any commander, request other UAVs to help it, alter its sampling pattern and rate when observing interesting phenomena, or to terminate the mission and return to base. The algorithms developed will be compared to a resource manager (RM) developed for another DAS problem related to electronic attack (EA). This RM is based on fuzzy logic and optimized by evolutionary algorithms. It allows a group of dissimilar platforms to use EA resources distributed throughout the group. For both DAS types significant theoretical and simulation results will be presented.

  19. A Globally Optimal Particle Tracking Technique for Stereo Imaging Velocimetry Experiments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McDowell, Mark

    2008-01-01

    An important phase of any Stereo Imaging Velocimetry experiment is particle tracking. Particle tracking seeks to identify and characterize the motion of individual particles entrained in a fluid or air experiment. We analyze a cylindrical chamber filled with water and seeded with density-matched particles. In every four-frame sequence, we identify a particle track by assigning a unique track label for each camera image. The conventional approach to particle tracking is to use an exhaustive tree-search method utilizing greedy algorithms to reduce search times. However, these types of algorithms are not optimal due to a cascade effect of incorrect decisions upon adjacent tracks. We examine the use of a guided evolutionary neural net with simulated annealing to arrive at a globally optimal assignment of tracks. The net is guided both by the minimization of the search space through the use of prior limiting assumptions about valid tracks and by a strategy which seeks to avoid high-energy intermediate states which can trap the net in a local minimum. A stochastic search algorithm is used in place of back-propagation of error to further reduce the chance of being trapped in an energy well. Global optimization is achieved by minimizing an objective function, which includes both track smoothness and particle-image utilization parameters. In this paper we describe our model and present our experimental results. We compare our results with a nonoptimizing, predictive tracker and obtain an average increase in valid track yield of 27 percent

  20. Evolutionary computation in zoology and ecology.

    PubMed

    Boone, Randall B

    2017-12-01

    Evolutionary computational methods have adopted attributes of natural selection and evolution to solve problems in computer science, engineering, and other fields. The method is growing in use in zoology and ecology. Evolutionary principles may be merged with an agent-based modeling perspective to have individual animals or other agents compete. Four main categories are discussed: genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, and evolutionary strategies. In evolutionary computation, a population is represented in a way that allows for an objective function to be assessed that is relevant to the problem of interest. The poorest performing members are removed from the population, and remaining members reproduce and may be mutated. The fitness of the members is again assessed, and the cycle continues until a stopping condition is met. Case studies include optimizing: egg shape given different clutch sizes, mate selection, migration of wildebeest, birds, and elk, vulture foraging behavior, algal bloom prediction, and species richness given energy constraints. Other case studies simulate the evolution of species and a means to project shifts in species ranges in response to a changing climate that includes competition and phenotypic plasticity. This introduction concludes by citing other uses of evolutionary computation and a review of the flexibility of the methods. For example, representing species' niche spaces subject to selective pressure allows studies on cladistics, the taxon cycle, neutral versus niche paradigms, fundamental versus realized niches, community structure and order of colonization, invasiveness, and responses to a changing climate.

  1. Evolutionary computation in zoology and ecology

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Evolutionary computational methods have adopted attributes of natural selection and evolution to solve problems in computer science, engineering, and other fields. The method is growing in use in zoology and ecology. Evolutionary principles may be merged with an agent-based modeling perspective to have individual animals or other agents compete. Four main categories are discussed: genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, and evolutionary strategies. In evolutionary computation, a population is represented in a way that allows for an objective function to be assessed that is relevant to the problem of interest. The poorest performing members are removed from the population, and remaining members reproduce and may be mutated. The fitness of the members is again assessed, and the cycle continues until a stopping condition is met. Case studies include optimizing: egg shape given different clutch sizes, mate selection, migration of wildebeest, birds, and elk, vulture foraging behavior, algal bloom prediction, and species richness given energy constraints. Other case studies simulate the evolution of species and a means to project shifts in species ranges in response to a changing climate that includes competition and phenotypic plasticity. This introduction concludes by citing other uses of evolutionary computation and a review of the flexibility of the methods. For example, representing species’ niche spaces subject to selective pressure allows studies on cladistics, the taxon cycle, neutral versus niche paradigms, fundamental versus realized niches, community structure and order of colonization, invasiveness, and responses to a changing climate. PMID:29492029

  2. Feature Selection in Classification of Eye Movements Using Electrooculography for Activity Recognition

    PubMed Central

    Mala, S.; Latha, K.

    2014-01-01

    Activity recognition is needed in different requisition, for example, reconnaissance system, patient monitoring, and human-computer interfaces. Feature selection plays an important role in activity recognition, data mining, and machine learning. In selecting subset of features, an efficient evolutionary algorithm Differential Evolution (DE), a very efficient optimizer, is used for finding informative features from eye movements using electrooculography (EOG). Many researchers use EOG signals in human-computer interactions with various computational intelligence methods to analyze eye movements. The proposed system involves analysis of EOG signals using clearness based features, minimum redundancy maximum relevance features, and Differential Evolution based features. This work concentrates more on the feature selection algorithm based on DE in order to improve the classification for faultless activity recognition. PMID:25574185

  3. Feature selection in classification of eye movements using electrooculography for activity recognition.

    PubMed

    Mala, S; Latha, K

    2014-01-01

    Activity recognition is needed in different requisition, for example, reconnaissance system, patient monitoring, and human-computer interfaces. Feature selection plays an important role in activity recognition, data mining, and machine learning. In selecting subset of features, an efficient evolutionary algorithm Differential Evolution (DE), a very efficient optimizer, is used for finding informative features from eye movements using electrooculography (EOG). Many researchers use EOG signals in human-computer interactions with various computational intelligence methods to analyze eye movements. The proposed system involves analysis of EOG signals using clearness based features, minimum redundancy maximum relevance features, and Differential Evolution based features. This work concentrates more on the feature selection algorithm based on DE in order to improve the classification for faultless activity recognition.

  4. A Differential Evolution Algorithm Based on Nikaido-Isoda Function for Solving Nash Equilibrium in Nonlinear Continuous Games

    PubMed Central

    He, Feng; Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Guoqiang

    2016-01-01

    A differential evolution algorithm for solving Nash equilibrium in nonlinear continuous games is presented in this paper, called NIDE (Nikaido-Isoda differential evolution). At each generation, parent and child strategy profiles are compared one by one pairwisely, adapting Nikaido-Isoda function as fitness function. In practice, the NE of nonlinear game model with cubic cost function and quadratic demand function is solved, and this method could also be applied to non-concave payoff functions. Moreover, the NIDE is compared with the existing Nash Domination Evolutionary Multiplayer Optimization (NDEMO), the result showed that NIDE was significantly better than NDEMO with less iterations and shorter running time. These numerical examples suggested that the NIDE method is potentially useful. PMID:27589229

  5. Transient responses' optimization by means of set-based multi-objective evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Avigad, Gideon; Eisenstadt, Erella; Goldvard, Alex; Salomon, Shaul

    2012-04-01

    In this article, a novel solution to multi-objective problems involving the optimization of transient responses is suggested. It is claimed that the common approach of treating such problems by introducing auxiliary objectives overlooks tradeoffs that should be presented to the decision makers. This means that, if at some time during the responses, one of the responses is optimal, it should not be overlooked. An evolutionary multi-objective algorithm is suggested in order to search for these optimal solutions. For this purpose, state-wise domination is utilized with a new crowding measure for ordered sets being suggested. The approach is tested on both artificial as well as on real life problems in order to explain the methodology and demonstrate its applicability and importance. The results indicate that, from an engineering point of view, the approach possesses several advantages over existing approaches. Moreover, the applications highlight the importance of set-based evolution.

  6. Computational characterization of HPGe detectors usable for a wide variety of source geometries by using Monte Carlo simulation and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guerra, J. G.; Rubiano, J. G.; Winter, G.; Guerra, A. G.; Alonso, H.; Arnedo, M. A.; Tejera, A.; Martel, P.; Bolivar, J. P.

    2017-06-01

    In this work, we have developed a computational methodology for characterizing HPGe detectors by implementing in parallel a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, together with a Monte Carlo simulation code. The evolutionary algorithm is used for searching the geometrical parameters of a model of detector by minimizing the differences between the efficiencies calculated by Monte Carlo simulation and two reference sets of Full Energy Peak Efficiencies (FEPEs) corresponding to two given sample geometries, a beaker of small diameter laid over the detector window and a beaker of large capacity which wrap the detector. This methodology is a generalization of a previously published work, which was limited to beakers placed over the window of the detector with a diameter equal or smaller than the crystal diameter, so that the crystal mount cap (which surround the lateral surface of the crystal), was not considered in the detector model. The generalization has been accomplished not only by including such a mount cap in the model, but also using multi-objective optimization instead of mono-objective, with the aim of building a model sufficiently accurate for a wider variety of beakers commonly used for the measurement of environmental samples by gamma spectrometry, like for instance, Marinellis, Petris, or any other beaker with a diameter larger than the crystal diameter, for which part of the detected radiation have to pass through the mount cap. The proposed methodology has been applied to an HPGe XtRa detector, providing a model of detector which has been successfully verificated for different source-detector geometries and materials and experimentally validated using CRMs.

  7. Transmission over UWB channels with OFDM system using LDPC coding

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dziwoki, Grzegorz; Kucharczyk, Marcin; Sulek, Wojciech

    2009-06-01

    Hostile wireless environment requires use of sophisticated signal processing methods. The paper concerns on Ultra Wideband (UWB) transmission over Personal Area Networks (PAN) including MB-OFDM specification of physical layer. In presented work the transmission system with OFDM modulation was connected with LDPC encoder/decoder. Additionally the frame and bit error rate (FER and BER) of the system was decreased using results from the LDPC decoder in a kind of turbo equalization algorithm for better channel estimation. Computational block using evolutionary strategy, from genetic algorithms family, was also used in presented system. It was placed after SPA (Sum-Product Algorithm) decoder and is conditionally turned on in the decoding process. The result is increased effectiveness of the whole system, especially lower FER. The system was tested with two types of LDPC codes, depending on type of parity check matrices: randomly generated and constructed deterministically, optimized for practical decoder architecture implemented in the FPGA device.

  8. Evolutionary-driven support vector machines for determining the degree of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C.

    PubMed

    Stoean, Ruxandra; Stoean, Catalin; Lupsor, Monica; Stefanescu, Horia; Badea, Radu

    2011-01-01

    Hepatic fibrosis, the principal pointer to the development of a liver disease within chronic hepatitis C, can be measured through several stages. The correct evaluation of its degree, based on recent different non-invasive procedures, is of current major concern. The latest methodology for assessing it is the Fibroscan and the effect of its employment is impressive. However, the complex interaction between its stiffness indicator and the other biochemical and clinical examinations towards a respective degree of liver fibrosis is hard to be manually discovered. In this respect, the novel, well-performing evolutionary-powered support vector machines are proposed towards an automated learning of the relationship between medical attributes and fibrosis levels. The traditional support vector machines have been an often choice for addressing hepatic fibrosis, while the evolutionary option has been validated on many real-world tasks and proven flexibility and good performance. The evolutionary approach is simple and direct, resulting from the hybridization of the learning component within support vector machines and the optimization engine of evolutionary algorithms. It discovers the optimal coefficients of surfaces that separate instances of distinct classes. Apart from a detached manner of establishing the fibrosis degree for new cases, a resulting formula also offers insight upon the correspondence between the medical factors and the respective outcome. What is more, a feature selection genetic algorithm can be further embedded into the method structure, in order to dynamically concentrate search only on the most relevant attributes. The data set refers 722 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection and 24 indicators. The five possible degrees of fibrosis range from F0 (no fibrosis) to F4 (cirrhosis). Since the standard support vector machines are among the most frequently used methods in recent artificial intelligence studies for hepatic fibrosis staging, the evolutionary method is viewed in comparison to the traditional one. The multifaceted discrimination into all five degrees of fibrosis and the slightly less difficult common separation into solely three related stages are both investigated. The resulting performance proves the superiority over the standard support vector classification and the attained formula is helpful in providing an immediate calculation of the liver stage for new cases, while establishing the presence/absence and comprehending the weight of each medical factor with respect to a certain fibrosis level. The use of the evolutionary technique for fibrosis degree prediction triggers simplicity and offers a direct expression of the influence of dynamically selected indicators on the corresponding stage. Perhaps most importantly, it significantly surpasses the classical support vector machines, which are both widely used and technically sound. All these therefore confirm the promise of the new methodology towards a dependable support within the medical decision-making. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Robust Design of Biological Circuits: Evolutionary Systems Biology Approach

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Hsu, Chih-Yuan; Liou, Jing-Jia

    2011-01-01

    Artificial gene circuits have been proposed to be embedded into microbial cells that function as switches, timers, oscillators, and the Boolean logic gates. Building more complex systems from these basic gene circuit components is one key advance for biologic circuit design and synthetic biology. However, the behavior of bioengineered gene circuits remains unstable and uncertain. In this study, a nonlinear stochastic system is proposed to model the biological systems with intrinsic parameter fluctuations and environmental molecular noise from the cellular context in the host cell. Based on evolutionary systems biology algorithm, the design parameters of target gene circuits can evolve to specific values in order to robustly track a desired biologic function in spite of intrinsic and environmental noise. The fitness function is selected to be inversely proportional to the tracking error so that the evolutionary biological circuit can achieve the optimal tracking mimicking the evolutionary process of a gene circuit. Finally, several design examples are given in silico with the Monte Carlo simulation to illustrate the design procedure and to confirm the robust performance of the proposed design method. The result shows that the designed gene circuits can robustly track desired behaviors with minimal errors even with nontrivial intrinsic and external noise. PMID:22187523

  10. Robust design of biological circuits: evolutionary systems biology approach.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Hsu, Chih-Yuan; Liou, Jing-Jia

    2011-01-01

    Artificial gene circuits have been proposed to be embedded into microbial cells that function as switches, timers, oscillators, and the Boolean logic gates. Building more complex systems from these basic gene circuit components is one key advance for biologic circuit design and synthetic biology. However, the behavior of bioengineered gene circuits remains unstable and uncertain. In this study, a nonlinear stochastic system is proposed to model the biological systems with intrinsic parameter fluctuations and environmental molecular noise from the cellular context in the host cell. Based on evolutionary systems biology algorithm, the design parameters of target gene circuits can evolve to specific values in order to robustly track a desired biologic function in spite of intrinsic and environmental noise. The fitness function is selected to be inversely proportional to the tracking error so that the evolutionary biological circuit can achieve the optimal tracking mimicking the evolutionary process of a gene circuit. Finally, several design examples are given in silico with the Monte Carlo simulation to illustrate the design procedure and to confirm the robust performance of the proposed design method. The result shows that the designed gene circuits can robustly track desired behaviors with minimal errors even with nontrivial intrinsic and external noise.

  11. Evolutionary optimization methods for accelerator design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poklonskiy, Alexey A.

    Many problems from the fields of accelerator physics and beam theory can be formulated as optimization problems and, as such, solved using optimization methods. Despite growing efficiency of the optimization methods, the adoption of modern optimization techniques in these fields is rather limited. Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) form a relatively new and actively developed optimization methods family. They possess many attractive features such as: ease of the implementation, modest requirements on the objective function, a good tolerance to noise, robustness, and the ability to perform a global search efficiently. In this work we study the application of EAs to problems from accelerator physics and beam theory. We review the most commonly used methods of unconstrained optimization and describe the GATool, evolutionary algorithm and the software package, used in this work, in detail. Then we use a set of test problems to assess its performance in terms of computational resources, quality of the obtained result, and the tradeoff between them. We justify the choice of GATool as a heuristic method to generate cutoff values for the COSY-GO rigorous global optimization package for the COSY Infinity scientific computing package. We design the model of their mutual interaction and demonstrate that the quality of the result obtained by GATool increases as the information about the search domain is refined, which supports the usefulness of this model. We Giscuss GATool's performance on the problems suffering from static and dynamic noise and study useful strategies of GATool parameter tuning for these and other difficult problems. We review the challenges of constrained optimization with EAs and methods commonly used to overcome them. We describe REPA, a new constrained optimization method based on repairing, in exquisite detail, including the properties of its two repairing techniques: REFIND and REPROPT. We assess REPROPT's performance on the standard constrained optimization test problems for EA with a variety of different configurations and suggest optimal default parameter values based on the results. Then we study the performance of the REPA method on the same set of test problems and compare the obtained results with those of several commonly used constrained optimization methods with EA. Based on the obtained results, particularly on the outstanding performance of REPA on test problem that presents significant difficulty for other reviewed EAs, we conclude that the proposed method is useful and competitive. We discuss REPA parameter tuning for difficult problems and critically review some of the problems from the de-facto standard test problem set for the constrained optimization with EA. In order to demonstrate the practical usefulness of the developed method, we study several problems of accelerator design and demonstrate how they can be solved with EAs. These problems include a simple accelerator design problem (design a quadrupole triplet to be stigmatically imaging, find all possible solutions), a complex real-life accelerator design problem (an optimization of the front end section for the future neutrino factory), and a problem of the normal form defect function optimization which is used to rigorously estimate the stability of the beam dynamics in circular accelerators. The positive results we obtained suggest that the application of EAs to problems from accelerator theory can be very beneficial and has large potential. The developed optimization scenarios and tools can be used to approach similar problems.

  12. Potential applications of skip SMV with thrust engine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Weilin; Savvaris, Al

    2016-11-01

    This paper investigates the potential applications of Space Maneuver Vehicles (SMV) with skip trajectory. Due to soaring space operations over the past decades, the risk of space debris has considerably increased such as collision risks with space asset, human property on ground and even aviation. Many active debris removal methods have been investigated and in this paper, a debris remediation method is first proposed based on skip SMV. The key point is to perform controlled re-entry. These vehicles are expected to achieve a trans-atmospheric maneuver with thrust engine. If debris is released at altitude below 80 km, debris could be captured by the atmosphere drag force and re-entry interface prediction accuracy is improved. Moreover if the debris is released in a cargo at a much lower altitude, this technique protects high value space asset from break up by the atmosphere and improves landing accuracy. To demonstrate the feasibility of this concept, the present paper presents the simulation results for two specific mission profiles: (1) descent to predetermined altitude; (2) descent to predetermined point (altitude, longitude and latitude). The evolutionary collocation method is adopted for skip trajectory optimization due to its global optimality and high-accuracy. This method is actually a two-step optimization approach based on the heuristic algorithm and the collocation method. The optimal-control problem is transformed into a nonlinear programming problem (NLP) which can be efficiently and accurately solved by the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) procedure. However, such a method is sensitive to initial values. To reduce the sensitivity problem, genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted to refine the grids and provide near optimum initial values. By comparing the simulation data from different scenarios, it is found that skip SMV is feasible in active debris removal and the evolutionary collocation method gives a truthful re-entry trajectory that satisfies the path and boundary constraints.

  13. Exhaustive Versus Randomized Searchers for Nonlinear Optimization in 21st Century Computing: Solar Application

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sen, Syamal K.; AliShaykhian, Gholam

    2010-01-01

    We present a simple multi-dimensional exhaustive search method to obtain, in a reasonable time, the optimal solution of a nonlinear programming problem. It is more relevant in the present day non-mainframe computing scenario where an estimated 95% computing resources remains unutilized and computing speed touches petaflops. While the processor speed is doubling every 18 months, the band width is doubling every 12 months, and the hard disk space is doubling every 9 months. A randomized search algorithm or, equivalently, an evolutionary search method is often used instead of an exhaustive search algorithm. The reason is that a randomized approach is usually polynomial-time, i.e., fast while an exhaustive search method is exponential-time i.e., slow. We discuss the increasing importance of exhaustive search in optimization with the steady increase of computing power for solving many real-world problems of reasonable size. We also discuss the computational error and complexity of the search algorithm focusing on the fact that no measuring device can usually measure a quantity with an accuracy greater than 0.005%. We stress the fact that the quality of solution of the exhaustive search - a deterministic method - is better than that of randomized search. In 21 st century computing environment, exhaustive search cannot be left aside as an untouchable and it is not always exponential. We also describe a possible application of these algorithms in improving the efficiency of solar cells - a real hot topic - in the current energy crisis. These algorithms could be excellent tools in the hands of experimentalists and could save not only large amount of time needed for experiments but also could validate the theory against experimental results fast.

  14. Synthesis of concentric circular antenna arrays using dragonfly algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Babayigit, B.

    2018-05-01

    Due to the strong non-linear relationship between the array factor and the array elements, concentric circular antenna array (CCAA) synthesis problem is challenging. Nature-inspired optimisation techniques have been playing an important role in solving array synthesis problems. Dragonfly algorithm (DA) is a novel nature-inspired optimisation technique which is based on the static and dynamic swarming behaviours of dragonflies in nature. This paper presents the design of CCAAs to get low sidelobes using DA. The effectiveness of the proposed DA is investigated in two different (with and without centre element) cases of two three-ring (having 4-, 6-, 8-element or 8-, 10-, 12-element) CCAA design. The radiation pattern of each design cases is obtained by finding optimal excitation weights of the array elements using DA. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other state-of-the-art techniques (symbiotic organisms search, biogeography-based optimisation, sequential quadratic programming, opposition-based gravitational search algorithm, cat swarm optimisation, firefly algorithm, evolutionary programming) for all design cases. DA can be a promising technique for electromagnetic problems.

  15. Realm of Thermoalkaline Lipases in Bioprocess Commodities.

    PubMed

    Lajis, Ahmad Firdaus B

    2018-01-01

    For decades, microbial lipases are notably used as biocatalysts and efficiently catalyze various processes in many important industries. Biocatalysts are less corrosive to industrial equipment and due to their substrate specificity and regioselectivity they produced less harmful waste which promotes environmental sustainability. At present, thermostable and alkaline tolerant lipases have gained enormous interest as biocatalyst due to their stability and robustness under high temperature and alkaline environment operation. Several characteristics of the thermostable and alkaline tolerant lipases are discussed. Their molecular weight and resistance towards a range of temperature, pH, metal, and surfactants are compared. Their industrial applications in biodiesel, biodetergents, biodegreasing, and other types of bioconversions are also described. This review also discusses the advance of fermentation process for thermostable and alkaline tolerant lipases production focusing on the process development in microorganism selection and strain improvement, culture medium optimization via several optimization techniques (i.e., one-factor-at-a-time, surface response methodology, and artificial neural network), and other fermentation parameters (i.e., inoculums size, temperature, pH, agitation rate, dissolved oxygen tension (DOT), and aeration rate). Two common fermentation techniques for thermostable and alkaline tolerant lipases production which are solid-state and submerged fermentation methods are compared and discussed. Recent optimization approaches using evolutionary algorithms (i.e., Genetic Algorithm, Differential Evolution, and Particle Swarm Optimization) are also highlighted in this article.

  16. Efficient Nondomination Level Update Method for Steady-State Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization.

    PubMed

    Li, Ke; Deb, Kalyanmoy; Zhang, Qingfu; Zhang, Qiang

    2017-09-01

    Nondominated sorting (NDS), which divides a population into several nondomination levels (NDLs), is a basic step in many evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) algorithms. It has been widely studied in a generational evolution model, where the environmental selection is performed after generating a whole population of offspring. However, in a steady-state evolution model, where a population is updated right after the generation of a new candidate, the NDS can be extremely time consuming. This is especially severe when the number of objectives and population size become large. In this paper, we propose an efficient NDL update method to reduce the cost for maintaining the NDL structure in steady-state EMO. Instead of performing the NDS from scratch, our method only updates the NDLs of a limited number of solutions by extracting the knowledge from the current NDL structure. Notice that our NDL update method is performed twice at each iteration. One is after the reproduction, the other is after the environmental selection. Extensive experiments fully demonstrate that, comparing to the other five state-of-the-art NDS methods, our proposed method avoids a significant amount of unnecessary comparisons, not only in the synthetic data sets, but also in some real optimization scenarios. Last but not least, we find that our proposed method is also useful for the generational evolution model.

  17. Evolutionary Fuzzy Control and Navigation for Two Wheeled Robots Cooperatively Carrying an Object in Unknown Environments.

    PubMed

    Juang, Chia-Feng; Lai, Min-Ge; Zeng, Wan-Ting

    2015-09-01

    This paper presents a method that allows two wheeled, mobile robots to navigate unknown environments while cooperatively carrying an object. In the navigation method, a leader robot and a follower robot cooperatively perform either obstacle boundary following (OBF) or target seeking (TS) to reach a destination. The two robots are controlled by fuzzy controllers (FC) whose rules are learned through an adaptive fusion of continuous ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization (AF-CACPSO), which avoids the time-consuming task of manually designing the controllers. The AF-CACPSO-based evolutionary fuzzy control approach is first applied to the control of a single robot to perform OBF. The learning approach is then applied to achieve cooperative OBF with two robots, where an auxiliary FC designed with the AF-CACPSO is used to control the follower robot. For cooperative TS, a rule for coordination of the two robots is developed. To navigate cooperatively, a cooperative behavior supervisor is introduced to select between cooperative OBF and cooperative TS. The performance of the AF-CACPSO is verified through comparisons with various population-based optimization algorithms for the OBF learning problem. Simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the approach for cooperative navigation of two robots.

  18. Reconciliation of Gene and Species Trees

    PubMed Central

    Rusin, L. Y.; Lyubetskaya, E. V.; Gorbunov, K. Y.; Lyubetsky, V. A.

    2014-01-01

    The first part of the paper briefly overviews the problem of gene and species trees reconciliation with the focus on defining and algorithmic construction of the evolutionary scenario. Basic ideas are discussed for the aspects of mapping definitions, costs of the mapping and evolutionary scenario, imposing time scales on a scenario, incorporating horizontal gene transfers, binarization and reconciliation of polytomous trees, and construction of species trees and scenarios. The review does not intend to cover the vast diversity of literature published on these subjects. Instead, the authors strived to overview the problem of the evolutionary scenario as a central concept in many areas of evolutionary research. The second part provides detailed mathematical proofs for the solutions of two problems: (i) inferring a gene evolution along a species tree accounting for various types of evolutionary events and (ii) trees reconciliation into a single species tree when only gene duplications and losses are allowed. All proposed algorithms have a cubic time complexity and are mathematically proved to find exact solutions. Solving algorithms for problem (ii) can be naturally extended to incorporate horizontal transfers, other evolutionary events, and time scales on the species tree. PMID:24800245

  19. Constraints in Genetic Programming

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Janikow, Cezary Z.

    1996-01-01

    Genetic programming refers to a class of genetic algorithms utilizing generic representation in the form of program trees. For a particular application, one needs to provide the set of functions, whose compositions determine the space of program structures being evolved, and the set of terminals, which determine the space of specific instances of those programs. The algorithm searches the space for the best program for a given problem, applying evolutionary mechanisms borrowed from nature. Genetic algorithms have shown great capabilities in approximately solving optimization problems which could not be approximated or solved with other methods. Genetic programming extends their capabilities to deal with a broader variety of problems. However, it also extends the size of the search space, which often becomes too large to be effectively searched even by evolutionary methods. Therefore, our objective is to utilize problem constraints, if such can be identified, to restrict this space. In this publication, we propose a generic constraint specification language, powerful enough for a broad class of problem constraints. This language has two elements -- one reduces only the number of program instances, the other reduces both the space of program structures as well as their instances. With this language, we define the minimal set of complete constraints, and a set of operators guaranteeing offspring validity from valid parents. We also show that these operators are not less efficient than the standard genetic programming operators if one preprocesses the constraints - the necessary mechanisms are identified.

  20. An investigation of generalized differential evolution metaheuristic for multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning decision.

    PubMed

    Adekanmbi, Oluwole; Olugbara, Oludayo; Adeyemo, Josiah

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an annual multiobjective crop-mix planning as a problem of concurrent maximization of net profit and maximization of crop production to determine an optimal cropping pattern. The optimal crop production in a particular planting season is a crucial decision making task from the perspectives of economic management and sustainable agriculture. A multiobjective optimal crop-mix problem is formulated and solved using the generalized differential evolution 3 (GDE3) metaheuristic to generate a globally optimal solution. The performance of the GDE3 metaheuristic is investigated by comparing its results with the results obtained using epsilon constrained and nondominated sorting genetic algorithms-being two representatives of state-of-the-art in evolutionary optimization. The performance metrics of additive epsilon, generational distance, inverted generational distance, and spacing are considered to establish the comparability. In addition, a graphical comparison with respect to the true Pareto front for the multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem is presented. Empirical results generally show GDE3 to be a viable alternative tool for solving a multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem.

  1. Co-optimization of Energy and Demand-Side Reserves in Day-Ahead Electricity Markets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Surender Reddy, S.; Abhyankar, A. R.; Bijwe, P. R.

    2015-04-01

    This paper presents a new multi-objective day-ahead market clearing (DAMC) mechanism with demand-side reserves/demand response (DR) offers, considering realistic voltage-dependent load modeling. The paper proposes objectives such as social welfare maximization (SWM) including demand-side reserves, and load served error (LSE) minimization. In this paper, energy and demand-side reserves are cleared simultaneously through co-optimization process. The paper clearly brings out the unsuitability of conventional SWM for DAMC in the presence of voltage-dependent loads, due to reduction of load served (LS). Under such circumstances multi-objective DAMC with DR offers is essential. Multi-objective Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2+ (SPEA 2+) has been used to solve the optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is confirmed with results obtained from IEEE 30 bus system.

  2. Simulation of the evolution of root water foraging strategies in dry and shallow soils.

    PubMed

    Renton, Michael; Poot, Pieter

    2014-09-01

    The dynamic structural development of plants can be seen as a strategy for exploiting the limited resources available within their environment, and we would expect that evolution would lead to efficient strategies that reduce costs while maximizing resource acquisition. In particular, perennial species endemic to habitats with shallow soils in seasonally dry environments have been shown to have a specialized root system morphology that may enhance access to water resources in the underlying rock. This study aimed to explore these hypotheses by applying evolutionary algorithms to a functional-structural root growth model. A simulation model of a plant's root system was developed, which represents the dynamics of water uptake and structural growth. The model is simple enough for evolutionary optimization to be computationally feasible, yet flexible enough to allow a range of structural development strategies to be explored. The model was combined with an evolutionary algorithm in order to investigate a case study habitat with a highly heterogeneous distribution of resources, both spatially and temporally--the situation of perennial plants occurring on shallow soils in seasonally dry environments. Evolution was simulated under two contrasting fitness criteria: (1) the ability to find wet cracks in underlying rock, and (2) maximizing above-ground biomass. The novel approach successfully resulted in the evolution of more efficient structural development strategies for both fitness criteria. Different rooting strategies evolved when different criteria were applied, and each evolved strategy made ecological sense in terms of the corresponding fitness criterion. Evolution selected for root system morphologies which matched those of real species from corresponding habitats. Specialized root morphology with deeper rather than shallower lateral branching enhances access to water resources in underlying rock. More generally, the approach provides insights into both evolutionary processes and ecological costs and benefits of different plant growth strategies.

  3. Genetic algorithm for investigating flight MH370 in Indian Ocean using remotely sensed data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marghany, Maged; Mansor, Shattri; Shariff, Abdul Rashid Bin Mohamed

    2016-06-01

    This study utilized Genetic algorithm (GA) for automatic detection and simulation trajectory movements of flight MH370 debris. In doing so, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission(OSTM) on the Jason- 2 satellite have been used within 1 and half year covers data to simulate the pattern of Flight MH370 debris movements across the southern Indian Ocean. Further, multi-objectives evolutionary algorithm also used to discriminate uncertainty of flight MH370 imagined and detection. The study shows that the ocean surface current speed is 0.5 m/s. This current patterns have developed a large anticlockwise gyre over a water depth of 8,000 m. The multi-objectives evolutionary algorithm suggested that objects are existed on satellite data are not flight MH370 debris. In addition, multiobjectives evolutionary algorithm suggested that the difficulties to acquire the exact location of flight MH370 due to complicated hydrodynamic movements across the southern Indian Ocean.

  4. Experiments with a Parallel Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm for Scheduling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brown, Matthew; Johnston, Mark D.

    2013-01-01

    Evolutionary multi-objective algorithms have great potential for scheduling in those situations where tradeoffs among competing objectives represent a key requirement. One challenge, however, is runtime performance, as a consequence of evolving not just a single schedule, but an entire population, while attempting to sample the Pareto frontier as accurately and uniformly as possible. The growing availability of multi-core processors in end user workstations, and even laptops, has raised the question of the extent to which such hardware can be used to speed up evolutionary algorithms. In this paper we report on early experiments in parallelizing a Generalized Differential Evolution (GDE) algorithm for scheduling long-range activities on NASA's Deep Space Network. Initial results show that significant speedups can be achieved, but that performance does not necessarily improve as more cores are utilized. We describe our preliminary results and some initial suggestions from parallelizing the GDE algorithm. Directions for future work are outlined.

  5. GALAXY: A new hybrid MOEA for the optimal design of Water Distribution Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Q.; Savić, D. A.; Kapelan, Z.

    2017-03-01

    A new hybrid optimizer, called genetically adaptive leaping algorithm for approximation and diversity (GALAXY), is proposed for dealing with the discrete, combinatorial, multiobjective design of Water Distribution Systems (WDSs), which is NP-hard and computationally intensive. The merit of GALAXY is its ability to alleviate to a great extent the parameterization issue and the high computational overhead. It follows the generational framework of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) and includes six search operators and several important strategies. These operators are selected based on their leaping ability in the objective space from the global and local search perspectives. These strategies steer the optimization and balance the exploration and exploitation aspects simultaneously. A highlighted feature of GALAXY lies in the fact that it eliminates majority of parameters, thus being robust and easy-to-use. The comparative studies between GALAXY and three representative MOEAs on five benchmark WDS design problems confirm its competitiveness. GALAXY can identify better converged and distributed boundary solutions efficiently and consistently, indicating a much more balanced capability between the global and local search. Moreover, its advantages over other MOEAs become more substantial as the complexity of the design problem increases.

  6. Adaptive behaviors in multi-agent source localization using passive sensing.

    PubMed

    Shaukat, Mansoor; Chitre, Mandar

    2016-12-01

    In this paper, the role of adaptive group cohesion in a cooperative multi-agent source localization problem is investigated. A distributed source localization algorithm is presented for a homogeneous team of simple agents. An agent uses a single sensor to sense the gradient and two sensors to sense its neighbors. The algorithm is a set of individualistic and social behaviors where the individualistic behavior is as simple as an agent keeping its previous heading and is not self-sufficient in localizing the source. Source localization is achieved as an emergent property through agent's adaptive interactions with the neighbors and the environment. Given a single agent is incapable of localizing the source, maintaining team connectivity at all times is crucial. Two simple temporal sampling behaviors, intensity-based-adaptation and connectivity-based-adaptation, ensure an efficient localization strategy with minimal agent breakaways. The agent behaviors are simultaneously optimized using a two phase evolutionary optimization process. The optimized behaviors are estimated with analytical models and the resulting collective behavior is validated against the agent's sensor and actuator noise, strong multi-path interference due to environment variability, initialization distance sensitivity and loss of source signal.

  7. Multi-Sensor Information Fusion for Optimizing Electric Bicycle Routes Using a Swarm Intelligence Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Villarubia, Gabriel; De Paz, Juan F.; Bajo, Javier

    2017-01-01

    The use of electric bikes (e-bikes) has grown in popularity, especially in large cities where overcrowding and traffic congestion are common. This paper proposes an intelligent engine management system for e-bikes which uses the information collected from sensors to optimize battery energy and time. The intelligent engine management system consists of a built-in network of sensors in the e-bike, which is used for multi-sensor data fusion; the collected data is analysed and fused and on the basis of this information the system can provide the user with optimal and personalized assistance. The user is given recommendations related to battery consumption, sensors, and other parameters associated with the route travelled, such as duration, speed, or variation in altitude. To provide a user with these recommendations, artificial neural networks are used to estimate speed and consumption for each of the segments of a route. These estimates are incorporated into evolutionary algorithms in order to make the optimizations. A comparative analysis of the results obtained has been conducted for when routes were travelled with and without the optimization system. From the experiments, it is evident that the use of an engine management system results in significant energy and time savings. Moreover, user satisfaction increases as the level of assistance adapts to user behavior and the characteristics of the route. PMID:29088087

  8. Hybrid Self-Adaptive Evolution Strategies Guided by Neighborhood Structures for Combinatorial Optimization Problems.

    PubMed

    Coelho, V N; Coelho, I M; Souza, M J F; Oliveira, T A; Cota, L P; Haddad, M N; Mladenovic, N; Silva, R C P; Guimarães, F G

    2016-01-01

    This article presents an Evolution Strategy (ES)--based algorithm, designed to self-adapt its mutation operators, guiding the search into the solution space using a Self-Adaptive Reduced Variable Neighborhood Search procedure. In view of the specific local search operators for each individual, the proposed population-based approach also fits into the context of the Memetic Algorithms. The proposed variant uses the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure with different greedy parameters for generating its initial population, providing an interesting exploration-exploitation balance. To validate the proposal, this framework is applied to solve three different [Formula: see text]-Hard combinatorial optimization problems: an Open-Pit-Mining Operational Planning Problem with dynamic allocation of trucks, an Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problem with Setup Times, and the calibration of a hybrid fuzzy model for Short-Term Load Forecasting. Computational results point out the convergence of the proposed model and highlight its ability in combining the application of move operations from distinct neighborhood structures along the optimization. The results gathered and reported in this article represent a collective evidence of the performance of the method in challenging combinatorial optimization problems from different application domains. The proposed evolution strategy demonstrates an ability of adapting the strength of the mutation disturbance during the generations of its evolution process. The effectiveness of the proposal motivates the application of this novel evolutionary framework for solving other combinatorial optimization problems.

  9. Multi-Sensor Information Fusion for Optimizing Electric Bicycle Routes Using a Swarm Intelligence Algorithm.

    PubMed

    De La Iglesia, Daniel H; Villarrubia, Gabriel; De Paz, Juan F; Bajo, Javier

    2017-10-31

    The use of electric bikes (e-bikes) has grown in popularity, especially in large cities where overcrowding and traffic congestion are common. This paper proposes an intelligent engine management system for e-bikes which uses the information collected from sensors to optimize battery energy and time. The intelligent engine management system consists of a built-in network of sensors in the e-bike, which is used for multi-sensor data fusion; the collected data is analysed and fused and on the basis of this information the system can provide the user with optimal and personalized assistance. The user is given recommendations related to battery consumption, sensors, and other parameters associated with the route travelled, such as duration, speed, or variation in altitude. To provide a user with these recommendations, artificial neural networks are used to estimate speed and consumption for each of the segments of a route. These estimates are incorporated into evolutionary algorithms in order to make the optimizations. A comparative analysis of the results obtained has been conducted for when routes were travelled with and without the optimization system. From the experiments, it is evident that the use of an engine management system results in significant energy and time savings. Moreover, user satisfaction increases as the level of assistance adapts to user behavior and the characteristics of the route.

  10. iACP-GAEnsC: Evolutionary genetic algorithm based ensemble classification of anticancer peptides by utilizing hybrid feature space.

    PubMed

    Akbar, Shahid; Hayat, Maqsood; Iqbal, Muhammad; Jan, Mian Ahmad

    2017-06-01

    Cancer is a fatal disease, responsible for one-quarter of all deaths in developed countries. Traditional anticancer therapies such as, chemotherapy and radiation, are highly expensive, susceptible to errors and ineffective techniques. These conventional techniques induce severe side-effects on human cells. Due to perilous impact of cancer, the development of an accurate and highly efficient intelligent computational model is desirable for identification of anticancer peptides. In this paper, evolutionary intelligent genetic algorithm-based ensemble model, 'iACP-GAEnsC', is proposed for the identification of anticancer peptides. In this model, the protein sequences are formulated, using three different discrete feature representation methods, i.e., amphiphilic Pseudo amino acid composition, g-Gap dipeptide composition, and Reduce amino acid alphabet composition. The performance of the extracted feature spaces are investigated separately and then merged to exhibit the significance of hybridization. In addition, the predicted results of individual classifiers are combined together, using optimized genetic algorithm and simple majority technique in order to enhance the true classification rate. It is observed that genetic algorithm-based ensemble classification outperforms than individual classifiers as well as simple majority voting base ensemble. The performance of genetic algorithm-based ensemble classification is highly reported on hybrid feature space, with an accuracy of 96.45%. In comparison to the existing techniques, 'iACP-GAEnsC' model has achieved remarkable improvement in terms of various performance metrics. Based on the simulation results, it is observed that 'iACP-GAEnsC' model might be a leading tool in the field of drug design and proteomics for researchers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. From evolutionary computation to the evolution of things.

    PubMed

    Eiben, Agoston E; Smith, Jim

    2015-05-28

    Evolution has provided a source of inspiration for algorithm designers since the birth of computers. The resulting field, evolutionary computation, has been successful in solving engineering tasks ranging in outlook from the molecular to the astronomical. Today, the field is entering a new phase as evolutionary algorithms that take place in hardware are developed, opening up new avenues towards autonomous machines that can adapt to their environment. We discuss how evolutionary computation compares with natural evolution and what its benefits are relative to other computing approaches, and we introduce the emerging area of artificial evolution in physical systems.

  12. Courses of action for effects based operations using evolutionary algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haider, Sajjad; Levis, Alexander H.

    2006-05-01

    This paper presents an Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) based approach to identify effective courses of action (COAs) in Effects Based Operations. The approach uses Timed Influence Nets (TINs) as the underlying mathematical model to capture a dynamic uncertain situation. TINs provide a concise graph-theoretic probabilistic approach to specify the cause and effect relationships that exist among the variables of interest (actions, desired effects, and other uncertain events) in a problem domain. The purpose of building these TIN models is to identify and analyze several alternative courses of action. The current practice is to use trial and error based techniques which are not only labor intensive but also produce sub-optimal results and are not capable of modeling constraints among actionable events. The EA based approach presented in this paper is aimed to overcome these limitations. The approach generates multiple COAs that are close enough in terms of achieving the desired effect. The purpose of generating multiple COAs is to give several alternatives to a decision maker. Moreover, the alternate COAs could be generalized based on the relationships that exist among the actions and their execution timings. The approach also allows a system analyst to capture certain types of constraints among actionable events.

  13. De novo design of molecular architectures by evolutionary assembly of drug-derived building blocks.

    PubMed

    Schneider, G; Lee, M L; Stahl, M; Schneider, P

    2000-07-01

    An evolutionary algorithm was developed for fragment-based de novo design of molecules (TOPAS, TOPology-Assigning System). This stochastic method aims at generating a novel molecular structure mimicking a template structure. A set of approximately 25,000 fragment structures serves as the building block supply, which were obtained by a straightforward fragmentation procedure applied to 36,000 known drugs. Eleven reaction schemes were implemented for both fragmentation and building block assembly. This combination of drug-derived building blocks and a restricted set of reaction schemes proved to be a key for the automatic development of novel, synthetically tractable structures. In a cyclic optimization process, molecular architectures were generated from a parent structure by virtual synthesis, and the best structure of a generation was selected as the parent for the subsequent TOPAS cycle. Similarity measures were used to define 'fitness', based on 2D-structural similarity or topological pharmacophore distance between the template molecule and the variants. The concept of varying library 'diversity' during a design process was consequently implemented by using adaptive variant distributions. The efficiency of the design algorithm was demonstrated for the de novo construction of potential thrombin inhibitors mimicking peptide and non-peptide template structures.

  14. A Multipopulation Coevolutionary Strategy for Multiobjective Immune Algorithm

    PubMed Central

    Shi, Jiao; Gong, Maoguo; Ma, Wenping; Jiao, Licheng

    2014-01-01

    How to maintain the population diversity is an important issue in designing a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. This paper presents an enhanced nondominated neighbor-based immune algorithm in which a multipopulation coevolutionary strategy is introduced for improving the population diversity. In the proposed algorithm, subpopulations evolve independently; thus the unique characteristics of each subpopulation can be effectively maintained, and the diversity of the entire population is effectively increased. Besides, the dynamic information of multiple subpopulations is obtained with the help of the designed cooperation operator which reflects a mutually beneficial relationship among subpopulations. Subpopulations gain the opportunity to exchange information, thereby expanding the search range of the entire population. Subpopulations make use of the reference experience from each other, thereby improving the efficiency of evolutionary search. Compared with several state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithms on well-known and frequently used multiobjective and many-objective problems, the proposed algorithm achieves comparable results in terms of convergence, diversity metrics, and running time on most test problems. PMID:24672330

  15. Power-Aware Intrusion Detection in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Şen, Sevil; Clark, John A.; Tapiador, Juan E.

    Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are a highly promising new form of networking. However they are more vulnerable to attacks than wired networks. In addition, conventional intrusion detection systems (IDS) are ineffective and inefficient for highly dynamic and resource-constrained environments. Achieving an effective operational MANET requires tradeoffs to be made between functional and non-functional criteria. In this paper we show how Genetic Programming (GP) together with a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) can be used to synthesise intrusion detection programs that make optimal tradeoffs between security criteria and the power they consume.

  16. Pareto-optimal multi-objective dimensionality reduction deep auto-encoder for mammography classification.

    PubMed

    Taghanaki, Saeid Asgari; Kawahara, Jeremy; Miles, Brandon; Hamarneh, Ghassan

    2017-07-01

    Feature reduction is an essential stage in computer aided breast cancer diagnosis systems. Multilayer neural networks can be trained to extract relevant features by encoding high-dimensional data into low-dimensional codes. Optimizing traditional auto-encoders works well only if the initial weights are close to a proper solution. They are also trained to only reduce the mean squared reconstruction error (MRE) between the encoder inputs and the decoder outputs, but do not address the classification error. The goal of the current work is to test the hypothesis that extending traditional auto-encoders (which only minimize reconstruction error) to multi-objective optimization for finding Pareto-optimal solutions provides more discriminative features that will improve classification performance when compared to single-objective and other multi-objective approaches (i.e. scalarized and sequential). In this paper, we introduce a novel multi-objective optimization of deep auto-encoder networks, in which the auto-encoder optimizes two objectives: MRE and mean classification error (MCE) for Pareto-optimal solutions, rather than just MRE. These two objectives are optimized simultaneously by a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. We tested our method on 949 X-ray mammograms categorized into 12 classes. The results show that the features identified by the proposed algorithm allow a classification accuracy of up to 98.45%, demonstrating favourable accuracy over the results of state-of-the-art methods reported in the literature. We conclude that adding the classification objective to the traditional auto-encoder objective and optimizing for finding Pareto-optimal solutions, using evolutionary multi-objective optimization, results in producing more discriminative features. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. A Strategic Approach to Joint Officer Management: Analysis and Modeling Results

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-01-01

    rules. 5 Johnson and Wichern, 2002, p. 643. 6 Sullivan and Perry, 2004, p. 370. 7 Francesco Mola and Raffaele Miele, “Evolutionary Algorithms for...in Military Affairs, Newport, R.I.: Center for Naval Warfare Studies, 2003. Mola , Francesco, and Raffaele Miele, “Evolutionary Algorithms for

  18. Knowledge Guided Evolutionary Algorithms in Financial Investing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wimmer, Hayden

    2013-01-01

    A large body of literature exists on evolutionary computing, genetic algorithms, decision trees, codified knowledge, and knowledge management systems; however, the intersection of these computing topics has not been widely researched. Moving through the set of all possible solutions--or traversing the search space--at random exhibits no control…

  19. Investigating multi-objective fluence and beam orientation IMRT optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Potrebko, Peter S.; Fiege, Jason; Biagioli, Matthew; Poleszczuk, Jan

    2017-07-01

    Radiation Oncology treatment planning requires compromises to be made between clinical objectives that are invariably in conflict. It would be beneficial to have a ‘bird’s-eye-view’ perspective of the full spectrum of treatment plans that represent the possible trade-offs between delivering the intended dose to the planning target volume (PTV) while optimally sparing the organs-at-risk (OARs). In this work, the authors demonstrate Pareto-aware radiotherapy evolutionary treatment optimization (PARETO), a multi-objective tool featuring such bird’s-eye-view functionality, which optimizes fluence patterns and beam angles for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning. The problem of IMRT treatment plan optimization is managed as a combined monolithic problem, where all beam fluence and angle parameters are treated equally during the optimization. To achieve this, PARETO is built around a powerful multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, called Ferret, which simultaneously optimizes multiple fitness functions that encode the attributes of the desired dose distribution for the PTV and OARs. The graphical interfaces within PARETO provide useful information such as: the convergence behavior during optimization, trade-off plots between the competing objectives, and a graphical representation of the optimal solution database allowing for the rapid exploration of treatment plan quality through the evaluation of dose-volume histograms and isodose distributions. PARETO was evaluated for two relatively complex clinical cases, a paranasal sinus and a pancreas case. The end result of each PARETO run was a database of optimal (non-dominated) treatment plans that demonstrated trade-offs between the OAR and PTV fitness functions, which were all equally good in the Pareto-optimal sense (where no one objective can be improved without worsening at least one other). Ferret was able to produce high quality solutions even though a large number of parameters, such as beam fluence and beam angles, were included in the optimization.

  20. A real negative selection algorithm with evolutionary preference for anomaly detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Tao; Chen, Wen; Li, Tao

    2017-04-01

    Traditional real negative selection algorithms (RNSAs) adopt the estimated coverage (c0) as the algorithm termination threshold, and generate detectors randomly. With increasing dimensions, the data samples could reside in the low-dimensional subspace, so that the traditional detectors cannot effectively distinguish these samples. Furthermore, in high-dimensional feature space, c0 cannot exactly reflect the detectors set coverage rate for the nonself space, and it could lead the algorithm to be terminated unexpectedly when the number of detectors is insufficient. These shortcomings make the traditional RNSAs to perform poorly in high-dimensional feature space. Based upon "evolutionary preference" theory in immunology, this paper presents a real negative selection algorithm with evolutionary preference (RNSAP). RNSAP utilizes the "unknown nonself space", "low-dimensional target subspace" and "known nonself feature" as the evolutionary preference to guide the generation of detectors, thus ensuring the detectors can cover the nonself space more effectively. Besides, RNSAP uses redundancy to replace c0 as the termination threshold, in this way RNSAP can generate adequate detectors under a proper convergence rate. The theoretical analysis and experimental result demonstrate that, compared to the classical RNSA (V-detector), RNSAP can achieve a higher detection rate, but with less detectors and computing cost.

  1. OPTIMIZING THROUGH CO-EVOLUTIONARY AVALANCHES

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    S. BOETTCHER; A. PERCUS

    2000-08-01

    We explore a new general-purpose heuristic for finding high-quality solutions to hard optimization problems. The method, called extremal optimization, is inspired by ''self-organized critically,'' a concept introduced to describe emergent complexity in many physical systems. In contrast to Genetic Algorithms which operate on an entire ''gene-pool'' of possible solutions, extremal optimization successively replaces extremely undesirable elements of a sub-optimal solution with new, random ones. Large fluctuations, called ''avalanches,'' ensue that efficiently explore many local optima. Drawing upon models used to simulate far-from-equilibrium dynamics, extremal optimization complements approximation methods inspired by equilibrium statistical physics, such as simulated annealing. With only onemore » adjustable parameter, its performance has proved competitive with more elaborate methods, especially near phase transitions. Those phase transitions are found in the parameter space of most optimization problems, and have recently been conjectured to be the origin of some of the hardest instances in computational complexity. We will demonstrate how extremal optimization can be implemented for a variety of combinatorial optimization problems. We believe that extremal optimization will be a useful tool in the investigation of phase transitions in combinatorial optimization problems, hence valuable in elucidating the origin of computational complexity.« less

  2. Evolutionary Design of Controlled Structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Masters, Brett P.; Crawley, Edward F.

    1997-01-01

    Basic physical concepts of structural delay and transmissibility are provided for simple rod and beam structures. Investigations show the sensitivity of these concepts to differing controlled-structures variables, and to rational system modeling effects. An evolutionary controls/structures design method is developed. The basis of the method is an accurate model formulation for dynamic compensator optimization and Genetic Algorithm based updating of sensor/actuator placement and structural attributes. One and three dimensional examples from the literature are used to validate the method. Frequency domain interpretation of these controlled structure systems provide physical insight as to how the objective is optimized and consequently what is important in the objective. Several disturbance rejection type controls-structures systems are optimized for a stellar interferometer spacecraft application. The interferometric designs include closed loop tracking optics. Designs are generated for differing structural aspect ratios, differing disturbance attributes, and differing sensor selections. Physical limitations in achieving performance are given in terms of average system transfer function gains and system phase loss. A spacecraft-like optical interferometry system is investigated experimentally over several different optimized controlled structures configurations. Configurations represent common and not-so-common approaches to mitigating pathlength errors induced by disturbances of two different spectra. Results show that an optimized controlled structure for low frequency broadband disturbances achieves modest performance gains over a mass equivalent regular structure, while an optimized structure for high frequency narrow band disturbances is four times better in terms of root-mean-square pathlength. These results are predictable given the nature of the physical system and the optimization design variables. Fundamental limits on controlled performance are discussed based on the measured and fit average system transfer function gains and system phase loss.

  3. Exact solutions for species tree inference from discordant gene trees.

    PubMed

    Chang, Wen-Chieh; Górecki, Paweł; Eulenstein, Oliver

    2013-10-01

    Phylogenetic analysis has to overcome the grant challenge of inferring accurate species trees from evolutionary histories of gene families (gene trees) that are discordant with the species tree along whose branches they have evolved. Two well studied approaches to cope with this challenge are to solve either biologically informed gene tree parsimony (GTP) problems under gene duplication, gene loss, and deep coalescence, or the classic RF supertree problem that does not rely on any biological model. Despite the potential of these problems to infer credible species trees, they are NP-hard. Therefore, these problems are addressed by heuristics that typically lack any provable accuracy and precision. We describe fast dynamic programming algorithms that solve the GTP problems and the RF supertree problem exactly, and demonstrate that our algorithms can solve instances with data sets consisting of as many as 22 taxa. Extensions of our algorithms can also report the number of all optimal species trees, as well as the trees themselves. To better asses the quality of the resulting species trees that best fit the given gene trees, we also compute the worst case species trees, their numbers, and optimization score for each of the computational problems. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our exact algorithms using empirical and simulated data sets, and analyze the quality of heuristic solutions for the studied problems by contrasting them with our exact solutions.

  4. Selfish Gene Algorithm Vs Genetic Algorithm: A Review

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ariff, Norharyati Md; Khalid, Noor Elaiza Abdul; Hashim, Rathiah; Noor, Noorhayati Mohamed

    2016-11-01

    Evolutionary algorithm is one of the algorithms inspired by the nature. Within little more than a decade hundreds of papers have reported successful applications of EAs. In this paper, the Selfish Gene Algorithms (SFGA), as one of the latest evolutionary algorithms (EAs) inspired from the Selfish Gene Theory which is an interpretation of Darwinian Theory ideas from the biologist Richards Dawkins on 1989. In this paper, following a brief introduction to the Selfish Gene Algorithm (SFGA), the chronology of its evolution is presented. It is the purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the concepts of Selfish Gene Algorithm (SFGA) as well as its opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, the history, step involves in the algorithm are discussed and its different applications together with an analysis of these applications are evaluated.

  5. Iris double recognition based on modified evolutionary neural network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Shuai; Liu, Yuan-Ning; Zhu, Xiao-Dong; Huo, Guang; Liu, Wen-Tao; Feng, Jia-Kai

    2017-11-01

    Aiming at multicategory iris recognition under illumination and noise interference, this paper proposes a method of iris double recognition based on a modified evolutionary neural network. An equalization histogram and Laplace of Gaussian operator are used to process the iris to suppress illumination and noise interference and Haar wavelet to convert the iris feature to binary feature encoding. Calculate the Hamming distance for the test iris and template iris , and compare with classification threshold, determine the type of iris. If the iris cannot be identified as a different type, there needs to be a secondary recognition. The connection weights in back-propagation (BP) neural network use modified evolutionary neural network to adaptively train. The modified neural network is composed of particle swarm optimization with mutation operator and BP neural network. According to different iris libraries in different circumstances of experimental results, under illumination and noise interference, the correct recognition rate of this algorithm is higher, the ROC curve is closer to the coordinate axis, the training and recognition time is shorter, and the stability and the robustness are better.

  6. Genetic Algorithm for Optimization: Preprocessor and Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sen, S. K.; Shaykhian, Gholam A.

    2006-01-01

    Genetic algorithm (GA) inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution and employed to solve optimization problems - unconstrained or constrained - uses an evolutionary process. A GA has several parameters such the population size, search space, crossover and mutation probabilities, and fitness criterion. These parameters are not universally known/determined a priori for all problems. Depending on the problem at hand, these parameters need to be decided such that the resulting GA performs the best. We present here a preprocessor that achieves just that, i.e., it determines, for a specified problem, the foregoing parameters so that the consequent GA is a best for the problem. We stress also the need for such a preprocessor both for quality (error) and for cost (complexity) to produce the solution. The preprocessor includes, as its first step, making use of all the information such as that of nature/character of the function/system, search space, physical/laboratory experimentation (if already done/available), and the physical environment. It also includes the information that can be generated through any means - deterministic/nondeterministic/graphics. Instead of attempting a solution of the problem straightway through a GA without having/using the information/knowledge of the character of the system, we would do consciously a much better job of producing a solution by using the information generated/created in the very first step of the preprocessor. We, therefore, unstintingly advocate the use of a preprocessor to solve a real-world optimization problem including NP-complete ones before using the statistically most appropriate GA. We also include such a GA for unconstrained function optimization problems.

  7. International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems (1st) ICARIS 2002, held on 9, 10, and 11 September 2002

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2002-03-07

    Michalewicz, Eds., Evolutionary Computation 1: Basic Algorithms and Operators, Institute of Physics, Bristol (UK), 2000. [3] David A. Van Veldhuizen ...2000. [4] Carlos A. Coello Coello, David A. Van Veldhuizen , and Gary B. Lamont, Evolutionary Algorithms for Solving Multi-Objective Problems, Kluwer...Academic Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, 2002. [5] David A. Van Veldhuizen , Multiobjective Evolution- ary Algorithms: Classifications

  8. Comparison of the genetic algorithm and incremental optimisation routines for a Bayesian inverse modelling based network design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nickless, A.; Rayner, P. J.; Erni, B.; Scholes, R. J.

    2018-05-01

    The design of an optimal network of atmospheric monitoring stations for the observation of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations can be obtained by applying an optimisation algorithm to a cost function based on minimising posterior uncertainty in the CO2 fluxes obtained from a Bayesian inverse modelling solution. Two candidate optimisation methods assessed were the evolutionary algorithm: the genetic algorithm (GA), and the deterministic algorithm: the incremental optimisation (IO) routine. This paper assessed the ability of the IO routine in comparison to the more computationally demanding GA routine to optimise the placement of a five-member network of CO2 monitoring sites located in South Africa. The comparison considered the reduction in uncertainty of the overall flux estimate, the spatial similarity of solutions, and computational requirements. Although the IO routine failed to find the solution with the global maximum uncertainty reduction, the resulting solution had only fractionally lower uncertainty reduction compared with the GA, and at only a quarter of the computational resources used by the lowest specified GA algorithm. The GA solution set showed more inconsistency if the number of iterations or population size was small, and more so for a complex prior flux covariance matrix. If the GA completed with a sub-optimal solution, these solutions were similar in fitness to the best available solution. Two additional scenarios were considered, with the objective of creating circumstances where the GA may outperform the IO. The first scenario considered an established network, where the optimisation was required to add an additional five stations to an existing five-member network. In the second scenario the optimisation was based only on the uncertainty reduction within a subregion of the domain. The GA was able to find a better solution than the IO under both scenarios, but with only a marginal improvement in the uncertainty reduction. These results suggest that the best use of resources for the network design problem would be spent in improvement of the prior estimates of the flux uncertainties rather than investing these resources in running a complex evolutionary optimisation algorithm. The authors recommend that, if time and computational resources allow, that multiple optimisation techniques should be used as a part of a comprehensive suite of sensitivity tests when performing such an optimisation exercise. This will provide a selection of best solutions which could be ranked based on their utility and practicality.

  9. Generative Representations for Computer-Automated Evolutionary Design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hornby, Gregory S.

    2006-01-01

    With the increasing computational power of computers, software design systems are progressing from being tools for architects and designers to express their ideas to tools capable of creating designs under human guidance. One of the main limitations for these computer-automated design systems is the representation with which they encode designs. If the representation cannot encode a certain design, then the design system cannot produce it. To be able to produce new types of designs, and not just optimize pre-defined parameterizations, evolutionary design systems must use generative representations. Generative representations are assembly procedures, or algorithms, for constructing a design thereby allowing for truly novel design solutions to be encoded. In addition, by enabling modularity, regularity and hierarchy, the level of sophistication that can be evolved is increased. We demonstrate the advantages of generative representations on two different design domains: the evolution of spacecraft antennas and the evolution of 3D objects.

  10. Improving the sampling efficiency of Monte Carlo molecular simulations: an evolutionary approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leblanc, Benoit; Braunschweig, Bertrand; Toulhoat, Hervé; Lutton, Evelyne

    We present a new approach in order to improve the convergence of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of molecular systems belonging to complex energetic landscapes: the problem is redefined in terms of the dynamic allocation of MC move frequencies depending on their past efficiency, measured with respect to a relevant sampling criterion. We introduce various empirical criteria with the aim of accounting for the proper convergence in phase space sampling. The dynamic allocation is performed over parallel simulations by means of a new evolutionary algorithm involving 'immortal' individuals. The method is bench marked with respect to conventional procedures on a model for melt linear polyethylene. We record significant improvement in sampling efficiencies, thus in computational load, while the optimal sets of move frequencies are liable to allow interesting physical insights into the particular systems simulated. This last aspect should provide a new tool for designing more efficient new MC moves.

  11. Controlling Tensegrity Robots Through Evolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Iscen, Atil; Agogino, Adrian; SunSpiral, Vytas; Tumer, Kagan

    2013-01-01

    Tensegrity structures (built from interconnected rods and cables) have the potential to offer a revolutionary new robotic design that is light-weight, energy-efficient, robust to failures, capable of unique modes of locomotion, impact tolerant, and compliant (reducing damage between the robot and its environment). Unfortunately robots built from tensegrity structures are difficult to control with traditional methods due to their oscillatory nature, nonlinear coupling between components and overall complexity. Fortunately this formidable control challenge can be overcome through the use of evolutionary algorithms. In this paper we show that evolutionary algorithms can be used to efficiently control a ball-shaped tensegrity robot. Experimental results performed with a variety of evolutionary algorithms in a detailed soft-body physics simulator show that a centralized evolutionary algorithm performs 400 percent better than a hand-coded solution, while the multi-agent evolution performs 800 percent better. In addition, evolution is able to discover diverse control solutions (both crawling and rolling) that are robust against structural failures and can be adapted to a wide range of energy and actuation constraints. These successful controls will form the basis for building high-performance tensegrity robots in the near future.

  12. A simple methodology for characterization of germanium coaxial detectors by using Monte Carlo simulation and evolutionary algorithms.

    PubMed

    Guerra, J G; Rubiano, J G; Winter, G; Guerra, A G; Alonso, H; Arnedo, M A; Tejera, A; Gil, J M; Rodríguez, R; Martel, P; Bolivar, J P

    2015-11-01

    The determination in a sample of the activity concentration of a specific radionuclide by gamma spectrometry needs to know the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE) for the energy of interest. The difficulties related to the experimental calibration make it advisable to have alternative methods for FEPE determination, such as the simulation of the transport of photons in the crystal by the Monte Carlo method, which requires an accurate knowledge of the characteristics and geometry of the detector. The characterization process is mainly carried out by Canberra Industries Inc. using proprietary techniques and methodologies developed by that company. It is a costly procedure (due to shipping and to the cost of the process itself) and for some research laboratories an alternative in situ procedure can be very useful. The main goal of this paper is to find an alternative to this costly characterization process, by establishing a method for optimizing the parameters of characterizing the detector, through a computational procedure which could be reproduced at a standard research lab. This method consists in the determination of the detector geometric parameters by using Monte Carlo simulation in parallel with an optimization process, based on evolutionary algorithms, starting from a set of reference FEPEs determined experimentally or computationally. The proposed method has proven to be effective and simple to implement. It provides a set of characterization parameters which it has been successfully validated for different source-detector geometries, and also for a wide range of environmental samples and certified materials. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Advanced fitness landscape analysis and the performance of memetic algorithms.

    PubMed

    Merz, Peter

    2004-01-01

    Memetic algorithms (MAs) have demonstrated very effective in combinatorial optimization. This paper offers explanations as to why this is so by investigating the performance of MAs in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. A special class of MAs is used to discuss efficiency and effectiveness for local search and evolutionary meta-search. It is shown that the efficiency of MAs can be increased drastically with the use of domain knowledge. However, effectiveness highly depends on the structure of the problem. As is well-known, identifying this structure is made easier with the notion of fitness landscapes: the local properties of the fitness landscape strongly influence the effectiveness of the local search while the global properties strongly influence the effectiveness of the evolutionary meta-search. This paper also introduces new techniques for analyzing the fitness landscapes of combinatorial problems; these techniques focus on the investigation of random walks in the fitness landscape starting at locally optimal solutions as well as on the escape from the basins of attractions of current local optima. It is shown for NK-landscapes and landscapes of the unconstrained binary quadratic programming problem (BQP) that a random walk to another local optimum can be used to explain the efficiency of recombination in comparison to mutation. Moreover, the paper shows that other aspects like the size of the basins of attractions of local optima are important for the efficiency of MAs and a local search escape analysis is proposed. These simple analysis techniques have several advantages over previously proposed statistical measures and provide valuable insight into the behaviour of MAs on different kinds of landscapes.

  14. Toward a unifying framework for evolutionary processes.

    PubMed

    Paixão, Tiago; Badkobeh, Golnaz; Barton, Nick; Çörüş, Doğan; Dang, Duc-Cuong; Friedrich, Tobias; Lehre, Per Kristian; Sudholt, Dirk; Sutton, Andrew M; Trubenová, Barbora

    2015-10-21

    The theory of population genetics and evolutionary computation have been evolving separately for nearly 30 years. Many results have been independently obtained in both fields and many others are unique to its respective field. We aim to bridge this gap by developing a unifying framework for evolutionary processes that allows both evolutionary algorithms and population genetics models to be cast in the same formal framework. The framework we present here decomposes the evolutionary process into its several components in order to facilitate the identification of similarities between different models. In particular, we propose a classification of evolutionary operators based on the defining properties of the different components. We cast several commonly used operators from both fields into this common framework. Using this, we map different evolutionary and genetic algorithms to different evolutionary regimes and identify candidates with the most potential for the translation of results between the fields. This provides a unified description of evolutionary processes and represents a stepping stone towards new tools and results to both fields. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  15. Incorporating Objective Function Information Into the Feasibility Rule for Constrained Evolutionary Optimization.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yong; Wang, Bing-Chuan; Li, Han-Xiong; Yen, Gary G

    2016-12-01

    When solving constrained optimization problems by evolutionary algorithms, an important issue is how to balance constraints and objective function. This paper presents a new method to address the above issue. In our method, after generating an offspring for each parent in the population by making use of differential evolution (DE), the well-known feasibility rule is used to compare the offspring and its parent. Since the feasibility rule prefers constraints to objective function, the objective function information has been exploited as follows: if the offspring cannot survive into the next generation and if the objective function value of the offspring is better than that of the parent, then the offspring is stored into a predefined archive. Subsequently, the individuals in the archive are used to replace some individuals in the population according to a replacement mechanism. Moreover, a mutation strategy is proposed to help the population jump out of a local optimum in the infeasible region. Note that, in the replacement mechanism and the mutation strategy, the comparison of individuals is based on objective function. In addition, the information of objective function has also been utilized to generate offspring in DE. By the above processes, this paper achieves an effective balance between constraints and objective function in constrained evolutionary optimization. The performance of our method has been tested on two sets of benchmark test functions, namely, 24 test functions at IEEE CEC2006 and 18 test functions with 10-D and 30-D at IEEE CEC2010. The experimental results have demonstrated that our method shows better or at least competitive performance against other state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, the advantage of our method increases with the increase of the number of decision variables.

  16. Multi-objective evolutionary optimization for constructing neural networks for virtual reality visual data mining: application to geophysical prospecting.

    PubMed

    Valdés, Julio J; Barton, Alan J

    2007-05-01

    A method for the construction of virtual reality spaces for visual data mining using multi-objective optimization with genetic algorithms on nonlinear discriminant (NDA) neural networks is presented. Two neural network layers (the output and the last hidden) are used for the construction of simultaneous solutions for: (i) a supervised classification of data patterns and (ii) an unsupervised similarity structure preservation between the original data matrix and its image in the new space. A set of spaces are constructed from selected solutions along the Pareto front. This strategy represents a conceptual improvement over spaces computed by single-objective optimization. In addition, genetic programming (in particular gene expression programming) is used for finding analytic representations of the complex mappings generating the spaces (a composition of NDA and orthogonal principal components). The presented approach is domain independent and is illustrated via application to the geophysical prospecting of caves.

  17. Coherent control of plasma dynamics by feedback-optimized wavefront manipulation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    He, Z.-H.; Hou, B.; Gao, G.

    2015-05-15

    Plasmas generated by an intense laser pulse can support coherent structures such as large amplitude wakefield that can affect the outcome of an experiment. We investigate the coherent control of plasma dynamics by feedback-optimized wavefront manipulation using a deformable mirror. The experimental outcome is directly used as feedback in an evolutionary algorithm for optimization of the phase front of the driving laser pulse. In this paper, we applied this method to two different experiments: (i) acceleration of electrons in laser driven plasma waves and (ii) self-compression of optical pulses induced by ionization nonlinearity. The manipulation of the laser wavefront leadsmore » to orders of magnitude improvement to electron beam properties such as the peak charge, beam divergence, and transverse emittance. The demonstration of coherent control for plasmas opens new possibilities for future laser-based accelerators and their applications.« less

  18. POCO-MOEA: Using Evolutionary Algorithms to Solve the Controller Placement Problem

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-03-24

    to gather data on POCO-MOEA performance to a series of iv model networks. The algorithm’s behavior is then evaluated and compared to ex- haustive... evaluation of a third heuristic based on a Multi 3 Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA). This heuristic is modeled after one of the most well known MOEAs...researchers to extend into more realistic evaluations of the performance characteristics of SDN controllers, such as the use of simulators or live

  19. Modelling and multi objective optimization of WEDM of commercially Monel super alloy using evolutionary algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Varun, Sajja; Reddy, Kalakada Bhargav Bal; Vardhan Reddy, R. R. Vishnu

    2016-09-01

    In this research work, development of a multi response optimization technique has been undertaken, using traditional desirability analysis and non-traditional particle swarm optimization techniques (for different customer's priorities) in wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). Monel 400 has been selected as work material for experimentation. The effect of key process parameters such as pulse on time (TON), pulse off time (TOFF), peak current (IP), wire feed (WF) were on material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness(SR) in WEDM operation were investigated. Further, the responses such as MRR and SR were modelled empirically through regression analysis. The developed models can be used by the machinists to predict the MRR and SR over a wide range of input parameters. The optimization of multiple responses has been done for satisfying the priorities of multiple users by using Taguchi-desirability function method and particle swarm optimization technique. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is also applied to investigate the effect of influential parameters. Finally, the confirmation experiments were conducted for the optimal set of machining parameters, and the betterment has been proved.

  20. The application of artificial intelligence in the optimal design of mechanical systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poteralski, A.; Szczepanik, M.

    2016-11-01

    The paper is devoted to new computational techniques in mechanical optimization where one tries to study, model, analyze and optimize very complex phenomena, for which more precise scientific tools of the past were incapable of giving low cost and complete solution. Soft computing methods differ from conventional (hard) computing in that, unlike hard computing, they are tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation. The paper deals with an application of the bio-inspired methods, like the evolutionary algorithms (EA), the artificial immune systems (AIS) and the particle swarm optimizers (PSO) to optimization problems. Structures considered in this work are analyzed by the finite element method (FEM), the boundary element method (BEM) and by the method of fundamental solutions (MFS). The bio-inspired methods are applied to optimize shape, topology and material properties of 2D, 3D and coupled 2D/3D structures, to optimize the termomechanical structures, to optimize parameters of composites structures modeled by the FEM, to optimize the elastic vibrating systems to identify the material constants for piezoelectric materials modeled by the BEM and to identify parameters in acoustics problem modeled by the MFS.

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