A differential evolution algorithm for joint replenishment problem using direct grouping and its application

There has been much work in establishing joint replenishment model and designing effective and robust algorithms. Little research has been done by direct grouping methods. In this paper, we present a differential evolution (DE) algorithm that uses direct grouping to solve joint replenishment problem (JRP). Extensive computational experiments are performed to compare the performances of the DE algorithm with results of evolutionary algorithm (GA). The experimental results indicate that the DE algorithm can find a replenishment policy that incurs a lower total cost than the GA. We also conducted a case study to test the proposed DE algorithm for the JRP. The findings suggest that the proposed model is successful in decreasing spare parts ordering costs and holding costs significantly in a power plant.     

费用与资源约束双重模糊下的联合采购模型——基于差分进化算法的研究*

针对复杂不确定环境下的联合采购决策难题,用三角模糊数表示不确定的次要订货费用、库存持有费用和资金约束条件,用梯形模糊数表示不确定的存储空间约束,构建了模糊联合采购模型,并采用两种方法对模糊总成本进行去模糊化处理。进而在对差分进化(DE)算法改进并借助典型函数测试性能的基础上,给出了基于改进DE的模糊联合采购模型求解流程,算例证明所设计的DE算法能较好地解决模糊联合采购问题。     

A joint replenishment problem considering multiple trucks with shipment and resource constraints

A joint replenishment problem (JRP) is presented to determine the optimal reordering policy for multi-items with a percentage of defective items. This JRP also has several constraints, such as shipment constraint, budget constraint, and transportation capacity constraint. At the meantime, multiple trucks, each with a fixed transportation cost, are considered and also order quantities of restricted items are not shared among the trucks during the shipment. The objective is to minimize the total expected cost per unit time. A two-dimensional genetic algorithm (GA) is provided to determine an optimal family cycle length and the reorder frequencies. A numerical example is presented and the results are discussed. Extensive computational experiments are performed to test the performance of the GA. The JRP is also solved by using an evolutionary algorithm (EA) and the results obtained from GA and EA are compared.     

A new hybridized backtracking search optimization algorithm with differential evolution for sidelobe suppression of uniformly excited concentric circular antenna arrays

In this work, a hybridized combination of backtracking search algorithm (BSA) with differential evolution (DE) is proposed and applied on sidelobe suppression problem of uniformly excited concentric circular antenna arrays (CCAA). Each array is assumed to have isotropic elements and be placed on x‐y plane and has one center element. A search for optimal setting of ring radius and number of elements in each ring is carried out so as to achieve low sidelobe performance on overall azimuth plane. Care has been taken so that directivity does not get degraded as far as possible. Before applying this algorithm to CCAA design problem, BSA and the hybridized algorithm BSA‐DE are tested on five complex benchmark functions. Based on 30‐independent runs for each benchmark function, Wilcoxon's pairwise signed ranks test is utilized to judge the relative search performance of these two algorithms. The hybridized algorithm proves its superiority on almost all the considered benchmark functions. For the CCAA design problem dealt with in this work, BSA‐DE shows its superiority on one or both pattern parameters as well as structural parameters. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:262–268, 2015.     

Developing a multi-objective,multi-item inventory model and three algorithms for its solution

We develop a multi-objective model in a multi-product inventory system.The proposed model is a joint replenishment problem(JRP) that has two objective functions.The first one is minimization of total ordering and inventory holding costs,which is the same objective function as the classic JRP.To increase the applicability of the proposed model,we suppose that transportation cost is independent of time,is not a part of holding cost,and is calculated based on the maximum of stored inventory,as is the case in many real inventory problems.Thus,the second objective function is minimization of total transportation cost.To solve this problem three efficient algorithms are proposed.First,the RAND algorithm,called the best heuristic algorithm for solving the JRP,is modified to be applicable for the proposed problem.A multi-objective genetic algorithm(MOGA) is developed as the second algorithm to solve the problem.Finally,the model is solved by a new algorithm that is a combination of the RAND algorithm and MOGA.The performances of these algorithms are then compared with those of the previous approaches and with each other,and the findings imply their ability in finding Pareto optimal solutions to 3200 randomly produced problems.     

Multi-operator based evolutionary algorithms for solving constrained optimization problems

Over the last two decades, many sophisticated evolutionary algorithms have been introduced for solving constrained optimization problems. Due to the variability of characteristics in different COPs, no single algorithm performs consistently over a range of problems. In this paper, for a better coverage of the problem characteristics, we introduce an algorithm framework that uses multiple search operators in each generation. The appropriate mix of the search operators, for any given problem, is determined adaptively. The framework is tested by implementing two different algorithms. The performance of the algorithms is judged by solving 60 test instances taken from two constrained optimization benchmark sets from specialized literature. The first algorithm, which is a multi-operator based genetic algorithm (GA), shows a significant improvement over different versions of GA (each with a single one of these operators). The second algorithm, using differential evolution (DE), also confirms the benefit of the multi-operator algorithm by providing better and consistent solutions. The overall results demonstrated that both GA and DE based algorithms show competitive, if not better, performance as compared to the state of the art algorithms.     

基于模拟退火的混合差分进化算法及其在联合补货-配送集成优化中的应用

针对差分进化 (Differential evolution, DE)算法搜索效率较低和容易陷入局部最优的缺点,设计了基于SA的混合差分进化算法(SA-based Hybrid DE, SAHDE),以提高DE算法的全局寻优能力。该算法采用自适应变异算子和交叉算子,并结合模拟退火(Simulated Annealing, SA)算法的Metropolis 准则。首先通过标准测试函数对改进的SAHDE进行性能测试,证明了该算法比DE、自适应混合DE (Adaptive Hybrid DE, AHDE)和遗传算法(Genetic Algorithm, GA)更有效。进而将该算法运用到联合补货-配送集成优化(典型NP-hard)问题的求解中,通过大规模的算例分析,证实SAHDE在解决联合补货-配送优化问题比DE、AHDE和GA更有效。     

On the design of hybrid bio-inspired meta-heuristics for complex multiattribute vehicle routing problems

This paper addresses a multiattribute vehicle routing problem, the rich vehicle routing problem, with time constraints, heterogeneous fleet, multiple depots, multiple routes, and incompatibilities of goods. Four different approaches are presented and applied to 15 real datasets. They are based on two meta-heuristics, ant colony optimization (ACO) and genetic algorithm (GA), that are applied in their standard formulation and combined as hybrid meta-heuristics to solve the problem. As such ACO-GA is a hybrid meta-heuristic using ACO as main approach and GA as local search. GA-ACO is a memetic algorithm using GA as main approach and ACO as local search. The results regarding quality and computation time are compared with two commercial tools currently used to solve the problem. Considering the number of customers served, one of the tools and the ACO-GA approach outperforms the others. Considering the cost, ACO, GA, and GA-ACO provide better results. Regarding computation time, GA and GA-ACO have been found the most competitive among the benchmark.     

Comparable investigation of backtracking search algorithm in automatic generation control for two area reheat interconnected thermal power system

This paper concentrates on the validation of metaheuristic algorithms like backtracking search optimization algorithm (BSA) and fruit fly optimization algorithm (FFA) for tuning a optimal PID controller for automatic generation control. For this purpose, a two area reheat interconnected thermal system with nonlinearities like generator rate constant (GRC), deadband and time delay are considered. The proposed work is implemented using MATLAB Simulink for various load conditions with objective functions for metaheuristic algorithms capturing signals from various positions of proposed model. The results obtained using two algorithms are compared and explored.     

A charging-scheme decision model for electric vehicle battery swapping station using varied population evolutionary algorithms

This paper proposes a new battery swapping station (BSS) model to determine the optimized charging scheme for each incoming Electric Vehicle (EV) battery. The objective is to maximize the BSS’s battery stock level and minimize the average charging damage with the use of different types of chargers. An integrated objective function is defined for the multi-objective optimization problem. The genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE) algorithm and three versions of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms have been implemented to solve the problem, and the results show that GA and DE perform better than the PSO algorithms, but the computational time of GA and DE are longer than using PSO. Hence, the varied population genetic algorithm (VPGA) and varied population differential evolution (VPDE) algorithm are proposed to determine the optimal solution and reduce the computational time of typical evolutionary algorithms. The simulation results show that the performances of the proposed algorithms are comparable with the typical GA and DE, but the computational times of the VPGA and VPDE are significantly shorter. A 24-h simulation study is carried out to examine the feasibility of the model.     

Distribution-free approach for stochastic Joint-Replenishment Problem with backorders-lost sales mixtures,and controllable major ordering cost and lead times

In this paper, we study the periodic-review Joint-Replenishment Problem (JRP) with stochastic demands and backorders-lost sales mixtures. We assume that lead times aare made of two major components: a common part to all items and an item-specific portion. We further suppose that the item-specific component of lead times and the major ordering cost are controllable. To reflect the practical circumstance characterized by the lack of complete information about the demand distribution, we adopt the minimax distribution-free approach. That is, we assume that only the mean and the variance of the demand can be evaluated. The objective is to determine the strict cyclic replenishment policy, the length of (the item-specific component of) lead times, and the major ordering cost that minimize the long-run expected total cost. To approach this minimization problem, we present a first optimization algorithm. However, numerical tests highlighted how computationally expensive this algorithm would be for a practical application. Therefore, we then propose two alternative heuristics. Extensive numerical experiments have been carried out to investigate the performance of the developed algorithms. Results have shown that the proposed alternative heuristics are actually efficient and seem therefore promising for a practical application.     

Application of firefly algorithm for multi-stage transmission expansion planning with adequacy-security considerations in deregulated environments

Electric energy is the most popular form of energy because it can be transported easily at high efficiency and reasonable cost. Nowadays the real-world electric power systems are large-scale and highly complex interconnected transmission systems. The transmission expansion planning (TEP) problem is a large-scale optimization, complicated and nonlinear problem that the number of candidate solutions increases exponentially with system size. Investment cost, reliability (both adequacy and security), and congestion cost are considered in this optimization. To overcome the difficulties in solving the non-convex and mixed integer nature of this optimization problem, this paper offers a firefly algorithm (FA) to solve this problem. In this paper it is shown that FA, like other heuristic optimization algorithms, can solve the problem in a better manner compare with other methods such genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), Simulated Annealing (SA) and Differential Evolution (DE). To show the feasibility of proposed method, applied model has been considered in IEEE 24-Bus, IEEE 118-Bus and Iran 400-KV transmission grid case studies for TEP problem in both adequacy and security modes. The obtained results show the capability of the proposed method. A comprehensive analysis of the GA, PSO, SA and DE with proposed method is also presented.     

Evolutionary algorithms,simulated annealing and tabu search: a comparative study

Evolutionary algorithms, simulated annealing (SA), and tabu search (TS) are general iterative algorithms for combinatorial optimization. The term evolutionary algorithm is used to refer to any probabilistic algorithm whose design is inspired by evolutionary mechanisms found in biological species. Most widely known algorithms of this category are genetic algorithms (GA). GA, SA, and TS have been found to be very effective and robust in solving numerous problems from a wide range of application domains. Furthermore, they are even suitable for ill-posed problems where some of the parameters are not known before hand. These properties are lacking in all traditional optimization techniques. In this paper we perform a comparative study among GA, SA, and TS. These algorithms have many similarities, but they also possess distinctive features, mainly in their strategies for searching the solution state space. The three heuristics are applied on the same optimization problem and compared with respect to (1) quality of the best solution identified by each heuristic, (2) progress of the search from initial solution(s) until stopping criteria are met, (3) the progress of the cost of the best solution as a function of time (iteration count), and (4) the number of solutions found at successive intervals of the cost function. The benchmark problem used is the floorplanning of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. This is a hard multi-criteria optimization problem. Fuzzy logic is used to combine all objective criteria into a single fuzzy evaluation (cost) function, which is then used to rate competing solutions.     

An evolutionary algorithm to solve the joint replenishment problem using direct grouping

There has been much work in establishing a joint replenishment policy to minimize the total cost of inventory replenishment. Most of this work uses the indirect grouping method. Little research has been done with direct grouping methods. In this paper we develop an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that uses direct grouping to solve the joint replenishment problem (JRP). We test the EA and compare these results with results with the best available algorithm. The EA is shown to find a replenishment policy that incurs a lower total cost than the best available algorithm for some problem parameters.     

Study of differential search algorithm based automatic generation control of an interconnected thermal-thermal system with governor dead-band

An attempt has been made to the effective application of a recently introduced, powerful optimization technique called differential search algorithm (DSA), for the first time to solve load frequency control (LFC) problem in power system. In this paper, initially, DSA optimized classical PI/PIDF controller is implemented to an identical two-area thermal-thermal power system and then the study is extended to two more realistic power systems which are widely used in the literature. To assess the usefulness of DSA, three enhanced competitive algorithms namely comprehensive learning particle swarm optimization (CLPSO), ensemble of mutation and crossover strategies and parameters in differential evolution (EPSDE), and success history based DE (SHADE) are studied in this paper. Moreover, the superiority of proposed DSA optimized PI/PID/PIDF controller is validated by an extensive comparative analysis with some recently published meta-heuristic algorithms such as firefly algorithm (FA), bacteria foraging optimization algorithm (BFOA), genetic algorithm (GA), craziness based particle swarm optimization (CRPSO), differential evolution (DE), teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and quasi-oppositional harmony search algorithm (QOHSA). A case of robustness and sensitivity analysis has been performed for the concerned test system under parametric uncertainty and random load perturbation. Furthermore, to demonstrate the efficacy of proposed DSA, the system nonlinearities like reheater of the steam turbine and governor dead band are included in the system modeling. The extensive results presented in this article demonstrate that proposed DSA can effectively improve system dynamics and may be applied to real-time LFC problem.     

A sensitivity analysis of solving joint replenishment problems using the RAND method under inaccurate holding cost estimates and demand forecasts

This paper presents a study of solving the joint replenishment problem (JRP) by using the RAND method, a heuristic approach that has been proven to find almost as good as optimal solutions, under uncertain customer demands and inaccurate unit holding cost estimation. The classical JRP deals with the issue of determining a replenishment policy that minimizes the total cost of replenishing multiple products from a single supplier. The total cost considered in the JRP consists of a major ordering cost independent of the number of items in the order, a minor ordering cost depending on the items in the order, and the holding cost. There have been many heuristic approaches proposed for solving the JRP. Most of the research work was done under the assumptions that the demand for each item type and the unit holding cost are known and constant. However, in the real world accurately forecasting customer demands and precisely estimating the unit holding cost are both difficult. Besides, the real values of the demands and the unit holding cost may change over the replenishment horizon. The present study addresses the issue of the uncertain demands and the unit holding cost to the JRP and investigates how misestimates of these demands and holding costs may influence the replenishment policy as determined by the famous JRP heuristic, the RAND method.     

改进回溯搜索优化回声状态网络时间序列预测

回声状态网络(Echo State Network, ESN)网络结构简单且耦合"时间参数",在时间序列预测研究中具有重要的理论和应用价值.本文提出使用自适应回溯搜索算法(Adaptive Backtracking Search optimization Algorithm,ABSA)优化ESN输出连接权值矩阵,克服标准线性回归方法造成的网络过拟合问题. ABSA使用自适应变异因子策略替换标准BSA中随机给定变异因子的策略,实现BSA在收敛精度和收敛速率之间的平衡.实验表明,采用ABSA优化的ESN能够比未优化的ESN和采用其他进化算法优化的ESN获得更好的预测精度.     

Design of frequency response masking FIR filter in the Canonic Signed Digit space using modified Artificial Bee Colony algorithm

Frequency response masking (FRM) technique along with the Canonic Signed Digit (CSD) representation is a good alternative for the design of a computationally efficient, sharp transition width, high speed finite impulse response (FIR) filter. This paper proposes two novel approaches for the joint optimization of an FRM FIR digital filter in the CSD space. The first approach uses the recently emerged Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm and the second approach uses the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. In this paper, both the algorithms are modified in such a way that, they are suitable for the solution of the optimization problem posed, in which the search space consists of integers and the objective function is nonlinear. The optimization variables are encoded such that they permit the reduction in computational cost. The salient feature of the above approaches is the reduced computational complexity while obtaining good performance. Simulation results show that the ABC based design technique performs better than that using DE, which in turn outperforms the one using integer coded genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed optimization approaches can be extended to the solution of integer programming problems in other engineering disciplines also.     

A hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for optimization of crew scheduling

Crew scheduling problem is the problem of assigning crew members to the flights so that total cost is minimized while regulatory and legal restrictions are satisfied. The crew scheduling is an NP-hard constrained combinatorial optimization problem and hence, it cannot be exactly solved in a reasonable computational time. This paper presents a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm synchronized with a local search heuristic for solving the crew scheduling problem. Recent studies use genetic algorithm (GA) or ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve large scale crew scheduling problems. Furthermore, two other hybrid algorithms based on GA and ACO algorithms have been developed to solve the problem. Computational results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed hybrid PSO algorithm over other algorithms.     

Improved differential evolution algorithms for solving generalized assignment problem

This paper presents algorithms based on differential evolution (DE) to solve the generalized assignment problem (GAP) with the objective to minimize the assignment cost under the limitation of the agent capacity. Three local search techniques: shifting, exchange, and k-variable move algorithms are added to the DE algorithm in order to improve the solutions. Eight DE-based algorithms are presented, each of which uses DE with a different combination of local search techniques. The experiments are carried out using published standard instances from the literature. The best proposed algorithm using shifting and k-variable move as the local search (DE-SK) techniques was used to compare its performance with those of Bee algorithm (BEE) and Tabu search algorithm (TABU). The computational results revealed that the BEE and DE-SK are not significantly different while the DE-SK outperforms the TABU algorithm. However, even though the statistical test shows that DE-SK is not significantly different compared with the BEE algorithm, the DE-SK is able to obtain more optimal solutions (87.5%) compared to the BEE algorithm that can obtain only 12.5% optimal solutions. This is because the DE-SK is designed to enhance the search capability by improving the diversification using the DE's operators and the k-variable moves added to the DE can improve the intensification. Hence, the proposed algorithms, especially the DE-SK, can be used to solve various practical cases of GAP and other combinatorial optimization problems by enhancing the solution quality, while still maintaining fast computational time.