Optimization of multi-pass turning operations using hybrid teaching learning-based approach

This paper presents a novel hybrid optimization approach based on teaching–learning based optimization (TLBO) algorithm and Taguchi’s method. The purpose of the present research is to develop a new optimization approach to solve optimization problems in the manufacturing area. This research is the first application of the TLBO to the optimization of turning operations in the literature The proposed hybrid approach is applied to two case studies for multi-pass turning operations to show its effectiveness in machining operations. The results obtained by the proposed approach for the case studies are compared with those of particle swarm optimization algorithm, hybrid genetic algorithm, scatter search algorithm, genetic algorithm and integration of simulated annealing, and Hooke–Jeeves patter search.     

A Hybrid Search Algorithm for Porous Air Bearings Optimization

The study deals with the development of a hybrid search algorithm for efficient optimization of porous air bearings. Both the compressible Reynolds equation and Darcy's law are linearized and solved iteratively by a successive-over-relaxation method for modeling parallel-surface porous bearings. Three factors affecting the computational efficiency of the numerical model are highlighted and discussed. The hybrid optimization is performed by adopting genetic algorithm (GA) for initial search and accelerated by simplex method (SM) for refined solution. A simple and useful variable transformation is presented and used to convert the unconstrained SM to a constrained method. In this study, the hybrid search algorithm for a multi-variable design exhibits better efficiency compared with the search efficiency by using the SM. The proposed hybrid method also eliminates the need of several trials with random initial guesses to ensure high probability of global optimization. This study presents a new approach for optimizing the performance of porous air bearings and other tribological components.     

A population-based hybrid ant system for quadratic assignment formulations in facility layout design

The facility layout design problem is an extensively studied research problem and belongs to nonpolynomial hard (NP-hard) combinatorial optimization problem. Quadratic assignment problem (QAP) is one of the formulations that is investigated for facility layout design because of its wide applicability. Ant colony optimization (ACO), a biologically inspired heuristic has centered on solving the QAP by achieving approximation as good as possible. This paper presents a population-based hybrid ant system (PHAS), which is an extension of the hybrid ant system (HAS) in which the size of the ant colony has been fixed. The performance of the proposed ant algorithm for QAP is compared with the existing metaheuristic implementations such as tabu search, reactive tabu search, simulated annealing, genetic hybrid method, HAS, and max–min ant system. The experimental results show that the proposed PHAS perform significantly better than the other existing algorithms of QAP.     

APPLYING PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION TO JOB-SHOPSCHEDULING PROBLEM

A new heuristic algorithm is proposed for the problem of finding the minimum makespan in the job-shop scheduling problem. The new algorithm is based on the principles of particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO employs a collaborative population-based search, which is inspired by the social behavior of bird flocking. It combines local search (by self experience) and global search (by neighboring experience), possessing high search efficiency. Simulated annealing (SA) employs certain probability to avoid becoming trapped in a local optimum and the search process can be controlled by the cooling schedule. By reasonably combining these two different search algorithms, a general, fast and easily implemented hybrid optimization algorithm, named HPSO, is developed. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed PSO-based algorithm are demonstrated by applying it to some benchmark job-shop scheduling problems and comparing results with other algorithms in literature. Comparing results indicate that PSO-based a     

Optimal clustering of MGs based on droop controller for improving reliability using a hybrid of harmony search and genetic algorithms

This paper proposes a novel method to address reliability and technical problems of microgrids (MGs) based on designing a number of self-adequate autonomous sub-MGs via adopting MGs clustering thinking. In doing so, a multi-objective optimization problem is developed where power losses reduction, voltage profile improvement and reliability enhancement are considered as the objective functions. To solve the optimization problem a hybrid algorithm, named HS-GA, is provided, based on genetic and harmony search algorithms, and a load flow method is given to model different types of DGs as droop controller. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated in two case studies. The results provide support for the performance of the proposed method.     

Application of memetic algorithm in assembly sequence planning

Assembly sequence planning (ASP) plays an important role in the product design and manufacturing. A good assembly sequence can help to reduce the cost and time of the manufacturing process. However, ASP is known as a classical hard combinatorial optimization problem. With the increasing of the quantity of product components, ASP becomes more difficult and the traditional graph-based algorithm cannot solve it effectively. In this paper, the memetic algorithm (MA), which has been successfully applied in many areas, is used to solve the ASP problem. MA combines the parallel global search nature of evolutionary algorithm with local search to improve individual solutions. It can balance global search ability and local search ability very well. To improve the optimization performance of the approach, efficient genetic representation and operator schemes have been developed. To verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed approach, case study has been conducted and comparison has been made between memetic algorithm and genetic algorithm. The result shows that the proposed approach has achieved significant improvement.     

Cuckoo search algorithm for the selection of optimal machining parameters in milling operations

In this research, a new optimization algorithm, called the cuckoo search algorithm (CS) algorithm, is introduced for solving manufacturing optimization problems. This research is the first application of the CS to the optimization of machining parameters in the literature. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the CS, a milling optimization problem was solved and the results were compared with those obtained using other well-known optimization techniques like, ant colony algorithm, immune algorithm, hybrid immune algorithm, hybrid particle swarm algorithm, genetic algorithm, feasible direction method, and handbook recommendation. The results demonstrate that the CS is a very effective and robust approach for the optimization of machining optimization problems.     

Optimal design of four-bar mechanisms using a hybrid multi-objective GA with adaptive local search

Responding to an increasing demand for mechanism synthesis tools that are both efficient and accurate, this paper presents a novel approach to the multi-objective optimal design of four-bar linkages for path-generation purposes. Three, often conflicting criteria including the mechanism's tracking error, deviation of its transmission angle from 90° and its maximum angular velocity ratio are considered as objectives of the optimization problem. To accelerate the search in the highly multimodal solution space, a hybrid Pareto genetic algorithm with a built-in adaptive local search is employed which extends its exploration to an adaptively adjusted neighborhood of promising points. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to a classical design problem for one, two and three objective functions and comparing the results with those reported in the literature. The comparison shows that the proposed algorithm distinctly outperforms other algorithms both quantitatively and qualitatively (from a practical point of view).     

An effective hybrid genetic algorithm for the job shop scheduling problem

From the computational point of view, the job shop scheduling problem (JSP) is one of the most notoriously intractable NP-hard optimization problems. This paper applies an effective hybrid genetic algorithm for the JSP. We proposed three novel features for this algorithm to solve the JSP. Firstly, a new full active schedule (FAS) procedure based on the operation-based representation is presented to construct a schedule. After a schedule is obtained, a local search heuristic is applied to improve the solution. Secondly, a new crossover operator, called the precedence operation crossover (POX), is proposed for the operation-based representation, which can preserve the meaningful characteristics of the previous generation. Thirdly, in order to reduce the disruptive effects of genetic operators, the approach of an improved generation alteration model is introduced. The proposed approaches are tested on some standard instances and compared with other approaches. The superior results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Fixed structure compensator design using a constrained hybrid evolutionary optimization approach

This paper presents an efficient technique for designing a fixed order compensator for compensating current mode control architecture of DC−DC converters. The compensator design is formulated as an optimization problem, which seeks to attain a set of frequency domain specifications. The highly nonlinear nature of the optimization problem demands the use of an initial parameterization independent global search technique. In this regard, the optimization problem is solved using a hybrid evolutionary optimization approach, because of its simple structure, faster execution time and greater probability in achieving the global solution. The proposed algorithm involves the combination of a population search based optimization approach i.e. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and local search based method. The op-amp dynamics have been incorporated during the design process. Considering the limitations of fixed structure compensator in achieving loop bandwidth higher than a certain threshold, the proposed approach also determines the op-amp bandwidth, which would be able to achieve the same. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in meeting the desired frequency domain specifications is experimentally tested on a peak current mode control dc−dc buck converter.     

基于混合退火遗传算法的圆柱蜗杆传动模糊优化设计

针对基本遗传算法在优化设计中遇到的局部搜索能力不强、早熟收敛等问题,提出一种将模拟退火、Powell搜索方法与遗传算法相结合的混合遗传算法.在此基础上对普通圆柱蜗杆传动模糊优化设计进行了研究;数值计算表明,该混合退火遗传算法可以有效地克服基本遗传算法的上述缺陷,可以加速算法的收敛,具有良好的优化性能.并用该算法较好地解决了普通圆柱蜗杆传动的模糊优化设计.     

旋转货架拣选作业优化问题的新型混合遗传算法求解

给出了单拣选台分层水平旋转货架系统的数学模型,分析了单拣选台分层水平旋转货架拣选作业路径优化问题(MCS-OOP)的特点。在单层旋转货架中待拣选货物的最优拣选顺序将依次出现在对整个作业中所有待拣货物的最优拣选顺序中,针对该特点,提出了层序邻域的概念及其快速局部搜索算法,同时将其与遗传算法相结合设计了一种用于解决MCS-OOP的新型混合遗传算法。仿真结果说明了该算法能够快速、稳定的求取单拣选台MCS-OOP问题的最优解,充分满足了中大规模作业要求。     

基于混合遗传算法的柔性制造系统优化设计

针对基于闭排队网络模型的柔性制造系统优化设计问题，提出了一种混合遗传算法，利用该模型中生产量函数和成本函数的单调性，设计了最大产量－成本梯度算子，来引导新一代种群从不可行域进入可行域，既实现了利用遗传算法求解柔性制造系统约束优化问题，又增强了遗传算法的局部搜索能力。由于该算法利用渐近边界分析思想和编码技术减少了计算量，从而使混合遗传算法既保持了遗传算法的全局寻优特点，又提高了运行效率。算例证明，该算法的求解质量优于目前该领域常用的隐枚举算法。     

Optimization of continuous-time production planning using hybrid genetic algorithms-simulated annealing

Evolutionary algorithms are stochastic search methods that mimic the principles of natural biological evolution to produce better and better approximations to a solution and have been used widely for optimization problems. A general problem of continuous-time aggregate production planning for a given total number of changes in production rate over the total planning horizon is considered. It is very important to identify and solve the problem of continuous-time production planning horizon with varying production rates over the interval of the planning period horizon. Some of the researchers have proposed global search methods for the continuous-time aggregate production-planning problem. So far, less work is reported to solve the problem of continuous-time production planning using local search methods like genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). So in this work, we propose a modified single objective evolutionary program approach, namely GA, SA, and hybrid genetic algorithms-simulated annealing (GA-SA) for continuous-time production plan problems. The results are compared with each other and it was found that the hybrid algorithm performs better.     

Hybrid evolutionary algorithm with marriage of genetic algorithm and extremal optimization for production scheduling

This paper presents a hybrid evolutionary algorithm with marriage of genetic algorithm (GA) and extremal optimization (EO) for solving a class of production scheduling problems in manufacturing. The scheduling problem, which is derived from hot rolling production in steel industry, is characterized by two major requirements: (i) selecting a subset of orders from manufacturing orders to be processed; (ii) determining the optimal production sequence under multiple constraints, such as sequence-dependant transition costs, non-execution penalties, earliness/tardiness (E/T) penalties, etc. A combinatorial optimization model is proposed to formulate it mathematically. For its NP-hard complexity, an effective hybrid evolutionary algorithm is developed to solve the scheduling problem through combining the population-based search capacity of GA and the fine-grained local search efficacy of EO. The experimental results with production scale data demonstrate that the proposed hybrid evolutionary algorithm can provide superior performances in scheduling quality and computation efficiency.     

Due window scheduling with sequence-dependent setup on parallel machines using three hybrid metaheuristic algorithms

Due-date determination problems have gained significant attention in recent years due to the industrial focus in the just-in-time philosophy. This paper considers a machine scheduling problem where jobs should be completed at times as close as possible to their respective due dates, and hence, both earliness and tardiness should be penalized. It is assumed that earliness and tardiness (ET) penalties will not occur if a job is completed within the due window. However, ET penalties will occur if a job is completed outside the due window. The objective is to determine a schedule that minimizes sum of the earliness and tardiness of jobs. To achieve this objective, three hybrid metaheuristics are proposed. The first metaheuristic is a hybrid algorithm which combines elements from both simulated annealing (SA) as constructive heuristic search and a variable neighborhood search (VNS) as local search improvement technique. The second one presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm which composed of a population generation method based on an ant colony optimization (ACO) and a VNS to improve the population. Finally, a hybrid metaheuristic approach is proposed which integrates several features from ACO, SA, and VNS in a new configurable scheduling algorithm. A design of experiments approach is employed to calibrate the parameters and operators of the algorithm. Computational experiments conducting on 252 randomly generated problems compare the results with the VNS algorithm proposed previously and show that the procedure is capable of producing consistently good results.     

Reliability-based total cost of ownership approach for supplier selection using cuckoo-inspired hybrid algorithm

In today’s highly competitive environment, an effective supplier selection process is very important to the success of any manufacturing organization. A number of models and techniques have been developed to deal with supplier selection and evaluation methods. Traditional supplier selection methods are often based on the quoted initial price, which ignores the significant direct and indirect costs associated with quality, usage, maintenance, and service cost. This paper will look at the reliability-based total cost of ownership (RBTCO) approach which accounts both direct and indirect costs, as applied to the supplier selection process. The mathematical formulation of RBTCO for supplier selection problem fits into the nonlinear integer programming problem, which belongs to the NP-hard category. In this paper, a recently developed meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, cuckoo search (CS) hybridized with well-known genetic algorithm called HCSGA is proposed to solve the supplier selection problem. By embedding the genetic operators in standard CS, the balance between the exploration and exploitation ability further improved and more search space are observed during the algorithms’ performance. The computational test results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm significantly improves the original cuckoo search algorithm for small and larger sized problem instances.     

An intelligent hybrid meta-heuristic for solving a case of no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machines

This paper addresses the problem of no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem (NWTSFFSSP) considering unrelated parallel machines, sequence-dependent setup times, probable reworks and different ready times to actualize the problem. The performance measure used in this study is minimizing maximum completion time (makespan). Because of the complexity of addressed problem, we propose a novel intelligent hybrid algorithm [called hybrid algorithm (HA)] based on imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) which are combined with simulated annealing (SA), variable neighborhood search (VNS) and genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the mentioned problem. The hybridization is carried out to overcome some existing drawbacks of each of these three algorithms and also for increasing the capability of ICA. To achieve reliable results, Taguchi approach is used to define robust parameters' values for our proposed algorithm. A simulation model is developed to study the performance of our proposed algorithm against ICA, SA, VNS, GA and ant colony optimization (ACO). The results of the study reveal the relative superiority of HA studied. In addition, potential areas for further researches are highlighted.     

一种基于GA-SA-TS算法的车间调度方法的研究

运用现代优化算法来解决车间调度这类NP完全问题是现在普遍使用的方法。本文将模拟退火算法和禁忌搜索算法的思想与遗传算法相结合,改善了传统遗传算法中单一的交叉和变异机制,提出了模拟退火-交叉机制和禁忌搜索-变异机制,最终形成了一种适用于解决车间调度方面问题的GA-SA-TS混合遗传算法。三种算法取长补短,避免了遗传算法局部搜索能力差和易早熟的缺点。同时运用GA-SA-TS算法,针对实际车间调度问题进行了仿真。通过该仿真结果可以看出,GA-SA-TS混合遗传算法对于解决车间调度问题是可行的,且在解的质量方面有所提高。     

Bi-objective hybrid flow shop scheduling: a new local search

In this paper, we have considered the bi-objective hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with the objectives of minimizing makespan and minimizing total tardiness. The problem is, however, a combinatorial optimization problem which is too difficult to be solved optimally, and hence, heuristics are used to obtain good solutions in a reasonable time. On the other hand, local search is a method for solving computationally hard optimization problems. Hence, we introduce a novel bi-objective local search algorithm (BOLS) to solve the problem efficiently. This local search can perform an effective search in three phases. In the initial phase, the assigned job set of a machine is moved to other machines. In the second phase, the order of jobs is changed for a machine. Finally, in phase 3, a process is done to change the assigned job set of a machine and order of jobs for a machine simultaneously. A measure of performance in literature namely free disposal hull approach and a new technique proposed by authors called “triangle method” have been used to evaluate the quality of the obtained solutions. The experimental results of the comparison between the proposed algorithm and several effective algorithms show that the BOLS is attractive for solving the bi-objective scheduling problem.