Decomposition based hybrid VNS–TS algorithm for distributed parallel factories scheduling with virtual corporation

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a decomposition based hybrid variable neighborhood search/tabu search (DVT) algorithm for multi-factory production network scheduling problem where a number of different individual factories collaborate despite their different objectives. It is assumed some of the network's factories are interested in total processing cost minimization whereas the remaining factories are interested in the production profits maximization. It is also assumed that jobs can migrate from their original factory to other factories but a transportation time is incurred. Our proposed algorithm comprises of a tabu search and a variable neighborhood search with several local search algorithms. In this hybridization, to improve the search ability of the algorithm, we make use of guiding principles with ordering of neighborhood structures by mixed integer linear programming relaxation. In the proposed algorithm, the parallel search strategy is designed for a scalar bi-objective. Multiple objectives are combined with L₁-metric technique then each sub-search procedure evolves separately until a good approximation of the Pareto-front is obtained. The non-dominated sets obtained from our algorithm and original heuristic (algorithm without ordering concept) are compared using three different indices. Furthermore, the problem is modeled as a mixed integer linear programming and solved by improved ϵ-constraint approach (IEA) with CPLEX solver. The results of comparisons between IEA and DVT algorithm showed the proposed algorithm yielded most of the solutions in the net non-dominated front.     

Parallel machine scheduling with splitting jobs by a hybrid differential evolution algorithm

The problem of parallel machine scheduling for minimizing the makespan is an open scheduling problem with extensive practical relevance. It has been proved to be non-deterministic polynomial hard. Considering a job’s batch size greater than one in the real manufacturing environment, this paper investigates into the parallel machine scheduling with splitting jobs. Differential evolution is employed as a solution approach due to its distinctive feature, and a new crossover method and a new mutation method are brought forward in the global search procedure, according to the job splitting constraint. A specific local search method is further designed to gain a better performance, based on the analytical result from the single product problem. Numerical experiments on the performance of the proposed hybrid DE on parallel machine scheduling problems with splitting jobs covering identical and unrelated machine kinds and a realistic problem are performed, and the results indicate that the algorithm is feasible and efficient.     

An improved multiobjective estimation of distribution algorithm for environmental economic dispatch of hydrothermal power systems

Environmental economic dispatch of fixed head of hydrothermal power systems is viewed as a mulitobjective optimization problem in this paper. The practical hydrothermal system possesses various constraints which make the problem of finding global optimum difficult. This paper develops an improved multiobjective estimation of distribution algorithm to solving the above problem. A local learning operation is added into the original regularity model-based multiobjective estimation of distribution algorithm (RM-MEDA) in the improved approach so as to improve the local search ability and enhance the convergence efficiency. Furthermore, a repair mechanism is employed to repair the searched infeasible solutions in order to be able to search in the feasible region. In the experiment, the results obtained by the proposed approach have been compared with those from other three MOEAs: NSGA-II, NNIA, and RM-MEDA. Results from some pervious reported methods have also been employed to compare with our method. In addition, the results demonstrate the superiority of this proposed method as a promising MOEA to solve this power system multiobjective optimization problem.     

A cooperative coevolutionary algorithm for the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem

The Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP) is an important variant of the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), where the customers can be served from a number of depots. This paper introduces a cooperative coevolutionary algorithm to minimize the total route cost of the MDVRP. Coevolutionary algorithms are inspired by the simultaneous evolution process involving two or more species. In this approach, the problem is decomposed into smaller subproblems and individuals from different populations are combined to create a complete solution to the original problem. This paper presents a problem decomposition approach for the MDVRP in which each subproblem becomes a single depot VRP and evolves independently in its domain space. Customers are distributed among the depots based on their distance from the depots and their distance from their closest neighbor. A population is associated with each depot where the individuals represent partial solutions to the problem, that is, sets of routes over customers assigned to the corresponding depot. The fitness of a partial solution depends on its ability to cooperate with partial solutions from other populations to form a complete solution to the MDVRP. As the problem is decomposed and each part evolves separately, this approach is strongly suitable to parallel environments. Therefore, a parallel evolution strategy environment with a variable length genotype coupled with local search operators is proposed. A large number of experiments have been conducted to assess the performance of this approach. The results suggest that the proposed coevolutionary algorithm in a parallel environment is able to produce high-quality solutions to the MDVRP in low computational time.     

Application of the cross entropy method to the GLVQ algorithm

This paper discusses an alternative approach to parameter optimization of well-known prototype-based learning algorithms (minimizing an objective function via gradient search). The proposed approach considers a stochastic optimization called the cross entropy method (CE method). The CE method is used to tackle efficiently the initialization sensitiveness problem associated with the original generalized learning vector quantization (GLVQ) algorithm and its variants. Results presented in this paper indicate that the CE method can be successfully applied to this kind of problem on real-world data sets. As far as known by the authors, it is the first use of the CE method in prototype-based learning.     

Parallel hyper heuristic algorithm based on reinforcement learning for the corridor allocation problem and parallel row ordering problem

Hyper heuristics is a relatively new optimisation algorithm. Numerous studies have reported that hyper heuristics are well applied in combinatorial optimisation problems. As a classic combinatorial optimisation problem, the row layout problem has not been publicly reported on applying hyper heuristics to its various sub-problems. To fill this gap, this study proposes a parallel hyper-heuristic approach based on reinforcement learning for corridor allocation problems and parallel row ordering problems. For the proposed algorithm, an outer layer parallel computing framework was constructed based on the encoding of the problem. The simulated annealing, tabu search, and variable neighbourhood algorithms were used in the algorithm as low-level heuristic operations, and Q-learning in reinforcement learning was used as a high-level strategy. A state space containing sequences and fitness values was designed. The algorithm performance was then evaluated for benchmark instances of the corridor allocation problem (37 groups) and parallel row ordering problem (80 groups). The results showed that, in most cases, the proposed algorithm provided a better solution than the best-known solutions in the literature. Finally, the meta-heuristic algorithm applied to three low-level heuristic operations is taken as three independent algorithms and compared with the proposed hyper-heuristic algorithm on four groups of parallel row ordering problem instances. The effectiveness of Q-learning in selection is illustrated by analysing the comparison results of the four algorithms and the number of calls of the three low-level heuristic operations in the proposed method.     

A combined parallel algorithm for solving the knapsack problem

Parallel implementations of a combined branch-and-bound algorithm for the knapsack problem with one constraint are considered. By the combined algorithm we mean an algorithm in which two methods of branching are implemented, the method based on an estimate of the upper bound and the method of one-sided branching based on the vector. An approach combining parallel implementations of the brunch-and-bound method and the heuristic search is proposed and implemented.     

Anytime pack search

Heuristic search is one of the fundamental problem solving techniques in artificial intelligence, which is used in general to efficiently solve computationally hard problems in various domains, especially in planning and optimization. In this paper, we present an anytime heuristic search algorithm called anytime pack search (APS) which produces good quality solutions quickly and improves upon them over time, by focusing the exploration on a limited set of most promising nodes in each iteration. We discuss the theoretical properties of APS and show that it is complete. We also present the complexity analysis of the proposed algorithm on a tree state-space model and show that it is asymptotically of the same order as that of A*, which is a widely applied best-first search method. Furthermore, we present a parallel formulation of the proposed algorithm, called parallel anytime pack search (PAPS), which is applicable for searching tree state-spaces. We theoretically prove the completeness of PAPS. Experimental results on the sliding-tile puzzle problem, traveling salesperson problem, and single machine scheduling problem depict that the proposed sequential algorithm produces much better anytime performance when compared to some of the existing methods. Also, the proposed parallel formulation achieves super-linear speedups over the sequential method.     

平面点集凸包的并行算法研究

提出了在基于有序简单多边形的平面点集凸包快速求取算法基础上改进的并行算法，该算法的时间复杂度达到了O（n）。在PC机互连构成的机群（COW）并行计算系统上以消息传递方式执行该算法，通过与原串行算法对比验证了该算法的可行性、正确性和高效性。     

基于多蚁群的并行ACO算法

通过改变蚁群优化(ACO)算法行为,提出一种新的ACO并行化策略——并行多蚁群ACO算法。针对蚁群算法存在停滞现象的缺点,改进选择策略,实现具有自适应并行机制的选择和搜索策略,以加强其全局搜索能力。并行处理采用数据并行的手段,能减少处理器间的通信时间并获得更好的解。以对称TSP测试集为对象进行比较实验,结果表明,该算法相对于串行算法及现有的并行算法具有一定的优势。     

基于双禁忌对象的并行禁忌搜索算法

禁忌搜索算法是解决组合优化问题的一种主要方法,是克服NP完全问题的一个有效途径。随着计算网格的发展,将禁忌搜索算法引入到这种分布式并行计算环境中,具有广泛的应用价值。提出了一个基于双禁忌对象的禁忌搜索算法,在此算法的基础上,利用并行化分散搜索策略来提高算法的求解精度。实验结果表明该并行禁忌搜索算法性能较高。     

Two-level iterated local search for WDM network design problem with traffic grooming

Two important problems arise in WDM network planning: network design to minimize the operation cost and traffic grooming to maximize the usage of the high capacity channels. In practice, however, these two problems are usually simultaneously tackled, denoted as the network design problem with traffic grooming (NDG). In this paper, a mathematical formulation of the NDG problem is first presented. Then, this paper proposes a new metaheuristic algorithm based on two-level iterated local search (TL-ILS) to solve the NDG problem, where a novel tree search based neighborhood construction and a fast evaluation method are proposed, which not only enhance the algorithm's search efficiency but also provide a new perspective in designing neighborhoods for problems with graph structures. Our algorithm is tested on a set of benchmarks generated according to real application scenarios. We also propose a strengthening formulation of the original problem and a method to obtain the lower bound of the NDG problem. Computational results in comparison with the commercial software CPLEX and the lower bounds show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

分布并行的分形图像压缩算法

分形图像压缩算法的时间复杂性很大，在单机上受到限制，针对这方面提出的分类方法，基于邻域搜索算法等虽然降低了时间复杂性，但同时也影响了图像的压缩质量，本文把分布并行机制引入分形压缩算法，提出分布并行的自适应四分树分形压缩算法，并在基于Java RMI的分布并行计算系统中加以实现，实验表明可以获得接近计算结点数的加速比。     

利用改进遗传算法的参数估计

基于极大似然法的参数估计实质上是一个复杂的非线性优化问题,传统的优化方法计算效率较低且容易陷入局部极值。而遗传算法是一种有导向的随机搜索方法,能以较大的概率收敛到全局最优解。本文将单纯形法引入到并行遗传算法中,提出了一种改进的遗传算法,可以有效地提高算法的收敛速度、防止搜索过程中的早熟现象。应用于系统初始状态未知时的参数估计问题,获得了满意的结果。     

A fault-tolerant parallel heuristic for assignment problems

This paper presents a new approach for parallel heuristic algorithms based on adaptive parallelism. Adaptive parallelism was used to dynamically adjust the parallelism degree of the application with respect to the system load. This approach demonstrates that high-performance computing using a hundred of heterogeneous workstations combined with massively parallel machines is feasible to solve large optimization problems with respect to the personal character of workstations. The fault-tolerant algorithm allows a minimal loss of computation in case of failures. The proposed algorithm exploits the properties of this class of applications in order to reduce the complexity of the algorithm in terms of the checkpoint files size and the control messages exchanged. The parallel heuristic algorithm combines different search strategies: simulated annealing and tabu search. Encouraging results have been obtained in solving the quadratic assignment problem. We have improved the best known solutions for some large real-world problems.     

Scheduling task graphs optimally with A*

Scheduling tasks onto the processors of a parallel system is a crucial part of program parallelisation. Due to the NP-hard nature of the task scheduling problem, scheduling algorithms are based on heuristics that try to produce good rather than optimal schedules. Nevertheless, in certain situations it is desirable to have optimal schedules, for example for time-critical systems or to evaluate scheduling heuristics. This paper investigates the task scheduling problem using the A* search algorithm which is a best-first state space search. The adaptation of the A* search algorithm for the task scheduling problem is referred to as the A* scheduling algorithm. The A* scheduling algorithm can produce optimal schedules in reasonable time for small to medium sized task graphs with several tens of nodes. In comparison to a previous approach, the here presented A* scheduling algorithm has a significantly reduced search space due to a much improved consistent and admissible cost function f(s) and additional pruning techniques. Experimental results show that the cost function and the various pruning techniques are very effective for the workload. Last but not least, the results show that the proposed A* scheduling algorithm significantly outperforms the previous approach.     

A parallel algorithm for constrained two-staged two-dimensional cutting problems

In this paper, we solve the two-staged two-dimensional cutting problem using a parallel algorithm. The proposed approach combines two main features: beam search (BS) and strip generation solution procedures (SGSP). BS employs a truncated tree-search, where a selected subset of generated nodes are retuned for further search. SGSP, a constructive procedure, combines a (sub)set of strips for providing both partial lower and complementary upper bounds. The algorithm explores in parallel a subset of selected nodes following the master-slave paradigm. The master processor serves to guide the search-resolution and each slave processor develops its proper way, trying a global convergence. The aim of such an approach is to show how the parallelism is able to efficiently solve large-scale instances, by providing new solutions within a consistently reduced runtime. Extensive computational testing on instances, taken from the literature, shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

解灰色非线性规划问题的随机搜索算法

对带约束条件的灰色非线性规划问题进行了探讨,首先将原灰色约束非线性规划问题进行均值白化处理,转化成一个确定型的带约束条件的非线性规划问题,对该确定型的非线性约束规划问题提出一个基于分布估计算法的随机搜索方法,对所提出的求解方法的关键技术作了详细的说明并给出了具体的算法步骤。 初步的数值算例表明所提出的方法是可行有效的     

动态分级的并行约束优化进化算法

提出一种动态分级的并行进化算法用于求解约束优化问题。该算法首先利用佳点集方法初始化种群。在进化过程中,将种群个体分为两个子种群,分别用于全局和局部搜索,并根据不同的搜索阶段动态调整各种级别中并行变量的数目。标准测试问题的实验结果表明了该算法的可行性和有效性。     

Protein database search of hybrid alignment algorithm based on GPU parallel acceleration

In biological research, alignment of protein sequences by computer is often needed to find similarities between them. Although results can be computed in a reasonable time for alignment of two sequences, it is still very central processing unit (CPU) time-consuming when solving massive sequences alignment problems such as protein database search. In this paper, an optimized protein database search method is presented and tested with Swiss-Prot database on graphic processing unit (GPU) devices, and further, the power of CPU multi-threaded computing is also involved to realize a GPU-based heterogeneous parallelism. In our proposed method, a hybrid alignment approach is implemented by combining Smith–Waterman local alignment algorithm with Needleman–Wunsch global alignment algorithm, and parallel database search is realized with compute unified device architecture (CUDA) parallel computing framework. In the experiment, the algorithm is tested on a lower-end and a higher-end personal computers equipped with GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards, respectively. The results show that the parallel method proposed in this paper can achieve a speedup up to 138.86 times over the serial counterpart, improving efficiency and convenience of protein database search significantly.