A feature selection method based on modified binary coded ant colony optimization algorithm

Feature selection is a significant task for data mining and pattern recognition. It aims to select the optimal feature subset with the minimum redundancy and the maximum discriminating ability. In the paper, a feature selection approach based on a modified binary coded ant colony optimization algorithm (MBACO) combined with genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed. The method comprises two models, which are the visibility density model (VMBACO) and the pheromone density model (PMBACO). In VMBACO, the solution obtained by GA is used as visibility information; on the other hand, in PMBACO, the solution obtained by GA is used as initial pheromone information. In the method, each feature is treated as a binary bit and each bit has two orientations, one is for selecting the feature and another is for deselecting. The proposed method is also compared with that of GA, binary coded ant colony optimization (BACO), advanced BACO (ABACO), binary coded particle swarm optimization (BPSO), binary coded differential evolution (BDE) and a hybrid GA-ACO algorithm on some well-known UCI datasets; furthermore, it is also compared with some other existing techniques such as minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR), Relief algorithm for a comprehensive comparison. Experimental results display that the proposed method is robust, adaptive and exhibits the better performance than other methods involved in the paper.     

A Physarum-inspired optimization algorithm for load-shedding problem

Load-shedding is an intentional reduction approach which can maintain the stability of a microgrid system effectively. Recent studies have shown that a load-shedding problem can be solved by formulating it as a 0/1 knapsack problem (KP). Although approximate solutions of 0/1 KP can be given by ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms, adopting them requests a delicate consideration of the robustness, convergence rate and premature convergence. This paper proposes a new kind of Physarum-based hybrid optimization algorithm, denoted as PM-ACO, based on the critical paths reserved feature of Physarum-inspired mathematical (PM) model. Through adding additional pheromone to those important items selected by the PM model, PM-ACO improves the selection probability of important items and emerge a positive feedback process to generate optimal solutions. Comparing with other 0/1 KP solving algorithms, our experimental results demonstrate that PM-ACO algorithms have a stronger robustness and a higher convergence rate. Moreover, PM-ACO provides adaptable solutions for the load-shedding problem in a microgrid system.     

An algorithm for friend-recommendation of social networking sites based on SimRank and ant colony optimization

We put forward an algorithm on friend-recommendation of social networking sites based on SimRank and ant colony optimization, which broadens the appliance of the algorithm in this academic question. The algorithm focuses on the existing relationships between the members as the initial measurement and constructs artificial ants’ completed routing graph. Finally, an ordered and limited list of personalized recommendations through recursive optimization is produced. In the end, we verify the algorithm's rationality and validity through simulation and the result shows that it can improve the precision of friend-recommendation.     

Solving partner selection problem in cyber-physical production networks using the HUMANT algorithm

The idea of non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous enterprises has been present in scientific community for more than 20 years. Although some global corporations are using their own production networks across continents, they are not similar to the original idea of non-hierarchical production networks in many aspects. It seems that this idea waited for production systems to acquire proper information and communications technology (ICT) or new industrial platforms, like Industry 4.0. The result is a new type of production network called Cyber-Physical Production Network (CPPN). The CPPN is, from ICT point of view, ready to act as non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous production systems with many automated processes. One of the most important processes of the CPPN is a selection of optimal partners (enterprises) to be part of a new virtual enterprise, created inside production network. An optimisation problem emerges in this process, and it is called Partner Selection Problem (PSP). It is non-polynomial-hard combinatorial problem. Since metaheuristic algorithms are well-proven in solving that kind of problem, a specially designed metaheuristic algorithm derived from ant colony optimisation and named the HUMANT (HUManoid ANT) algorithm is used in this paper. It is multi-objective optimisation algorithm that successfully solves different instances of PSP with two, three, four or more objectives.     

A hybrid approach combining modified artificial bee colony and cuckoo search algorithms for multi-objective cloud manufacturing service composition

This paper proposes a multi-objective hybrid artificial bee colony (MOHABC) algorithm for service composition and optimal selection (SCOS) in cloud manufacturing, in which both the quality of service and the energy consumption are considered from the perspectives of economy and environment that are two pillars of sustainable manufacturing. The MOHABC uses the concept of Pareto dominance to direct the searching of a bee swarm, and maintains non-dominated solution found in an external archive. In order to achieve good distribution of solutions along the Pareto front, cuckoo search with Levy flight is introduced in the employed bee search to maintain diversity of population. Furthermore, to ensure the balance of exploitation and exploration capabilities for MOHABC, the comprehensive learning strategy is designed in the onlooker search so that every bee learns from the external archive elite, itself and other onlookers. Experiments are carried out to verify the effect of the improvement strategies and parameters’ impacts on the proposed algorithm and comparative study of the MOHABC with typical multi-objective algorithms for SCOS problems are addressed. The results show that the proposed approach obtains very promising solutions that significantly surpass the other considered algorithms.     

Hybrid algorithms for the twin–screw extrusion configuration problem

The twin-screw configuration problem (TSCP) arises in the context of polymer processing, where twin-screw extruders are used to prepare polymer blends, compounds or composites. The goal of the TSCP is to define the configuration of a screw from a given set of screw elements. The TSCP can be seen as a sequencing problem as the order of the screw elements on the screw axis has to be defined. It is also inherently a multi-objective problem since processing has to optimize various conflicting parameters related to the degree of mixing, shear rate, or mechanical energy input among others. In this article, we develop hybrid algorithms to tackle the bi-objective TSCP. The hybrid algorithms combine different local search procedures, including Pareto local search and two phase local search algorithms, with two different population-based algorithms, namely a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm and a multi-objective ant colony optimization algorithm. The experimental evaluation of these approaches shows that the best hybrid designs, combining Pareto local search with a multi-objective ant colony optimization approach, outperform the best algorithms that have been previously proposed for the TSCP.     

Hybrid multiobjective artificial bee colony for multiple sequence alignment

In the bioinformatics community, it is really important to find an accurate and simultaneous alignment among diverse biological sequences which are assumed to have an evolutionary relationship. From the alignment, the sequences homology is inferred and the shared evolutionary origins among the sequences are extracted by using phylogenetic analysis. This problem is known as the multiple sequence alignment (MSA) problem. In the literature, several approaches have been proposed to solve the MSA problem, such as progressive alignments methods, consistency-based algorithms, or genetic algorithms (GAs). In this work, we propose a Hybrid Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm based on the behaviour of honey bees for solving the MSA problem, the hybrid multiobjective artificial bee colony (HMOABC) algorithm. HMOABC considers two objective functions with the aim of preserving the quality and consistency of the alignment: the weighted sum-of-pairs function with affine gap penalties (WSP) and the number of totally conserved (TC) columns score. In order to assess the accuracy of HMOABC, we have used the BAliBASE benchmark (version 3.0), which according to the developers presents more challenging test cases representing the real problems encountered when aligning large sets of complex sequences. Our multiobjective approach has been compared with 13 well-known methods in bioinformatics field and with other 6 evolutionary algorithms published in the literature.     

A novel multiple rule sets data classification algorithm based on ant colony algorithm

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have been successfully applied in data classification, which aim at discovering a list of classification rules. However, due to the essentially random search in ACO algorithms, the lists of classification rules constructed by ACO-based classification algorithms are not fixed and may be distinctly different even using the same training set. Those differences are generally ignored and some beneficial information cannot be dug from the different data sets, which may lower the predictive accuracy. To overcome this shortcoming, this paper proposes a novel classification rule discovery algorithm based on ACO, named AntMiner_mbc, in which a new model of multiple rule sets is presented to produce multiple lists of rules. Multiple base classifiers are built in AntMiner_mbc, and each base classifier is expected to remedy the weakness of other base classifiers, which can improve the predictive accuracy by exploiting the useful information from various base classifiers. A new heuristic function for ACO is also designed in our algorithm, which considers both of the correlation and coverage for the purpose to avoid deceptive high accuracy. The performance of our algorithm is studied experimentally on 19 publicly available data sets and further compared to several state-of-the-art classification approaches. The experimental results show that the predictive accuracy obtained by our algorithm is statistically higher than that of the compared targets.     

A new MPPT controller based on the Ant colony optimization algorithm for Photovoltaic systems under partial shading conditions

The Maximum Power Point Tracking controller (MPPT) is a key element in Photovoltaic systems (PV). It is used to maintain the PV operating point at its maximum under different temperatures and sunlight irradiations. The goal of a MPPT controller is to satisfy the following performances criteria: accuracy, precision, speed, robustness and handling the partial shading problem when climatic changes variations occur. To achieve this goal, several techniques have been proposed ranging from conventional methods to artificial intelligence and bio-inspired methods. Each technique has its own advantage and disadvantage. In this context, we propose in this paper, a new Bio- inspired MPPT controller based on the Ant colony Optimization algorithm with a New Pheromone Updating strategy (ACO_NPU MPPT) that saves the computation time and performs an excellent tracking capability with high accuracy, zero oscillations and high robustness. First, the different steps of the design of the proposed ACO_NPU MPPT controller are developed. Then, several tests are performed under standard conditions for the selection of the appropriate ACO_NPU parameters (number of ants, coefficients of evaporation, archive size, etc.). To evaluate the performances of the obtained ACO_NPU MPPT, in terms of its tracking speed, accuracy, stability and robustness, tests are carried out under slow and rapid variations of weather conditions (Irradiance and Temperature) and under different partial shading patterns. Moreover, to demonstrate the superiority and robustness of the proposed ACO_NPU_MPPT controller, the obtained results are analyzed and compared with others obtained from the Conventional Methods (P&O_MPPT) and the Soft Computing Methods with Artificial intelligence (ANN_MPPT, FLC_MPPT, ANFIS_MPPT, FL_GA_MPPT) and with the Bio Inspired methods (PSO) and (ACO) from the literature. The obtained results show that the proposed ACO_NPU MPPT controller gives the best performances under variables atmospheric conditions. In addition, it can easily track the global maximum power point (GMPP) under partial shading conditions.     

A fast hybrid primal heuristic for multiband robust capacitated network design with multiple time periods

We investigate the Robust Multiperiod Network Design Problem, a generalization of the Capacitated Network Design Problem (CNDP) that, besides establishing flow routing and network capacity installation as in a canonical CNDP, also considers a planning horizon made up of multiple time periods and protection against fluctuations in traffic volumes. As a remedy against traffic volume uncertainty, we propose a Robust Optimization model based on Multiband Robustness (Büsing and D’Andreagiovanni, 2012), a refinement of classical Γ-Robustness by Bertsimas and Sim that uses a system of multiple deviation bands.Since the resulting optimization problem may prove very challenging even for instances of moderate size solved by a state-of-the-art optimization solver, we propose a hybrid primal heuristic that combines a randomized fixing strategy inspired by ant colony optimization and an exact large neighbourhood search. Computational experiments on a set of realistic instances from the SNDlib show that our original heuristic can run fast and produce solutions of extremely high quality associated with low optimality gaps.