Variable neighborhood search approaches for scheduling jobs on parallel machines with sequence-dependent setup times, precedence constraints, and ready times

In this paper, we discuss a scheduling problem for jobs on identical parallel machines. Ready times of the jobs, precedence constraints, and sequence-dependent setup times are considered. We are interested in minimizing the performance measure total weighted tardiness that is important for achieving good on-time delivery performance. Scheduling problems of this type appear as subproblems in decomposition approaches for large scale job shops with automated transport of the jobs as, for example, in semiconductor manufacturing. We suggest several variants of variable neighborhood search (VNS) schemes for this scheduling problem and compare their performance with the performance of a list based scheduling approach based on the Apparent Tardiness Cost with Setups and Ready Times (ATCSR) dispatching rule. Based on extensive computational experiments with randomly generated test instances we are able to show that the VNS approach clearly outperforms heuristics based on the ATCSR dispatching rule in many situations with respect to solution quality. When using the schedule obtained by ATCSR as an initial solution for VNS, then the entire scheme is also fast and can be used as a subproblem solution procedure for complex job shop decomposition approaches.     

Estimation of distribution algorithm for permutation flow shops with total flowtime minimization

In this paper, an Estimation of Distribution Algorithm (EDA) is proposed for permutation flow shops to minimize total flowtime. Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) is incorporated into the probability distribution model to mine good “genes”. Different from common EDAs, each offspring individual is produced from a seed, which is selected from the population by the roulette method. The LCS between the seed individual and the best solution found so far is regarded as good “genes”, which are inherited by offspring with a probability less than 100% to guarantee the population diversity. An effective Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) is integrated into the proposed EDA to further improve the performance. Experimental results show that the inheritance of good “genes” obtained by LCS can improve the performance of the proposed EDA. The proposed hybrid EDA outperforms other existing algorithms for the considered problem in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed hybrid EDA improved 42 out of 90 current best solutions for Taillard benchmark instances.     

Detection of low molecular weight toxins using an optical phase method of ellipsometry

The method of total internal reflection ellipsometry (TIRE), which records simultaneously two parameters Δ and Ψ related to the amplitudes and phases of p- and s-components of polarised light, respectively, was exploited here for detection of mycotoxins (T-2 and zearalenone). The above mycotoxins in sub-ppb concentrations were detected using TIRE in both direct and competitive immunoassay. The study of immune reaction kinetics allowed the evaluation of adsorption/desorption rates and the association constant for zearalenone. The investigation of grain products samples revealed the presence of high concentrations of T-2 (>600 ng/ml) in mould products.     

Bottleneck-based heuristics to minimize total tardiness for the flexible flow line with unrelated parallel machines

This paper considers the flexible flow line problem with unrelated parallel machines at each stage and with a bottleneck stage on the line. The objective of the problem is to minimize the total tardiness. Two bottleneck-based heuristics with three machine selection rules are proposed to solve the problem. The heuristics first develop an indicator to identify a bottleneck stage in the flow line, and then separate the flow line into the upstream stages, the bottleneck stage, and the downstream stages. The upstream stages are the stages ahead of the bottleneck stage and the downstream stages are the stages behind the bottleneck stage. A new approach is developed to find the arrival times of the jobs at the bottleneck stage. Using the new approach, the bottleneck-based heuristics develop two decision rules to iteratively schedule the jobs at the bottleneck stage, the upstream stages, and the downstream stages. In order to evaluate the performance of the bottleneck-based heuristics, seven commonly used dispatching rules and a basic tabu search algorithm are investigated for comparison purposes. Seven experimental factors are used to design 128 production scenarios, and ten test problems are generated for each scenario. Computational results show that the bottleneck-based heuristics significantly outperform all the dispatching rules for the test problems. Although the effective performance of the bottleneck-based heuristics is inferior to the basic tabu search algorithm, the bottleneck-based heuristics are much more efficient than the tabu search algorithm. Also, a test of the effect of the experimental factors on the dispatching rules, the bottleneck-based heuristics, and the basic tabu search algorithm is performed, and some interesting insights are discovered.     

Genetic algorithm-based heuristics for an open shop scheduling problem with setup,processing, and removal times separated

This report proposes a solution to the open shop scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing total job tardiness in the system. Some practical processing restrictions, such as independent setup and dependent removal times, are taken into account as well. The addressed problem is first described as a 0–1 integer programming model, and is then solved optimally. Subsequently, some hybrid genetic-based heuristics are proposed to solve the problem in an acceptable computation time. To demonstrate the adaptability of these heuristics, some performance comparisons are made with solutions provided by running either a mathematical programming model or certain classic meta-heuristics such as genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, and tabu search in various manufacturing scenarios. The experimental results show that the hybrid genetic-based heuristics perform well, especially the DGA. However, these heuristics require some more additional computations but are still acceptable.     

Some First-Order Algorithms for Total Variation Based Image Restoration

This paper deals with first-order numerical schemes for image restoration. These schemes rely on a duality-based algorithm proposed in 1979 by Bermùdez and Moreno. This is an old and forgotten algorithm that is revealed wider than recent schemes (such as the Chambolle projection algorithm) and able to improve contemporary schemes. Total variation regularization and smoothed total variation regularization are investigated. Algorithms are presented for such regularizations in image restoration. We prove the convergence of all the proposed schemes. We illustrate our study with numerous numerical examples. We make some comparisons with a class of efficient algorithms (proved to be optimal among first-order numerical schemes) recently introduced by Y. Nesterov.     

基于结构张量的自适应CTV彩色图像恢复模型

讨论一种基于非线性扩散方程的彩色图像去噪方法。在图像去噪的3个基本要求的基础上,总结出调和项模型和彩色总变差去噪模型中的不足,利用图像的局部信息构造函数使得模型在接近图像边缘处各向异性平滑并保持边界。在平坦区域各向同性平滑,防止阶梯效应的产生,并利用角点信息保持了角点形状。实验结果表明,所建模型能够较好地保持图像中目标的几何结构,同时具有良好的去噪能力。     

TV改进算法及其在人脸识别中的应用

针对传统全变分（TV）模型在测试过程中存在的问题,将弹性网引入TV模型中,采用二次多项式对TV模型所丢弃的人脸低频信息进行光照归一化处理,并提取图像的高频信息,在YaleB图像库中测试其性能,仿真实验结果表明,相对于TV模型,TV＋二次多项式模型能够有效提高图像识别率。     

用于彩色图像复原的带有高阶耦合项的TV模型

提出了一种改进的TV(Total Variance)彩色图像复原方法。为消除TV模型的各向异性扩散导致的块效应,采用在TV模型的基础上耦合高阶项的新模型;并将这个新的模型推广到彩色图像,利用多通道的耦合机制实现各单色通道图像复原过程的相互制约。新模型保持了各向异性扩散的特性,图像的边缘得到了保持。实验结果证明, 与其它模型的复原 彩色图像相比,新模型复原的图像的峰值信噪比(PSNR)有了更大的提高,图像的非边缘区看上去更加平滑自然。     

遗传算法在跨超声速风洞总压控制中的应用

总压作为风洞控制中的重要流场参数,其调节性能是风洞控制系统能否满足试验要求的重要指标,为提高跨超声速风洞的总压控制水平,需对总压控制策略进行设计。针对某跨超声速风洞对总压控制系统提出的快速性和精确性要求,提出串级控制、智能PID控制和总压分段控制等方法,并利用MATLAB系统辨识工具箱对流场调节阶段的总压系统模型进行了辨识。提出将遗传算法应用于风洞流场调节阶段的PID控制器参数整定中,重点对基于遗传算法的PID控制原理和参数整定步骤进行介绍,并针对遗传算法的遗传算子进行了设计。系统仿真和风洞实际运行情况表明：该方法较常规PID参数整定与优化方法,具有更好的控制性能指标,满足总压控制系统精确性、快速性、鲁棒性等要求,为后续风洞建设和设备改造提供了新方法。