Exact optimal solutions of the minisum facility and transfer points location problems on a network

We consider hierarchical facility location problems on a network called Multiple Location of Transfer Points (MLTP) and Facility and Transfer Points Location Problem (FTPLP), where q facilities and p transfer points are located and each customer goes to one of the facilities directly or via one of the transfer points. In FTPLP, we need to find an optimal location of both the facilities and the transfer points while the location of facilities is given in MLTP. Although good heuristics have been proposed for the minisum MLTP and FTPLP, no exact optimal solution has been tested due to the size of the problems. We show that the minisum MLTP can be formulated as a p‐median problem, which leads to obtaining an optimal solution. We also present a new formulation of FTPLP and an enumeration‐based approach to solve the problems with a single facility.     

Solving a timetabling problem using hybrid genetic algorithms

All over the world, human resources are used on all kinds of different scheduling problems, many of which are time-consuming and tedious. Scheduling tools are thus very welcome. This paper presents a research project, where Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are used as the basis for solving a timetabling problem concerning medical doctors attached to an emergency service. All the doctors express personal preferences, thereby making the scheduling rather difficult. In its natural form, the timetabling problem for the emergency service is stated as a number of constraints to be fulfilled. For this reason, it was decided to compare the strength of a Co-evolutionary Constraint Satisfaction (CCS) technique with that of two other GA approaches. Distributed GAs and a simple special-purpose hill climber were introduced, to improve the performance of the three algorithms. Finally, the performance of the GAs was compared with that of some standard, nonGA approaches. The distributed hybrid GAs were by far the most successful, and one of these hybrid algorithms is currently used for solving the timetabling problem at the emergency service. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal switch location in mobile communication networks using hybrid genetic algorithms

The optimal positioning of switches in a mobile communication network is an important task, which can save costs and improve the performance of the network. In this paper we propose a model for establishing which are the best nodes of the network for allocating the available switches, and several hybrid genetic algorithms to solve the problem. The proposed model is based on the so-called capacitated p-median problem, which have been previously tackled in the literature. This problem can be split in two subproblems: the selection of the best set of switches, and a terminal assignment problem to evaluate each selection of switches. The hybrid genetic algorithms for solving the problem are formed by a conventional genetic algorithm, with a restricted search, and several local search heuristics. In this work we also develop novel heuristics for solving the terminal assignment problem in a fast and accurate way. Finally, we show that our novel approaches, hybridized with the genetic algorithm, outperform existing algorithms in the literature for the p-median problem.     

设备定位问题局部搜索算法的实验

讨论设备问题的局部搜索近似算法及其在实际计算中表现出的新性质。主要讨论局部搜索算法中初始解的产生方法,设备价值与服务价值大小对算法求解性能的影响。实验表明：约有99%以上的实例可直接利用局部搜索算法求得最优解;贪心算法产生初始解的局部搜索算法求解时间明显短于随机算法产生初始解的方法,但两者求解质量相当;设备价值和服务价值数值范围越大,局部搜索算法越容易求得最优解。     

大规模突发事件应急设施选址模型及算法

大规模突发事件下应急物资的需求量巨大以及对资源持续需求的特点,考虑设施选址的公平性、效率性及成本等因素,基于多级覆盖和覆盖衰减思想,提出一类应急设施多目标多重覆盖衰减选址模型。基于MATLAB7.0设计贪婪算法、上升算法、遗传算法程序对模型进行求解,以25组不同规模的算例验证了模型的性能和算法的有效性。数值模拟结果表明,该模型较之传统覆盖选址模型可以为需求点提供更高的覆盖满意度;当目标权系数取不同值时对选址结果产生较大影响;对三个算法性能进行比较,遗传算法最优,上升算法次之,贪婪算法最差,上升算法适于求解中小规模的选址问题,而遗传算法更适合于大规模选址问题的求解。     

Solving fuzzy assembly-line balancing problem with genetic algorithms

Assembly-line balancing problem is known as one of difficult combinatorial optimization problems. This problem has been solved with linear programming, dynamic programming approaches, but unfortunately these approaches do not lead to efficient algorithms. Recently, genetic algorithm has been recognized as an efficient and usefull procedure for solving large and hard combinatorial optimization problems, such as scheduling problems, travelling salesman problems, transportation problems, and so on. Fuzzy sets theory is frequently used to represent uncertainty of information. In this paper, to treat the data of real-world problems we use a fuzzy number to represent the processing time and show that we can get a good performance in solving this problem using genetic algorithms.     

A genetic algorithm approach to solving the anti-covering location problem

Abstract: In this paper we address the problem of locating a maximum weighted number of facilities such that no two are within a specified distance from each other. A natural process of evolution approach, more specifically a genetic algorithm, is proposed to solve this problem. It is shown that through the use of a commercially available spreadsheet-based genetic algorithm software package, the decision-maker with a fundamental knowledge of spreadsheets can easily set up and solve this optimization problem. Also, we report on our extensive computational experience using three different data sets.     

工厂地址集中的k-种产品选址问题的近似算法

k-种产品工厂选址问题是：给定一个客户集合和一个可以建立工厂的地址集合,每个客户需要k-种产品,一个工厂只能为客户提供一种产品。考虑的工厂假设相对集中,即假设任何工厂之间的距离都不大于工厂与客户之间的距离。对于没有建厂费用的问题,当k=2时证明了它是一个NP完全问题,对任意的k给出了一个最坏性能比不大于2-1/k的近似算法。对于有建厂费用的问题,给出了一个最坏性能比不大于2的近似算法。     

Applied p-median and p-center algorithms for facility location problems

Facility location problems with the objective to minimize the sum of the setup cost and transportation cost are studied in this paper. The setup and transportation costs are considered as a function of the number of opened facilities. Three methods are introduced to solve the problem. The facility location model with bounds for the number of opened facility is constructed in this work. The relationship between setup cost and transportation cost is studied and used to build these methods based on greedy algorithm, p-median algorithm and p-center algorithm. The performance of the constructed methods is tested using 100 random data sets. In addition, the networks representing the road transportation system of Chiang Mai city and 5 provinces in Northern Thailand are illustrated and tested using all presented methods. Simulation results show that the method developed from greedy algorithm is suitable for solving problems when the setup cost is higher than transportation cost while the opposite cases are more efficiently solved with the method developed by the p-median problem.     

遗传算法在货运车辆优化调度中的应用

本文在阐述了遗传算法基本理论和车辆优化调度基本理论的基础上,进一步论述了遗传算法在一般车辆优化调度中的应用。参考近年来遗传算法应用于车辆优化调度的一些文献,对应用于不同情况下货运车辆优化调度的遗传算法进行了总结和分析。最后对本文进行总结,并对未来的遗传算法在货运车辆优化调度中的应用提出了发展趋势。     

网络中设备位置问题分析

通过引入虚拟的质量保证协议（SLA）服务条款,提出网络中形式化的设备位置问题,并根据网络特点改进了现有的静态局部优化算法,证明了在常见的分区低服务质量敏感类型的k median问题和低服务质量敏感类型的UFL问题中的近似度上界。测试结果表明改进后的算法在较小增加现有静态算法近似度的情况下运算速度有较大的提高。     

旅行商问题(TSP)的伪并行遗传算法

旅行商问题(TSP)是典型的NP完全组合优化问题．本文基于遗传算法求解TSP问题时的独特性,提出一种采用无性繁殖的改进伪并行遗传算法,避免了交叉算子对良好基因模式的破坏;初始种群通过贪婪算法得到并进行预处理,提高算法的收敛速度;伪并行遗传算法中子群体之间的信息交换采用孤岛模型．这些改进措施对降低算法的复杂程度、提高算法的收敛速度和全局搜索能力有重要意义．仿真研究结果表明,该算法的寻优效率较高,有效地克服了标准遗传算法的早熟收敛问题．     

Homogeneous genetic algorithms

A new type of genetic algorithm (GA) is developed to mitigate one or both of the following two major difficulties that traditional GAs may suffer: (1) when the number of ‘active genes’ needs to be held constant or kept within some prescribed range, and (2) when the set of genes is much larger than the set of active genes of feasible solutions under consideration. These homogeneous GAs use (unordered) sets to represent ‘active genes’ in chromosomes rather than strings, and a correspondingly natural crossover operator is introduced. ‘Homogeneous’ refers to the fact that, in contrast to traditional GAs where pairs of genes that are ‘close’ have better chances of being preserved under crossover, there is no notion of proximity between pairs of genes. Examples are provided that will demonstrate superior performance of these new GAs for some typical problems in which these difficulties arise.     

Covering problems in facility location: A review

In this study, we review the covering problems in facility location. Here, besides a number of reviews on covering problems, a comprehensive review of models, solutions and applications related to the covering problem is presented after Schilling, Jayaraman, and Barkhi (1993). This survey tries to review all aspects of the covering problems by stressing the works after Schilling, Jayaraman, and Barkhi (1993). We first present the covering problems and then investigate solutions and applications. A summary and future works conclude the paper.     

Two-dimensional packing problems using genetic algorithms

This paper presents a technique for applying genetic algorithms for the two-dimensional packing problem. The approach is applicable to not only convex shaped objects, but can also accommodate any type of concave and complex shaped objects including objects with holes. In this approach, a new concept of a two-dimensional genetic chromosome is introduced. The total layout space is divided into a finite number of cells for mapping it into this 2D genetic algorithm chromosome. The mutation and crossover operators have been modified and are applied in conjunction with connectivity analysis for the objects to reduce the creation of faulty generations. A new feature has been added to the Genetic Algorithm (GA) in the form of a new operator called compaction. Several examples of GA-based layout are presented.     

Solving the uncapacitated facility location problem using tabu search

A tabu search heuristic procedure is developed to solve the uncapacitated facility location problem. Tabu search is used to guide the solution process when evolving from one solution to another. A move is defined to be the opening or closing of a facility. The net cost change resulting from a candidate move is used to measure the attractiveness of the move. After a move is made, the net cost change of a candidate move is updated from its old value. Updating, rather than re-computing, the net cost changes substantially reduces computation time needed to solve a problem when the problem is not excessively large. Searching only a small subset of the feasible solutions that contains the optimal solution, the procedure is computationally very efficient. A computational experiment is conducted to test the performance of the procedure and computational results are reported. The procedure can easily find optimal or near optimal solutions for benchmark test problems from the literature. For randomly generated test problems, this tabu search procedure not only obtained solutions completely dominating those obtained with other heuristic methods recently published in the literature but also used substantially less computation time. Therefore, this tabu search procedure has advantage over other heuristic methods in both solution quality and computation speed.     

The multi-period incremental service facility location problem

In this paper we introduce the multi-period incremental service facility location problem where the goal is to set a number of new facilities over a finite time horizon so as to cover dynamically the demand of a given set of customers. We prove that the coefficient matrix of the allocation subproblem that results when fixing the set of facilities to open is totally unimodular. This allows to solve efficiently the Lagrangean problem that relaxes constraints requiring customers to be assigned to open facilities. We propose a solution approach that provides both lower and upper bounds by combining subgradient optimization to solve a Lagrangean dual with an ad hoc heuristic that uses information from the Lagrangean subproblem to generate feasible solutions. Numerical results obtained in the computational experiments show that the obtained solutions are very good. In general, we get very small percent gaps between upper and lower bounds with little computation effort.     

Solving bus terminal location problems using evolutionary algorithms

Bus terminal assignment with the objective of maximizing public transportation service is known as bus terminal location problem (BTLP). We formulate the BTLP, a problem of concern in transportation industry, as a p-uncapacitated facility location problem (p-UFLP) with distance constraint. The p-UFLP being NP-hard (Krarup and Pruzan, 1990), we propose evolutionary algorithms for its solution. According to the No Free Lunch theorem and the good efficiency of the distinctive preserve recombination (DPX) operator, we design a new recombination operator for solving a BTLP by new evolutionary and memetic algorithms namely, genetic local search algorithms (GLS). We also define the potential objective function (POF) for the nodes and design a new mutation operator based on POF. To make the memetic algorithm faster, we estimate the variation of the objective function based on POF in the local search as part of an operator in memetic algorithms. Finally, we explore numerically the performance of nine proposed algorithms on over a thousand randomly generated problems and select the best two algorithms for further testing. The comparative studies show that our new hybrid algorithm composing the evolutionary algorithm with the GLS outperforms the multistart simulated annealing algorithm.     

Solving decentralized POMDP problems using genetic algorithms

The Decentralized Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (DEC-POMDP) model addresses the multiagent planning problem in partially observable environments. Due to its high computational complexity, in general only very small size problems can be solved exactly and most researchers concentrate on approximate solution algorithms to handle more complex cases. However, many approximate solution techniques can handle large size problems only for small horizons due to their exponential memory requirements for representing the policies and searching the policy space. In this study, we offer an approximate solution algorithm called GA-FSC that uses finite state controllers (FSC) to represent a finite-horizon DEC-POMDP policy and searches the policy space using genetic algorithms. We encode FSCs into chromosomes and we use one exact and one approximate technique to calculate the fitness of the chromosomes. The exact calculation technique helps us to obtain better quality solutions with the cost of more processing time compared to the approximate fitness calculation. Our method is able to replicate the best results reported so far in the literature in most cases and it is also able to extend the reported horizons further in almost all cases when compared to optimal approaches.