A hybrid particle swarm optimization based algorithm for high school timetabling problems

In this contribution a hybrid particle swarm optimization (PSO) based algorithm is applied to high school timetabling problems. The proposed PSO based algorithm is used for creating feasible and efficient high school timetables. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed PSO based algorithm, experiments with real-world input data coming from many different Greek high schools have been conducted. Computational results show that the proposed hybrid PSO based algorithm performs better than existing approaches applied to the same school timetabling input instances using the same evaluation criteria.     

Using particle swarm optimization to solve effectively the school timetabling problem

A new hybrid adaptive algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is designed, developed and applied to the high school timetabling problem. The proposed PSO algorithm is used to create feasible and efficient timetables for high schools in Greece. Experiments with real-world data coming from different high schools have been conducted to show the efficiency of the proposed PSO algorithm. As well as that, the algorithm has been compared with four other effective techniques found in the literature to demonstrate its efficiency and superior performance. In order to have a fair comparison with these algorithms, we decided to use the exact same input instances used by these algorithms. The proposed PSO algorithm outperforms, in most cases, other existing attempts to solve the same problem as shown by experimental results.     

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.     

Improved cat swarm optimization algorithm for solving global optimization problems and its application to clustering

This paper presents a cat swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm for solving global optimization problems. In CSO algorithm, some modifications are incorporated to improve its performance and balance between global and local search. In tracing mode of the CSO algorithm, a new search equation is proposed to guide the search toward a global optimal solution. A local search method is incorporated to improve the quality of solution and overcome the local optima problem. The proposed algorithm is named as Improved CSO (ICSO) and the performance of the ICSO algorithm is tested on twelve benchmark test functions. These test functions are widely used to evaluate the performance of new optimization algorithms. The experimental results confirm that the proposed algorithm gives better results than the other algorithms. In addition, the proposed ICSO algorithm is also applied for solving the clustering problems. The performance of the ICSO algorithm is evaluated on five datasets taken from the UCI repository. The simulation results show that ICSO-based clustering algorithm gives better performance than other existing clustering algorithms.     

新蚁群算法模型在大学课程时间表问题中的应用

分析大学课程时间表问题的特征,结合已有蚁群算法的求解策略,构建了新的问题求解模型,提出了一种基于蚁群算法和改进过程的求解算法,并在不同规模的问题实例上进行实验。结果表明,算法在目标函数解的质量上有明显改进。     

A modified competitive swarm optimizer for large scale optimization problems

In the recent literature a popular algorithm namely ‘Competitive Swarm Optimizer (CSO)’ has been proposed for solving unconstrained optimization problems that updates only half of the population in each iteration. A modified CSO (MCSO) is being proposed in this paper where two thirds of the population swarms are being updated by a tri-competitive criterion unlike CSO. A small change in CSO makes a huge difference in the solution quality. The basic idea behind the proposition is to maintain a higher rate of exploration to the search space with a faster rate of convergence. The proposed MCSO is applied to solve the standard CEC2008 and CEC2013 large scale unconstrained benchmark optimization problems. The empirical results and statistical analysis confirm the better overall performance of MCSO over many other state-of-the-art meta-heuristics, including CSO. In order to confirm the superiority further, a real life problem namely ‘sampling-based image matting problem’ is solved. Considering the winners of CEC 2008 and 2013, MCSO attains the second best position in the competition.     

A Glowworm Swarm Optimization algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands

The Glowworm Swarm Optimization (GSO) algorithm is a relatively new swarm intelligence algorithm that simulates the movement of the glowworms in a swarm based on the distance between them and on a luminescent quantity called luciferin. This algorithm has been proven very efficient in the problems that has been applied. However, there is no application of this algorithm, at least to our knowledge, in routing type problems. In this paper, this nature inspired algorithm is used in a hybrid scheme (denoted as Combinatorial Neighborhood Topology Glowworm Swarm Optimization (CNTGSO)) with other metaheuristic algorithms (Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithm and Path Relinking (PR) algorithm) for successfully solving the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands. The major challenge is to prove that the proposed algorithm could efficiently be applied in a difficult combinatorial optimization problem as most of the applications of the GSO algorithm concern solutions of continuous optimization problems. Thus, two different solution vectors are used, the one in the continuous space (which is updated as in the classic GSO algorithm) and the other in the discrete space and it represents the path representation of the route and is updated using Combinatorial Neighborhood Topology technique. A migration (restart) phase is, also, applied in order to replace not promising solutions and to exchange information between solutions that are in different places in the solution space. Finally, a VNS strategy is used in order to improve each glowworm separately. The algorithm is tested in two problems, the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem and the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands in a number of sets of benchmark instances giving competitive and in some instances better results compared to other algorithms from the literature.     

A greedy gradient-simulated annealing selection hyper-heuristic

Educational timetabling problem is a challenging real world problem which has been of interest to many researchers and practitioners. There are many variants of this problem which mainly require scheduling of events and resources under various constraints. In this study, a curriculum based course timetabling problem at Yeditepe University is described and an iterative selection hyper-heuristic is presented as a solution method. A selection hyper-heuristic as a high level methodology operates on the space formed by a fixed set of low level heuristics which operate directly on the space of solutions. The move acceptance and heuristic selection methods are the main components of a selection hyper-heuristic. The proposed hyper-heuristic in this study combines a simulated annealing move acceptance method with a learning heuristic selection method and manages a set of low level constraint oriented heuristics. A key goal in hyper-heuristic research is to build low cost methods which are general and can be reused on unseen problem instances as well as other problem domains desirably with no additional human expert intervention. Hence, the proposed method is additionally applied to a high school timetabling problem, as well as six other problem domains from a hyper-heuristic benchmark to test its level of generality. The empirical results show that our easy-to-implement hyper-heuristic is effective in solving the Yeditepe course timetabling problem. Moreover, being sufficiently general, it delivers a reasonable performance across different problem domains.     

Optimization of heuristic search using recursive algorithm selection and reinforcement learning

The traditional approach to computational problem solving is to use one of the available algorithms to obtain solutions for all given instances of a problem. However, typically not all instances are the same, nor a single algorithm performs best on all instances. Our work investigates a more sophisticated approach to problem solving, called Recursive Algorithm Selection, whereby several algorithms for a problem (including some recursive ones) are available to an agent that makes an informed decision on which algorithm to select for handling each sub-instance of a problem at each recursive call made while solving an instance. Reinforcement learning methods are used for learning decision policies that optimize any given performance criterion (time, memory, or a combination thereof) from actual execution and profiling experience. This paper focuses on the well-known problem of state-space heuristic search and combines the A* and RBFS algorithms to yield a hybrid search algorithm, whose decision policy is learned using the Least-Squares Policy Iteration (LSPI) algorithm. Our benchmark problem domain involves shortest path finding problems in a real-world dataset encoding the entire street network of the District of Columbia (DC), USA. The derived hybrid algorithm exhibits better performance results than the individual algorithms in the majority of cases according to a variety of performance criteria balancing time and memory. It is noted that the proposed methodology is generic, can be applied to a variety of other problems, and requires no prior knowledge about the individual algorithms used or the properties of the underlying problem instances being solved.     

求解作业车间调度问题的改进混合灰狼优化算法*

灰狼优化算法(GWO)是目前一种比较新颖的群智能优化算法,具有收敛速度快,寻优能力强等优点。本文将灰狼优化算法用于求解复杂的作业车间调度问题,与布谷鸟搜索算法进行比较研究,验证了标准GWO算法求解经典作业车间调度问题的可行性和有效性。在此基础上,针对复杂作业车间调度问题难以求解的特点,对标准GWO算法进行改进,通过进化种群动态、反向学习初始化种群,以及最优个体变异等三个方面的改进操作,测试结果表明改进后的混合灰狼优化算法能够有效跳出局部最优值,找到更好的解,并且结果鲁棒性更强。     

Integrating employee timetabling with scheduling of machines and transporters in a job-shop environment: A mathematical formulation and an Anarchic Society Optimization algorithm

This paper addresses a ternary-integration scheduling problem that incorporates employee timetabling into the scheduling of machines and transporters in a job-shop environment with a finite number of heterogeneous transporters where the objective is to minimize the completion time of all jobs. The problem is first formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model. Then, an Anarchic Society Optimization (ASO) algorithm is developed to solve large-sized instances of the problem. The formulation is used to solve small-sized instances and to evaluate the quality of the solutions obtained for instances with larger sizes. A comprehensive numerical study is carried out to assess the performance of the proposed ASO algorithm. The algorithm is compared with three alternative metaheuristic algorithms. It is also compared with several algorithms developed in the literature for the integrated scheduling of machines and transporters. Moreover, the algorithms are tested on a set of adapted benchmark instances for an integrated problem of machine scheduling and employee timetabling. The numerical analysis suggests that the ASO algorithm is both effective and efficient in solving large-sized instances of the proposed integrated job-shop scheduling problem.     

基于改进量子猫群算法的流水车间调度研究

猫群算法（Cat Swarm Optimization,CSO）是近年来提出的一种新型群体智能算法,针对猫群算法在求解大规模调度问题中出现的不足,如易早熟、搜索效率低下等,提出了一种改进的量子猫群算法。将猫群算法的跟踪模式和搜寻模式中猫群位置的更新,通过基于量子旋转门的量子位概率幅更新的方式来实现,并提出了随时间可变的猫群模式选择配比MR。在求解流水线调度问题的仿真实验结果中表明,改进量子猫群算法的性能远远优于基本猫群算法。     

基于向量求值的QPSO算法在多目标优化中的应用

在分析了VEGA和VEPSO解决多目标问题的基础上,研究了基于量子行为的微粒群优化算法(QPSO)解决多目标问题,并提出一种基于向量求值的QPSO多目标优化算法,即VEQPSO。在VEQPSO算法中改进了粒子的进化公式,通过典型的多目标测试函数所做的实验,验证了该算法解决多目标问题的有效性。     

遗传算法在求解函数优化问题中的应用

函数优化是遗传算法的经典应用领域,也是对遗传算法进行性能评价的常用算例。由此,该文首先对遗传算法作了简介,并讨论了利用遗传算法求解函数优化问题的方法,最后给出了求解Rosenbrock香蕉函数优化实例。     

A dynamic task scheduling framework based on chicken swarm and improved raven roosting optimization methods in cloud computing

Scheduling means devoting tasks among computational resources, considering specific goals. Cloud computing is facing a dynamic and rapidly evolving situation. Devoting tasks to the computational resources could be done in numerous different ways. As a consequence, scheduling of tasks in cloud computing is considered as a NP-hard problem. Meta-heuristic algorithms are a proper choice for improving scheduling in cloud computing, but they should, of course, be consistent with the dynamic situation in the field of cloud computing. One of the newest bio-inspired meta-heuristic algorithms is the chicken swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm. This algorithm is inspired by the hierarchical behavior of chickens in a swarm for finding food. The diverse movements of the chickens create a balance between the local and the global search for finding the optimal solution. Raven roosting optimization (RRO) algorithm is inspired by the social behavior of raven and the information flow between the members of the population with the goal of finding food. The advantage of this algorithm lies in using the individual perception mechanism in the process of searching the problem space. In the current work, an ICDSF scheduling framework is proposed. It is a hybrid (IRRO-CSO) meta-heuristic approach based on the improved raven roosting optimization algorithm (IRRO) and the CSO algorithm. The CSO algorithm is used for its efficiency in satisfying the balance between the local and the global search, and IRRO algorithm is chosen for solving the problem of premature convergence and its better performance in bigger search spaces. First, the performance of the proposed hybrid IRRO-CSO algorithm is compared with other imitation-based swarm intelligence methods using benchmark functions (CEC 2017). Then, the capabilities of the proposed scheduling hybrid algorithm (IRRO-CSO) are tested using the NASA-iPSC parallel workload and are compared with the other available algorithms. The obtained results from the implementation of the hybrid IRRO-CSO algorithm in MATLAB show an improvement in the average best fitness compared with the following algorithms: IRRO, RRO, CSO, BAT and PSO. Finally, simulation tests performed in cloud computing environment show improvements in terms of reduction of execution time, reduction of response time and the increase in throughput by using the proposed hybrid IRRO-CSO approach for dynamic scheduling.     

Hybrid large neighbourhood search algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing problem

This paper presents a new hybrid algorithm that executes large neighbourhood search algorithm in combination with the solution construction mechanism of the ant colony optimization algorithm (LNS–ACO) for the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The proposed hybrid LNS–ACO algorithm aims at enhancing the performance of the large neighbourhood search algorithm by providing a satisfactory level of diversification via the solution construction mechanism of the ant colony optimization algorithm. Therefore, LNS–ACO algorithm combines its solution improvement mechanism with a solution construction mechanism. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on a set of CVRP instances. The hybrid LNS–ACO algorithm is compared against two other LNS variants and some of the formerly developed methods in terms of solution quality. Computational results indicate that the proposed hybrid LNS–ACO algorithm has a satisfactory performance in solving CVRP instances.     

混合量子进化算法及其应用

文章将量子进化算法(QEA)和粒子群算法(PSO)互相结合,提出了两种混合量子进化算法。第一种算法叫做嵌入式粒子群量子进化算法,其主要思想是将简化的PSO进化方程嵌入QEA的进化操作中,简化了QEA算法的结构,增强了QEA跳出局部极值的能力。第二种算法叫做量子二进制粒子群算法,其主要思想是将QEA中的量子染色体的概念引入二进制粒子群算法(BPSO),提高了BPSO算法保持种群多样性的能力和运算速度。通过对0-1背包问题和多用户检测问题的求解表明,新的算法不仅操作更简单,而且全局搜索能力有了显著的提高。     

Minimum common string partition: on solving large‐scale problem instances

Minimum common string partition is an NP‐hard combinatorial optimization problem from the bioinformatics field. The current state‐of‐the‐art algorithm is a hybrid technique known as construct, merge, solve, and adapt (CMSA). This algorithm combines two main algorithmic components: generating solutions in a probabilistic way and solving reduced subinstances obtained from the tackled problem instances, if possible, to optimality. However, the CMSA algorithm was not intended for application to very large problem instances. Therefore, in this paper we present a technique that makes CMSA, and other available algorithms for this problem, applicable to problem instances that are about one order of magnitude larger than the largest problem instances considered so far. Moreover, a reduced variable neighborhood search (RVNS) for solving the tackled problem, based on integer programming, is introduced. The experimental results show that the modified CMSA algorithm is very strong for problem instances based on rather small alphabets. With growing alphabet size, it turns out that RVNS has a growing advantage over CMSA.     

新的仿生算法:蟑螂算法

通过模拟蟑螂的觅食行为,提出蟑螂算法(Cockroach Swarm Optimization,CSO)。算法充分利用了蟑螂社会的平等特性和群体智慧。食物再分配、回巢等策略的使用使算法具有较强的全局搜索和局部搜索能力。以TSP问题为例对算法进行仿真测试,实验证明算法有效且优于存在的离散粒子群算法(Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization,PSO)。     

基于混合粒子群优化算法的旅行商问题求解

针对旅行商问题提出一种混合粒子群优化算法。为了增强算法的局部搜索能力,在粒子群优化算法中加入倒置、对换等局部搜索算法。利用遗传算法全局搜索能力强的特点对用粒子群优化算法求到的解进行优化,对全局最优路径通过消除交叉路径进行优化,以进一步提高混合算法的性能。仿真结果表明,中小规模旅行商问题能够在较少的代数内收敛到较满意解。