求解约束优化问题的混合类电磁机制算法

提出了一种求解约束优化问题的混合类电磁机制算法.该算法将约束条件通过外点法转移进目标函数,将约束问题简化为无约束问题;并加入粒子电量过滤公式设计出新类电磁机制(EPEM)算法.数值试验证明,新算法性能优于其他启发式算法,是一种高效、稳健的方法.     

An improved vector particle swarm optimization for constrained optimization problems

Increasing attention is being paid to solve constrained optimization problems (COP) frequently encountered in real-world applications. In this paper, an improved vector particle swarm optimization (IVPSO) algorithm is proposed to solve COPs. The constraint-handling technique is based on the simple constraint-preserving method. Velocity and position of each particle, as well as the corresponding changes, are all expressed as vectors in order to present the optimization procedure in a more intuitively comprehensible manner. The NVPSO algorithm [30], which uses one-dimensional search approaches to find a new feasible position on the flying trajectory of the particle when it escapes from the feasible region, has been proposed to solve COP. Experimental results showed that searching only on the flying trajectory for a feasible position influenced the diversity of the swarm and thus reduced the global search capability of the NVPSO algorithm. In order to avoid neglecting any worthy position in the feasible region and improve the optimization efficiency, a multi-dimensional search algorithm is proposed to search within a local region for a new feasible position. The local region is composed of all dimensions of the escaped particle’s parent and the current positions. Obviously, the flying trajectory of the particle is also included in this local region. The new position is not only present in the feasible region but also has a better fitness value in this local region. The performance of IVPSO is tested on 13 well-known benchmark functions. Experimental results prove that the proposed IVPSO algorithm is simple, competitive and stable.     

An angle based evolutionary algorithm with infeasibility information for constrained many-objective optimization

Recently, angle-based approaches have shown promising for unconstrained many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs), but few of them are extended to solve constrained MaOPs (CMaOPs). Moreover, due to the difficulty in searching for feasible solutions in high-dimensional objective space, the use of infeasible solutions comes to be more important in solving CMaOPs. In this paper, an angle based evolutionary algorithm with infeasibility information is proposed for constrained many-objective optimization, where different kinds of infeasible solutions are utilized in environmental selection and mating selection. To be specific, an angle-based constrained dominance relation is proposed for non-dominated sorting, which gives infeasible solutions with good diversity the same priority to feasible solutions for escaping from the locally feasible regions. As for diversity maintenance, an angle-based density estimation is developed to give the infeasible solutions with good convergence a chance to survive for next generation, which is helpful to get across the large infeasible barrier. In addition, in order to utilize the potential of infeasible solutions in creating high-quality offspring, a modified mating selection is designed by considering the convergence, diversity and feasibility of solutions simultaneously. Experimental results on two constrained many-objective optimization test suites demonstrate the competitiveness of the proposed algorithm in comparison with five existing constrained many-objective evolutionary algorithms for CMaOPs. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on a real-world problem is showcased.     

An evolutionary algorithm with directed weights for constrained multi-objective optimization

When solving constrained multi-objective optimization problems (CMOPs), keeping infeasible individuals with good objective values and small constraint violations in the population can improve the performance of the algorithms, since they provide the information about the optimal direction towards Pareto front. By taking the constraint violation as an objective, we propose a novel constraint-handling technique based on directed weights to deal with CMOPs. This paper adopts two types of weights, i.e. feasible and infeasible weights distributing on feasible and infeasible regions respectively, to guide the search to the promising region. To utilize the useful information contained in infeasible individuals, this paper uses infeasible weights to maintain a number of well-diversified infeasible individuals. Meanwhile, they are dynamically changed along with the evolution to prefer infeasible individuals with better objective values and smaller constraint violations. Furthermore, 18 test instances and 2 engineering design problems are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Several numerical experiments indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms four compared algorithms in terms of finding a set of well-distributed non-domination solutions.     

Blended biogeography-based optimization for constrained optimization

Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary optimization method that is based on the science of biogeography. We propose two extensions to BBO. First, we propose a blended migration operator. Benchmark results show that blended BBO outperforms standard BBO. Second, we employ blended BBO to solve constrained optimization problems. Constraints are handled by modifying the BBO immigration and emigration procedures. The approach that we use does not require any additional tuning parameters beyond those that are required for unconstrained problems. The constrained blended BBO algorithm is compared with solutions based on a stud genetic algorithm (SGA) and standard particle swarm optimization 2007 (SPSO 07). The numerical results demonstrate that constrained blended BBO outperforms SGA and performs similarly to SPSO 07 for constrained single-objective optimization problems.     

An efficient memory-based electromagnetism-like mechanism for the redundancy allocation problem

Meta-heuristic algorithms have been successfully applied to solve the redundancy allocation problem in recent years. Among these algorithms, the electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) is a powerful population-based algorithm designed for continuous decision spaces. This paper presents an efficient memory-based electromagnetism-like mechanism called MBEM to solve the redundancy allocation problem. The proposed algorithm employs a memory matrix in local search to save the features of good solutions and feed it back to the algorithm. This would make the search process more efficient. To verify the good performance of MBEM, various test problems, especially the 33 well-known benchmark instances in the literature, are examined. The experimental results show that not only optimal solutions of all benchmark instances are obtained within a reasonable computer execution time, but also MBEM outperforms EM in terms of the quality of the solutions obtained, even for large-size problems.     

Training and testing a self-adaptive multi-operator evolutionary algorithm for constrained optimization

Over the last two decades, many different evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been introduced for solving constrained optimization problems (COPs). Due to the variability of the characteristics in different COPs, no single algorithm performs consistently over a range of practical problems. To design and refine an algorithm, numerous trial-and-error runs are often performed in order to choose a suitable search operator and the parameters. However, even by trial-and-error, one may not find an appropriate search operator and parameters. In this paper, we have applied the concept of training and testing with a self-adaptive multi-operator based evolutionary algorithm to find suitable parameters. The training and testing sets are decided based on the mathematical properties of 60 problems from two well-known specialized benchmark test sets. The experimental results provide interesting insights and a new way of choosing parameters.     

求全局最优的类电磁机制算法

针对类电磁机制算法中数据溢出、计算量过大的问题,改进了电量计算公式和合力计算公式,引入了函数值最小下界,增加了粒子过滤公式,从而得到一种新类电磁机制算法。从测试标准测试函数与经典类电磁算法的比较可看出,新算法收敛速度快,并从数值上验证了该算法的可行性和有效性。     

面向自动组卷问题的改进类电磁算法

类电磁算法（EM）中局部搜索是按一定步长进行线性搜索,在这个范围内寻找个体在某一维上的最优值。由于步长的限定,求得的该维上最优值可能远离实际的最优值。采用遗传算法（GA）中选择因子和交叉因子可以很好地解决这一问题。在组卷系统中,通过基于遗传算法改进的类电磁算法（Based Genetic Electromagnetism-like Mechanism Algorithm,GEM）与GA算法以及采用线性局部搜索的EM算法实验的比较,证明该算法有更高的组卷效率。     

An efficient algorithm for constrained global optimization and application to mechanical engineering design: League championship algorithm (LCA)

The league championship algorithm (LCA) is a new algorithm originally proposed for unconstrained optimization which tries to metaphorically model a League championship environment wherein artificial teams play in an artificial league for several weeks (iterations). Given the league schedule, a number of individuals, as sport teams, play in pairs and their game outcome is determined given known the playing strength (fitness value) along with the team formation (solution). Modelling an artificial match analysis, each team devises the required changes in its formation (a new solution) for the next week contest and the championship goes for a number of seasons. In this paper, we adapt LCA for constrained optimization. In particular: (1) a feasibility criterion to bias the search toward feasible regions is included besides the objective value criterion; (2) generation of multiple offspring is allowed to increase the probability of an individual to generate a better solution; (3) a diversity mechanism is adopted, which allows infeasible solutions with a promising objective value precede the feasible solutions. Performance of LCA is compared with comparator algorithms on benchmark problems where the experimental results indicate that LCA is a very competitive algorithm. Performance of LCA is also evaluated on well-studied mechanical design problems and results are compared with the results of 21 constrained optimization algorithms. Computational results signify that with a smaller number of evaluations, LCA ensures finding the true optimum of these problems. These results encourage that further developments and applications of LCA would be worth investigating in the future studies.     

嵌入单纯形法的混合类电磁机制算法

针对类电磁机制算法存在局部搜索能力差的问题,提出一种基于单纯形法的混合类电磁机制算法。该混合算法首先利用反向学习策略构造初始种群以保证粒子均匀分布在搜索空间中。利用单纯形法对最优粒子进行局部搜索,增强了算法在最优点附近的局部搜索能力,以加快算法的收敛速度。四个基准测试函数的仿真实验结果表明,该算法具有更好的寻优性能。     

基于新型双目标模型的约束优化进化算法

利用双目标模型求解约束优化问题时,由于它们的最优解集并不相等,因此需要增加特殊机制确保求解双目标问题的算法收敛到原问题的最优解.为克服这一缺点,本文首先将约束优化问题转化为新的双目标优化模型,并证明了新模型的最优解集与原问题的最优解集相等.其次,以简单的差分进化为搜索算法,基于多目标Pareto支配关系的非支配排序为选择准则,提出了求解新模型的差分进化算法.最后,用10个标准测试函数的数值试验说明了新模型及求解算法的有效性.     

基于贪婪离散类电磁机制算法求解背包问题

针对基本类电磁机制算法不能够有效解决离散型的背包问题,提出了一种贪婪离散类电磁机制算法。首先,提出一种交叉操作;然后,利用提出的交叉操作对基本类电磁机制算法中的合力计算公式和粒子移动方法进行修改,使其能够适用于离散型问题;最后,引入贪婪算法的机制来处理经过类电磁机制算法迭代得到的解,使这些解满足背包问题的约束条件。通过对3个经典的背包测试问题进行的测试结果表明:该算法可以解决离散型的背包问题,并且具有较优的求解性能。     

A simple and efficient real-coded genetic algorithm for constrained optimization

This paper presents a simple and efficient real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) for constrained real-parameter optimization. Different from some conventional RCGAs that operate evolutionary operators in a series framework, the proposed RCGA implements three specially designed evolutionary operators, named the ranking selection (RS), direction-based crossover (DBX), and the dynamic random mutation (DRM), to mimic a specific evolutionary process that has a parallel-structured inner loop. A variety of benchmark constrained optimization problems (COPs) are used to evaluate the effectiveness and the applicability of the proposed RCGA. Besides, some existing state-of-the-art optimization algorithms in the same category of the proposed algorithm are considered and utilized as a rigorous base of performance evaluation. Extensive comparison results reveal that the proposed RCGA is superior to most of the comparison algorithms in providing a much faster convergence speed as well as a better solution accuracy, especially for problems subject to stringent equality constraints. Finally, as a specific application, the proposed RCGA is applied to optimize the GaAs film growth of a horizontal metal-organic chemical vapor deposition reactor. Simulation studies have confirmed the superior performance of the proposed RCGA in solving COPs.     

Applying electromagnetism-like mechanism for feature selection

In recent years, methods of feature selection have been increasingly emphasized as venues for reducing cost and shortening the length of time required for computation in data mining. This study utilizes electromagnetism-like mechanism as a wrapper approach to feature selection. Birbil and Fang proposed EM in 2003. EM uses the attraction-repulsion mechanism of the electromagnetism theory to ascertain the optimal solution. Although EM has been applied to the topic of optimization in continuous space and a small number of studies on discrete problems, it has not been applied to the subject of feature selection. In this study, EM combined with 1-nearest-neighbor (1NN) was applied for feature selection and classification. This study utilized the total force exerted on a particle and evaluated this force to determine which features are to be selected. The most crucial features were selected according to the proposed method based on the minimum miss-classification rate, which was attained through 1NN. An unknown datum was classified by 1NN based on the chosen reduced model. To estimate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a numerical experiment was conducted using several data sets with diverse sizes, features, separability, and classes. Experimental results indicated that the proposed method outperformed other well-known algorithms in not only balanced classification accuracy but also efficiency of feature selection. Lastly, this study used an actual case concerning gestational diabetes mellitus to demonstrate the workability of the proposed method.     

Intelligent forecasting system based on integration of electromagnetism-like mechanism and fuzzy neural network

Fuzzy neural network (FNN) architectures, in which fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks are integrated, have been proposed by many researchers. In addition to developing the architecture for the FNN models, evolution of the learning algorithms for the connection weights is also a very important. Researchers have proposed gradient descent methods such as the back propagation algorithm and evolution methods such as genetic algorithms (GA) for training FNN connection weights. In this paper, we integrate a new meta-heuristic algorithm, the electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM), into the FNN training process. The EM algorithm utilizes an attraction–repulsion mechanism to move the sample points towards the optimum. However, due to the characteristics of the repulsion mechanism, the EM algorithm does not settle easily into the local optimum. We use EM to develop an EM-based FNN (the EM-initialized FNN) model with fuzzy connection weights. Further, the EM-initialized FNN model is used to train fuzzy if–then rules for learning expert knowledge. The results of comparisons done of the performance of our EM-initialized FNN model to conventional FNN models and GA-initialized FNN models proposed by other researchers indicate that the performance of our EM-initialized FNN model is better than that of the other FNN models. In addition, our use of a fuzzy ranking method to eliminate redundant fuzzy connection weights in our FNN architecture results in improved performance over other FNN models.     

An electromagnetism-like metaheuristic for the uncapacitated multiple allocation p-hub median problem

This paper deals with the uncapacitated multiple allocation p-hub median problem (UMApHMP). An electromagnetism-like (EM) method is proposed for solving this NP-hard problem. Our new scaling technique, combined with the movement based on the attraction–repulsion mechanism, directs the EM towards promising search regions. Numerical results on a battery of benchmark instances known from the literature are reported. They show that the EM reaches all previously known optimal solutions, and gives excellent results on large-scale instances. The present approach is also extended to solve the capacitated version of the problem. As it was the case in the uncapacitated version, EM also reached all previously known optimal solutions.     

Biogeography-based optimization for constrained optimization problems

Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) has been recently proposed as a viable stochastic optimization algorithm and it has so far been successfully applied in a variety of fields, especially for unconstrained optimization problems. The present paper shows how BBO can be applied for constrained optimization problems, where the objective is to find a solution for a given objective function, subject to both inequality and equality constraints.