具有分段和变异特性的蚁群算法求解TSP问题

常规蚁群算法具有搜索时间较长,易于过早地收敛于非最优解的缺陷。为了提高蚂蚁一次周游的质量,采用具有轮盘赌方式的最大最小蚁群算法（MMAS＋RW）,即在依据概率选择下一个城市时采用轮盘赌的方式。提出一种具有分段和变异特性的蚁群算法。该算法融合了分段的分而治之思想和遗传算法中的变异,有利于保持群体多样性的特性,是在采用轮盘赌方式的最大最小蚁群算法陷入局部最优解的情况下,引入随机分段和遗传算法的变异操作来优化当前最优解,改善解的质量,改进蚁群算法易于过早地收敛于非最优解的缺陷。仿真实验表明取得了较好的效果。     

On some applications of ant colony optimization metaheuristic to plane truss optimization

Ant colony optimization metaheuristic (ACO) represents a new class of algorithms particularly suited to solve real-world combinatorial optimization problems. ACO algorithms, published for the first time in 1991 by M. Dorigo [Optimization, learning and natural algorithms (in Italian). Ph.D. Thesis, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, 1992] and his coworkers, have been applied, particularly starting from 1999 (Bonabeau et al., Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999; Dorigo et al., Artificial life 5(2):137–172, 1999; Dorigo and Di Caro, Ant colony optimization: a new metaheuristic, IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1999; Dorigo et al., Ant colony optimization and swarm intelligence, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2004; Dorigo and Stutzle, Ant colony optimization, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004), to several kinds of optimization problems such as the traveling salesman problem, quadratic assignment problem, vehicle routing, sequential ordering, scheduling, graph coloring, management of communications networks, and so on. The ant colony optimization metaheuristic takes inspiration from the studies of real ant colonies’ foraging behavior. The main characteristic of such colonies is that individuals have no global knowledge of problem solving but communicate indirectly among themselves, depositing on the ground a chemical substance called pheromone, which influences probabilistically the choice of subsequent ants, which tend to follow paths where the pheromone concentration is higher. Such behavior, called stigmergy, is the basic mechanism that controls ant activity and permits them to take the shortest path connecting their nest to a food source. In this paper, it is shown how to convert natural ant behavior to algorithms able to escape from local minima and find global minimum solutions to constrained combinatorial problems. Some examples on plane trusses are also presented.     

求解可满足问题的改进的蚁群算法

可满足问题（SAT）是一个NP-hard问题,将SAT问题转换为无约束的离散优化（最小值）问题。并根据M Dorigo提出的蚁群算法,给出了一种求解SAT问题的新方法：改进的最大最小蚁群系统（MMAS-SAT）。在改进的算法中,给出了SAT问题的构造图,指出了启发式信息值的求法,对衰变系数进行了动态调整。测试问题的数值实验表明,采用MMAS-SAT的结果优于Gwsat、Walksat、Novelty等局部搜索算法,因此该算法是求解SAT问题的一种可行高效的算法。     

多维背包问题的一个蚁群优化算法

蚁群优化(ACO)是一种通用的启发式方法,已被用来求解很多离散优化问题.近年来,已提出几个ACO算法求解多维背包问题(MKP).这些算法虽然能获得较好的解但也耗用太多的CPU时间.为了降低用ACO求解MKP的复杂性,文章基于一种已提出但未实现过的MKP的信息素表示定义了新的选择概率的规则和相应的基于背包项的一种序的启发式信息,从而提出了一种计算复杂性较低、求解性能较好的改进型蚁群算法.实验结果表明,无论串行执行还是虚拟并行执行,在计算相同任务时,新算法耗用时间少且解的价值更高.不仅如此,在实验中,文中的新算法获得了ORLIB中测试算例5.250-22的两个"新"解.     

Parallel custom instruction identification for extensible processors

With the ability of customization for an application domain, extensible processors have been used more and more in embedded systems in recent years. Extensible processors customize an application domain by executing parts of application code in hardware instead of software. Determining parts of application code as custom instruction generally requires subgraph enumeration and subgraph selection. Both subgraph enumeration problem and subgraph selection problem are computationally difficult problems. Most of previous works focus on sequential algorithms for these two problems. In this paper, we present a parallel implementation of a latest subgraph enumeration algorithm based on a computer cluster. A standard ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO), a modified version of ACO with local optimum search and a parallel ACO algorithm are also proposed to solve the subgraph selection problem in this work. Experimental results show that the parallel algorithms outperform the sequential algorithms in terms of runtime or (and) quality of results. In addition, we have formally proved the upper bound on the number of feasible solutions in subgraph selection problem with or without the overlapping constraint.     

A hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm for optimal multiuser detection in DS-UWB system

A hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm is proposed by introducing extremal optimization local-search algorithm to the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, and is applied to multiuser detection in direct sequence ultra wideband (DS-UWB) communication system in this paper. ACO algorithms have already successfully been applied to combinatorial optimization; however, as the pheromone accumulates, we may not get a global optimum because it can get stuck in a local minimum resulting in a bad steady state. Extremal optimization (EO) is a recently developed local-search heuristic method and has been successfully applied to a wide variety of optimization problems. Hence in this paper, a hybrid ACO algorithm, named ACO-EO algorithm, is proposed by introducing EO to ACO to improve the local-search ability of the algorithm. The ACO-EO algorithm is applied to multiuser detection in DS-UWB communication system, and via computer simulations it is shown that the proposed hybrid ACO algorithm has much better performance than other ACO algorithms and even equal to the optimal multiuser detector.     

A novel two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm and application

This paper presents a novel two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm called GA–PSO–ACO algorithm that combines the evolution ideas of the genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization based on the compensation for solving the traveling salesman problem. In the proposed hybrid algorithm, the whole process is divided into two stages. In the first stage, we make use of the randomicity, rapidity and wholeness of the genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization to obtain a series of sub-optimal solutions (rough searching) to adjust the initial allocation of pheromone in the ACO. In the second stage, we make use of these advantages of the parallel, positive feedback and high accuracy of solution to implement solving of whole problem (detailed searching). To verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed hybrid algorithm, various scale benchmark problems from TSPLIB are tested to demonstrate the potential of the proposed two-stage hybrid swarm intelligence optimization algorithm. The simulation examples demonstrate that the GA–PSO–ACO algorithm can greatly improve the computing efficiency for solving the TSP and outperforms the Tabu Search, genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization, PS–ACO and other methods in solution quality. And the experimental results demonstrate that convergence is faster and better when the scale of TSP increases.     

Search bias in ant colony optimization: on the role of competition-balanced systems

One of the problems encountered when applying ant colony optimization (ACO) to combinatorial optimization problems is that the search process is sometimes biased by algorithm features such as the pheromone model and the solution construction process. Sometimes this bias is harmful and results in a decrease in algorithm performance over time, which is called second-order deception. In this work, we study the reasons for the occurrence of second-order deception. In this context, we introduce the concept of competition-balanced system (CBS), which is a property of the combination of an ACO algorithm with a problem instance. We show by means of an example that combinations of ACO algorithms with problem instances that are not CBSs may suffer from a bias that leads to second-order deception. Finally, we show that the choice of an appropriate pheromone model is crucial for the success of the ACO algorithm, and it can help avoid second-order deception.     

Genetic algorithm with ant colony optimization (GA-ACO) for multiple sequence alignment

Multiple sequence alignment, known as NP-complete problem, is among the most important and challenging tasks in computational biology. For multiple sequence alignment, it is difficult to solve this type of problems directly and always results in exponential complexity. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm of genetic algorithm with ant colony optimization for multiple sequence alignment. The proposed GA-ACO algorithm is to enhance the performance of genetic algorithm (GA) by incorporating local search, ant colony optimization (ACO), for multiple sequence alignment. In the proposed GA-ACO algorithm, genetic algorithm is conducted to provide the diversity of alignments. Thereafter, ant colony optimization is performed to move out of local optima. From simulation results, it is shown that the proposed GA-ACO algorithm has superior performance when compared to other existing algorithms.     

Solving the traveling salesman problem using cooperative genetic ant systems

The travelling salesman problem (TSP) is a classic problem of combinatorial optimization and has applications in planning, scheduling, and searching in many scientific and engineering fields. Ant colony optimization (ACO) has been successfully used to solve TSPs and many associated applications in the last two decades. However, ACO has problem in regularly reaching the global optimal solutions for TSPs due to enormity of the search space and numerous local optima within the space. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid algorithm, cooperative genetic ant system (CGAS) to deal with this problem. Unlike other previous studies that regarded GA as a sequential part of the whole searching process and only used the result from GA as the input to subsequent ACO iterations, this new approach combines both GA and ACO together in a cooperative manner to improve the performance of ACO for solving TSPs. The mutual information exchange between ACO and GA in the end of the current iteration ensures the selection of the best solutions for next iteration. This cooperative approach creates a better chance in reaching the global optimal solution because independent running of GA maintains a high level of diversity in next generation of solutions. Compared with results from other GA/ACO algorithms, our simulation shows that CGAS has superior performance over other GA and ACO algorithms for solving TSPs in terms of capability and consistency of achieving the global optimal solution, and quality of average optimal solutions, particularly for small TSPs.     

Ant colony optimization algorithm for the Euclidean location-allocation problem with unknown number of facilities

This paper addresses the Euclidean location-allocation problem with an unknown number of facilities, and an objective of minimizing the fixed and transportation costs. This is a NP-hard problem and in this paper, a three-stage ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is introduced and its performance is evaluated by comparing its solutions to the solutions of genetic algorithms (GA). The results show that ACO outperformed GA and reached better solutions in a faster computational time. Furthermore, ACO was tested on the relaxed version of the problem where the number of facilities is known, and compared to existing methods in the literature. The results again confirmed the superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

High speed ant colony optimization CMOS chip

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is an optimization computation inspired by the study of the ant colonies’ behavior. This paper presents design and CMOS implementation of the ant colony optimization based algorithm for solving the TSP problem. In order to implement ant colony optimization algorithm in CMOS, we will present a new algorithm. This algorithm is based on the original ant colony optimization but it can be implemented in CMOS. Briefly, pheromone matrix is transformed on the chip area and ants move up-down through the pheromone matrix and they make their decisions. Finally ants select a global path. In previous researches only pheromone values is used, but select the next city in this paper is based on heuristics value and pheromone value. In definition of problem, we use heuristics value as a matrix. Previous researches could not be used for wide type of optimization problem but our chip gives heuristics value initially and we can change initial value of heuristics value according to the optimization problem so this capability increases the flexibility of ACO chip. Simple circuit is used in blocks of our chip to increase the speed of convergence of ACO chip. We use Linear Feedback Shift Register (LSFR) circuit for random number generator in ACO chip. ACO chip has capability of solving the big TSP problem. ACO chip is simulated by HSPICE software and simulation results show the good performance of final chip.     

Countering the negative search bias of ant colony optimization in subset selection problems

In their quest to find a good solution to a given optimization problem, metaheuristic search algorithms intend to explore the search space in a useful and efficient manner. Starting from an initial state or solution(s), they are supposed to evolve towards high-quality solutions. For some types of genetic algorithms (GAs), it has been shown that the population of chromosomes can converge to very bad solutions, even for trivial problems. These so-called deceptive effects have been studied intensively in the field of GAs and several solutions to these problems have been proposed. Recently, similar problems have been noticed for ant colony optimization (ACO) as well. As for GAs, ACO's search can get biased towards low-quality regions in the search space, probably resulting in bad solutions. Some methods have been proposed to investigate the presence and strength of this negative bias in ACO. We present a framework that is capable of eliminating the negative bias in subset selection problems. The basic Ant System algorithm is modified to make it more robust to the presence of negative bias. A profound simulation study indicates that the modified Ant System outperforms the original version in problems that are susceptible to bias. Additionally, the proposed methodology is incorporated in the Max–Min AS and applied to a real-life subset selection problem.     

Fusing ant colony optimization with Lagrangian relaxation for the multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem

The multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem (MMKP) concerns a wide variety of practical problems. It is strongly constrained and NP-hard; thus searching for an efficient heuristic approach for MMKP is of great significance. In this study, we attempt to solve MMKP by fusing ant colony optimization (ACO) with Lagrangian relaxation (LR). The algorithm used here follows the algorithmic scheme of max–min ant system for its outstanding performance in solving many other combinatorial optimization problems. The Lagrangian value of the item in MMKP, obtained from LR, is used as the heuristic factor in ACO since it performs best among the six domain-based heuristic factors we define. Furthermore, a novel infeasibility index is proposed for the development of a new repair operator, which converts possibly infeasible solutions into feasible ones. The proposed algorithm was compared with four existing algorithms by applying them to three groups of instances. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of producing competitive solutions.     

Diversity control in ant colony optimization

Optimization inspired by cooperative food retrieval in ants has been unexpectedly successful and has been known as ant colony optimization (ACO) in recent years. One of the most important factors to improve the performance of the ACO algorithms is the complex trade-off between intensification and diversification. This article investigates the effects of controlling the diversity by adopting a simple mechanism for random selection in ACO. The results of computer experiments have shown that it can generate better solutions stably for the traveling salesmen problem than AS_rank which is known as one of the newest and best ACO algorithms by utilizing two types of diversity.     

时间依赖型车辆路径问题的一种改进蚁群算法

时间依赖型车辆路径规划问题(TDVRP),是研究路段行程时间随出发时刻变化的路网环境下的车辆路径优化.传统车辆路径问题(VRP)已被证明是NP-hard问题,因此,考虑交通状况时变特征的TDVRP问题求解更为困难.本文设计了一种TDVRP问题的改进蚁群算法,采用基于最小成本的最邻近法(NNC算法)生成蚁群算法的初始可行解,通过局部搜索操作提高可行解的质量,采用最大--最小蚂蚁系统信息素更新策略.测试结果表明,与最邻近算法和遗传算法相比,改进蚁群算法具有更高的效率,能够得到更优的结果;对于大规模TDVRP问题,改进蚁群算法也表现出良好的性能,即使客户节点数量达到1000,算法的优化时间依然在可接受的范围内.     

动态蚁群算法求解TSP问题

蚂蚁群体能完成单个蚂蚁所无法完成的工作。它们通过称为信息素的物质交流信息而协同工作。蚂蚁在觅食活动中,在食物与巢穴之间的路径上留下信息素,较短路径信息素相对较浓,而蚂蚁倾向于沿信息素较浓的路径往返于巢穴与食物之间。经过一段时间后,就可发现从巢穴到食物的较短的路径。基于此原理,MarcoDorigo提出了蚁群算法,并首先用于求解TSP问题。该文从更多方面模仿真实自然界中蚂蚁的行为,更为合理地制定信息素动态挥发规则,提出动态蚁群算法并用于解决TSP问题,实验表明了该算法有较好的性能。     

Population declining ant colony optimization algorithm and its applications

Population declining ant colony optimization (PDACO) algorithm is proposed and applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and multiuser detection in this paper. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have already successfully been used in combinatorial optimization, however, as the pheromone accumulates, we may not get a global optimum because it stops searching early. PDACO can enlarge searching range through increasing the initial population of the ant colony, and the population declines in successive iterations. So, the performance of PDACO is superior with the same computational complexity. PDACO is applied to TSP and multiuser detection. Via computer simulations it is shown that PDACO has better performance in solving these two problems than ACO algorithms.     

An efficient hybrid approach based on PSO, ACO and k-means for cluster analysis

Clustering is a popular data analysis and data mining technique. A popular technique for clustering is based on k-means such that the data is partitioned into K clusters. However, the k-means algorithm highly depends on the initial state and converges to local optimum solution. This paper presents a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm to solve nonlinear partitional clustering problem. The proposed hybrid evolutionary algorithm is the combination of FAPSO (fuzzy adaptive particle swarm optimization), ACO (ant colony optimization) and k-means algorithms, called FAPSO-ACO–K, which can find better cluster partition. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through several benchmark data sets. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is better than other algorithms such as PSO, ACO, simulated annealing (SA), combination of PSO and SA (PSO–SA), combination of ACO and SA (ACO–SA), combination of PSO and ACO (PSO–ACO), genetic algorithm (GA), Tabu search (TS), honey bee mating optimization (HBMO) and k-means for partitional clustering problem.     

A hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for optimization of crew scheduling

Crew scheduling problem is the problem of assigning crew members to the flights so that total cost is minimized while regulatory and legal restrictions are satisfied. The crew scheduling is an NP-hard constrained combinatorial optimization problem and hence, it cannot be exactly solved in a reasonable computational time. This paper presents a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm synchronized with a local search heuristic for solving the crew scheduling problem. Recent studies use genetic algorithm (GA) or ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve large scale crew scheduling problems. Furthermore, two other hybrid algorithms based on GA and ACO algorithms have been developed to solve the problem. Computational results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed hybrid PSO algorithm over other algorithms.