A memetic cooperative optimization schema and its application to the tool switching problem (original) (raw)
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Memetic cooperative models for the tool switching problem
Memetic Computing, 2011
This work deals with memetic-computing agentmodels based on the cooperative integration of search agents endowed with (possibly different) optimization strategies, in particular memetic algorithms. As a proof-of-concept of the model, we deploy it on the tool switching problem (ToSP), a hard combinatorial optimization problem that arises in the area of flexible manufacturing. The ToSP has been tackled by different algorithmic methods ranging from exact to heuristic methods (including local search meta-heuristics, population-based techniques and hybrids thereof, i.e., memetic algorithms). Here we consider an ample number of instances of this cooperative memetic model, whose agents are adapted to cope with this problem. A detailed experimental analysis shows that the meta-models promoting the cooperation among memetic algorithms provide the best overall results compared with their constituent parts (i.e., memetic algorithms and local search approaches). In addition, a parameter sensitivity analysis of the meta-models is developed in order to understand the interplay among the elements of the proposed topologies.
Hybrid cooperation models for the tool switching problem
2010
The Tool Switching Problem (ToSP) is a hard combinatorial optimization problem of relevance in the field of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), that has been tackled in the literature using both complete and heuristic methods, including local-search metaheuristics, population-based methods and hybrids thereof (eg, memetic algorithms). This work approaches the ToSP using several hybrid cooperative models where spatially-structured agents are endowed with specific localsearch/population-based strategies.
Solving the tool switching problem with memetic algorithms
Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 2012
The tool switching problem (ToSP) is well known in the domain of flexible manufacturing systems. Given a reconfigurable machine, the ToSP amounts to scheduling a collection of jobs on this machine (each of them requiring a different set of tools to be completed), as well as the tools to be loaded/unloaded at each step to process these jobs, such that the total number of tool switches is minimized. Different exact and heuristic methods have been defined to deal with this problem. In this work, we focus on memetic approaches to this problem. To this end, we have considered a number of variants of three different local search techniques (hill climbing, tabu search, and simulated annealing), and embedded them in a permutational evolutionary algorithm. It is shown that the memetic algorithm endowed with steepest ascent hill climbing search yields the best results, performing synergistically better than its stand-alone constituents, and providing better results than the rest of the algori...
Memetic Computing, 2019
Memetic algorithms are techniques that orchestrate the interplay between population-based and trajectory-based algorithmic components. In particular, some memetic models can be regarded under this broad interpretation as a group of autonomous basic optimization algorithms that interact among them in a cooperative way in order to deal with a specific optimization problem, aiming to obtain better results than the algorithms that constitute it separately. Going one step beyond this traditional view of cooperative optimization algorithms, this work tackles deep meta-cooperation, namely the use of cooperative optimization algorithms in which some components can in turn be cooperative methods themselves, thus exhibiting a deep algorithmic architecture. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that such models can be considered as an efficient alternative to other traditional forms of cooperative algorithms. To validate this claim, different structural parameters, such as the communication topology between the agents, or the parameter that influences the depth of the cooperative effort (the depth of meta-cooperation), have been analyzed. To do this, a comparison with the state-of-the-art cooperative methods to solve a specific combinatorial problem, the Tool Switching Problem, has been performed. Results show that deep models are effective to solve this problem, outperforming metaheuristics proposed in the literature.
Cross entropy-based memetic algorithms: An application study over the tool switching problem
International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems, 2013
This paper presents a parameterized schema for building memetic algorithms based on cross-entropy (CE) methods. This novel schema is general in nature, and features multiple probability mass functions and Lamarckian learning. The applicability of the approach is assessed by considering the Tool Switching Problem, a complex combinatorial problem in the field of Flexible Manufacturing Systems. An exhaustive evaluation (including techniques ranging from local search and evolutionary algorithms to constructive methods) provides evidence of the effectiveness of CE-based memetic algorithms.
Beam search algorithms for minimizing tool switches on a flexible manufacturing system
2009
In the minimization of tool switches problem we seek a sequence to process a set of jobs so that the number of tool switches required is minimized. In this work different variations of a heuristic based on partial ordered job sequences are implemented and evaluated. All variations adopt a depth first strategy of the enumeration tree. The computational test results indicate that good results can be obtained by a variation which keeps the best three branches at each node of the enumeration tree, and randomly choose, among all active nodes, the next node to branch when backtracking.
A new heuristic based on a hypergraph representation for the tool switching problem
International Journal of Production Economics, 2000
This paper introduces a new approach for the tool switching problem arising in flexible manufacturing systems. We formulate the problem using a particular hypergraph representation and we propose an efficient heuristic to solve it. The performance of the heuristic is compared with the heuristics developed by Crama et al. (The International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems 6 (1994) 33–54). The
Hybrid method with CS and BRKGA applied to the minimization of tool switches problem
Computers & Operations Research
The minimization of tool switches problem (MTSP) seeks a sequence to process a set of jobs so that the number of tool switches required is minimized. The MTSP is well known to be NP-hard. This paper presents a new hybrid heuristic based on the Biased Random Key Genetic Algorithm (BRKGA) and the Clustering Search (CS). The main idea of CS is to identify promising regions of the search space by generating solutions with a metaheuristic, such as BRKGA, and clustering them to be further explored with local search heuristics. The distinctive feature of the proposed method is to simplify this clustering process. Computational results for the MTSP considering instances available in the literature are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the CS with BRKGA.