An Ant Colony Optimization–genetic Algorithm Approach for Ship Pipe Route Design

Abstract

An optimization approach for the problem of the ship pipe route design (SPRD) is presented in this paper, which is based on the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm and the genetic algorithm (GA). The main goal of SPRD problem is to design an appropriate pipe route to connect the starting point and end point under the various kinds of constraints. Due to the large layout space, the complex construction in layout space and the great number of pipelines, SPRD becomes a very difficult task. An ACO–GA algorithm is proposed to solve the SPRD problem. Genetic operators including crossover operation and mutation operation in GA are embedded in the computing process of ACO to improve the computing performance of the proposed algorithm. Based on the ACO–GA, an algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of the multiple pipes and the branch pipe routing. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.