Application Of Evolutionary Algorithms Research Articles

Method for Parameter Tuning of Hybrid Optimization Algorithms for Problems with High Computational Costs of Objective Function Evaluations

In this paper, the authors focus on presenting the methodology for tuning optimization algorithm parameters, with a special focus on evolutionary algorithm applications. The problem considered concerns the phenomenon of nonlinear buckling of the automotive shock absorber, which itself is solved using a commercial application of the finite element method (FEM) simulation. These analyses are usually time-consuming; therefore, the authors decided to use a surrogate model, which mimics the behavior of the actual nonlinear FEM simulation. Surrogate modeling (metamodeling) is utilized to drastically shorten the simulation time, and thus study numerous algorithm parameter combinations, allowing for tuning them and providing a robust and efficient tool for optimization. The example shown in this paper is related to the minimization of the shock absorber weight, taking into account the stability of the system. The presented method can be used in any optimization problem where the high computational cost of objective function evaluations prevents tuning of the algorithm parameters.

A Survey on Search Strategy of Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithms

The multi-objective optimization problem is difficult to solve with conventional optimization methods and algorithms because there are conflicts among several optimization objectives and functions. Through the efforts of researchers and experts from different fields for the last 30 years, the research and application of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA) have made excellent progress in solving such problems. MOEA has become one of the primary used methods and technologies in the realm of multi-objective optimization. It is also a hotspot in the evolutionary computation research community. This survey provides a comprehensive investigation of MOEA algorithms that have emerged in recent decades and summarizes and classifies the classical MOEAs by evolutionary mechanism from the viewpoint of the search strategy. This paper divides them into three categories considering the search strategy of MOEA, i.e., decomposition-based MOEA algorithms, dominant relation-based MOEA algorithms, and evaluation index-based MOEA algorithms. This paper selects the relevant representative algorithms for a detailed summary and analysis. As a prospective research direction, we propose to combine the chaotic evolution algorithm with these representative search strategies for improving the search capability of multi-objective optimization algorithms. The capability of the new multi-objective evolutionary algorithm has been discussed, which further proposes the future research direction of MOEA. It also lays a foundation for the application and development of MOEA with these prospective works in the future.

Application of Evolutionary Algorithms in Social Networks: A Comparative Machine Learning Perspective

Application of Evolutionary Algorithms in Social Networks: A Comparative Machine Learning Perspective

Engineering applications of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms: A test suite of box-constrained real-world problems

Traditionally, the performance of novel multi-objective optimization algorithms is evaluated on artificial test problems, which are constructed under the consideration of some features observed in real-world problems. However, artificial test problems do not possess all the properties that real-world applications have. Therefore, the evaluation of algorithms on artificial test problems can overestimate the conclusions of an algorithm regarding its performance in real-world applications. In this respect, this paper presents a collection of multi-objective real-world problems taken from different disciplines. The multi-objective problems are suggested to complement the performance evaluation of evolutionary algorithms considering real-life applications without the need to be an expert on the concerned disciplines in which they lie. This study analyzes the conflict between objectives from the correlation point of view of each real-world problem. Notably, this investigation inquires on the real-world multi-objective problems regarding the Pareto front shapes, which have been one of the main difficulties for selection mechanisms in multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. Additionally, the performance of nine state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms based on the main principles of evolutionary computation is analyzed. Although it is impractical to evaluate all the existing algorithms available in the multi-objective evolutionary community, this investigation gives insights into the performance of the main multi-objective approaches considered in this study.

Application of Multiobjective Optimization to Provide Operational Guidance for Allocating Supply among Multiple Sources

This study is motivated by multipleobjective optimization in short-term water management for a regional water utility. Although an increasing application of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) has been reported in the literature, we are not aware of its use for short-term water management by water utilities with diverse supply sources. This study presents an innovative practice for determining monthly resource allocation from multiple water supply sources that consider multiple objectives, including deviation from budgeted production, under or overutilization of a given portfolio of resources, and total cost of water production. This method is comprised of a simulation model, namely a production allocation model (PAM) and a MOEA. The decision variables of the MOEA optimization problem are monthly groundwater production from two groundwater wellfields. TheMOEA is used to search for Pareto optimal solutions across different objectives and the PAM uses MOEA output and considers operational constraints to determine water production from the other four supply sources in the decision horizon. Stochastic demand and supply realizations were generated to capture a wide range of uncertainties which were then sampled by a Latin Hyper Cube to make the computation tractable. A parallel computing environment was used to implement this near real-time decision support tool, providing timely guidance for water resources managers. One major difference between this study and many reported in the literature is that the MOEA was used to find Pareto solutions for each demand-supply realization rather than the entire ensemble. This setup allows water resources managers to explicitly explore Pareto solutions based on different supply and demand outlooks. The application of the innovative practice is demonstrated for a regional wholesale water supply utility, Tampa Bay Water, on the west coast of Florida in the United States. One additional advantage of MOEA-assisted planning is that it allows water managers to combine expert judgments and institutional knowledge in identifying solutions. A comparison between MOEA-assisted monthly production planning and heuristic planning reveals that the potential impact of short-term operations, e.g., deviation from budgeted production, is fully considered in a systematic approach. The proposed method can be applied to other regions with similar challenges in water resources management.

Time-Domain Structural Damage Identification Using Ensemble Bagged Trees and Evolutionary Optimization Algorithms

This paper presents a two-step vibration-based strategy for damage identification of framed structures using ensemble bagged trees known as a well-known supervised machine learning (ML) paradigm in conjunction with evolutionary optimization algorithms. The proposed model incorporates the actual response, wavelet coefficients, and wavelet energy to extract damage-sensitive features from the time-domain of the measured and simulated signals. Unlike available studies in this scope, the key objective of this research is to identify damage with a localization precision down to a single structural member, rather than limiting the evaluation to the group of elements. In order to increase the training performance in contributing to extremely large datasets with numerous class labels, the proposed strategy involves the artificial generation of features. Additionally, a modified genetic algorithm is proposed for fast damage localization. It is deduced that the damage locations are confidently detected within a fast computational time. Subsequently, damage identification is followed by the application of evolutionary optimization algorithms. For comparison purpose, the employment of the water cycle optimization algorithm (WCA) is comparatively investigated with the other three state-of-the-art optimizers, i.e., particle swarm optimization (PSO), imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), and differential evolution algorithm (DE). The numerical and experimental validation studies evidence satisfactorily reliable identification results with no false detection in dealing with multiple damage scenarios in large-scale and real-world applications. It is concluded that developing the most damage-sensitive features and using the proposed data fusion strategy lead to informative features with a reasonably small size and significantly improve the ML performance.

An enhanced surrogate-assisted differential evolution for constrained optimization problems

The application of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to complex engineering optimization problems may present difficulties as they require many evaluations of the objective functions by computationally expensive simulation procedures. To deal with this issue, surrogate models have been employed to replace those expensive simulations. In this work, a surrogate-assisted evolutionary optimization procedure is proposed. The procedure combines the differential evolution method with a $$k$$ -nearest neighbors (k-NN) similarity-based surrogate model. In this approach, the database that stores the solutions evaluated by the exact model, which are used to approximate new solutions, is managed according to a merit scheme. Constraints are handled by a rank-based technique that builds multiple separate queues based on the values of the objective function and the violation of each constraint. Also, to avoid premature convergence of the method, a strategy that triggers a random reinitialization of the population is considered. The performance of the proposed method is assessed by numerical experiments using 24 constrained benchmark functions and 5 mechanical engineering problems. The results show that the method achieves optimal solutions with a remarkably reduction in the number of function evaluations compared to the literature.

Optimization of active power dispatch considering unified power flow controller: application of evolutionary algorithms in a fuzzy framework

Optimization of active power dispatch considering unified power flow controller: application of evolutionary algorithms in a fuzzy framework

Swarm and Evolutionary Algorithms in Image Compression by F-Transform

This article investigates the application of swarm and evolutionary algorithms, namely the SOMA, DE, and GA, for optimizing the F-transform-based image compression. To do this, we introduce the cost function, evaluating the approximation of decompressed image to the original image, concerning the parameters that control the approximation quality of the F-transform. This function is then minimized by the selected algorithms to find optimal settings for image compression and decompression. We design experiments to compare the performance of the original F-transform method and the methods optimized by SOMA, DE, and GA on a dataset of 10 pictures. In all considered cases, the results obtained with the optimized method completely surpass those obtained by the original one. We also apply a statistical test (called Wilcoxon signed-rank test) for ranking the performance of selected algorithms in this issue. The results show that the SOMA and DE perform well in cases where the compressed image sizes are small. However, the GA algorithm shows outperformance in comparison with the others in more complicated cases where the compressed image size is bigger. The outperformance of the GA is in terms of decompression quality and computation time. Finally, we provide a visual comparison between the original F-transform-based method and the method optimized by the GA, tested on a 128×128 picture. The decompressed image by the latter is much sharper and more detailed than that obtained by the former.

Using a Digital Twin as the Objective Function for Evolutionary Algorithm Applications in Large Scale Industrial Processes

In this paper, we describe how the up-to-date state of a digital twin, and its corresponding simulation model, can be used as a fitness function of an evolutionary algorithm for optimizing a large-scale industrial process. An ICT architecture is presented for solving the computational challenges that arise when the fitness function evaluation takes considerable amount of time. Parallel computation of the fitness function in a cloud computing environment is proposed and the evolutionary algorithm is connected to the computational environment using the Function-as-a-Service approach. A case-study was conducted on the district heating network of Espoo, the second largest city in Finland. The study shows that the architecture is suited for optimizing the operating costs of the large district heating network, with over 800 km of water pipes and over 14 heat producers, reaching a cost-saving of an average of 2%, and up-to 4%, over the current industrial state-of-the-art method in use at the city of Espoo.

Многоуровневые алгоритмы оценки и принятия решений по оптимальному управлению комплексной системой переработки мелкодисперсного рудного сырья

The results of studies aimed at developing multi-level decision-making algorithms for management of energy and resource efficiency, technogenic and environmental safety of a complex multi-stage system for processing fine ore raw materials are presented (MSPFORM). A distinctive feature of such a system is its multidimensionality and multiscale, which manifests itself in the presence of two options for implementing technological processes for processing finely dispersed ore raw materials, the need to take into account the interaction of the aggregates included in the system, as well as the hierarchy of describing the processes occurring in them - mechanical, thermophysical, hydrodynamic, physical and chemical. Such a variety of processes characterizes the interdisciplinarity of research and the complexity of obtaining analytical, interconnected mathematical models. This situation inspired the analyze use of artificial intelligence methods, such as deep machine learning and fuzzy logic, to describe and analyze processes. The scientific component of the research results consists in the developed generalized structure of the MSPFORM, the conceptual basis of multilevel algorithms for evaluating and making decisions on the optimal control of this system, the proposed composition of the parameters and the form of the optimization criterion. The task of the study was to analyze possible options for the processing of ore raw materials, to develop a concept for the construction of the MSPFORM allowing the possibility of optimizing its functioning according to the criterion of energy and resource efficiency while meeting the requirements of environmental safety. The application of evolutionary algorithms for solving the problem of optimizing the MSPFORM according to the criterion of minimum energy consumption is announced and its stages are specified. The structure of the block of neuro-fuzzy analysis of information about the parameters of processes in MSPFORM is presented, which is based on the use of deep recurrent and convolutional neural networks, as well as a fuzzy inference system. The results of a simulation experiment on approbation of the software implementation of this block in the MatLab environment are presented.

Application of evolutionary game algorithm in product innovation research

In order to achieve carbon peak and neutrality goals, this study takes product innovation as the breakthrough point, draws lessons from the replication dynamic thought of the biological evolution process, and uses game evolutionary algorithm to analyze the gradual stability of enterprises, governments and users. Although the environment does not actively participate in the game, its benefits directly affect the strategic choices of the other three parties. Therefore, the environmental benefit is regarded as one of the important variables to establish a game model for solving and simulation, and analyze the key variables affecting the game. This paper discusses the game situation of green product innovation in the evolutionary system for promoting “four-party satisfaction”. The concepts of proactive preventive cost and passive loss cost are redefined and put forward. Research shows that: (1) Proactive preventive cost plays a positive role in promoting green product innovation with “four-party satisfaction”. (2) Increasing subsidies for purchasing green products, reducing the price of green products, increasing purchase tax on non-green products, and increasing government investment in environmental protection publicity and green upgrade of infrastructure will all increase users’ willingness to buy green products. (3) The government formulates reasonable reward and punishment measures to provide necessary financial support for enterprises, so that the final income of enterprises from green product innovation is greater than that from traditional product innovation. It will encourage enterprises to carry out green product innovation.

Optimization method of cutting parameters of wafer dicing saw based on orthogonal regression design

Wafer dicing saw is one of the core equipment in the manufacturing process of semiconductor integrated circuit components. The cutting accuracy of dicing saw directly affects the overall quality of processed chips. This paper systematically investigates the relationship between the main cutting process parameters and the cutting quality of the dicing saw. The orthogonal experimental design method and genetic algorithm are used to optimize the cutting process parameters, solving the high cost and low efficiency problems caused by the traditional way of selecting parameters by trial and error. After optimization, the average maximum chipping width is only 38.54 μm, which is 8.23% better than the traditional way of cutting quality. Based on the blade thickness of 35 μm, the maximum chipping width reached the industry-recognized best standard of 1.1 times the blade thickness, further proving the effectiveness of the method.Article HighlightsThe first joint application of orthogonal regression design method and evoluti-onary algorithm for parameter optimiza-tion of dicing saw.A set of optimal cutting parameters are found and verified by experiments.Compare and contrast the optimal cutting parameters cutting’s performance.

Regret-Based Nash Equilibrium Sorting Genetic Algorithm for Combinatorial Game Theory Problems with Multiple Players.

We introduce a regret-based fitness assignment strategy for evolutionary algorithms to find Nash equilibria in noncooperative simultaneous combinatorial game theory problems where it is computationally intractable to enumerate all decision options of the players involved in the game. Applications of evolutionary algorithms to non-cooperative simultaneous games have been limited due to challenges in guiding the evolutionary search toward equilibria, which are usually inferior points in the objective space. We propose a regret-based approach to select candidate decision options of the players for the next generation in a multipopulation genetic algorithm called Regret-Based Nash Equilibrium Sorting Genetic Algorithm (RNESGA). We show that RNESGA can converge to multiple Nash equilibria in a single run using two- and three- player competitive knapsack games and other games from the literature. We also show that pure payoff-based fitness assignment strategies perform poorly in three-player games.

A state of art review on applications of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in chemicals production reactors

A state of art review on applications of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in chemicals production reactors

Emerging Computational Approaches for Antimicrobial Peptide Discovery.

In the last two decades many reports have addressed the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the search and design of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AI has been represented by machine learning (ML) algorithms that use sequence-based features for the discovery of new peptidic scaffolds with promising biological activity. From AI perspective, evolutionary algorithms have been also applied to the rational generation of peptide libraries aimed at the optimization/design of AMPs. However, the literature has scarcely dedicated to other emerging non-conventional in silico approaches for the search/design of such bioactive peptides. Thus, the first motivation here is to bring up some non-standard peptide features that have been used to build classical ML predictive models. Secondly, it is valuable to highlight emerging ML algorithms and alternative computational tools to predict/design AMPs as well as to explore their chemical space. Another point worthy of mention is the recent application of evolutionary algorithms that actually simulate sequence evolution to both the generation of diversity-oriented peptide libraries and the optimization of hit peptides. Last but not least, included here some new considerations in proteogenomic analyses currently incorporated into the computational workflow for unravelling AMPs in natural sources.

Evolving Deep Neural Networks with Cultural Algorithms for Real-Time Industrial Applications

The goal of this paper is to investigate the applicability of evolutionary algorithms to the design of real-time industrial controllers. Present-day “deep learning” (DL) is firmly established as a useful tool for addressing many practical problems. This has spurred the development of neural architecture search (NAS) methods in order to automate the model search activity. CATNeuro is a NAS algorithm based on the graph evolution concept devised by Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) but propelled by cultural algorithm (CA) as the evolutionary driver. The CA is a network-based, stochastic optimization framework inspired by problem solving in human cultures. Knowledge distribution (KD) across the network of graph models is a key to problem solving success in CAT systems. Two alternative mechanisms for KD across the network are employed. One supports cooperation (CATNeuro) in the network and the other competition (WM). To test the viability of each configuration prior to use in the industrial setting, they were applied to the design of a real-time controller for a two-dimensional fighting game. While both were able to beat the AI program that came with the fighting game, the cooperative method performed statistically better. As a result, it was used to track the motion of a trailer (in lateral and vertical directions) using a camera mounted on the tractor vehicle towing the trailer. In this second real-time application (trailer motion), the CATNeuro configuration was compared to the original NEAT (elitist) method of evolution. CATNeuro is found to perform statistically better than NEAT in many aspects of the design including model training loss, model parameter size, and overall model structure consistency. In both scenarios, the performance improvements were attributed to the increased model diversity due to the interaction of CA knowledge sources both cooperatively and competitively.

Optimization of hydropower energy generation by 14 robust evolutionary algorithms

The use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) for solving complex engineering problems has been very promising, so the application of EAs for optimal operation of hydropower reservoirs can be of great help. Accordingly, this study investigates the capability of 14 recently-introduced robust EAs in optimization of energy generation from Karun-4 hydropower reservoir. The best algorithm is the one that produces the largest objective function (energy generation) and has the minimum standard deviation (SD), the minimum coefficient of variations (CV), and the shortest time of CPU usage. It was found that the best solution was achieved by the moth swarm algorithm (MSA), with the optimized energy generation of 19,311,535 MW which was 65.088% more than the actual energy generation (11,697,757). The values of objective function, SD and CV for MSA were 0.147, 0.0029 and 0.0192, respectively. The next ranks were devoted to search group algorithm (SGA), water cycle algorithm (WCA), symbiotic organism search algorithm (SOS), and coyote optimization algorithm (COA), respectively, which have increased the energy generation by more than 65%. Some of the utilized EAs, including grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA), dragonfly algorithm (DA), antlion optimization algorithm (ALO), and whale optimization algorithm (WOA), failed to produce reasonable results. The overall results indicate the promising capability of some EAs for optimal operation of hydropower reservoirs.

Application of Swarm Intelligence and Evolutionary Computation Algorithms for Optimal Reservoir Operation

Application of Swarm Intelligence and Evolutionary Computation Algorithms for Optimal Reservoir Operation

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Multitask Evolutionary Computation

It is our pleasure to introduce this special issue on multitask evolutionary computation (MTEC), focusing on novel methodologies and applications of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) crafted to perform multiple search and optimization tasks jointly. EAs are population-based methods inspired by principles of natural evolution that have provided a gradient-free path to solving complex learning and optimization problems. However, unlike the natural world where evolution has engendered diverse species and produced differently skilled subpopulations, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in silico</i> EAs are typically designed to evolve a set of solutions specialized for just a single target task. This convention of problem solving in isolation tends to curtail the power of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">implicit parallelism</i> of a population. Skills evolved for a given problem instance do not naturally transfer to populations tasked to solve another. Hence, convergence rates remain restrained, even in settings where related tasks with overlapping search spaces, similar optimal solutions, or with other forms of reusable information, are routinely recurring.