Q-Learning-Assisted Meta-Heuristics for Scheduling Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Problems

The flow shop scheduling problem is important for the manufacturing industry.Effective flow shop scheduling can bring great benefits to the industry.However,there are few types of research on Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Problems(DHFSP)by learning assisted meta-heuristics.This work addresses a DHFSP with minimizing the maximum completion time(Makespan).First,a mathematical model is developed for the concerned DHFSP.Second,four Q-learning-assisted meta-heuristics,e.g.,genetic algorithm(GA),artificial bee colony algorithm(ABC),particle swarm optimization(PSO),and differential evolution(DE),are proposed.According to the nature of DHFSP,six local search operations are designed for finding high-quality solutions in local space.Instead of randomselection,Q-learning assists meta-heuristics in choosing the appropriate local search operations during iterations.Finally,based on 60 cases,comprehensive numerical experiments are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.The experimental results and discussions prove that using Q-learning to select appropriate local search operations is more effective than the random strategy.To verify the competitiveness of the Q-learning assistedmeta-heuristics,they are compared with the improved iterated greedy algorithm(IIG),which is also for solving DHFSP.The Friedman test is executed on the results by five algorithms.It is concluded that the performance of four Q-learning-assisted meta-heuristics are better than IIG,and the Q-learning-assisted PSO shows the best competitiveness.

An Elite-Class Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization for Reentrant Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling with Bottleneck Stage

Bottleneck stage and reentrance often exist in real-life manufacturing processes;however,the previous research rarely addresses these two processing conditions in a scheduling problem.In this study,a reentrant hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(RHFSP)with a bottleneck stage is considered,and an elite-class teaching-learning-based optimization(ETLBO)algorithm is proposed to minimize maximum completion time.To produce high-quality solutions,teachers are divided into formal ones and substitute ones,and multiple classes are formed.The teacher phase is composed of teacher competition and teacher teaching.The learner phase is replaced with a reinforcement search of the elite class.Adaptive adjustment on teachers and classes is established based on class quality,which is determined by the number of elite solutions in class.Numerous experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of new strategies,and ETLBO has a significant advantage in solving the considered RHFSP.

An Improved Hyperplane Assisted Multiobjective Optimization for Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem in Glass Manufacturing Systems

To solve the distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(DHFS)in raw glass manufacturing systems,we investigated an improved hyperplane assisted evolutionary algorithm(IhpaEA).Two objectives are simultaneously considered,namely,the maximum completion time and the total energy consumptions.Firstly,each solution is encoded by a three-dimensional vector,i.e.,factory assignment,scheduling,and machine assignment.Subsequently,an efficient initialization strategy embeds two heuristics are developed,which can increase the diversity of the population.Then,to improve the global search abilities,a Pareto-based crossover operator is designed to take more advantage of non-dominated solutions.Furthermore,a local search heuristic based on three parts encoding is embedded to enhance the searching performance.To enhance the local search abilities,the cooperation of the search operator is designed to obtain better non-dominated solutions.Finally,the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than the other three state-of-the-art algorithms.The results show that the Pareto optimal solution set obtained by the improved algorithm is superior to that of the traditional multiobjective algorithm in terms of diversity and convergence of the solution.

Efficient Reliable Opportunistic Network Coding Based on Hybrid Flow in Wireless Network

Although the wireless network is widely used in many fields,its characteristics such as high bit error rate and broadcast links may block its development.Network coding is an artistic way to exploit its intrinsic characteristics to increase the network reliability.Some people research network coding schemes for inter-flow or intra-flow,each type with its own advantages and disadvantages.In this paper,we propose a new mechanism,called MM-NCOPE,which integrates the idea of inter-flow and intra-flow coding.On the one hand,MM-NCOPE utilizes random liner coding to encode the NCOPE packets while NCOPE is a sub-protocol for optimizing the COPE algorithm by iteration.In NCOPE,packets are automatically matched by size to be coded.As a result,it improves the coding gain in some level.On the other hand,we adopt the partial Acknowledgement retransmission scheme to achieve high compactness and robustness.ACK is an independent packet with the highest priority rather than a part of the data packets.Compared with existing works on opportunistic network coding,our approach ensures the reliability of wireless links and improves the coding gain.

Differential evolution algorithm for hybrid flow-shop scheduling problems

Aiming at the hybrid flow-shop （HFS） scheduling that is a complex NP-hard combinatorial problem with wide engineering background, an effective algorithm based on differential evolution （DE） is proposed. By using a special encoding scheme and combining DE based evolutionary search and local search, the exploration and exploitation abilities are enhanced and well balanced for solving the HFS problems. Simulation results based on some typical problems and comparisons with some existing genetic algorithms demonstrate the proposed algorithm is effective, efficient and robust for solving the HFS problems.

A novel hybrid estimation of distribution algorithm for solving hybrid flowshop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machine

The hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machine is a typical NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, and it exists widely in chemical, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industry. In this work, a novel mathematic model for the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machine(HFSPUPM) was proposed. Additionally, an effective hybrid estimation of distribution algorithm was proposed to solve the HFSPUPM, taking advantage of the features in the mathematic model. In the optimization algorithm, a new individual representation method was adopted. The(EDA) structure was used for global search while the teaching learning based optimization(TLBO) strategy was used for local search. Based on the structure of the HFSPUPM, this work presents a series of discrete operations. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid algorithm compared with other algorithms.

Minimizing makespan in a two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with open shop in one stage

This paper considers a scheduling problem in two-stage hybrid flow shop, where the first stage consists of two machines formed an open shop and the other stage has only one machine. The objective is to minimize the makespan, i.e., the maximum completion time of all jobs. We first show the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense, then we present two heuristics to solve the problem. Computational experiments show that the combined algorithm of the two heuristics performs well on randomly generated problem instances.

Integrated Production and Transportation Scheduling Method in Hybrid Flow Shop

The connection between production scheduling and transportation scheduling is getting closer in smart manufacturing system, and both of those problems are summarized as NP-hard problems. However, only a few studies have considered them simultaneously. This paper solves the integrated production and transportation scheduling problem(IPTSP) in hybrid flow shops, which is an extension of the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(HFSP). In addition to the production scheduling on machines, the transportation scheduling process on automated guided vehicles(AGVs)is considered as another optimization process. In this problem, the transfer tasks of jobs are performed by a certain number of AGVs. To solve it, we make some preparation(including the establishment of task pool, the new solution representation and the new solution evaluation), which can ensure that satisfactory solutions can be found efficiently while appropriately reducing the scale of search space. Then, an effective genetic tabu search algorithm is used to minimize the makespan. Finally, two groups of instances are designed and three types of experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is effective to solve the integrated production and transportation scheduling problem.

Two-Stage Adaptive Memetic Algorithm with Surprisingly Popular Mechanism for Energy-Aware Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem with Sequence-Dependent Setup Time

This paper considers the impact of setup time in production scheduling and proposes energy-aware distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup time(EADHFSP-ST)that simultaneously optimizes the makespan and the energy consumption.We develop a mixed integer linear programming model to describe this problem and present a two-stage adaptive memetic algorithm(TAMA)with a surprisingly popular mechanism.First,a hybrid initialization strategy is designed based on the two optimization objectives to ensure the convergence and diversity of solutions.Second,multiple population co-evolutionary approaches are proposed for global search to escape from traditional cross-randomization and to balance exploration and exploitation.Third,considering that the memetic algorithm(MA)framework is less efficient due to the randomness in the selection of local search operators,TAMA is proposed to balance the local and global searches.The first stage accumulates more experience for updating the surprisingly popular algorithm(SPA)model to guide the second stage operator selection and ensures population convergence.The second stage gets rid of local optimization and designs an elite archive to ensure population diversity.Fourth,five problem-specific operators are designed,and non-critical path deceleration and right-shift strategies are designed for energy efficiency.Finally,to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm,multiple experiments are performed on a benchmark with 45 instances.The experimental results show that the proposed TAMA can solve the problem effectively.

A Penalty Groups-Assisted Iterated Greedy Integrating Idle Time Insertion:Solving the Hybrid Flow Shop Group Scheduling with Delivery Time Windows

The hybrid flow shop group scheduling problem(HFGSP)with the delivery time windows has been widely studied owing to its better flexibility and suitability for the current just-in-time production mode.However,there are several unresolved challenges in problem modeling and algorithmic design tailored for HFGSP.In our study,we place emphasis on the constraint of timeliness.Therefore,this paper first constructs a mixed integer linear programming model of HFGSP with sequence-dependent setup time and delivery time windows to minimize the total weighted earliness and tardiness(TWET).Then a penalty groups-assisted iterated greedy integrating idle time insertion(PG IG ITI)is proposed to solve the above problem.In the PG IG ITI,a double decoding strategy is proposed based on the earliest available machine rule and the idle time insertion rule to calculate the TWET value.Subsequently,to reduce the amount of computation,a skip-based destruction and reconstruction strategy is designed,and a penalty groups-assisted local search is proposed to further improve the quality of the solution by disturbing the penalized groups,i.e.,early and tardy groups.Finally,through comprehensive statistical experiments on 270 test instances,the results prove that the proposed algorithm is effective compared to four state-of-the-art algorithms.

Intelligent Optimization Under Multiple Factories: Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem with Blocking Constraints Using an Advanced Iterated Greedy Algorithm

The distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(DHFSP),which integrates distributed manufacturing models with parallel machines,has gained significant attention.However,in actual scheduling,some adjacent machines do not have buffers between them,resulting in blocking.This paper focuses on addressing the DHFSP with blocking constraints(DBHFSP)based on the actual production conditions.To solve DBHFSP,we construct a mixed integer linear programming(MILP)model for DBHFSP and validate its correctness using the Gurobi solver.Then,an advanced iterated greedy(AIG)algorithm is designed to minimize the makespan,in which we modify the Nawaz,Enscore,and Ham(NEH)heuristic to solve blocking constraints.To balance the global and local search capabilities of AIG,two effective inter-factory neighborhood search strategies and a swap-based local search strategy are designed.Additionally,each factory is mutually independent,and the movement within one factory does not affect the others.In view of this,we specifically designed a memory-based decoding method for insertion operations to reduce the computation time of the objective.Finally,two shaking strategies are incorporated into the algorithm to mitigate premature convergence.Five advanced algorithms are used to conduct comparative experiments with AIG on 80 test instances,and experimental results illustrate that the makespan and the relative percentage increase(RPI)obtained by AIG are 1.0%and 86.1%,respectively,better than the comparative algorithms.

Decomposition-Based Multi-Objective Optimization for Energy-Aware Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling with Multiprocessor Tasks

This paper addresses the Energy-Aware Distributed Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem with Multiprocessor Tasks(EADHFSPMT)by considering two objectives simultaneously,i.e.,makespan and total energy consumption.It consists of three sub-problems,i.e.,job assignment between factories,job sequence in each factory,and machine allocation for each job.We present a mixed inter linear programming model and propose a Novel MultiObjective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition(NMOEA/D).We specially design a decoding scheme according to the characteristics of the EADHFSPMT.To initialize a population with certain diversity,four different rules are utilized.Moreover,a cooperative search is designed to produce new solutions based on different types of relationship between any solution and its neighbors.To enhance the quality of solutions,two local intensification operators are implemented according to the problem characteristics.In addition,a dynamic adjustment strategy for weight vectors is designed to balance the diversity and convergence,which can adaptively modify weight vectors according to the distribution of the non-dominated front.Extensive computational experiments are carried out by using a number of benchmark instances,which demonstrate the effectiveness of the above special designs.The statistical comparisons to the existing algorithms also verify the superior performances of the NMOEA/D.

THE EFFECT OF WORKER LEARNING ON SCHEDULING JOBS IN A HYBRID FLOW SHOP： A BI-OBJECTIVE APPROACH

This paper studies learning effect as a resource utilization technique that can model improvement in worker＇s ability as a result of repeating similar tasks. By considering learning of workers while performing setup times, a schedule can be determined to place jobs that share similar tools and fixtures next to each other. The purpose of this paper is to schedule a set of jobs in a hybrid flow shop （HFS） environment with learning effect while minimizing two objectives that are in conflict： namely maximum completion time （makespan） and total tardiness. Minimizing makespan is desirable from an internal efficiency viewpoint, but may result in individual jobs being scheduled past their due date, causing customer dissatisfaction and penalty costs. A bi-objective mixed integer programming model is developed, and the complexity of the developed bi-objective model is compared against the bi-criteria one through numerical examples. The effect of worker learning on the structure of assigned jobs to machines and their sequences is analyzed. Two solution methods based on the hybrid water flow like algorithm and non-dominated sorting and ranking concepts are proposed to solve the problem. The quality of the approximated sets of Pareto solutions is evaluated using several performance criteria. The results show that the proposed algorithms with learning effect perform well in reducing setup times and eliminate the need for setups itself through proper scheduling.

Q-Learning-Based Teaching-Learning Optimization for Distributed Two-Stage Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling with Fuzzy Processing Time

Two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling has been extensively considered in single-factory settings.However,the distributed two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(DTHFSP)with fuzzy processing time is seldom investigated in multiple factories.Furthermore,the integration of reinforcement learning and metaheuristic is seldom applied to solve DTHFSP.In the current study,DTHFSP with fuzzy processing time was investigated,and a novel Q-learning-based teaching-learning based optimization(QTLBO)was constructed to minimize makespan.Several teachers were recruited for this study.The teacher phase,learner phase,teacher’s self-learning phase,and learner’s self-learning phase were designed.The Q-learning algorithm was implemented by 9 states,4 actions defined as combinations of the above phases,a reward,and an adaptive action selection,which were applied to dynamically adjust the algorithm structure.A number of experiments were conducted.The computational results demonstrate that the new strategies of QTLBO are effective;furthermore,it presents promising results on the considered DTHFSP.

Real-Time Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Approach in Smart Manufacturing Environment

Smart manufacturing in the“Industry 4.0”strategy promotes the deep integration of manufacturing and information technologies,which makes the manufacturing system a ubiquitous environment.However,the real-time scheduling of such a manufacturing system is a challenge faced by many decision makers.To deal with this challenge,this study focuses on the real-time hybrid flow shop scheduling problem(HFSP).First,the characteristic of the hybrid flow shop in a smart manufacturing environment is analyzed,and its scheduling problem is described.Second,a real-time scheduling approach for the HFSP is proposed.The core module is to employ gene expression programming to construct a new and efficient scheduling rule according to the real-time status in the hybrid flow shop.With the scheduling rule,the priorities of the waiting job are calculated,and the job with the highest priority will be scheduled at this decision time point.A group of experiments are performed to prove the performance of the proposed approach.The numerical experiments show that the real-time scheduling approach outperforms other single-scheduling rules and the back-propagation neural network method in optimizing most objectives for different size instances.Therefore,the contribution of this study is the proposal of a real-time scheduling approach,which is an effective approach for real-time hybrid flow shop scheduling in a smart manufacturing environment.

A Review of the Attachment Line Instability for Hybrid Laminar Flow Control

This paper focuses on the investigation of the attachment line instability for Hybrid Laminar Flow Control(HLFC),one of the most promising drag reduction technologies for modern transport aircraft respect to high Reynolds numbers and large sweep angles.The attachment line instability also plays an important role during laminar-turbulent transition control and HLFC design on a swept wing.The overview of historical research is presented and knowledge gaps are pointed out as the conclusion.

Identification of Prorocentrum minimum and Takayama pulchella by fluorescence in situ hybridization through epifluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry

Partial rDNA sequences of Prorocentrum minimum and Takayama pulchella were amplified, cloned and sequenced, and these sequence data were deposited in the GenBank. Eight oligonucleotide probes （DNA probes） were designed based on the sequence analysis. The probes were employed to detect and identify P. minimum and T. pulchella in unialgal and mixed algal samples with a fluorescence in situ hybridization method using flow cytometry. Epifluorescence micrographs showed that these specific probes labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate entered the algal cells and bound to target sequences, and the fluorescence signal resulting from whole-cell hybridization varied from probe to probe. These DNA probes and the hybridization protocol we developed were specific and effective for P. minimum and T. pulchella, without any specific binding to other algal species. The hybridization efficiency of different probes specific to P. minimum was in the order： PM18S02 PM28S02 〉 PM28S01 〉PM18S01, and that of the probes specific to T. pulcheUa was TP18S02 TP28S01 〉 TP28S02 〉TP18S01. The different hybridization efficiency of the DNA probes could also be shown in the fluorescent signals between the labeled and unlabeled cells demonstrated using flow cytometry. The DNA probes PM18S02, PM28S02, TP18S02 and TP28S01, and the protocol, were also useful for the detection of Mgae in natural samples.

Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation of the Turbulent Flow Around Circular Cylinder with Dynamic Hybrid RANS/LES Model

In order to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the dynamic hybrid RANS/LES(DHRL)model,the flow around a cylinder with sinusoidal fluctuating velocity at the inlet was used as the test case.The latest computational fluid dynamics(CFD)model can flexibly choose any existing large-eddy simulation(LES)method combined with RANS method to calculate the flow field.In addition,the DLES model and DDES model are selected as typical representatives of the turbulence model to compare the capture ability of the flow field mechanism.The internal flow field including the y+value,velocity distribution,turbulent kinetic energy and vortex structures is comprehensively analyzed.Finally,the results show that the new model has enough sensitivity to capture the information of the flow field and has more consistent velocity distribution with the experimental value,which shows its potential in practical engineering applications to some extent.

A HYBRID FEM ALGORTHM FOR FLUID FLOW IN A VISCO-ELASTIC PIPE

A variational principle of hybrid FEM is proposed to solve the flow in a visco-elaslic pipe. As an example, the influence of an axisymmetrical stenosis on an artery vibrating flow with a single frequency is calculated.

TWO DIMENSIONAL FLOW QUANTITATIVE VISUALIZATION BY THE HYBRID METHOD OF FLOW BIREFRINGENCE AND BOUNDARY INTEGRATION

Flow birefringent method and its data processing was reviewed and a new hybrid method of flow birefringence and boundary integration was introduced. The basic equations and boundary conditions suitable to the hybrid method were derived, and a comparison of the hybrid and other classical methods was given. Finally as an example, the flow in a step converging tube was analyzed by the given method.