Satellite Constellation Configuration Design with Rapid Performance Calculation and Ordinal Optimization

Satellite constellation configuration design is a complicated and time-consuming simulation optimization problem. In this paper, a new method called the rapid method for satellite constellation performance calculation is developed by the Hermite interpolation technique to reduce the computing complication and time. The constellation configuration optimization model is established on the basis of the rapid performance calculation. To reduce the search space and enhance the optimization efficiency, this paper presents a new constellation optimization strategy based on the ordinal optimization （00） theory and expands the algorithm realization for constellation optimization including precise and crude models, ordered performance curves, selection rules and selected subsets. Two experiments about navigation constellation and space based surveillance system （SBSS） are carried out and the analysis of simulation results indicates that the ordinal optimization for satellite constellation configuration design is effective.

Trajectory Planning for Automated Driving Based on Ordinal Optimization

This paper proposes an approach based on Ordinal Optimization（OO） to solve trajectory planning for automated driving. As most planning approaches based on candidate curves optimize the trajectory curve and the velocity profile separately, this paper formulates the problem as an unified Non-Linear Programming（NLP） model,optimizing the trajectory curve and the acceleration profile（acceleration is the derivative of velocity） simultaneously.Then a hybrid optimization algorithm named OODE, developed by combining the idea of OO and Differential Evolution（DE）, is proposed to solve the NLP model. With the acceleration profile optimized ＂roughly＂, OODE computes and compares ＂rough＂（biased but computationally-easier） curve evaluations to select the best curve from candidates, so that a good enough curve can be obtained very efficiently. Then the acceleration profile is optimized again ＂accurately＂ with the selected curve. Simulation results show that good enough solutions are ensured with a high probability and our method is capable of working in real time.

Remanufacturing planning based on constrained ordinal optimization

Resource planning for a remanufacturing system is in general extremely difficult in terms of problem size,uncertainties,complicated constraints,etc.In this paper,we present a new method based on constrained ordinal optimization(COO)for remanufacturing planning.The key idea of our method is to estimate the feasibility of plans by machine learning and to select a subset with the estimated feasibility based on the procedure of horse racing with feasibility model(HRFM).Numerical testing shows that our method is efficient and effective for selecting good plans with high probability.It is thus a scalable optimization method for large scale remanufacturing planning problems with complicated stochastic constraints.

Novel Models and Algorithms of Load Balancing for Variable-structured Collaborative Simulation under HLA/RTI

High level architecture(HLA) is the open standard in the collaborative simulation field. Scholars have been paying close attention to theoretical research on and engineering applications of collaborative simulation based on HLA/RTI, which extends HLA in various aspects like functionality and efficiency. However, related study on the load balancing problem of HLA collaborative simulation is insufficient. Without load balancing, collaborative simulation under HLA/RTI may encounter performance reduction or even fatal errors. In this paper, load balancing is further divided into static problems and dynamic problems. A multi-objective model is established and the randomness of model parameters is taken into consideration for static load balancing, which makes the model more credible. The Monte Carlo based optimization algorithm(MCOA) is excogitated to gain static load balance. For dynamic load balancing, a new type of dynamic load balancing problem is put forward with regards to the variable-structured collaborative simulation under HLA/RTI. In order to minimize the influence against the running collaborative simulation, the ordinal optimization based algorithm(OOA) is devised to shorten the optimization time. Furthermore, the two algorithms are adopted in simulation experiments of different scenarios, which demonstrate their effectiveness and efficiency. An engineering experiment about collaborative simulation under HLA/RTI of high speed electricity multiple units(EMU) is also conducted to indentify credibility of the proposed models and supportive utility of MCOA and OOA to practical engineering systems. The proposed research ensures compatibility of traditional HLA, enhances the ability for assigning simulation loads onto computing units both statically and dynamically, improves the performance of collaborative simulation system and makes full use of the hardware resources.

Production Line Capacity Planning Concerning Uncertain Demands for a Class of Manufacturing Systems with Multiple Products

In this paper, we study a class of manufacturing systems which consist of multiple plants and each of the plants has capability of producing multiple distinct products. The production lines of a certain plant may switch between producing different kinds of products in a time-sharing mode. We optimize the capacity configuration of such a system s production lines with the objective to maximize the overall profit in the capacity planning horizon. Uncertain demand is incorporated in the model to achieve a robust configuration solution. The optimization problem is formulated as a nonlinear polynomial stochastic programming problem, which is difficult to be efficiently solved due to demand uncertainties and large search space. We show the NP-hardness of the problem first, and then apply ordinal optimization(OO) method to search for good enough designs with high probability. At lower level, an mixed integer programming(MIP) solving tool is employed to evaluate the performance of a design under given demand profile.

Performance Improvement of Distributed Systems by Autotuning of the Configuration Parameters

The performance of distributed computing systems is partially dependent on configuration parameters recorded in configuration files. Evolutionary strategies, with their ability to have a global view of the structural information, have been shown to effectively improve performance. However, most of these methods consume too much measurement time. This paper introduces an ordinal optimization based strategy combined with a back propagation neural network for autotuning of the configuration parameters. The strat- egy was first proposed in the automation community for complex manufacturing system optimization and is customized here for improving distributed system performance. The method is compared with the covariance matrix algorithm. Tests using a real distributed system with three-tier servers show that the strategy reduces the testing time by 40% on average at a reasonable performance cost.

DESIGN SAMPLING AND REPLICATION ASSIGNMENT UNDER FIXED COMPUTING BUDGET

For many real world problems, when the design space is huge and unstructured, and time consuming simulation is needed to estimate the performance measure, it is important to decide how many designs to sample and how long to run for each design alternative given that we have only a fixed amount of computing time. In this paper, we present a simulation study on how the distribution of the performance measures and distribution of the estimation errors/noises will affect the decision. From the analysis, it is observed that when the underlying distribution of the noise is bounded and if there is a high chance that we can get the smallest noise, then the decision will be to sample as many as possible, but if the noise is unbounded, then it will be important to reduce the noise level first by assigning more replications for each design. On the other hand, if the distribution of the performance measure indicates that we will have a high chance of getting good designs, the suggestion is also to reduce the noise level, otherwise, we need to sample more designs so as to increase the chances of getting good designs. For the special case when the distributions of both the performance measures and noise are normal, we are able to estimate the number of designs to sample, and the number of replications to run in order to obtain the best performance.