Novel operating theatre scheduling method based on estimation of distribution algorithm

In order to improve the efficiency of operating rooms,reduce the costs for hospitals and improve the level of service qualities, a scheduling method was developed based on an estimation of distribution algorithm（ EDA）. First, a scheduling problem domain is described. Based on assignment constraints and resource capacity constraints, the mathematical programming models are set up with an objective function to minimize the system makespan. On the basis of the descriptions mentioned above, a solution policy of generating feasible scheduling solutions is established. Combined with the specific constraints of operating theatres, the EDA-based algorithm is put forward to solve scheduling problems. Finally, simulation experiments are designed to evaluate the scheduling method. The orthogonal table is chosen to determine the parameters in the proposed method. Then the genetic algorithm and the particle swarm optimization algorithm are chosen for comparison with the EDA-based algorithm, and the results indicate that the proposed method can decrease the makespan of the surgical system regardless of the size of operations. Moreover, the computation time of the EDA-based algorithm is only approximately 5 s when solving the large scale problems, which means that the proposed algorithm is suitable for carrying out an on-line scheduling optimization of the patients.

Robust Airfoil Optimization with Multi-objective Estimation of Distribution Algorithm

A transonic airfoil designed by means of classical point-optimization may result in its dramatically inferior performance under off-design conditions. To overcome this shortcoming, robust design is proposed to find out the optimal profile of an airfoil to maintain its performance in an uncertain environment. The robust airfoil optimization is aimed to minimize mean values and variances of drag coefficients while satisfying the lift and thickness constraints over a range of Mach numbers. A multi-objective estimation of distribution algorithm is applied to the robust airfoil optimization on the base of the RAE2822 benchmark airfoil. The shape of the airfoil is obtained through superposing ten Hick-Henne shape functions upon the benchmark airfoil. A set of design points is selected according to a uniform design table for aerodynamic evaluation. A Kriging model of drag coefficient is constructed with those points to reduce computing costs. Over the Mach range from 0.7 to 0.8, the airfoil generated by the robust optimization has a configuration characterized by supercritical airfoil with low drag coefficients. The small fluctuation in its drag coefficients means that the performance of the robust airfoil is insensitive to variation of Mach number.

Archimedean copula estimation of distribution algorithm based on artificial bee colony algorithm

The artificial bee colony （ABC） algorithm is a com- petitive stochastic population-based optimization algorithm. How- ever, the ABC algorithm does not use the social information and lacks the knowledge of the problem structure, which leads to in- sufficiency in both convergent speed and searching precision. Archimedean copula estimation of distribution algorithm （ACEDA） is a relatively simple, time-economic and multivariate correlated EDA. This paper proposes a novel hybrid algorithm based on the ABC algorithm and ACEDA called Archimedean copula estima- tion of distribution based on the artificial bee colony （ACABC） algorithm. The hybrid algorithm utilizes ACEDA to estimate the distribution model and then uses the information to help artificial bees to search more efficiently in the search space. Six bench- mark functions are introduced to assess the performance of the ACABC algorithm on numerical function optimization. Experimen- tal results show that the ACABC algorithm converges much faster with greater precision compared with the ABC algorithm, ACEDA and the global best （gbest）-guided ABC （GABC） algorithm in most of the experiments.

An improved estimation of distribution algorithm for multi-compartment electric vehicle routing problem

The multi-compartment electric vehicle routing problem(EVRP)with soft time window and multiple charging types(MCEVRP-STW&MCT)is studied,in which electric multi-compartment vehicles that are environmentally friendly but need to be recharged in course of transport process,are employed.A mathematical model for this optimization problem is established with the objective of minimizing the function composed of vehicle cost,distribution cost,time window penalty cost and charging service cost.To solve the problem,an estimation of the distribution algorithm based on Lévy flight(EDA-LF)is proposed to perform a local search at each iteration to prevent the algorithm from falling into local optimum.Experimental results demonstrate that the EDA-LF algorithm can find better solutions and has stronger robustness than the basic EDA algorithm.In addition,when comparing with existing algorithms,the result shows that the EDA-LF can often get better solutions in a relatively short time when solving medium and large-scale instances.Further experiments show that using electric multi-compartment vehicles to deliver incompatible products can produce better results than using traditional fuel vehicles.

Combinations of Estimation of Distribution Algorithms and Other Techniques

This paper summaries our recent work on combining estimation of distribution algorithms （EDA） and other techniques for solving hard search and optimization problems： a） guided mutation, an offspring generator in which the ideas from EDAs and genetic algorithms are combined together, we have shown that an evolutionary algorithm with guided mutation outperforms the best GA for the maximum clique problem, b） evolutionary algorithms refining a heuristic, we advocate a strategy for solving a hard optimization problem with complicated data structure, and c） combination of two different local search techniques and EDA for numerical global optimization problems, its basic idea is that not all the new generated points are needed to be improved by an expensive local search.

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.

Gaussian process assisted coevolutionary estimation of distribution algorithm for computationally expensive problems

In order to reduce the computation of complex problems, a new surrogate-assisted estimation of distribution algorithm with Gaussian process was proposed. Coevolution was used in dual populations which evolved in parallel. The search space was projected into multiple subspaces and searched by sub-populations. Also, the whole space was exploited by the other population which exchanges information with the sub-populations. In order to make the evolutionary course efficient, multivariate Gaussian model and Gaussian mixture model were used in both populations separately to estimate the distribution of individuals and reproduce new generations. For the surrogate model, Gaussian process was combined with the algorithm which predicted variance of the predictions. The results on six benchmark functions show that the new algorithm performs better than other surrogate-model based algorithms and the computation complexity is only 10% of the original estimation of distribution algorithm.

An effective estimation of distribution algorithm for parallel litho machine scheduling with reticle constraints

In order to improve the scheduling efficiency of photolithography,bottleneck process of wafer fabrications in the semiconductor industry,an effective estimation of distribution algorithm is proposed for scheduling problems of parallel litho machines with reticle constraints,where multiple reticles are available for each reticle type.First,the scheduling problem domain of parallel litho machines is described with reticle constraints and mathematical programming formulations are put forward with the objective of minimizing total weighted completion time.Second,estimation of distribution algorithm is developed with a decoding scheme specially designed to deal with the reticle constraints.Third,an insert-based local search with the first move strategy is introduced to enhance the local exploitation ability of the algorithm.Finally,simulation experiments and analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Energy Economic Dispatch for Photovoltaic-Storage via Distributed Event-Triggered Surplus Algorithm

This paper presents a novel approach to economic dispatch in smart grids equipped with diverse energy devices.This method integrates features including photovoltaic(PV)systems,energy storage coupling,varied energy roles,and energy supply and demand dynamics.The systemmodel is developed by considering energy devices as versatile units capable of fulfilling various functionalities and playing multiple roles simultaneously.To strike a balance between optimality and feasibility,renewable energy resources are modeled with considerations for forecasting errors,Gaussian distribution,and penalty factors.Furthermore,this study introduces a distributed event-triggered surplus algorithm designed to address the economic dispatch problem by minimizing production costs.Rooted in surplus theory and finite time projection,the algorithm effectively rectifies network imbalances caused by directed graphs and addresses local inequality constraints.The algorithm greatly reduces the communication burden through event triggering mechanism.Finally,both theoretical proofs and numerical simulations verify the convergence and event-triggered nature of the algorithm.

Histogram-Based Estimation of Distribution Algorithm:A Competent Method for Continuous Optimization

Designing efficient estimation of distribution algorithms for optimizing complex continuous problems is still a challenging task. This paper utilizes histogram probabilistic model to describe the distribution of population and to generate promising solutions. The advantage of histogram model, its intrinsic multimodality, makes it proper to describe the solution distribution of complex and multimodal continuous problems. To make histogram model more efficiently explore and exploit the search space, several strategies are brought into the algorithms： the surrounding effect reduces the population size in estimating the model with a certain number of the bins and the shrinking strategy guarantees the accuracy of optimal solutions. Furthermore, this paper shows that histogram-based EDA （Estimation of distribution algorithm） can give comparable or even much better performance than those predominant EDAs based on Gaussian models.

Intelligent Scheduling Controller Design for Networked Control Systems Based on Estimation of Distribution Algorithm

The use of communication networks in control loops has gained increasing attention in recent years due to its advantages and flexible applications. The network quality-of-service （QoS） in those socalled networked control systems always fluctuates due to changes of the traffic load and available network resources, This paper presents an intelligent scheduling controller design approach for a class of NCSs to handle network QoS variations, The sampling period and control parameters in the controller are simultaneously scheduled to compensate for the network QoS variations. The estimation of distribution algorithm is used to optimize the sampling period and control parameters for better performance. Compared with existing networked control methods, the controller has better ability to compensate for the network QoS variations and to balance network loads. Simulation results show that the plant setting time with the intelligent scheduling controller is reduced by about 64.0% for the medium network load and 49.1% for high network load and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

Estimation of distribution algorithm enhanced particle swarm optimization for water distribution network optimization

The optimization of a water distribution network （WDN） is a highly nonlinear, multi-modal, and constrained combinatorial problem. Particle swarm opti- mization （PSO） has been shown to be a fast converging algorithm for WDN optimization. An improved estimation of distribution algorithm （EDA） using historic best positions to construct a sample space is hybridized with PSO both in sequential and in parallel to improve population diversity control and avoid premature conver- gence. Two water distribution network benchmark exam- ples from the literature are adopted to evaluate the performance of the proposed hybrid algorithms. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithms achieved the literature record minimum （6.081 MS） for the small size Hanoi network. For the large size Balerma network, the parallel hybrid achieved a slightly lower minimum （1.921M） than the current literature reported best minimum （1.923MC）. The average number of evaluations needed to achieve the minimum is one order smaller than most existing algorithms. With a fixed, small number of evaluations, the sequential hybrid outperforms the parallel hybrid showing its capability for fast convergence. The fitness and diversity of the populations were tracked for the proposed algorithms. The track record suggests that constructing an EDA sample space with historic best positions can improve diversity control significantly. Parallel hybridization also helps to improve diversity control yet its effect is relatively less significant.

Using Markov Chain Based Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for Model-Based Safety Analysis of Graph Transformation

The ability to assess the reliability of safety-critical systems is one of the most crucial requirements in the design of modern safety-critical systems where even a minor failure can result in loss of life or irreparable damage to the environment.Model checking is an automatic technique that verifies or refutes system properties by exploring all reachable states(state space)of a model.In large and complex systems,it is probable that the state space explosion problem occurs.In exploring the state space of systems modeled by graph transformations,the rule applied on the current state specifies the rule that can perform on the next state.In other words,the allowed rule on the current state depends only on the applied rule on the previous state,not the ones on earlier states.This fact motivates us to use a Markov chain(MC)to capture this type of dependencies and applies the Estimation of Distribution Algorithm(EDA)to improve the quality of the MC.EDA is an evolutionary algorithm directing the search for the optimal solution by learning and sampling probabilistic models through the best individuals of a population at each generation.To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach,we implement it in GROOVE,an open source toolset for designing and model checking graph transformation systems.Experimental results confirm that the proposed approach has a high speed and accuracy in comparison with the existing meta-heuristic and evolutionary techniques in safety analysis of systems specified formally through graph transformations.

Large-Scale Estimation of Distribution Algorithms with Adaptive Heavy Tailed Random Pro jection Ensembles

We present new variants of Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDA) for large-scale continuous optimisation that extend and enhance a recently proposed random projection (RP) ensemble based approach. The main novelty here is to depart from the theory of RPs that require (sub-)Gaussian random matrices for norm-preservation, and instead for the purposes of high-dimensional search we propose to employ random matrices with independent and identically distributed entries drawn from a t-distribution. We analytically show that the implicitly resulting high-dimensional covariance of the search distribution is enlarged as a result. Moreover, the extent of this enlargement is controlled by a single parameter, the degree of freedom. For this reason, in the context of optimisation, such heavy tailed random matrices turn out to be preferable over the previously employed (sub-)Gaussians. Based on this observation, we then propose novel covariance adaptation schemes that are able to adapt the degree of freedom parameter during the search, and give rise to a flexible approach to balance exploration versus exploitation. We perform a thorough experimental study on high-dimensional benchmark functions, and provide statistical analyses that demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of our approach when compared with existing alternatives in problems with 1000 search variables.

Optimization by Estimation of Distribution with DEUM Framework Based on Markov Random Fields

This paper presents a Markov random field （MRP） approach to estimating and sampling the probability distribution in populations of solutions. The approach is used to define a class of algorithms under the general heading distribution estimation using Markov random fields （DEUM）. DEUM is a subclass of estimation of distribution algorithms （EDAs） where interaction between solution variables is represented as an undirected graph and the joint probability of a solution is factorized as a Gibbs distribution derived from the structure of the graph. The focus of this paper will be on describing the three main characteristics of DEUM framework, which distinguishes it from the traditional EDA. They are： 1） use of MRF models, 2） fitness modeling approach to estimating the parameter of the model and 3） Monte Carlo approach to sampling from the model.

Distributed Optimal Variational GNE Seeking in Merely Monotone Games

In this paper, the optimal variational generalized Nash equilibrium(v-GNE) seeking problem in merely monotone games with linearly coupled cost functions is investigated, in which the feasible strategy domain of each agent is coupled through an affine constraint. A distributed algorithm based on the hybrid steepest descent method is first proposed to seek the optimal v-GNE. Then, an accelerated algorithm with relaxation is proposed and analyzed, which has the potential to further improve the convergence speed to the optimal v-GNE. Some sufficient conditions in both algorithms are obtained to ensure the global convergence towards the optimal v-GNE. To illustrate the performance of the algorithms, numerical simulation is conducted based on a networked Nash-Cournot game with bounded market capacities.

Distributed collaborative complete coverage path planning based on hybrid strategy

Collaborative coverage path planning(CCPP) refers to obtaining the shortest paths passing over all places except obstacles in a certain area or space. A multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) collaborative CCPP algorithm is proposed for the urban rescue search or military search in outdoor environment.Due to flexible control of small UAVs, it can be considered that all UAVs fly at the same altitude, that is, they perform search tasks on a two-dimensional plane. Based on the agents’ motion characteristics and environmental information, a mathematical model of CCPP problem is established. The minimum time for UAVs to complete the CCPP is the objective function, and complete coverage constraint, no-fly constraint, collision avoidance constraint, and communication constraint are considered. Four motion strategies and two communication strategies are designed. Then a distributed CCPP algorithm is designed based on hybrid strategies. Simulation results compared with patternbased genetic algorithm(PBGA) and random search method show that the proposed method has stronger real-time performance and better scalability and can complete the complete CCPP task more efficiently and stably.

计及风电爬坡的储能分布鲁棒优化配置方法

深远海场景下的风电场受热带气旋等极端气候影响将产生大规模风电功率爬坡事件,严重威胁电网安全稳定运行。对此,提出了一种将深度强化学习和分布鲁棒优化结合起来平抑风电功率爬坡事件的储能容量优化配置方法。首先,基于改进旋转门算法识别风电功率爬坡事件,采用近端策略优化算法对风电功率爬坡事件进行平抑。其次,基于深度强化学习训练的模型,采用分布鲁棒优化对储能进行容量配置优化。最后,对不同场景下的储能容量配置结果进行比较分析。仿真结果验证了所提优化配置方法的有效性。

电动汽车空间可调度特性影响下配电网承载能力计算方法

高渗透率分布式电源与电动汽车融合带来的波动性和随机性将对电网的安全稳定运行产生重大影响。如何准确计算配电网的承载能力已成为一个亟待研究和解决的问题。针对配电网承载能力的计算问题,提出了一种电动汽车空间可调度特性影响下配电网的承载能力分布鲁棒计算方法。首先,从电动汽车充电选择的角度出发,考虑车主自身利益、充电效率和配电网承载能力的提高,建立了电动汽车的空间可调度模型;然后,建立了两阶段分布鲁棒的分布式电源和充电站承载能力计算模型,不确定性概率分布的置信集同时受到1-范数和∞-范数的约束;最后,使用列和约束生成算法来解决该问题。通过相应的实例,分析了各种设备和EV空间可调度性对配电网承载能力的影响。通过与确定性模型和鲁棒模型的比较,验证了该模型的优越性。

A Fully Distributed Approach to Optimal Energy Scheduling of Users and Generators Considering a Novel Combined Neurodynamic Algorithm in Smart Grid

A fully distributed microgrid system model is presented in this paper.In the user side,two types of load and plug-in electric vehicles are considered to schedule energy for more benefits.The charging and discharging states of the electric vehicles are represented by the zero-one variables with more flexibility.To solve the nonconvex optimization problem of the users,a novel neurodynamic algorithm which combines the neural network algorithm with the differential evolution algorithm is designed and its convergence speed is faster.A distributed algorithm with a new approach to deal with the inequality constraints is used to solve the convex optimization problem of the generators which can protect their privacy.Simulation results and comparative experiments show that the model and algorithms are effective.