An imperialist competitive algorithm for a bi-objective parallel machine scheduling problem with load balancing consideration

Estimation of transformer parameters from nameplate data by imperialist competitive and gravitational search algorithms

The integration of renewable sources and energy storage in residential microgrids offers energy efficiency and emission reduction potential. Effective energy management is vital for optimizing resources and lowering costs. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, combining the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) as ICA-PSO to enhance energy management. The proposed energy management system operates in an offline mode, anticipating data for the upcoming 24 h, including consumption predictions, tariff rates, and meteorological data. This anticipatory approach facilitates optimal power distribution among the various connected sources within the microgrid. The performance of the proposed hybrid ICA-PSO algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with three selected benchmark algorithms, namely the genetic algorithm (GA), ICA, and PSO. This comparison aims to assess the effectiveness of the ICA-PSO algorithm in optimizing energy management in multi-source residential microgrids. The simulation results, obtained using Matlab 2023a, provide clear evidence of the effectiveness of the hybrid ICA-PSO algorithm in achieving optimal power flows and delivering substantial cost savings. The hybrid algorithm outperforms the benchmark algorithms with cost reductions of 4.47%, 14.93%, and 26% compared to ICA, PSO, and GA, respectively. Furthermore, it achieves a remarkable participation rate of 50.6% for renewable resources in the energy mix, surpassing the participation levels of the ICA (42.88%), PSO (40.51%), and GA (38.95%). This research contributes to the advancement of power flow management techniques in the context of multi-source residential microgrids, paving the way for further research and development in this field.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a new mathematical model for the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with aging effects and multi-maintenance activities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors assume that each machine may be subject to several maintenance activities over the scheduling horizon and a machine turn into its initial condition after maintenance activity and the aging effects start anew. The objective is to minimize the weighted sum of early/tardy times of jobs and maintenance costs.FindingsAs this problem is proven to be non-deterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-hard), the authors employed imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and genetic algorithm (GA) as solution approaches, and the parameters of the proposed algorithms are calibrated by a novel parameter tuning tool called Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The computational results clarify that GA performs better than ICA in quality of solutions and computational time.Originality/valuePredictive maintenance (PM) activities carry out the operations on machines and tools before the breakdown takes place and it helps to prevent failures before they happen.

In simple flow shop problems, each machine operation center includes just one machine. If at least one machine center includes more than one machine, the scheduling problem becomes a flexible flow shop problem (FFSP). Flexible flow shops are thus generalization of simple flow shops. Flexible flow shop scheduling problems have a special structure combining some elements of both the flow shop and the parallel machine scheduling problems. FFSP can be stated as finding a schedule for a general task graph to execute on a multiprocessor system so that the schedule length can be minimized. FFSP is known to be NP-hard. In this study, we present a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to solve FFSP. PSO is an effective algorithm which gives quality solutions in a reasonable computational time and consists of less numbers parameters as compared to the other evolutionary metaheuristics. Mutation, a commonly used operator in genetic algorithm, has been introduced in PSO so that trapping of solutions at local minima or premature convergence can be avoided. Logistic mapping is used to generate chaotic numbers in this paper. Use of chaotic numbers makes the algorithm converge fast towards near-optimal solution and hence reduce computational efforts further. The performance of schedules is evaluated in terms of total completion time or makespan (Cmax). The results are presented in terms of percentage deviation (PD) of the solution from the lower bound. The results are compared with different versions of genetic algorithm (GA) used for the purpose from open literature. The results indicate that the proposed PSO algorithm is quite effective in reducing makespan because average PD is observed as 2.961, whereas GA results in average percentage deviation of 3.559. Finally, influence of various PSO parameters on solution quality has been investigated.

Reformulations and an exact algorithm for unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems with setup times

The evaluation and precise prediction of safety factor (SF) of slopes can be useful in designing/analyzing these important structures. In this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate/predict SF of many homogenous slopes in static and dynamic conditions through applying various hybrid intelligent systems namely imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA)-artificial neural network (ANN), genetic algorithm (GA)-ANN, particle swarm optimization (PSO)-ANN and artificial bee colony (ABC)-ANN. In fact, ICA, PSO, GA and ABC were used to adjust weights and biases of ANN model. In order to achieve the aim of this study, a database composed of 699 datasets with 5 model inputs including slope gradient, slope height, friction angle of soil, soil cohesion and peak ground acceleration and one output (SF) was established. Several parametric investigations were conducted in order to determine the most effective factors of GA, ICA, ABC and PSO algorithms. The obtained results of hybrid models were check considering two performance indices, i.e., root-mean-square error and coefficient of determination $$(R^{2})$$ . To evaluate capability of all hybrid models, a new system of ranking, i.e., the color intensity rating, was developed. As a result, although all predictive models are able to approximate slope SF values, PSO-ANN predictive model can perform better compared to others. Based on $$R^{2}$$ , values of (0.969, 0.957, 0.980 and 0.920) were found for testing of ICA-ANN, ABC-ANN, PSO-ANN and GA-ANN predictive models, respectively, which show higher efficiency of the PSO-ANN model in predicting slope SF values.

This paper addresses the problem of makespan minimization on unrelated parallel machines with sequence dependent setup times. The symbiotic organisms search (SOS) algorithm is a new and popular global optimization technique that has received wide acceptance in recent years from researchers in continuous and discrete optimization domains. An improved SOS algorithm is developed to solve the parallel machine scheduling problem. Since the standard SOS algorithm was originally developed to solve continuous optimization problems, a new solution representation and decoding procedure is designed to make the SOS algorithm suitable for the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem (UPMSP). Similarly, to enhance the solution quality of the SOS algorithm, an iterated local search strategy based on combining variable numbers of insertion and swap moves is incorporated into the SOS algorithm. More so, to further improve the SOS optimization speed and performance, the longest processing time first (LPT) rule is used to design a machine assignment heuristic that assigns processing machines to jobs based on the machine dynamic load-balancing mechanism. Subsequently, the machine assignment scheme is incorporated into SOS algorithms and used to solve the UPMSP. The performances of the proposed methods are evaluated by comparing their solutions with other existing techniques from the literature. A number of statistical tests were also conducted to determine the variations in performance for each of the techniques. The experimental results showed that the SOS with LPT (SOS-LPT) heuristic has the best performance compared to other tested method, which is closely followed by SOS algorithm, indicating that the two proposed algorithms’ solution approaches are reasonable and effective for solving large-scale UPMSPs.

Intelligent MPPT for photovoltaic panels using a novel fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks based on evolutionary algorithms

This study extends the best hybrid ant colony optimization variant developed by Liao et al. (2014) for crisp unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems to solve fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems in consideration of trapezoidal fuzzy processing times, trapezoidal fuzzy sequencing dependent setup times and trapezoidal fuzzy release times. The objective is to find the best schedule taking minimum fuzzy makespan in completing all jobs. In this study, fuzzy arithmetic is used to determine fuzzy completion times of jobs and defuzzification function is used to convert fuzzy numbers back to crisp numbers for ranking. Eight fuzzy ranking methods are tested to find the most feasible one to be employed in this study. The fuzzy arithmetic testing includes four different cases and each case with the following operations separately, i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to investigate the spread of fuzziness as fuzzy numbers are subject to more and more number of operations. The effect of fuzzy ranking methods on hybrid ant colony optimization (hACO) is investigated. To prove the correctness of our methodology and coding, unrelated parallel machine scheduling with fuzzy numbers and crisp numbers are compared based on scheduling problems up to 15 machines and 200 jobs. Relative percentage deviation (RPD) is used to evaluate the performance of hACO in solving fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems. A numerical study on large-scale scheduling problems up to 20 machines and 200 jobs is conducted to assess the performance of the hACO algorithm. For comparison, a discrete particle swarm optimization (dPSO) algorithm is implemented for fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem as well. The results show that the hACO has better performance than dPSO not only in solution quality in terms of RPD value, but also in computational time.

The goal of optimizing the best acceptable answer is according to the limitations and needs of the problem. For a problem, there are several different answers that are defined to compare them and select an optimal answer; a function is called a target function. The choice of this function depends on the nature of the problem. Sometimes several goals are together optimized; such optimization problems are called multi-objective issues. One way to deal with such problems is to form a new objective function in the form of a linear combination of the main objective functions. In the proposed approach, in order to increase the ability to discover new position in the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA), its operators are combined with the particle swarm optimization. The colonial competition optimization algorithm has the ability to search global and has a fast convergence rate, and the particle swarm algorithm added to it increases the accuracy of searches. In this approach, the cosine similarity of the neighboring countries is measured by the nearest colonies of an imperialist and closest competitor country. In the proposed method, by balancing the global and local search, a method for improving the performance of the two algorithms is presented. The simulation results of the combined algorithm have been evaluated with some of the benchmark functions. Comparison of the results has been evaluated with respect to metaheuristic algorithms such as Differential Evolution (DE), Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO), ICA, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Genetic Algorithm (GA).

The article presents the hybrid metaheuristic-neural assessment of the pull-off adhesion in existing multi-layer cement composites using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). The ICA is a metaheuristic algorithm inspired by the human political-social evolution. This method is based solely on the use of ANNs and two non-destructive testing (NDT) methods: the impact-echo method (I-E) and the impulse response method (IR). In this research, the ICA has been used to optimize the weights of the ANN. The combined ICA-ANN model has been compared to the genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to evaluate its accuracy. The results showed that the ICA-ANN model outperforms other techniques when testing datasets in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency. As presented in the validation stage, it is possible to reliably map the adhesion level on a tested surface without local damage to the latter.

This paper addresses a bi-objective cutting parallel machine scheduling problem aiming to minimize the total makespan and total tardiness. This problem is inspired from a structural metal-cutting plant that combines identical and unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems. To formulate this complicated problem, a new mixed-integer programming (MIP) model is presented in consideration of total makespan and total tardiness. The machine-job-dependent processing times are considered along with the setup times, pickup times, different delivery times, and machine eligibility constraints. Owing to the complex characteristics of the problem, an appropriate non-dominated sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGAIII) with an embedded variable neighborhood structure strategy (VNSGAIII) is developed. A number of randomly generated datasets are used to test the performance of VNSGAIII in comparison with NSGAII, and NSGAIII on solving the engineering problem addressed herein. The experimental results demonstrate that the suggested VNSGAIII statistically outperforms the compared algorithms, especially in the distribution of Pareto solutions. The e-constrained method is implemented in the direct MIP model by CPLEX for comparison with the proposed evolutionary algorithms. The proposed algorithm performs efficiently when obtaining the Pareto solutions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a hybrid meta-heuristic based on genetic algorithms (GAs), simulated annealing, variable neighborhood descent and path relinking for solving the variant of the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem considering sequence-dependent setup times.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out computational experiments on literature problem instances proposed by Vallada and Ruiz (2011) and Arnaout et al. (2010) to test the performance of the proposed meta-heuristic. The objective function adopted was makespan minimization, and the authors used relative deviation, average and population standard deviation as performance criteria.FindingsThe results indicate the competitivity of the proposed approach and its superiority in comparison with several other algorithms. In small instances proposed by Vallada and Ruiz (2011) and on small and large instances proposed by Arnaout et al. (2010), the proposed approach presented the best results in most tested problem instances.Practical implicationsIn small instances proposed by Vallada and Ruiz (2011) and on small and large instances proposed by Arnaout et al. (2010), the proposed approach presented the best results in most tested problem instances.Originality/valueThe proposed approach presented high-quality results, with an innovative hybridization of a GA and neighborhood search algorithms, tested in diverse instances of literature. Furthermore, the case study demonstrated that the proposed approach is recommended for solving real-world problems.

ABSTRACTMeta heuristic algorithms have been introduced as a powerful method to solve the nonlinear optimization problems. These algorithms have been employed in many complex engineering problems due to their high capability in finding the solutions and reaching the optimal results within a short period of time. Optimization of distributed generation units in distribution systems, which have profoundly impacted on the system losses and voltage profile, is one of these nonlinear problems. In this study, a novel objective function was proposed for optimization procedure by meta-heuristic algorithms. The related objective function consists of the total cost of distributed generation units, cost of the purchased natural gas, cost of distribution system power losses, and penalty for greenhouse gas emissions. The electrical, cooling, and heating loads were considered in this study. In the distribution system, the waste and fuel cell were used to supply the required heating and cooling loads. The meta-heuristic algorithms including Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) were employed to find the optimal location and size of distributed generation units in a distribution system. A detailed performance analysis was done on 13 bus radial distribution system. The performances of three algorithms were compared with each other and results showed that the PSO was the fastest; and had the best solution and optimum results. Furthermore, the PSO reached the optimum solution in a fewer number of iterations than the GA and ICA algorithms.

In power system any unpredictable variations of consumption load will cause fluctuation in frequency and the transferred power between the lines. Load frequency control is one of the main problems in the power system which synchronizes with automatic generation control. Checking the different factors that cause unbalance in power system is necessary and one of the important factors of them is the load that randomly varies. In this paper, a three area power system in deregulated environments with participation of synchronized generation of wind with Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), hydro and thermal power plants are studied. The load in this power system is considered as a random variable which periodically and randomly has frequency of 0.25 around nominal amount. Fluctuations are caused due to considering load as a random variable and using wind-powered turbine with DFIG in power system. To improve the response of power system, the optimal fuzzy logic, PID controller and FACTS devices will be used. Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) has been used for optimizing the parameters of a fuzzy logic controller. PID Controller parameters have been optimized with three intelligent algorithms, ICA, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm and the results will be compared with each other. With comparison the result it is observed that in the case of using optimal fuzzy logic controller (OFLC) we have the fastest response with the minimum over shoot and under shoot, also in this case the transferred power between the areas is settled in the lowest value. The results show a significant reduction in losses in transmission lines.