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Rao algorithms that include three algorithms are very simple and parameter-less algorithms with effective and desirable performance. This paper modifies these three algorithms, merges them, and establishes a powerful group algorithm. In the first optimization step, the suggested algorithm is tested on 30 standard CEC2014 functions with 50 dimensions to compare it with main algorithms, several well-known algorithms, and modified versions of RAO algorithm. It becomes evident in the first test that the suggested optimizer is effective, and reliable for optimization of real-parameter functions, and it has shown its superiority to original RAO algorithm and several modern and modified versions of RAO algorithms for most of the test functions and achieved more acceptable results than them. Moreover, the suggested algorithm benefits a faster convergence characteristic than original RAO algorithms. The proposed Colonial Competitive RAO (CCRAO) has been applied on five popular engineering problems and its results have been compared with those of recent papers. According to the results, CCRAO is an effective, robust, and reliable optimizer for engineering design problems and can contain all useful features of RAO algorithms altogether. CCRAO has succeeded to converge to the best solution for these engineering problems and surpasses most of the other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Normalization of objectives plays a crucial role in evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) to handle objective functions with different scales, which can be found in real-world problems. Although the effect of normalization methods on the performance of EMO algorithms has been investigated in the literature, that of preference-based EMO (PBEMO) algorithms is poorly understood. Since PBEMO aims to approximate a region of interest, its population generally does not cover the Pareto front in the objective space. This property may make normalization of objectives in PBEMO difficult. This paper investigates the effectiveness of three normalization methods in three representative PBEMO algorithms. We present a bounded archive-based method for approximating the nadir point. First, we demonstrate that the normalization methods in PBEMO perform significantly worse than that in conventional EMO in terms of approximating the ideal point, nadir point, and range of the PF. Then, we show that PBEMO requires normalization of objectives on problems with differently scaled objectives. Our results show that there is no clear "best normalization method" in PBEMO, but an external archive-based method performs relatively well. • This paper investigates the effectiveness of three normalization methods in three representative PBEMO algorithms. • We demonstrate that the normalization methods in PBEMO perform significantly worse than that in conventional EMO in terms of approximating the ideal point, nadir point, and range of the PF. scaled objectives. • We show that there is no clear "best normalization method" in PBEMO, but an external archive-based method performs relatively well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent machines are an important carrier of artificial intelligence, which are widely used not only in the industrial field, but also in various fields of daily life and work. Path planning is an important research direction for studying machine intelligence. The main purpose is to search for a feasible path so that the robot can walk along the searched path in a complex environment. This paper aims to study the evolutionary algorithm of intelligent machines based on artificial intelligence. On the basis of introducing the characteristics of artificial potential field algorithm, the concept and characteristics of genetic algorithm, using genetic algorithm as the framework, the artificial potential field algorithm is combined with the crossover of genetic algorithm. In the operator, the optimization performance of the crossover operator is improved. The research results show that the length of the path obtained by the improved algorithm is shorter and better than that of the genetic algorithm of the single-point crossover operator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs) are challenging tasks involving optimizing many conflicting objectives simultaneously. Decomposition-based many-objective evolutionary algorithms have effectively maintained a balance between convergence and diversity in recent years. However, these algorithms face challenges in accurately approximating the complex geometric structure of irregular Pareto fronts (PFs). In this paper, an information entropy-driven evolutionary algorithm based on reinforcement learning (RL-RVEA) for many-objective optimization with irregular Pareto fronts is proposed. The proposed algorithm leverages reinforcement learning to guide the evolution process by interacting with the environment to learn the shape and features of PF, which adaptively adjusts the distribution of reference vectors to cover the PFs structure effectively. Moreover, an information entropy-driven adaptive scalarization approach is designed in this paper to reflect the diversity of nondominated solutions, which facilitates the algorithm to balance multiple competing objectives adaptively and select solutions efficiently while maintaining individual diversity. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the RL-RVEA compared with seven state-of-the-art algorithms on the DTLZ, MaF, and WFG test suites and four real-world MaOPs. The results of the experiments demonstrate that the suggested algorithm provides a novel and practical method for addressing MaOPs with irregular PFs. • A novel RL-RVEA addresses many-objective optimization with irregular pareto fronts. • A reinforcement learning-based adaptive reference vector to guide the direction of convergence. • A scalarization approach preserves the diversity of solutions for next generation. • The RL-RVEA outperforms seven advanced many-objective optimization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of research works on dynamic constrained optimization problems has been increasing rapidly over the past two decades. In this domain, many real-life decision problems need to be solved repeatedly with changing data and parameters. However, no research on dynamic problems with changes in the coefficients of the constraint functions has been reported. In this paper, to deal with such problems, a new evolutionary framework with multiple novel mechanisms is proposed. The new mechanisms are for (1) dealing with both linear and non-linear components in the constraint functions, (2) identifying the rate of change in the coefficients of the variables and (3) updating the population efficiently after every change occurs in the problem. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we designed a new set of 13 dynamic benchmark problems, each of which consists of 20 dynamic changes and 3 different scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly contributes in achieving good quality solutions, high feasibility rates and fast convergence in rapidly changing environments. In addition, the framework shows its capability of using different meta-heuristics to solve dynamic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, intelligent optimization has become a science that few researchers have not used in dealing with problems in their field. Diversity and flexibility have made the use, efficiency, and usefulness of various nature-inspired optimization methods, such as evolutionary and meta-heuristic algorithms, more evident in such problems. This work first provides a comprehensive overview of all considerations governing various optimization problems with detailed corresponding categories. Then, the most comprehensive review and recent methods (during 1965–2022) are presented in evolution-based, swarm-based, physics-based, human-based, and hybrid-based categories. More than 320 new algorithms have been reviewed. All specifications including authors, year, abbreviation, inspired source, controls, and their application are considered in this regard. Statistical analyzes of papers and publishers, annually and for 57 years, along with their ranking, are also examined in detail. Among the key achievements of the paper include: the most number of algorithms with 47.71% (156 methods) have been from the swarm category, and most of them were published in the five years of 2021 (72, 22.02%), 2020 (39, 11.93%), 2022 (31, 9.48%), 2019 (26, 7.95%), and 2016 (21, 6.42%) respectively; the top five rankings of publishers of reviewed algorithms/papers were also: "Proceedings of the Congress" (33, 10.09%), "Applied Soft Computing" (19, 5.81%), "Expert Systems with Applications" (18, 5.51%), "Knowledge-Based Systems" (12, 3.67%), "Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence" (12, 3.67%), "Advances in Engineering Software" (12, 3.67%), " Neural Computing and Applications " (12, 3.67%), and " Information Sciences " (11, 3.36%). The paper's data is available at: https://github.com/ali-ece. [Display omitted] • A detailed overview of optimization and its variants. • A literature review on state-of-the-art algorithms from 1965 to 2022. • Statistical analyzes and explanations in each year and during the 57 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of single optimization strategy and poor comprehensive performance of MOFA, multi-objective firefly algorithm with adaptive region division is proposed in this paper. By leveraging the convergence index, our algorithm intelligently divides the dominant and non-dominant solution groups into three sub-regions, namely balance, exploration, and development areas, each with a distinct learning strategy that complements the strengths of fireflies. Specifically, fireflies in the balance area learn from global optimal particles with diversity to achieve a balanced exploration and development ability. Fireflies in the exploration area jointly learn from globally optimal particles with convergence and diversity, increasing the algorithm's likelihood of discovering Pareto optimal solutions. Lastly, fireflies in the development area rapidly converge under the guidance of the globally optimal particle of convergence, thus improving the algorithm's development ability. To further enhance the comprehensive optimization performance, we introduce a novel fusion index as an external archive update strategy that preserves solutions with superior convergence and diversity. Our experiments on 20 benchmark functions and a multi-objective optimization power flow example demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms other multi-objective optimization algorithms, highlighting its superior optimization performance. • This paper proposes a multi-objective firefly algorithm with adaptive region division. • Based on the idea of adaptive region division, the firefly population was divided into adaptive regions and regions, and multiple learning strategies were integrated. • Our algorithm has higher performance than the classical MOEA on instances of benchmarking functions and multi-objective optimization currents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new training algorithm that can update the situation of layers' network, and therefore, connections, neurons, and firing rate of neurons based on FORCE (first-order reduced and controlled error) training algorithm. The Quantized Full FORCE algorithm (QFF) also updates the number of neurons and connections between different layers in the network per iteration in a way that the whole firing rate of each layer is updated via selecting the best neurons and combining strong features. The update method is sequential, so that with each instance passing through the network, the network structure is updated with the Full FORCE algorithm. The algorithm updates the structure of networks with a multiple/single middle layer of the supervised version of feed forward networks such as Multilayer perceptron (MLP), changing them into partially-connected networks. A combination of principal component analysis PCA and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) algorithms has been used to cluster the network input features. The paper focuses on the deep supervised MLP network with backpropagation (BP) and various datasets and its comparison with other MLP based stat of art methods and hybrid evolutionary algorithms. We achieved 98.15 percent accuracy for facial expression 98.6 and 97.7 percent for Wisconsin breast Cancer and Iris Flower in respectively. The training algorithm employed in the study enjoys a lower computational complexity while yielding faster and more accurate convergence, starting with a very low level of errors of 0.009 in comparison with the full connection network and it solves the challenge of getting stuck in local minima and poor convergence of Gradient Decent with BP. • Providing the new training algorithm to update the connections and firing rate of neurons in each iteration. • The proposed training model is based on Quantized Full FORCE (first-order reduced and controlled error) training. • Providing an accurate framework to update the number of neurons, converting the network to a partial connection network. • In the new training model, the best features have the highest number of connections and neurons within the middle layers. • Being the decision speed of the network in the proposed method much faster than a fully connected network. • Cost-effectiveness and much lower resource requirements for implementation of deep networks on hardware such as FPGAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the number of lower-level function evaluations (LFEs) is crucial to designing a bilevel evolutionary algorithm (BLEA) for bilevel optimization. Direct neighbor solution transfer (DST) is regularly used in BLEA because it can improve the lower-level search efficiency and reduce the number of LFEs. But this method still faces the challenge of misleading searches to make the algorithm converge to the wrong optimum. This paper proposes a bilevel improved multi-operator differential evolution algorithm (BL-IMODE) for bilevel optimization, which uses the knowledge transfer and adaptive coordinate systems approach. Specifically, this paper proposes a lower-level search knowledge transfer (LLS-KT) and a lower-level (LL) optimal solution distribution information transfer (LLO-DIT) mechanism to implement knowledge transfer. In LLS-KT, transferring LL solutions to the LL optimizer is similar to DST, but the LLS-KT transfers multiple solutions and thus has less possibility of misleading searches than DST. Moreover, the LLO-DIT transfers the LL optimal solution distribution information to the LL optimizer for generating promising offspring solutions. Since this method does not directly transfer LL solutions, it avoids misleading searches. Additionally, the adaptive coordinate systems (ACS) approach is used in two-level optimizers to suit different fitness landscapes and further reduce the number of LFEs. In ACS, three differential evolution mutation operators are produced in two coordinate systems. An adaptive strategy is used to select the suitable differential evolution mutation operator to generate promising offspring solutions in the Eigen coordinate or original coordinate system. Experimental studies on three test suites benchmark problems for comparison with seven state-of-the-art algorithms are conducted. The results show BL-IMODE has a significant advantage over the comparative algorithms. Finally, BL-IMODE is applied to tackle the inverse optimal control problem. • We propose a bilevel improved multi-operator differential evolution algorithm. • We propose a knowledge transfer approach to avoid misleading search. • We propose an adaptive coordinate systems approach to improve search efficiency. • We outperform all existing approaches in most test instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time is a crucial factor for decision making, especially in environments where it is necessary to provide a high quality of experience for the users and at the same time make efficient use of their resources; functions that in some cases may conflict. That is one of the challenges that mobile operators have now; the unceasing growth in terms of users and service requirements that generate not only technical challenges. In an initial approach to this problem, we proposed a multi-objective model for selecting the cooperation scheme between base stations and an evolutionary algorithm that provides a set of optimal solutions. However, to find the optimal set of solutions, the convergence time of the proposed algorithm varies between a few seconds to hours, which makes it feasible only for network planning exercises. In this paper, we present an algorithm that allows us to find an efficient solution to the multi-objective problem in a reasonable time for operational decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent multi-objective optimization problems are very complex which require an effective and robust evolutionary method for obtaining a global Pareto-optimal solutions. Most of these multi-objective evolutionary techniques are population-based methods which usually work on random search approaches and often trapped into local minima during their execution. A new fuzzy tuned mayfly algorithm (FTMA) is presented in this paper, to obtain the Pareto-optimal solutions for any complex multi-objective power system problem. It has a self-adapting global exploration capability to get the best Pareto-optimal solutions by varying two crucial parameters i.e., crossover (P c) and mutation P m probabilities. Moreover, a model of Pareto-dominance is employed to rank non-dominating solutions to maintain the diversity within the populations. The proposed evolutionary approach is examined on a standard ZDT benchmark test suite and its algorithmic performance is statistically compared with a few of the recent optimization techniques such as NSGA-II, NSGA-III, MMODE, MOAVOA and MMA algorithm. It is further applied to minimize two distinct objective functions (i.e., total transmission loss and voltage stability index) for IEEE-118 bus system and IEEE-24 bus RTS. A comprehensive statistical analysis is presented for the obtained numerical results, which proves that proposed FTMA has better convergence with better solution diversity in comparison to the other competing algorithms. A comprehensive analysis based on statistical results reveal that the proposed FTMA is superior for obtaining better non-dominating pareto-fronts as compared to other competing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adversarial sample generation problem is a hot issue in the security field of deep learning. Evolutionary algorithm has been widely used to solve this problem in recent years because of its good global search ability. However, existing methods still suffer from the "curse of dimensionality" when attacking high-resolution images. In this paper, a two-stage frequency domain generation algorithm of black-box adversarial samples based on differential evolution is proposed. In the first stage, a representative image-guided differential evolution method is proposed to quickly generate a universal adversarial perturbation with a high attack success rate in the frequency-domain. In the second stage, a space reduction strategy based on frequency-domain pixel blocks is designed to reduce the search space and alleviate the problem of "curse of dimensionality". In addition, a new space–frequency interaction sensitivity measure is introduced to evaluate the similarity between the adversarial samples and the original images. The adversarial perturbations obtained by the measure are more in line with the subjective perception of the human eye. Finally, compared with several typical black-box adversarial sample generation algorithms, experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve higher attack success rate with less prediction times. • Proposing a two-stage evolutionary generation framework of adversarial samples. • Developing a space–frequency interaction sensitivity measure. • Presenting a representative image-guided differential evolutionary algorithm. • Designing an individual adversarial perturbation generation algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key to solving constrained multiobjective optimization problems (CMOPs) lies in maintaining the feasibility, convergence, and diversity of the population. In recent years, various constraint handling techniques (CHTs) and strategies have been proposed to enhance the performance of constrained multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (CMOEAs). However, most of these algorithms face difficulties in dealing with problems that have large infeasible regions and discontinuous small feasible regions, as they have trouble crossing large infeasible regions while simultaneously maintaining the convergence and diversity of the population. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a dual-population auxiliary coevolutionary algorithm with an enhanced operator, denoted as DAEAEO. Auxiliary population 1 employs an improved ϵ -constraint handling technique to provide high-quality feasible solutions for the main population. Auxiliary population 2 adopts the non-dominated sorting method to provide favorable objective information for the main population to help it cross the infeasible region. In addition, to further improve diversity, each population adopts an enhanced operator and a genetic operator to generate offspring, respectively. Finally, knowledge transfer between offspring is realized. Compared to six state-of-the-art CMOEAs on DASCMOPs, LIR-CMOPs, DOC test suites, and two real-world problems, the proposed DAEAEO achieved superior performance, especially for CMOPs with large infeasible regions and discontinuous small feasible regions. • A constrained multiobjective coevolutionary algorithm is proposed, termed DAEAEO. • A dual-population auxiliary evolutionary strategy is proposed. • The use of knowledge transfer promotes information interaction among offspring. • An enhanced search operator is developed to balance convergence and diversity. • The effectiveness of DAEAEO is verified on test suites and two real-world problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of high-dimensional feature selection (FS) lies in the search technique, which needs to consider both minimizing the size of feature subset and maximizing the classification accuracy. Recently, multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) have shown excellent performance in solving FS tasks. However, most existing MOEAs struggle to effectively balance these two conflicting objectives when solving high-dimensional FS tasks. To cover this issue, in this paper, a decomposition-based multi-population evolutionary algorithm is proposed, called MPEA-FS. In the initialization stage, a multi-population generation strategy (MGS) based on feature weights (MGS) was adopted, with each population corresponding to a search subspace, which can improve the algorithm's search ability. During the evolutionary stage, an external population is designed to integrate the excellent feature subsets of multiple populations to achieve knowledge sharing between them. In addition, to reduce the feature dimension, a feature reduction strategy (FRS) is proposed, which can remove unimportant features while maintaining classification accuracy. Extensive experiments are performed on 13 high-dimensional datasets, and the proposed algorithm is compared with 5 state-of-the-art FS methods proposed in the last 3 years on multiple metrics. The experimental results indicate that MPEA-FS can achieve higher classification accuracy on most datasets, and the number of selected features is also competitive. • A decomposition-based multi-population feature selection algorithm is proposed. • The generation of multi-population is based on a novel feature weight method. • Multi-population knowledge sharing strategy based on elite population is proposed. • Evolution operator based on guide vector can correct the feature subset effectively. • Obtained higher classification accuracy and competitive number of features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has gained significant popularity in recent years for its ability to solve complex control problems. However, most existing RL algorithms are designed to train policies for each environment in isolation, limiting their applicability to real-world scenarios with many related environments. Recently, many multitask optimization algorithms have been proposed and successfully applied to a wide range of optimization problems. However, existing studies mainly focus on solving multiple continuous function benchmarks and overlook the potential of tailoring towards RL. In this paper, we propose a simple multitask optimization algorithm called Multitask Augmented Random Search (MARS) that trains multiple RL agents together and exploits the performance surplus from highly correlated tasks. MARS is a modification of the simple random search Augmented Random Search (ARS) algorithm, which has been shown to outperform complicated methods in solving continuous control MuJoCo environments such as Soft Actor-Critic (SAC), Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), and Trusted Region Policy Optimization (TRPO). The experimental results also demonstrate that our proposed algorithm is more consistent in solving different instances of MuJoCo benchmark than ARS, Multifactorial Evolution Algorithm (MFEA), and Adaptive MFEA RL (AMFEARL) within the same number of training episodes. • Propose a multitask extension of ARS for training related continuous control problems. • Derived an online data-driven measurement to preempt the transfer of solutions incomplementary. • Conduct experiments on synthetic benchmarks and in the multitask Mujoco environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel surrogate-assisted multi-objective nutcracker optimization algorithm. This algorithm is built upon the recently proposed nutcracker optimization algorithm, drawing inspiration from the behaviours observed in Clark's nutcrackers. The algorithm is developed based on two distinct behaviours exhibited by these birds. To comprehensively evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, a dual-pronged approach is adopted. On the one hand, a set of artificial test problems is employed to scrutinize the algorithm's capabilities, while on the other hand, a set of real-world problems is considered to assess its practical efficacy. The results of the proposed algorithm are evaluated in comparison to existing baseline algorithms and state-of-the-art algorithms, using well-recognized performance metrics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The obtained results provide convincing evidence of the performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hybrid bio-inspired search and optimization algorithm that combines the strengths of the PB3C (Parallel Big Bang Big Crunch) and 3PGA (3 Parent Genetic Algorithm) algorithms. The hybrid algorithm employs a single population-based evolutionary search coupled with multi-population parallel processing techniques to address optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB software. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm on the CEC2021 standard test bench suite. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with that of the other nine algorithms. The comparative analysis shows that the proposed hybrid PB3C and 3PGA algorithms performed better than the other nine optimization algorithms. Furthermore, this chapter proposes an HPB3C-3PGA-based approach to evolve the near-optimal architecture of CNN. The proposed plant image classification approach is implemented in Python and compared with 12 other approaches. The proposed approach achieved an accuracy of 98.96% on the Mendeley dataset and 98.97% on the CVIP100 dataset. The proposed approach outperforms all other approaches for the plant leaf classification problem. This research significantly contributes to overcoming limitations in existing approaches, providing a robust solution for optimization problems and image classification tasks. • Proposed hybrid algorithm combines PB3C and 3PGA strengths for optimization problems. • Tested on CEC2021 benchmark functions, outperformed nine existing algorithms. • Synergy of parallel processing and advanced genetic operators drives success. • Promising solution for real-world applications requiring efficient optimization techniques. • Achieved impressive accuracy of 98.96% in plant leaf image classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential evolution (DE) algorithm is widely regarded as one of the most influential evolutionary algorithms for addressing complex optimization problems. However, the fixed mutation strategy limits the adaptive ability of DE, and the lack of utilization of historical information limits the optimization ability of DE. In this paper, an indicator-based self-learning differential evolution algorithm (ISDE) is proposed. A jump out mechanism based on deep reinforcement learning is adopted to control the mutation intensity of the population. The neural network in the jump out mechanism is designed as a decision maker. The mutation intensity of the population is controlled by the neural network, and the neural network are trained by a double deep Q network algorithm based on the continuous data generated during the evolution process. A population range indicator (PRI) is utilized to describe individual differences in the population. A diversity maintenance mechanism is designed to maintain individual differences according to the value of PRI. The experimental results reveal that the comprehensive performance of ISDE is superior to comparison algorithms on CEC 2017 real-parameter numerical optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the electrical power system optimal power flow is a solution for power management with multi variable equality and inequality constraints. Different algorithms were used to solve the optimum power flow (OPF). This paper proposes the optimal power flow using efficient and reliable optimization technique of enhanced sine cosine algorithm (ESCA). The proposed algorithm used to solve the multi objective power flow function problems such as generating cost, losses, emission of power plant and to improve the voltage stability. In this IEEE standard 30 bus system with four different multi objective functions have been tested and results obtained by Enhanced sine cosine algorithm are compared with other evolutionary algorithms. The results show that ESCA gives better results than other techniques in terms of convergence speed and global optimal solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a common occurrence nowadays for a network to be gigantic in size and complex in architecture. Network navigation thus faces many new problems in terms of routing and resource utilization, one of which arises in multi-domain networks. This paper focuses on the Inter-Domain Path Computation under Node-defined Domain Uniqueness Constraint (IDPC-NDU) problem, whose purpose is to find the shortest path between two nodes in a network under a constraint that such a path is only allowed to traverse each domain at most once. Considering that this is an NP-Hard problem, an approximate approach is more practical than an exact one. Meanwhile, Particles Swarm Optimization Algorithm (PSO) has been long known for its powerful ability to discover near-optimal solutions in a reasonable time; however, its application in discrete search space is limited. Therefore, we decide to use the multi-population framework, a sub-branch of multitasking optimization which allows information exchange not only between problems but also between different optimization heuristics, to improve upon the basic PSO method. Specifically, this paper introduces a hybridization between PSO and Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS). The encoding and decoding method are created specifically for the IDPC-NDU problem and for the PSO algorithm, and VNS serves to enhance further the algorithm's ability to escape local optima. Experiments are carried out to prove the new algorithm's efficacy, especially in the context of similar multitasking methods. • Propose a multi-tasking technique for IDPC-NDU. • Propose novel encoding and decoding methods for the IDPC-NDU problem. • Integrate PSO and VNS into a multi-population-based approach to solve the IDPC-NDU problem. • Evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm on various instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal consumption and free calcium oxide (f-CaO) content are two important production indicators in the cement calcination process, and its collaborative optimization is of great significance to improve the production performance. However, due to the multiple dynamic interferences and multiple conflicts between coal consumption and f-CaO, product quality is unstable and coal consumption becomes high. To address the problems, this paper proposes a multi-objective collaborative optimization method for cement calcination process. This method takes the coal consumption and f-CaO content as the optimization objectives to establish a multi-objective optimization model. In addition, to solve the problem that static single-step optimization is difficult to track the continuous change of working conditions, we propose a time domain rolling multi-objective Jaya algorithm (TDRM-Jaya) to optimize the model. The algorithm, involving a population update strategy, a selection strategy and a time domain rolling strategy, realizes the dynamic rolling optimization for the cement calcination process. The test comparison with several common intelligent optimization algorithms demonstrates the advantages of using TDRM-Jaya. Besides, practical industrial data validates the effectiveness of the proposed optimization method. [Display omitted] • A multi-objective optimization model of cement calcination process is developed. • A TDRM-Jaya algorithm is proposed applied to solve the optimization model. • The multi-objective collaborative optimization using data-driven model is studied. • Computational results show that the expected optimization effect can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing complexity of mobile applications, and limited computation resources of smart mobile devices, the quality of service requirements of mobile application can be enhanced by offloading the computation tasks of the mobile applications to edge servers, such as cloudlets, which exist at the edge of wireless networks. However, improper placement of mobile tasks on the edge servers may increase the waiting time and the transmission time. This, in turn, will increase the response time, and eventually violates the quality of service. This paper proposes an effective offloading strategy in a mobile edge environment using the queuing networks and an evolutionary algorithm, namely the genetic algorithm (GA). The queuing network is used to model the waiting time and the service time of the mobile tasks on the edge servers. The genetic algorithm finds the best allocation of mobile tasks on the edge servers to minimize tasks response time considering the transmission times and the load conditions on edge servers represented by the waiting times and the service times which are calculated using the queuing network. The proposed GA-based offloading algorithm is compared with another evolutionary algorithm, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO). Experimental evaluations show that the GA-based offloading algorithm outperforms both of round robin offloading and the PSO-based offloading algorithms, and effectively improves mobile applications response time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction-based dynamic multiobjective optimization evolutionary algorithms have become one of the mainstream methods for solving dynamic multiobjective optimization problems. However, the unknown nonlinear relationships in sequential environments bring great challenge to the construction of prediction model and the inevitable error between the historical obtained solutions and the real pareto-optimal solutions troubles the prediction accuracy. In this paper, a gradient boosting regression tree based dynamic multiobjective optimization evolutionary algorithm is proposed, called MOEA/D-XGB. The time series solutions formed by subspace decomposition are trained in the XGBoost-based predictor to produce a high-quality initial population when environmental change occurs. And a novel population promotion strategy based on generalized additive model is proposed to improve the quality of historical obtained solutions. The performance comparisons with five state-of-the-art algorithms have shown that MOEA/D-XGB achieves best performance in 59 out of 70 experiments on MIGD and 60 out of 70 experiments on MHV, respectively, which demonstrates that the proposed design is capable of significantly improving the performance of dynamic multiobjective optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max-cut is one of the most classic NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. The symmetry nature of it leads to special difficulty in extracting meaningful configuration information for learning; none of the state-of-the-art algorithms has employed any learning operators. This paper proposes an original learning method for max-cut, namely post-flip edge-state learning (PF-ESL). Different from previous algorithms, PF-ESL regards edge-states (cut or not cut) rather than vertex-positions as the critical information of a configuration, and extracts their statistics over a population for learning. It is based on following observations. 1) Edges are the only factors considered by the objective function. 2) Edge-states keep invariant when rotating a local configuration to its symmetry position, but vertex-positions do not. These suggest that edge-states contain more meaningful information about a configuration than vertex-positions do. It is impossible to set the state of an edge without influencing some other edges' states due to their dependencies. Therefore, instead of setting edge-states directly, PF-ESL samples the flips on vertices. Flips on vertices are sampled according to their capacities in increasing the similarity on edge-states between the given solution and a population. PF-ESL is employed in an EDA (Estimation of Distribution Algorithm) perturbation operator and a path-relinking operator. Experimental results show that our algorithm is competitive, and show that edge-state learning is value-added for both the two operators. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, previous state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms for max-cut focus on vertex positions in their evolutionary operation, this paper proposes a new and more reasonable perspective suggesting that edge-states are the critical information of divided graphs rather than vertex positions, and introduces a novel method to measure and utilize their similarities based on it. Such a perspective is fundamental to learning based algorithms design for max-cut and other graph partitioning problems, and can shed lights on future researches. Furthermore, since max-cut is one of the most classic and fundamental NP hard problems, many real-world problems involve dividing graph data into different parts to optimize certain functions, this new perspective may inspire related or similar problems. Secondly, besides the original edge-states based perspective, and the post-flip edge-states learning (PFESL) operator based on it, our memetic algorithm also incorporates a novel evolutionary framework which alternates between EDA based Iterated Tabu search (ITS) and path relinking based genetic algorithm. Finally, the proposed algorithm provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets and improves the best-known results of 6 most challenging instances. • An original edge-state perspective for design learning operators for max-cut. • A novel learning operator to learn edge states. • A new evolutionary framework for max-cut. • It provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Meta-evolutionary Selection of Constituents in Ensemble DE (MeSCEDE) framework is proposed in this paper to automate the design of high-level multi-population ensemble Differential Evolution (DE) algorithms. The automated design of high-level multi-population ensemble DE algorithms involves both automated selection of constituent DE algorithms for the ensemble and automated configuration of ensemble related parameters. Grammatical Evolution has been used as the meta-evolutionary algorithm in MeSCEDE to search the space of design choices so as to evolve effective ensemble design(s) for given problem(s). The simulation experiments carried out in this paper involve applying MeSCEDE to evolve ensemble DE designs for solving 30-dimensional CEC'17 benchmark functions. The effectiveness of the evolved designs are validated on 30 and 50-dimensional CEC'14 functions as well as on 22 real-world problem instances from CEC'11 benchmark suite. The MeSCEDE evolved designs have exhibited a competitive performance against state-of-the-art ensemble DE algorithms. In addition, the potential of MeSCEDE has been demonstrated against irace , a state-of-the-art algorithm configurator. All simulation experiments reiterate the potential of MeSCEDE towards evolving effective and robust ensemble DE designs. • Automated design of ensemble differential evolution (DE) algorithm is presented. • The proposed approach is Meta-evolutionary Selection of Constituents in Ensemble DE. • The approach uses grammatical evolution as the meta evolutionary algorithm. • The approach is demonstrated on CEC'17, CEC'14 and CEC'11 benchmark suites. • Relieves the practitioners from the difficult task of algorithm configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]