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Highlights: [•] A new meta-heuristic called Grey Wolf Optimizer inspired by grey wolves is proposed. [•] The GWO algorithm is benchmarked on 29 well-known test functions. [•] The results on the unimodal functions show the superior exploitation of GWO. [•] The exploration ability of GWO is confirmed by the results on multimodal functions. [•] The results on semi-real and real problems confirm the performance of GWO in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The generation of priority vectors from pairwise comparison matrices is an essential part of the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Perhaps the most popular approach for deriving the priority weights is the right eigenvalue method (REV) which was proposed by Saaty. Despite its popularity some shortcomings of the REV have been reported in literature. Among the alternative approaches one can find the statistical estimation techniques, methods founded on constrained optimization models and models based on fuzzy description of decision maker preferences. In this paper new optimization techniques for deriving priority weights are introduced. In the proposed approach, the constrained optimization models are based on the same idea which underlies the REV. The properties of the resulting prioritization techniques are studied via computer simulations. This study demonstrates that the new methods perform very well in comparison with other popular techniques known from literature. What is especially important, the new approach provides the decision maker with a meaningful index that can be used to measure consistency of his/her judgments. The new index is closely related to the well-known Saaty’s consistency index CI, but in difference to the latter, it can be applied to both reciprocal as well as nonreciprocal comparison matrices. Hence the new index can be considered as a natural extension of the CI to all types of matrices. Some additional advantages resulting from the new approach are discussed and illustrated by numerical examples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The solution of the augmented Lagrangian related system is a key ingredient of many iterative algorithms for the solution of saddle-point problems in constrained optimization with quasi-Newton methods. However, such problems are ill-conditioned when the penalty parameter tends to zero, whereas the error vanishes as . We present a new fast method based on a splitting penalty scheme to solve such problems with a judicious prediction–correction method. We prove that, due to the adapted right-hand side, the solution of the correction step only requires the approximation of operators independent of , when is taken sufficiently small. Hence, the proposed method is as cheaper as tends to zero. We apply the two-step scheme to efficiently solve the saddle-point problem with a penalty method. Indeed, that fully justifies the interest of the vector penalty-projection methods recently proposed by Angot et al. (2008) to solve the unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, for which we give the stability result and some quasi-optimal error estimates. Moreover, the numerical experiments confirm both the theoretical analysis and the efficiency of the proposed method which produces a fast splitting solution to augmented Lagrangian or penalty problems, possibly used as a suitable preconditioner to the fully coupled system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, by means of an active set strategy, we present a projected spectral gradient algorithm for solving large-scale bound constrained optimization problems. A nice property of the active set estimation technique is that it can identify the active set at the optimal point without requiring strict complementary condition, which is potentially used to solve degenerated optimization problems. Under appropriate conditions, we show that this proposed method is globally convergent. We also do some numerical experiments by using some bound constrained problems from CUTEr library. The numerical comparisons with SPG, TRON, and L-BFGS-B show that the proposed method is effective and promising. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper introduces a smoothing technique for a lower order penalty function for constrained optimization problems (COP). It is proved that the optimal solution to the smoothed penalty optimization problem is a -approximate optimal solution to the original optimization problem under some mild assumptions. Based on the smoothed penalty function, an algorithm for solving COP is proposed and some numerical examples are given. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary optimization method that is based on the science of biogeography. We propose two extensions to BBO. First, we propose a blended migration operator. Benchmark results show that blended BBO outperforms standard BBO. Second, we employ blended BBO to solve constrained optimization problems. Constraints are handled by modifying the BBO immigration and emigration procedures. The approach that we use does not require any additional tuning parameters beyond those that are required for unconstrained problems. The constrained blended BBO algorithm is compared with solutions based on a stud genetic algorithm (SGA) and standard particle swarm optimization 2007 (SPSO 07). The numerical results demonstrate that constrained blended BBO outperforms SGA and performs similarly to SPSO 07 for constrained single-objective optimization problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel modified differential evolution algorithm (NMDE) is proposed to solve constrained optimization problems in this paper. The NMDE algorithm modifies scale factor and crossover rate using an adaptive strategy. For any solution, if it is at a standstill, its own scale factor and crossover rate will be adjusted in terms of the information of all successful solutions. We can obtain satisfactory feasible solutions for constrained optimization problems by combining the NMDE algorithm and a common penalty function method. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can yield better solutions than those reported in the literature for most problems, and it can be an efficient alternative to solving constrained optimization problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Optimization of directional over-current relay (DOCR) settings is an important problem in electrical engineering. The optimization model of the problem turns out to be non-linear and highly constrained in which two settings namely time dial setting (TDS) and plug setting (PS) of each relay are considered as decision variables; the sum of the operating times of all the primary relays, which are expected to operate in order to clear the faults of their corresponding zones, is considered as an objective function. In the present study, three models are considered namely IEEE 3-bus model, IEEE 4-bus model and IEEE 6-bus model. To solve the problem, we have applied five newly developed versions of differential evolution (DE) called modified DE versions (MDE1, MDE2, MDE3, MDE4, and MDE5). The results are compared with the classical DE algorithm and with five more algorithms available in the literature; the numerical results show that the modified DE algorithms outperforms or perform at par with the other algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]