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In this paper, a novel deterioration and damage identification procedure (DIP) is presented and applied to building models. The challenge associated with applications on these types of structures is related to the strong correlation of responses, which gets further complicated when coping with real ambient vibrations with high levels of noise. Thus, a DIP is designed utilizing low-cost ambient vibrations to analyze the acceleration responses using the Stockwell transform (ST) to generate spectrograms. Subsequently, the ST outputs become the input of two series of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) established for identifying deterioration and damage to the building models. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that both damage and deterioration are evaluated on building models through a combination of ST and CNN with high accuracy., Comment: 11 figures and 11 Tables, Accepted in Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance

This paper provides an in-depth literature review of the Black Hole Algorithm (BHA) which is considered as a recent metaheuristic. BHA has been proven to be very efficient in different applications. There has been several modifications and variants of this algorithm in the literature, so this work reviews various variants of the BHA. The applications of BHA in engineering problems, clustering, task scheduling, image processing, etc. have been thoroughly reviewed as well. This review article sheds lights on the pros and cons of this algorithm and enables finding a right variant of this algorithm for a certain application area. The paper concludes with an in-depth future direction.

In this article, an original data-driven approach is proposed to detect both linear and nonlinear damage in structures using output-only responses. The method deploys variational mode decomposition (VMD) and a generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model for signal processing and feature extraction. To this end, VMD decomposes the response signals into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Afterwards, the GARCH model is utilised to represent the statistics of IMFs. The model coefficients of IMFs construct the primary feature vector. Kernel-based principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are utilised to reduce the redundancy of the primary features by mapping them to the new feature space. The informative features are then fed separately into three supervised classifiers, namely support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbour (kNN), and fine tree. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on two experimentally scaled models in terms of linear and nonlinear damage assessment. Kurtosis and ARCH tests proved the compatibility of the GARCH model., Comment: 30 Pages, 12 Figures and 8 Tables, Submitted Journal: Engineering with Computers, Springer

In the last decade, the application of membrane-inspired evolutionary algorithms in real-life problems has attracted much attention due to their flexibility and parallelizability. Almost seven years have passed since the first membrane algorithms survey paper was published in 2014. Considering the importance and ongoing research on such algorithms and their applications in various disciplines, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the published literature and suggests future directions. This review aims to summarize and analyze membrane algorithms based on the used nature-inspired algorithm, membrane structure, membrane rules, and their merits and demerits. Furthermore, an extensive bibliography about their real-world applications is presented.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system is one of the most significant forms of renewable energy resources, and it requires accuracy to assess, design, and extraction of its parameters. Several methods have been extensively applied to mimic the nonlinearity and multi-model behavior of the PV system. However, there is no method to date that can guarantee the extracted parameter of the PV model is the most accurate one. Therefore, this paper presents a unique approach known as Hybridized Arithmetic Operation Algorithm based on Efficient Newton Raphson (HAOAENR) to experimentally extract the parameters of the single-diode and double-diode PV models at the variability of the climatic changes. Firstly, the objective function is efficiently designed to roughly predict the initial root values of the PV equation. Secondly, the Lévy flight and Brownian strategies are integrated in the four operators of AOA to thoroughly analyze the feature space of this problem. Additionally, the four operators of the AOA is divided into two phases to equilibrium between the exploration and exploitation tendencies. Furthermore, the chaotic map and robust mutation techniques are systematically employed in the beginning and halves of generations to ensure the algorithm can reach globally at few numbers iterations. Finally, a nonlinearly adjustable damping parameter of the Levenberg-Marquardt technique is linked with the NR method to replicate the fluctuation behaviours of the PV models. The experimental findings revealed that the proposed HAOAENR outperformed all other methods found in the literature, with average RMSE values close to zero values for both PV models.

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of the most well-regard metaheuristics with remarkable performance when solving diverse optimization problems. However, PSO faces two main problems that degrade its performance: slow convergence and local optima entrapment. In addition, the performance of this algorithm substantially degrades on high-dimensional problems. In the classical PSO, particles can move in each iteration with either slower or faster speed. This work proposes a novel idea called velocity pausing where particles in the proposed velocity pausing PSO (VPPSO) variant are supported by a third movement option that allows them to move with the same velocity as they did in the previous iteration. As a result, VPPSO has a higher potential to balance exploration and exploitation. To avoid the PSO premature convergence, VPPSO modifies the first term of the PSO velocity equation. In addition, the population of VPPSO is divided into two swarms to maintain diversity. The performance of VPPSO is validated on forty three benchmark functions and four real-world engineering problems. According to the Wilcoxon rank-sum and Friedman tests, VPPSO can significantly outperform seven prominent algorithms on most of the tested functions on both low- and high-dimensional cases. Due to its superior performance in solving complex high-dimensional problems, VPPSO can be applied to solve diverse real-world optimization problems. Moreover, the velocity pausing concept can be easily integrated with new or existing metaheuristic algorithms to enhance their performances. The Matlab code of VPPSO is available at: https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/119633-vppso.

Fifteen Puzzle problem is one of the most classical problems that have captivated mathematical enthusiasts for centuries. This is mainly because of the huge size of the state space with approximately 1013 states that have to be explored and several algorithms have been applied to solve the Fifteen Puzzle instances. In this paper, to deal with this large state space, Bidirectional A* (BA*) search algorithm with three heuristics, such as Manhattan distance (MD), linear conflict (LC), and walking distance (WD) has been used to solve the Fifteen Puzzle problems. The three mentioned heuristics will be hybridized in a way that can dramatically reduce the number of generated states by the algorithm. Moreover, all those heuristics require only 25KB of storage but help the algorithm effectively reduce the number of generated states and expand fewer nodes. Our implementation of BA* search can significantly reduce the space complexity, and guarantee either optimal or near-optimal solutions.1, Comment: 18 pages

This paper proposes a new Multi-Objective Equilibrium Optimizer (MOEO) to handle complex optimization problems, including real-world engineering design optimization problems. The Equilibrium Optimizer (EO) is a recently reported physics-based metaheuristic algorithm, and it has been inspired by the models used to predict equilibrium state and dynamic state. A similar procedure is utilized in MOEO by combining models in a different target search space. The crowding distance mechanism is employed in the MOEO algorithm to balance exploitation and exploration phases as the search progresses. In addition, a non-dominated sorting strategy is also merged with the MOEO algorithm to preserve the population diversity and it has been considered as a crucial problem in multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms. An archive with an update function is used to uphold and improve the coverage of Pareto with optimal solutions. The performance of MOEO is validated for 33 contextual problems with 6 constrained, 12 unconstrained, and 15 practical constrained engineering design problems, including non-linear problems. The result obtained by the proposed MOEO algorithm is compared with other state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithms. The quantitative and qualitative results indicate that the proposed MOEO provides more competitive outcomes than the different algorithms. From the results obtained for all 33 benchmark optimization problems, the efficiency, robustness, and exploration ability to solve multi-objective problems of the MOEO algorithm are well defined and clarified. The paper is further supported with extra online service and guideline at https://premkumarmanoharan.wixsite.com/mysite.

Many engineering optimization problems can be solved using meta-heuristics. Despite their merits, such algorithms face common challenges of early convergence rate and the imbalance between the exploitation and exploration phases. These algorithms have strengths and weaknesses considering the convergence rate, local search, and global search criteria. This study presents the new algorithm called the LEVYEFO-WTMTOA that combines the Modified Multi-Tracker Optimization Algorithm (MTOA) and the electromagnetic field optimization (EFO) approach. The LEVYEFO-WTMTOA applies the following proposals to escape from local optima: 1) the Morlet wavelet transform is used to determine the Radius of Search (RS) of the MTOA; 2) a mutation phase based on the combination of the best global position in the electromagnetic field optimization algorithm and the levy law is used in the exploration phase to update the new position 3) it has focused on balancing local and global search and escaping from the local optima trap of the MTOA. To evaluate the proposed LEVYEFO-WTMTOA algorithm, the CEC2018 benchmark suite is used, and the results are compared with the original MTOA, EFO, MEFO, MVO Levy, GSA, and COA algorithms in terms of mean error. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs better than the baseline algorithms. The applications of LEVYEFO-WTMTOA on several classical engineering problems are included as well.

Evolutionary Population Dynamics (EPD) refers to eliminating poor individuals in nature, which is the opposite of survival of the fittest. Although this method can improve the median of the whole population of the meta-heuristic algorithms, it suffers from poor exploration capability to handle high-dimensional problems. This paper proposes a novel EPD operator to improve the search process. In other words, as the primary EPD mainly improves the fitness of the worst individuals in the population, and hence we name it the Fitness-Based EPD (FB-EPD), our proposed EPD mainly improves the diversity of the best individuals, and hence we name it the Diversity-Based EPD (DB-EPD). The proposed method is applied to the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) and named DB-GWO-EPD. In this algorithm, the three most diversified individuals are first identified at each iteration, and then half of the best-fitted individuals are forced to be eliminated and repositioned around these diversified agents with equal probability. This process can free the merged best individuals located in a closed populated region and transfer them to the diversified and, thus, less-densely populated regions in the search space. This approach is frequently employed to make the search agents explore the whole search space. The proposed DB-GWO-EPD is tested on 13 high-dimensional and shifted classical benchmark functions as well as 29 test problems included in the CEC2017 test suite, and four constrained engineering problems. The results obtained by the proposal upon implemented on the classical test problems are compared to GWO, FB-GWO-EPD, and four other popular and newly proposed optimization algorithms, including Aquila Optimizer (AO), Flow Direction Algorithm (FDA), Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), and Gradient-based Optimizer (GBO). The experiments demonstrate the significant superiority of the proposed algorithm when applied to a majority of the test functions, recommending the application of the proposed EPD operator to any other meta-heuristic whenever decided to ameliorate their performance.

Today, power generation from clean and renewable resources such as wind and solar is of great salience. Smart grid technology efficiently responds to the increasing demand for electric power. Intelligent monitoring, control, and maintenance of wind energy facilities are indispensable to increase the performance and efficiency of smart grids (SGs). Integration of state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and vision sensor networks approaches pave the way toward enhancing the wind farms performance. The generating power in a wind turbine farm is the most critical parameter that should be measured accurately. Produced power is highly related to weather patterns, and a new farm in a near area is also likely to have similar energy generation. Therefore, accurate and perpetual prediction models of the existing wind farms can be led to develop new stations with lower costs. The paper aims to estimate the angular velocity of turbine blades using vision sensors and signal processing. The high wind in the wind farm can cause the camera to vibrate in successive frames, and the noise in the input images can also strengthen the problem. Thanks to couples of solid computer vision algorithms, including FAST (Features from Accelerated Segment Test), SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform), SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features), BF (Brute-Force), FLANN (Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors), AE (Autoencoder), and SVM (support vector machines), this paper accurately localizes the Hub and track the presence of the Blade in consecutive frames of a video stream. The simulation results show that determining the hub location and the blade presence in sequential frames results in an accurate estimation of wind turbine angular velocity with 95.36% accuracy. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The benefits of tracking, identifying, measuring features of interest from structure responses have endless applications for saving cost, time and improving safety. To date, structural health monitoring (SHM) has been extensively applied in several fields, such as aerospace, automotive, and mechanical engineering. However, the focus of this paper is to provide a comprehensive up-to-date review of civil engineering structures such as buildings, bridges, and other infrastructures. For this reason, this article commences with a concise introduction to the fundamental definitions of SHM. The next section presents the general concepts and factors that determine the best strategy to be employed for SHM. Afterward, a thorough review of the most prevalent anomaly detection approaches, from classic techniques to advanced methods, is presented. Subsequently, some popular benchmarks, including laboratory specimens and real structures for validating the proposed methodologies, are demonstrated and discussed. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of each method are summarized, which can be helpful in future studies.

In recent years, we face an increasing interest in protecting multimedia data and copyrights due to the high exchange of information. Attackers are trying to get confidential information from various sources, which brings the importance of securing the data. Many researchers implemented techniques to hide secret information to maintain the integrity and privacy of data. In order to protect confidential data, histogram-based reversible data hiding with other cryptographic algorithms are widely used. Therefore, in the proposed work, a robust method for securing digital video is suggested. We implemented histogram bit shifting based reversible data hiding by embedding the encrypted watermark in featured video frames. Histogram bit shifting is used for hiding highly secured watermarks so that security for the watermark symbol is also being achieved. The novelty of the work is that only based on the quality threshold a few unique frames are selected, which holds the encrypted watermark symbol. The optimal value for this threshold is obtained using the Firefly Algorithm. The proposed method is capable of hiding high-capacity data in the video signal. The experimental result shows the higher capacity and video quality compared to other reversible data hiding techniques. The recovered watermark provides better identity identification against various attacks. A high value of PSNR and a low value of BER and MSE is reported from the results.

Deep learning proved its efficiency in many fields of computer science such as computer vision, image classifications, object detection, image segmentation, and more. Deep learning models primarily depend on the availability of huge datasets. Without the existence of many images in datasets, different deep learning models will not be able to learn and produce accurate models. Unfortunately, several fields don't have access to large amounts of evidence, such as medical image processing. For example. The world is suffering from the lack of COVID-19 virus datasets, and there is no benchmark dataset from the beginning of 2020. This pandemic was the main motivation of this survey to deliver and discuss the current image data augmentation techniques which can be used to increase the number of images. In this paper, a survey of data augmentation for digital images in deep learning will be presented. The study begins and with the introduction section, which reflects the importance of data augmentation in general. The classical image data augmentation taxonomy and photometric transformation will be presented in the second section. The third section will illustrate the deep learning image data augmentation. Finally, the fourth section will survey the state of the art of using image data augmentation techniques in the different deep learning research and application.

Most research in human activity recognition is supervised, while non-supervised approaches are not completely unsupervised. Moreover, These methods cannot be used in real-time applications due to high calculations. In this paper, we provide a novel flexible multi-objective particle swarm optimization clustering method based on game theory (FMOPG) to discover human activities fully unsupervised. Unlike conventional clustering methods that estimate the number of clusters and are very time-consuming and inaccurate, an incremental technique is introduced which makes the proposed method flexible in dealing with the number of clusters and improves the speed of clustering. By adopting this technique, clusters with a better connectedness and good separation from other clusters are gradually selected. Updating of particles' velocity is modified by adopting the concept of mean-shift vector to improve the convergence speed of PSO in achieving the best solution and dealing with non-spherical shape clusters. Multi-objective optimization problem is mapped to game theory by adopting Nash equilibrium to select the optimal solution on the pareto front. Gaussian mutation is also employed on the pareto front to generate diverse solutions and create a balance between exploitation and exploration. Moreover, A smart grid-based method is proposed to initialize the population to generate diverse solutions and reduce the variance between the worst and best clustering results. The proposed method is compared with state-of-the-art methods on seven challenging datasets. FMOPG has improved clustering accuracy by 3.65% compared to other automated methods. Moreover, the incremental technique has improved the clustering time by 71.18%.