the need for simulation of human foot mechanism has made researchers and engineers move towards different patterns to describe this movement. in this regard, optimal solutions such as energy consumption, accuracy, etc. are of utmost importance. in this paper, efforts have been made to present a new solution by designing a fully two-dimensional six-bar mechanism with one degree of freedom so tha...

The goal of this paper is to address the problem of evaluating the performance of a system running under unknown values for its stochastic parameters. A new approach called LAD for Simulation, based on simulation and classification software, is presented. It uses a number of simulations with very few replications and record the mean value of directly measurable quantities (called observables). ...

Simulation optimization (SO) is the process of finding the best set of input variable values without explicitly evaluating each feasible set of these input variable values given an output criterion (Law, 2007; Fu, 1994). Input variables are called (controllable) inputs, parameter settings, values, variables, (proposed) solutions, designs, configurations, or factors (in design of experiments ter...

We propose a simulation-based algorithm for optimizing the average reward in a Markov Reward Process that depends on a set of parameters. As a special case, the method applies to Markov Decision Processes where optimization takes place within a parametrized set of policies. The algorithm involves the simulation of a single sample path, and can be implemented on-line. A convergence result (with ...

We review techniques for optimizing stochastic discrete-event systems via simulation. We discuss both the discrete parameter case and the continuous parameter case, but concentrate on the latter which has dominated most of the recent research in the area. For the discrete parameter case, we focus on the techniques for optimization from a finite set: multiple-comparison procedures and ranking-an...

Virtual engineering utilizes various computer–based simulation techniques for the analysis of complex systems such as mechanical structures, environmental systems, production processes, and even whole production plants. One main goal of virtual engineering is to find the optimum for mechanical structures, facilities, or production processes in terms of cost, time, energy consumption etc. Hence,...

In Multi-objective Optimization the goal is to present a set of Pareto-optimal solutions to the decision maker (DM). One out of these solutions is then chosen according to the DM preferences. Given that the DM has some general idea of what type of solution is preferred, a more efficient optimization could be run. This can be accomplished by letting the optimization algorithm make use of this pr...

Probably one of the most successful interfaces between operations research and computer science has been the development of discrete-event simulation software. The recent integration of optimization techniques into simulation practice, specifically into commercial software, has become nearly ubiquitous, as most discrete-event simulation packages now include some form of “optimization” routine. ...