The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the problem of finding the shortest tour through all the nodes that a salesman has to visit. The TSP is probably the most famous and extensively studied problem in the field of combinatorial optimization. Because this problem is an NP-hard problem, practical large-scale instances cannot be solved by exact algorithms within acceptable computational times. ...

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is the problem of finding the shortest tour through all the nodes that a salesman has to visit. The TSP is probably the most famous and extensively studied problem in the field of combinatorial optimization. Because this problem is an NP-hard problem, practical large-scale instances cannot be solved by exact algorithms within acceptable computational times. ...

Selecting approaches with appropriate accuracy and suitable speed for the purpose of making decision is one of the managers’ challenges. Also investing decision is one of the main decisions of managers and it can be referred to securities transaction in financial markets which is one of the investments approaches. When some assets and barriers of real world have been considered, optimization of...

Thermal buckling loads of laminated composite plates are maximized for a given total thickness. Fiber directions and relative thickness of layers are considered as design variables. Analysis of buckling temperature is carried out by using the finite element method, while the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is employed to optimize as many as seven variables for the different layered plat...

Production scheduling (planning) of an open-pit mine is the procedure during which the rock blocks are assigned to different production periods in a way that the highest net present value of the project achieved subject to operational constraints. The paper introduces a new and computationally less expensive meta-heuristic technique known as imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for long-term...

Flow shop scheduling problem has a wide application in the manufacturing and has attracted much attention in academic fields. From other point, on time delivery of products and services is a major necessity of companies’ todays; early and tardy delivery times will result additional cost such as holding or penalty costs.  In this paper, just-in-time (JIT) flow shop scheduling problem with preemp...

In this paper, a multi-product continues review inventory control problem within batch arrival queuing approach (MQr/M/1) is modeled to find the optimal quantities of maximum inventory. The objective function is to minimize summation of ordering, holding and shortage costs under warehouse space, service level, and expected lost-sales shortage cost constraints from retailer and warehouse viewpoi...

Data clustering is one of the most important tasks of data mining. This paper aims to describe an integrated data clustering method based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) and K-Harmonic Means (KHM) algorithm. The proposed method is called ICA-KHM. KHM is a well-known clustering method and its main drawback is to converge to local optimums. Imperialist competitive algorithm is an evolu...

in this paper, a two-surfaces sliding mode controller (tssmc) is proposed for the voltage tracking control of a two input dc-dc converter in application of electric vehicles (evs). the imperialist competitive algorithm (ica) is used for tuning tssmc parameters. the proposed controller significantly improves the transient response and disturbance rejection of the two input converters while prese...