In this paper, we propose three new metaheuristic implementations to address the problem of minimizing the makespan in a hybrid flexible flowshop with sequence-dependent setup times. The first metaheuristic is a genetic algorithm (GA) embedding two new crossover operators, and the second is an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm which incorporates a transition rule featuring lookahead infor...

Optimization of noisy non-linear problems plays a key role in engineering and design problems. These optimization problems can't be solved effectively by using conventional optimization methods. However, metaheuristic algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) seem very efficient to approach in these problems and became very popular. The efficiency of these ...

The problem of allocating defensive weapon resources to hostile targets is an optimization problem of high military relevance. The need for obtaining the solutions in real-time is often overlooked in existing literature. Moreover, there does not exist much research aimed at comparing the performance of different algorithms for weapon-target allocation. We have implemented a suite of metaheurist...

Most real-world search and optimization problems involve complexities such as non-convexity, nonlinearities, discontinuities, mixed nature of variables, multiple disciplines and large dimensionality, a combination of which renders classical provable algorithms to be either ineffective, impractical or inapplicable. There do not exist any known mathematically motivated algorithms for finding the ...

Abstract The optimization of dam reservoir operations is the utmost importance, as operators strive to maximize revenue while minimizing expenses, risks, and deficiencies. Metaheuristics have recently been investigated extensively by researchers in management reservoirs. But animal-concept-based metaheuristic algorithm with Lévy flight integration approach has not used at Karun-4. This paper in...

Optimization has been an active area of research for several decades. As many real-world optimization problems become increasingly complex, better optimization algorithms are always needed. Recently, metaheuristic global optimization algorithms have become a popular choice for solving complex and intricate problems, which are otherwise difficult to solve by traditional methods. In the present s...

Nature-inspired algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization and Firefly Algorithm are among the most powerful algorithms for optimization. In this paper, we intend to formulate a new metaheuristic algorithm by combining Lévy flights with the search strategy via the Firefly Algorithm. Numerical studies and results suggest that the proposed Lévy-flight firefly algorithm is superior to existing...

This paper is concerned with an aspect of the design of metaheuristic algorithms, such as evolutionary algorithms, tabu search and ant colony optimization. The topic that is considered is how problems can be represented when they are given to a metaheuristic algorithm. A particular difficulty is presented, viz. the “bottleneck”, where the problem is artificially converted into a new representat...