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...

Harmony Search metaheuristic is successfully used in several applications of science and engineering. However, its effectiveness in solving multiobjective optimization problems using the concepts of Pareto optimality, remains unproved. This paper presents two proposals of the Harmony Search metaheuristic for multiobjective optimization, using the ZDT functions as a test bed. Performance metrics...

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 are among the most powerful algorithms for optimization. This paper intends to provide a detailed description of a new Firefly Algorithm (FA) for multimodal optimization applications. We will compare the proposed firefly algorithm with other metaheuristic algorithms such as particle swarm optimization (PSO). Simulations and results indicate that the proposed firefly a...

Traditionally, project scheduling and material planning have been treated independently. In this research, a mixed integer programming model is presented to integrate project scheduling and materials ordering problems. The goal is to minimize the total material holding and ordering costs. In addition, an efficient metaheuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the model. The proposed algorithm is...

One significant task addressed during software development project is to determine which features should be covered by the application that is being developed. This problem is known as the Next Release Problem (NRP) and has been solved using metaheuristic search techniques. We show how to apply these techniques by its embedding into a requirement management tool as an assistant functionality. W...

Assortment planning is the process in which a retailer selects a product line to offer to customers and is a key determinant of a retailer’s profit. We consider the assortment planning problem using a locational choice model for customer product selection and allow for both horizontal and vertical product differentiation. When the distribution of customer preference is unimodal, the optimal sol...

This paper presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm (HMA) for Multi-Mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MRCPSP) in PERT networks. A PERT-type project, where activities require resources of various types with random duration, is considered. Each activity can be accomplished in one of several execution modes and each execution mode represents an alternative combination of resou...

Metaheuristics represent an important class of techniques to solve, approximately, hard combinatorial optimization problems for which the use of exact methods is impractical. In this work, we propose a hybrid version of the GRASP metaheuristic, which incorporates a data mining process, to solve the p-median problem. We believe that patterns obtained by a data mining technique, from a set of sub...

As a class of hard combinatorial optimization problems, the school bus routing problem has received considerable attention in the last decades. For a multi-school system, given the bus trips for each school, the school bus scheduling problem aims at optimizing bus schedules to serve all the trips within the school time windows. In this paper, we propose two approaches for solving the bi-objecti...