Unit Commitment by Evolving Ant Colony Optimization

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Vaisakh ◽  
L. R. Srinivas

Ant Colony Optimization is more suitable for combinatorial optimization problems. ACO is successfully applied to the traveling salesman problem, and multistage decision making of ACO has an edge over other conventional methods. In this paper, the authors propose the Evolving Ant Colony Optimization (EACO) method for solving unit commitment (UC) problem. The EACO employs Genetic Algorithm (GA) for finding optimal set of ACO parameters, while ACO solves the UC problem. Problem formulation takes into consideration the minimum up and down time constraints, start up cost, spinning reserve, and generation limit constraints. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated on the systems with number of generating units in the range of 10 to 60. The test results are encouraging and compared with those obtained by other methods.

Author(s):  
K. Vaisakh ◽  
L. R. Srinivas

Ant Colony Optimization is more suitable for combinatorial optimization problems. ACO is successfully applied to the traveling salesman problem, and multistage decision making of ACO has an edge over other conventional methods. In this paper, the authors propose the Evolving Ant Colony Optimization (EACO) method for solving unit commitment (UC) problem. The EACO employs Genetic Algorithm (GA) for finding optimal set of ACO parameters, while ACO solves the UC problem. Problem formulation takes into consideration the minimum up and down time constraints, start up cost, spinning reserve, and generation limit constraints. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated on the systems with number of generating units in the range of 10 to 60. The test results are encouraging and compared with those obtained by other methods.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamın Baran ◽  
Osvaldo Gomez

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic inspired by the foraging behavior of ant colonies that has been successful in the resolution of hard combinatorial optimization problems like the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). This paper proposes the Omicron ACO (OA), a novel population-based ACO alternative originally designed as an analytical tool. To experimentally prove OA advantages, this work compares the behavior between the OA and the MMAS as a function of time in two well-known TSP problems. A simple study of the behavior of OA as a function of its parameters shows its robustness.


Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1650
Author(s):  
Zhaojun Zhang ◽  
Zhaoxiong Xu ◽  
Shengyang Luan ◽  
Xuanyu Li ◽  
Yifei Sun

Opposition-based learning (OBL) has been widely used to improve many swarm intelligent optimization (SI) algorithms for continuous problems during the past few decades. When the SI optimization algorithms apply OBL to solve discrete problems, the construction and utilization of the opposite solution is the key issue. Ant colony optimization (ACO) generally used to solve combinatorial optimization problems is a kind of classical SI optimization algorithm. Opposition-based ACO which is combined in OBL is proposed to solve the symmetric traveling salesman problem (TSP) in this paper. Two strategies for constructing opposite path by OBL based on solution characteristics of TSP are also proposed. Then, in order to use information of opposite path to improve the performance of ACO, three different strategies, direction, indirection, and random methods, mentioned for pheromone update rules are discussed individually. According to the construction of the inverse solution and the way of using it in pheromone updating, three kinds of improved ant colony algorithms are proposed. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of strategies, two kinds of ACO algorithms are employed to solve TSP instances. The results demonstrate that the performance of opposition-based ACO is better than that of ACO without OBL.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Arif Bin Sazali ◽  
Nahrul Khair Alang Md Rashid ◽  
Khaidzir Hamzah

Mixed neutron and gamma radiations require different shielding materials as their interaction with materials is different. Composites were developed in order to combine the shielding capabilities of different materials. However, their homogeneity is difficult to be assured which can lead to pinholes where radiation can penetrate. To avoid this problem, several materials arranged in layers can be used to shield against mixed radiations. Since the multilayer shielding can be made from any material in many configurations, the ant colony optimization (ACO) is a promising method because it deals with combinatorial optimization problems. The candidate materials are HDPE, boron, cadmium, gadolinium, tungsten, bismuth, and iron. Preliminary MCNP simulations were done to observe the effect of arrangements, thicknesses, and types of materials on the radiation spectrum. It was found that: (1) the final layer should be made of high density material, (2) an increase beyond certain thicknesses did not result in a significant increase in attenuation, and (3) there should be an optimum combination of material that can effectively shield against both neutrons and gamma rays.


2012 ◽  
Vol 263-266 ◽  
pp. 1609-1613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Ping Yu ◽  
Ya Ping Li

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is an important problem occurring in many distribution systems, which is also defined as a family of different versions such as the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a metaheuristic for combinatorial optimization problems. Given the ACO inadequacy, the vehicle routing optimization model is improved and the transfer of the algorithm in corresponding rules and the trajectory updated regulations is reset in this paper, which is called the Improved Ant Colony Optimization (I-ACO). Compared to the calculated results with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), the correctness of the model and algorithm is verified. Experimental results show that the I-ACO can quickly and effectively obtain the optimal solution of VRFTW.


Algorithms ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Ali Ahmid ◽  
Thien-My Dao ◽  
Ngan Van Le

Solving of combinatorial optimization problems is a common practice in real-life engineering applications. Trusses, cranes, and composite laminated structures are some good examples that fall under this category of optimization problems. Those examples have a common feature of discrete design domain that turn them into a set of NP-hard optimization problems. Determining the right optimization algorithm for such problems is a precious point that tends to impact the overall cost of the design process. Furthermore, reinforcing the performance of a prospective optimization algorithm reduces the design cost. In the current study, a comprehensive assessment criterion has been developed to assess the performance of meta-heuristic (MH) solutions in the domain of structural design. Thereafter, the proposed criterion was employed to compare five different variants of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). It was done by using a well-known structural optimization problem of laminate Stacking Sequence Design (SSD). The initial results of the comparison study reveal that the Hyper-Cube Framework (HCF) ACO variant outperforms the others. Consequently, an investigation of further improvement led to introducing an enhanced version of HCFACO (or EHCFACO). Eventually, the performance assessment of the EHCFACO variant showed that the average practical reliability became more than twice that of the standard ACO, and the normalized price decreased more to hold at 28.92 instead of 51.17.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 598
Author(s):  
Elias Koritsas ◽  
Epameinondas Sidiropoulos ◽  
Chris Evangelides

Optimizing water distribution systems is an essential part of water resources allocation planning. It leads to challenging combinatorial optimization problems, for which meta-heuristics have been applied, notably genetic algorithms and ant colony optimization. The present paper introduces the application of the physarum algorithm, a recent biologically inspired algorithm, utilized hitherto for path finding problems in networks. Direct comparison is presented to ant colony optimization applied to a typical water supply system.


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