Neil Urquhart - Böcker

This book explains classic routing and transportation problems and solutions, before offering insights based on successful real-world solutions.

This book explains classic routing and transportation problems and solutions, before offering insights based on successful real-world solutions.

Evolutionary computation (EC) techniques are e?cient, nature-inspired me- ods based on the principles of natural evolution and genetics. Due to their - ciency and simple underlying principles, these methods can be used for a diverse rangeofactivitiesincludingproblemsolving,optimization,machinelearningand pattern recognition. A large and continuously increasing number of researchers and professionals make use of EC techniques in various application domains. This volume presents a careful selection of relevant EC examples combined with a thorough examination of the techniques used in EC. The papers in the volume illustrate the current state of the art in the application of EC and should help and inspire researchers and professionals to develop e?cient EC methods for design and problem solving. All papers in this book were presented during EvoApplications 2010, which included a range of events on application-oriented aspects of EC. Since 1998, EvoApplications — formerly known as EvoWorkshops — has provided a unique opportunity for EC researchers to meet and discuss application aspects of EC and has been an important link between EC research and its application in a variety of domains. During these 12 years, new events have arisen, some have disappeared,whileothershavematuredtobecomeconferencesoftheirown,such as EuroGP in 2000, EvoCOP in 2004, and EvoBIO in 2007. And from this year, EvoApplications has become a conference as well.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2012, held in Málaga, Spain, in April 2012, colocated with the Evo* 2012 events EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoBIO, and EvoMUSART. The 54 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. EvoApplications 2012 consisted of the following 11 tracks: EvoCOMNET (nature-inspired techniques for telecommunication networks and other parrallel and distributed systems), EvoCOMPLEX (algorithms and complex systems), EvoFIN (evolutionary and natural computation in finance and economics), EvoGAMES (bio-inspired algorithms in games), EvoHOT (bio-inspired heuristics for design automation), EvoIASP (evolutionary computation in image analysis and signal processing), EvoNUM (bio-inspired algorithms for continuous parameter optimization), EvoPAR (parallel implementation of evolutionary algorithms), EvoRISK (computational intelligence for risk management, security and defense applications), EvoSTIM (nature-inspired techniques in scheduling, planning, and timetabling), and EvoSTOC (evolutionary algorithms in stochastic and dynamic environments).

Solving scheduling problems has long presented a challenge for computer scientists and operations researchers. The field continues to expand as researchers and practitioners examine ever more challenging problems and develop automated methods capable of solving them. This book provides 11 case studies in automated scheduling, submitted by leading researchers from across the world. Each case study examines a challenging real-world problem by analysing the problem in detail before investigating how the problem may be solved using state of the art techniques.The areas covered include aircraft scheduling, microprocessor instruction scheduling, sports fixture scheduling, exam scheduling, personnel scheduling and production scheduling.  Problem solving methodologies covered include exact as well as (meta)heuristic approaches, such as local search techniques, linear programming, genetic algorithms and ant colony optimisation.The field of automated scheduling has the potential to impact many aspects of our lives and work; this book highlights contributions to the field by world class researchers.