A Coevolutionary, Hyper Heuristic approach to the optimization of Three-dimensional Process Plant Layouts — A comparative study

A Coevolutionary, Hyper Heuristic approach to the optimization of Three-dimensional Process Plant Layouts (3DPPLs) is explored. By taking advantage of the natural problem decomposition, one population of layout heuristics, and another population of scheduling heuristics are coevolved. Generalized heuristics are evolved by training on multiple small problem instances, so that training time is reduced. The best generalized heuristic builds arbitrary sized 3DPPLs which reduce the cost by 18% when compared to a handmade heuristic. Specialized heuristics are evolved by optimizing each problem instance and outperforms the generalized heuristics after a fixed number of generations. Compared to a direct-encoded Genetic Algorithm, the benefit of specialized heuristics increases with the size of the problem, and costs are reduced by 30% when compared to the handmade heuristic.

[1]  Robin S Liggett,et al.  Automated facilities layout: past, present and future , 2000 .

[2]  Kenneth A. De Jong,et al.  Cooperative Coevolution: An Architecture for Evolving Coadapted Subcomponents , 2000, Evolutionary Computation.

[3]  John H. Holland,et al.  Cognitive systems based on adaptive algorithms , 1977, SGAR.

[4]  Cândida Ferreira,et al.  Gene Expression Programming: A New Adaptive Algorithm for Solving Problems , 2001, Complex Syst..

[5]  Teofilo F. Gonzalez,et al.  P-Complete Approximation Problems , 1976, J. ACM.

[6]  Panos M. Pardalos,et al.  Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithms for the Facility Layout Problem: A Survey , 1997, Comput. Optim. Appl..

[7]  Risto Miikkulainen,et al.  A Taxonomy for Artificial Embryogeny , 2003, Artificial Life.

[8]  Rrk Sharma,et al.  A review of different approaches to the facility layout problems , 2006 .

[9]  Kyrre Glette,et al.  Coevolving heuristics for the Distributor's Pallet Packing Problem , 2009, 2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation.

[10]  Roger L. Wainwright,et al.  Solving facility layout problems using genetic programming , 1996 .

[11]  Kenneth A. De Jong,et al.  A Cooperative Coevolutionary Approach to Function Optimization , 1994, PPSN.

[12]  Kyrre Glette,et al.  Scalability, generalization and coevolution -- experimental comparisons applied to automated facility layout planning , 2009, GECCO '09.

[13]  Graham Kendall,et al.  Hyper-Heuristics: An Emerging Direction in Modern Search Technology , 2003, Handbook of Metaheuristics.

[14]  J. Leung.  A New Graph-Theoretic Heuristic for Facility Layout , 1992 .

[15]  Ross E. Swaney,et al.  Optimization of process plant layout with pipe routing , 2005, Comput. Chem. Eng..