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The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective and efficient approach to exploit meta‐heuristic in particle swarm optimization (PSO) for the job shop scheduling problem (JSP), a class of NP‐hard optimization problems. The approach is to be built on a PSO with multiple independent swarms. PSO was inspired by bird flocking and animal social behaviors. The particles operate collectively like a swarm that flies through the hyperdimensional space to search for possible optimal solutions. The behavior of the particles is influenced by their tendency to learn from their personal past experience and from the success of their peers to adjust their flying speed and direction. Research in fusing the multiple‐swarm concept into PSO is well‐established in solving single objective optimization problems and multimodal problems.

This study examines the optimization of the JSP via a search space division scheme and use of the meta‐heuristic method of PSO by assigning each machine in a JSP an independent swarm of particles. The use of multiple swarms in PSO is motivated by the idea of “divide and conquer” to reduce the computational complexity incurred through solving a NP‐hard combinatorial optimization problem. The resulted design, JSP/PSO algorithm, fully exploits the computing power presented by the multiple‐swarm PSO.

Simulation experiments show that the proposed JSP/PSO algorithm can effectively solve the JSP problems from small to median size. If certain mechanism of information sharing between swarms can be incorporated, it is believed that the new design could offer even more computing power to tackle the large‐sized problems.

The proposed JSP/PSO algorithm is effective in solving JSPs. The proposed algorithm shows considerable promise when searching the space of non‐delay schedules. It demands relatively lower number of function evaluations compared to other state‐of‐the‐art. The drawback to the JSP/PSO is that the GT scheduling adopted is too computationally expensive. Future works will address this concern.

The purpose of this paper is to present an approach for the decentralization of swarm intelligence algorithms that run on computing systems with autonomous components that are connected by a network. The approach is applied to a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with multiple sub‐swarms. PSO is a nature inspired metaheuristic where a swarm of particles searches for an optimum of a function. A multiple sub‐swarms PSO can be used for example in applications where more than one optimum has to be found.

In the studied scenario the particles of the PSO algorithm correspond to data packets that are sent through the network of the computing system. Each data packet contains among other information the position of the corresponding particle in the search space and its sub‐swarm number. In the proposed decentralized PSO algorithm the application specific tasks, i.e. the function evaluations, are done by the autonomous components of the system. The more general tasks, like the dynamic clustering of data packets, are done by the routers of the network.

Simulation experiments show that the decentralized PSO algorithm can successfully find a set of minimum values for the used test functions. It was also shown that the PSO algorithm works well for different type of networks, like scale‐free network and ring like networks.

The proposed decentralization approach is interesting for the design of optimization algorithms that can run on computing systems that use principles of self‐organization and have no central control.

With the continuous upgrading of the production mode of the manufacturing system, the characteristics of multi-variety, small batch and mixed fluidization are presented, and the production environment becomes more and more complex. To improve the efficiency of solving multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP), an improved hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm (IH-PSO) is proposed.

After reviewing literatures on FJSP, an IH-PSO algorithm for solving FJSP is developed. First, IH-PSO algorithm draws on the crossover and mutation operations of genetic algorithm (GA) algorithm and proposes a new method for updating particles, which makes the offspring particles inherit the superior characteristics of the parent particles. Second, based on the improved simulated annealing (SA) algorithm, the method of updating the individual best particles expands the search scope of the domain and solves the problem of being easily trapped in local optimum. Finally, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used in this paper to solve the optimal solution satisfying multi-objective optimization.

Through the benchmark experiment and the production example experiment, it is verified that the proposed algorithm has the advantages of high quality of solution and fast speed of convergence.

This method does not consider the unforeseen events that occur during the process of scheduling and cause the disruption of normal production scheduling activities, such as machine breakdown.

IH-PSO algorithm combines PSO algorithm with GA and SA algorithms. This algorithm retains the advantage of fast convergence speed of traditional PSO algorithm and has the characteristic of inheriting excellent genes. In addition, the improved SA algorithm is used to solve the problem of falling into local optimum.

This research provides an efficient scheduling method for solving the FJSP problem.

This research proposes an IH-PSO algorithm to solve the FJSP more efficiently and meet the needs of multi-objective optimization.

Aiming at obtaining a high-quality global path for a mobile robot which works in complex environments, a modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, named random-disturbance self-adaptive particle swarm optimization (RDSAPSO), is proposed in this paper.

A perturbed global updating mechanism is introduced to the global best position to avoid stagnation in RDSAPSO. Moreover, a new self-adaptive strategy is proposed to fine-tune the three control parameters in RDSAPSO to dynamically adjust the exploration and exploitation capabilities of RDSAPSO. Because the convergence of PSO is paramount and influences the quality of the generated path, this paper also analytically investigates the convergence of RDSAPSO and provides a convergence-guaranteed parameter selection principle for RDSAPSO. Finally, a RDSAPSO-based global path planning (GPP) method is developed, in which the feasibility-based rule is applied to handle the constraint of the problem.

In an attempt to validate the proposed method, it is compared against six state-of-the-art evolutionary methods under three different numerical simulations. The simulation results confirm that the proposed method is highly competitive in terms of the path optimality. Moreover, the computation time of the proposed method is comparable with those of the other compared methods.

Therefore, the proposed method can be considered as a vital alternative in the field of GPP.

Parameter identification is a technique which aims at determining material or other process parameters based on a combination of experimental and numerical techniques. In recent years, heuristic approaches, such as genetic algorithms (GAs), have been proposed as possible alternatives to classical identification procedures. The present work shows that particle swarm optimization (PSO), as an example of such methods, is also appropriate to identification of inelastic parameters. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

PSO is a class of swarm intelligence algorithms which attempts to reproduce the social behaviour of a generic population. In parameter identification, each individual particle is associated to hyper-coordinates in the search space, corresponding to a set of material parameters, upon which velocity operators with random components are applied, leading the particles to cluster together at convergence.

PSO has proved to be a viable alternative to identification of inelastic parameters owing to its robustness (achieving the global minimum with high tolerance for variations of the population size and control parameters), and, contrasting to GAs, higher convergence rate and small number of control variables.

PSO has been mostly applied to electrical and industrial engineering. This paper extends the field of application of the method to identification of inelastic material parameters.

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been used to solve many different types of optimization problems. In spite of this, the original version of PSO is not capable to find reasonable solutions for some types of problems. Therefore, novel approaches to deal with more sophisticated problems are required. Many variations of the basic PSO form have been explored, targeting the velocity update equation. Other approaches attempt to change the communication topology inside the swarm. The purpose of this paper is to propose a topology based on the concept of clans.

First of all, this paper presents a detailed description of its proposal. After that, it shows a graphical convergence analysis for the Rosenbrock benchmark function. In the sequence, a convergence analysis for clan PSO with different parameters is performed. A comparison with star, ring, focal, von Neumann and four clusters topologies is also performed.

The paper's simulation results have shown that the proposal obtained better results than the other topologies for the benchmark functions selected for this paper.

The proposed topology for PSO based on clans provides a novel form for information distribution inside the swarm. In this approach, the topology is determined dynamically during the search process, according to the success rate inside each clan.

This paper aims to provide prolonging network lifetime and optimizing energy consumption in mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). Forming clusters of mobile nodes is a great task owing to their dynamic nature. Such clustering has to be performed with a higher consumption of energy. Perhaps sensor nodes might be supplied with batteries that cannot be recharged or replaced while in the field of operation. One optimistic approach to handle the issue of energy consumption is an efficient way of cluster organization using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique.

In this paper two improved versions of centralized PSO, namely, unequal clustering PSO (UC-PSO) and hybrid K-means clustering PSO (KC-PSO), are proposed, with a focus of achieving various aspects of clustering parameters such as energy consumption, network lifetime and packet delivery ratio to achieve energy-efficient and reliable communication in MWSNs.

Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that improved PSO algorithms provide a balanced energy consumption among the cluster heads and increase the network lifetime effectively.

In this work, each sensor node transmits and receives packets at same energy level only. In this work, focus was on centralized clustering only.

To validate the proposed swarm optimization algorithm, a simulation-based performance analysis has been carried out using NS-2. In each scenario, a given number of sensors are randomly deployed and performed in a monitored area. In this work, simulations were carried out in a 100 × 100 m² network consisting 200 nodes by using a network simulator under various parameters. The coordinate of base station is assumed to be 50 × 175. The energy consumption due to communication is calculated using the first-order radio model. It is considered that all nodes have batteries with initial energy of 2 J, and the sensing range is fixed at 20 m. The transmission range of each node is up to 25 m and node mobility is set to 10 m/s.

This proposed work utilizes the swarm behaviors and targets the improvement of mobile nodes’ lifetime and energy consumption.

PSO algorithms have been implemented for dynamic sensor nodes, which optimize the clustering and CH selection in MWSNs. A new fitness function is evaluated to improve the network lifetime, energy consumption, cluster formation, packet transmissions and cluster head selection.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the efficiency of particle optimization method by using direct and indirect surrogate modeling in inverse design problems.

The new algorithm emphasizes the use of a direct and an indirect design prediction based on local surrogate models in particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Local response surface approximations are constructed by using radial basis neural networks. The principal role of surrogate models is to answer the question of which individuals should be placed into the next swarm. Therefore, the main purpose of surrogate models is to predict new design points instead of estimating the objective function values. To demonstrate its merits, the new approach and six comparative algorithms were applied to two different test cases including surface fitting of a geographical terrain and an inverse design of a wing, the averaged best-individual fitness values of the algorithms were recorded for a fair comparison.

The new algorithm provides more than 60 per cent reduction in the required generations as compared with comparative algorithms.

The comparative study was carried out only for two different test cases. It is possible to extend test cases for different problems.

The proposed algorithm can be applied to different inverse design problems.

The study presents extra ordinary application of double surrogate modeling usage in PSO for inverse design problems.

Path planning is an important part of UAV mission planning. The main purpose of this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of the standard particle swarm optimization (PSO) such as easy to fall into the local optimum, so that the improved PSO applied to the UAV path planning can enable the UAV to plan a better quality path.

Firstly, the adaptation function is formulated by comprehensively considering the performance constraints of the flight target as well as the UAV itself. Secondly, the standard PSO is improved, and the improved particle swarm optimization with multi-strategy fusion (MFIPSO) is proposed. The method introduces class sigmoid inertia weight, adaptively adjusts the learning factors and at the same time incorporates K-means clustering ideas and introduces the Cauchy perturbation factor. Finally, MFIPSO is applied to UAV path planning.

Simulation experiments are conducted in simple and complex scenarios, respectively, and the quality of the path is measured by the fitness value and straight line rate, and the experimental results show that MFIPSO enables the UAV to plan a path with better quality.

Aiming at the standard PSO is prone to problems such as premature convergence, MFIPSO is proposed, which introduces class sigmoid inertia weight and adaptively adjusts the learning factor, balancing the global search ability and local convergence ability of the algorithm. The idea of K-means clustering algorithm is also incorporated to reduce the complexity of the algorithm while maintaining the diversity of particle swarm. In addition, the Cauchy perturbation is used to avoid the algorithm from falling into local optimum. Finally, the adaptability function is formulated by comprehensively considering the performance constraints of the flight target as well as the UAV itself, which improves the accuracy of the evaluation model.

For those who plan research funds and assess the research performance from the funds, it is necessary to overcome the limitations of the conventional classification of evaluated papers published by the research funds. Besides, they need to promote the objective, fair clustering of papers, and analysis of research performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find the optimum clustering algorithm using the MATLAB tools by comparing the performances of and the hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithms using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the conventional K-means clustering method.

The clustering analysis experiment for each of the three fields of study – health and medicine, physics, and chemistry – used the following three algorithms: “K-means+Simulated annealing (SA)+Adjustment of parameters+PSO” (KASA-PSO clustering), “K-means+SA+PSO” clustering, “K-means+PSO” clustering.

The clustering analyses of all the three fields showed that KASA-PSO is the best method for the minimization of fitness value. Furthermore, this study administered the surveys intended for the “performance measurement of decision-making process” with 13 members of the research fund organization to compare the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm and the group clustering by research funds. The results statistically demonstrated that the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm was better than the group clustering by research funds.

This study examined the impact of bibliometric indicators on research impact of papers. The results showed that research period, the number of authors, and the number of participating researchers had positive effects on the impact factor (IF) of the papers; the IF that indicates the qualitative level of papers had a positive effect on the primary times cited; and the primary times cited had a positive effect on the secondary times cited. Furthermore, this study clearly showed the decision quality perceived by those who are working for the research fund organization.

There are still too few studies that assess the research project evaluation mechanisms and its effectiveness perceived by the research fund managers. To fill the research void like this, this study aims to propose PSO and successfully proves validity of the proposed approach.