global optimization methods play an important role to solve many real-world problems. flower pollination algorithm (fp) is a new nature-inspired algorithm, based on the characteristics of flowering plants. in this paper, a new hybrid optimization method called hybrid flower pollination algorithm (fppso) is proposed. the method combines the standard flower pollination algorithm (fp) with the par...

We explore a general-purpose heuristic algorithm for finding high-quality solutions to continuous optimization problems. The method, called continuous extremal optimization (CEO), can be considered as an extension of extremal optimization and consists of two components, one which is responsible for global searching and the other which is responsible for local searching. The CEO's performance pr...

Practical design of tall frame-tube and diagrids are formulated as two discrete optimization problems searching for minimal weight undercodified constraints under gravitational and wind loading due to Iranian codes of practice for steel structures (Part 6 & Part 10). Particular encoding of design vector is proposed to efficiently handle both problems leading to minimal search space. Two types o...

Combinatorial optimization problems are those problems that have a finite set of possible solutions. The best way to solve a combinatorial optimization problem is to check all the feasible solutions in the search space. However, checking all the feasible solutions is not always possible, especially when the search space is large. Thus, many meta-heuristic algorithms have been devised and modifi...

Generating prescribed patterns in spatial allocation is a difficult and complex optimization task. Many spatial allocation problems require the arrangement of resources in ways that their patterns promote some desirable landscape functions (e.g., Taylor et al.,2007; De Clercq et al., 2007; Milder et al., 2008). The complexity of the optimization task comes from the simultaneous effects of sitin...

dynamic economic load dispatch is one of the most important roles of power generation’s operation and control. it determines the optimal controls of production of generator units with predicted load demand over a certain period of time. economic dispatch at minimum production cost is one of the most important subjects in the power network’s operation, which is a complicated nonlinear constraine...

Introduction Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) are a branch of heuristic population-based optimization tools that is growing in popularity (especially for combinatorial and other problems with poorly understood landscapes). Despite their many uses, there are no proofs that an EA will always converge to the global optimum for any general problem. Indeed, only for a set of trivial functions there are ...