Finite-Time Performance Analysis of Static Simulated Annealing Algorithms

Generalized hill climbing (GHC) algorithms provide a framework for modeling local search algorithms for addressing intractable discrete optimization problems. Current theoretical results are based on the assumption that the goal when addressing such problems is to find a globally optimal solution. However, from a practical point of view, solutions that are close enough to a globally optimal solution (where close enough is measured in terms of the objective function value) for a discrete optimization problem may be acceptable. This paper introduces -acceptable solutions, where is a value greater than or equal to the globally optimal objective function value. Moreover, measures for assessing the finite-time performance of GHC algorithms, in terms of identifying -acceptable solutions, are defined. A variation of simulated annealing (SA), termed static simulated annealing (S²A), is analyzed using these measures. S²A uses a fixed cooling schedule during the algorithm's execution. Though S²A is provably nonconvergent, its finite-time performance can be assessed using the finite-time performance measures defined in terms of identifying -acceptable solutions. Computational results with a randomly generated instance of the traveling salesman problem are reported to illustrate the results presented. These results show that upper and lower estimates for the number of iterations to reach a -acceptable solution within a specified number of iterations can be obtained, and that these estimates are most accurate for moderate and high fixed temperature values for the S²A algorithm.     

Analysis of Static Simulated Annealing Algorithms

Generalized hill climbing (GHC) algorithms provide a framework for modeling local search algorithms to address intractable discrete optimization problems. This paper introduces a measure for determining the expected number of iterations to visit a predetermined objective function level, given that an inferior objective function level has been reached in a finite number of iterations. A variation of simulated annealing (SA), termed static simulated annealing (S²A), is analyzed using this measure. S²A uses a fixed cooling schedule during the algorithm execution. Though S²A is probably nonconvergent, its finite-time performance can be assessed using the finite-time performance measure defined in this paper.     

Parallel Simulated Annealing Algorithms in Global Optimization

Global optimization involves the difficult task of the identification of global extremities of mathematical functions. Such problems are often encountered in practice in various fields, e.g., molecular biology, physics, industrial chemistry. In this work, we develop five different parallel Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithms and compare them on an extensive test bed used previously for the assessment of various solution approaches in global optimization. The parallel SA algorithms consist of various categories: the asynchronous approach where no information is exchanged among parallel runs and the synchronous approaches where solutions are exchanged using genetic operators, or where solutions are transmitted only occasionally, or where highly coupled synchronization is achieved at every iteration. One of these approaches, which occasionally applies partial information exchanges (controlled in terms of solution quality), provides particularly notable results for functions with vast search spaces of up to 400 dimensions. Previous attempts with other approaches, such as sequential SA, adaptive partitioning algorithms and clustering algorithms, to identify the global optima of these functions have failed without exception.     

Simulated Annealing Algorithms for Continuous Global Optimization: Convergence Conditions

In this paper, simulated annealing algorithms for continuous global optimization are considered. After a review of recent convergence results from the literature, a class of algorithms is presented for which strong convergence results can be proved without introducing assumptions which are too restrictive. The main idea of the paper is that of relating both the temperature value and the support dimension of the next candidate point, so that they are small at points with function value close to the current record and bounded away from zero otherwise.     

Convergence of the Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Continuous Global Optimization

A class of simulated annealing algorithms for continuous global optimization is considered in this paper. The global convergence property is analyzed with respect to the objective value sequence and the minimum objective value sequence induced by simulated annealing algorithms. The convergence analysis provides the appropriate conditions on both the generation probability density function and the temperature updating function. Different forms of temperature updating functions are obtained with respect to different kinds of generation probability density functions, leading to different types of simulated annealing algorithms which all guarantee the convergence to the global optimum.     

A Simulated Annealing Genetic Algorithm for the Electrical Power Districting Problem

Due to a variety of political, economic, and technological factors, many national electricity industries around the globe are transforming from non-competitive monopolies with centralized systems to decentralized operations with competitive business units. A key challenge faced by energy restructuring specialists at the World Bank is trying to simultaneously optimize the various criteria one can use to judge the fairness and commercial viability of a particular power districting plan. This research introduces and tests a new algorithm for solving the electrical power districting problem in the context of the Republic of Ghana and using a random test problem generator. We show that our mimetic algorithm, the Simulated Annealing Genetic Algorithm, outperforms a well-known Parallel Simulated Annealing heuristic on this new and interesting problem manifested by the deregulation of electricity markets.     

基于模拟退火算法的盲均衡器设计

盲均衡技术是不需要训练序列的自适应均衡技术.该项技术可以消除由于通信信道失真造成的码间干扰.本文的目的是对盲均衡技术作一介绍,包括对广泛应用的最大归一化累积量判据的介绍和讨论,并在此基础上提出了基于模拟退火技术的设计方法,最后,对这种盲均衡器骑行了仿真,并得出了相应的结论.     

Computing the Initial Temperature of Simulated Annealing

The classical version of simulated annealing is based on a cooling schedule. Generally, the initial temperature is set such that the acceptance ratio of bad moves is equal to a certain value ₀. In this paper, we first propose a simple algorithm to compute a temperature which is compatible with a given acceptance ratio. Then, we study the properties of the acceptance probability. It is shown that this function is convex for low temperatures and concave for high temperatures. We also provide a lower bound for the number of plateaux of a simulated annealing based on a geometric cooling schedule. Finally, many numerical experiments are reported.     

Scale Invariance Properties in the Simulated Annealing Algorithm

The Boltzmann distribution used in the steady-state analysis of the simulated annealing algorithm gives rise to several scale invariant properties. Scale invariance is first presented in the context of parallel independent processors and then extended to an abstract form based on lumping states together to form new aggregate states. These lumped or aggregate states possess all of the mathematical characteristics, forms and relationships of states (solutions) in the original problem in both first and second moments. These scale invariance properties therefore permit new ways of relating objective function values, conditional expectation values, stationary probabilities, rates of change of stationary probabilities and conditional variances. Such properties therefore provide potential applications in analysis, statistical inference and optimization. Directions for future research that take advantage of scale invariance are also discussed.     

变邻域模拟退火算法求解速度时变的VRPTW问题

本文在经典的带时间窗的车辆路径问题(VRPTW)的基础上,考虑不同时间段车辆行驶速度不同的情况,研究速度时变的带时间窗车辆路径问题(TDVRPTW),使问题更具实际意义。本文用分段函数表示不同时间段下的车辆行驶速度,并解决了速度时变条件下行驶时间计算的问题。针对模拟退火算法(SA)在求解VRPTW问题时易陷入局部最优解,变邻域搜索算法(VNS)在求解VRPTW问题时收敛速度慢的问题,本文将模拟退火算法以一定概率接受非最优解的思想和变邻域搜索算法系统地改变当前解的邻域结构以拓展搜索范围的思想结合起来,提出了一种改进的算法——变邻域模拟退火算法(SAVN),使算法在退火过程中一陷入局部最优解就改变邻域结构,更换搜索范围,以此提升算法跳出局部最优解的能力,加快收敛速度。通过在仿真实验中将SAVN算法的求解结果与VNS算法、SA算法进行对比,验证了SAVN算法确实能显著提升算法跳出局部最优解的能力。     

Metastrategy simulated annealing and tabu search algorithms for the vehicle routing problem

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) under capacity and distance restrictions involves the design of a set of minimum cost delivery routes, originating and terminating at a central depot, which services a set of customers. Each customer must be supplied exactly once by one vehicle route. The total demand of any vehicle must not exceed the vehicle capacity. The total length of any route must not exceed a pre-specified bound. Approximate methods based on descent, hybrid simulated annealing/tabu search, and tabu search algorithms are developed and different search strategies are investigated. A special data structure for the tabu search algorithm is implemented which has reduced notably the computational time by more than 50%. An estimate for the tabu list size is statistically derived. Computational results are reported on a sample of seventeen bench-mark test problems from the literature and nine randomly generated problems. The new methods improve significantly both the number of vehicles used and the total distances travelled on all results reported in the literature.     

Aspiration Based Simulated Annealing Algorithm

An aspiration based simulated annealing algorithm for continuousvariables has been proposed. The new algorithm is similar to the one givenby Dekkers and Aarts (1991) except that a kind of memory is introduced intothe procedure with a self-regulatory mechanism. The algorithm has beenapplied to a set of standard global optimization problems and a number ofmore difficult, complex, practical problems and its performance comparedwith that of the algorithm of Dekkers and Aarts (1991). The new algorithmappears to offer a useful alternative to some of the currently availablestochastic algorithms for global optimization.     

A Simulated Annealing Approach to Bicriteria Scheduling Problems on a Single Machine

In this paper, we apply a simulated annealing approach to two bicriteria scheduling problems on a single machine. The first problem is the strongly NP-hard problem of minimizing total flowtime and maximum earliness. The second one is the NP-hard problem of minimizing total flowtime and number of tardy jobs. We experiment on different neighbourhood structures as well as other parameters of the simulated annealing approach to improve its performance. Our computational experiments show that the developed approach yields solutions that are very close to lower bounds and hence very close to the optimal solutions of their corresponding problems for the minimization of total flowtime and maximum earliness. For the minimization of total flowtime and number tardy, our experiments show that the simulated annealing approach yields results that are superior to randomly generated schedules.     

Simulated annealing for constrained global optimization

Hide-and-Seek is a powerful yet simple and easily implemented continuous simulated annealing algorithm for finding the maximum of a continuous function over an arbitrary closed, bounded and full-dimensional body. The function may be nondifferentiable and the feasible region may be nonconvex or even disconnected. The algorithm begins with any feasible interior point. In each iteration it generates a candidate successor point by generating a uniformly distributed point along a direction chosen at random from the current iteration point. In contrast to the discrete case, a single step of this algorithm may generateany point in the feasible region as a candidate point. The candidate point is then accepted as the next iteration point according to the Metropolis criterion parametrized by anadaptive cooling schedule. Again in contrast to discrete simulated annealing, the sequence of iteration points converges in probability to a global optimum regardless of how rapidly the temperatures converge to zero. Empirical comparisons with other algorithms suggest competitive performance by Hide-and-Seek.This material is based on work supported by a NATO Collaborative Research Grant, no. 0119/89.     

Annealing Algorithms for Multisource Absolute Location Problems on Graph

A methodology is presented for applying annealing techniques tomultisource absolute location problems on graph. Two kinds ofobjective functions are considered: barycenters and centers. Aclass of new algorithms is described: its development startsfrom the iterative cluster-and-locate algorithm and reliesupon the relaxation of the integrality constraints onallocation variables. Experimental results are reported.     

求解病态线性方程组的模拟退火算法

病态方程组的条件数较大,当输入数据有微小扰动或计算过程中的舍入误差都可能引起输出数据的很大扰动,使得解严重失真,因此求解此类方程组是相当困难的.本文尝试使用模拟退火算法来求解病态线性方程组,得到了较好的结果,并与传统的求解方法作了简单的比较.     

An Interactive Method for 0-1 Multiobjective Problems Using Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search

This paper presents an interactive method for solving general 0-1 multiobjective linear programs using Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search. The interactive protocol with the decision maker is based on the specification of reservation levels for the objective function values. These reservation levels narrow the scope of the search in each interaction in order to identify regions of major interest to the decision maker. Metaheuristic approaches are used to generate potentially nondominated solutions in the computational phases. Generic versions of Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search for 0-1 single objective linear problems were developed which include a general routine for repairing unfeasible solutions. This routine improves significantly the results of single objective problems and, consequently, the quality of the potentially nondominated solutions generated for the multiobjective problems. Computational results and examples are presented.     

基于模拟退火算法的矩形优化排样问题的研究

考虑了一种矩形优化排样系统中遗传算法和模拟退火算法的结合算法.首先建立了该系统的通用数学模型.然后给出了求解该问题的遗传模拟退火算法.最后用VC++6.0模拟算例的结果表明该算法是一种行之有效的方法.     

基于模拟退火的CRS算法

本文是对非线性规划问题提出的一种算法,该算法把模拟退火算法应用到CRS算法中,根据模拟退火算法每一次迭代都体现集中和扩散两个策略的平衡的特点,使CRS算法更能够搜索到全局最优解,而不会陷入局部最优解。最后把提出的算法应用到两个典型的函数优化问题中,结果表明,算法是可行的、有效的     

Simulated Annealing for Multi-Mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling

In this paper the resource-constrained project scheduling problem with multiple execution modes for each activity and the makespan as the minimization criterion is considered. A simulated annealing approach to solve this problem is presented. The feasible solution representation is based on a precedence feasible list of activities and a mode assignment. A comprehensive computational experiment is described, performed on a set of standard test problems constructed by the ProGen project generator. The results are analyzed and discussed and some final remarks are included.