An indirect genetic algorithm for set covering problems

Aickelin, Uwe

Abstract

This paper presents a new type of genetic algorithm for the set covering problem. It differs from previous evolutionary approaches first because it is an indirect algorithm, i.e. the actual solutions are found by an external decoder function. The genetic algorithm itself provides this decoder with permutations of the solution variables and other parameters. Second, it will be shown that results can be further improved by adding another indirect optimisation layer. The decoder will not directly seek out low cost solutions but instead aims for good exploitable solutions. These are then post optimised by another hill-climbing algorithm. Although seemingly more complicated, we will show that this three-stage approach has advantages in terms of solution quality, speed and adaptability to new types of problems over more direct approaches. Extensive computational results are presented and compared to the latest evolutionary and other heuristic approaches to the same data instances.

Citation

Aickelin, U. (2002). An indirect genetic algorithm for set covering problems. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53(10), 1118-1126. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601317

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 1, 2001
• Online Publication Date: Dec 21, 2017
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2002
• Deposit Date: Oct 30, 2007
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 4, 2007
• Journal: Journal of the Operational Research Society
• Print ISSN: 0160-5682
• Electronic ISSN: 1476-9360
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 1118-1126
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601317
• Keywords: Heuristics, Optimisation, Scheduling
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1022624
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601317
• Additional Information: This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of the Operational Research Society. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Aickelin, Uwe (2002) 'An Indirect Genetic Algorithm for Set Covering Problems'. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53(10) . pp. 1118-1126. is available online via the offical url given here.
• Contract Date: Oct 30, 2007