This is the first book devoted entirely to Differential Evolution (DE) for global permutative-based combinatorial optimization. Since its original development, DE has mainly been applied to solving problems characterized by continuous parameters. This means that only a subset of real-world problems could be solved by the original, classical DE algorithm. This book presents in detail the various permutative-based combinatorial DE formulations by their initiators in an easy-to-follow manner, through extensive illustrations and computer code. It is a valuable resource for professionals and students interested in DE in order to have full potentials of DE at their disposal as a proven optimizer. All source programs in C and Mathematica programming languages are downloadable from the website of Springer.

Optimization problems were and still are the focus of mathematics from antiquity to the present. Since the beginning of our civilization, the human race has had to confront numerous technological challenges, such as finding the optimal solution of various problems including control technologies, power sources construction, applications in economy, mechanical engineering and energy distribution amongst others. These examples encompass both ancient as well as modern technologies like the first electrical energy distribution network in USA etc. Some of the key principles formulated in the middle ages were done by Johannes Kepler (Problem of the wine barrels), Johan Bernoulli (brachystochrone problem), Leonhard Euler (Calculus of Variations), Lagrange (Principle multipliers), that were formulated primarily in the ancient world and are of a geometric nature. In the beginning of the modern era, works of L.V. Kantorovich and G.B. Dantzig (so-called linear programming) can be considered amongst others. This book discusses a wide spectrum of optimization methods from classical to modern, alike heuristics. Novel as well as classical techniques is also discussed in this book, including its mutual intersection. Together with many interesting chapters, a reader will also encounter various methods used for proposed optimization approaches, such as game theory and evolutionary algorithms or modelling of evolutionary algorithm dynamics like complex networks.

The observation of nature has been the inspiration for many materials, laws, and theories, as well as computational methods. Nature-Inspired computing Design, Development, and Applications covers all the main areas of natural computing, from methods to computationally synthesized natural phenomena, to computing paradigms based on natural materials. This volume is comprised of ideas and research from nature to develop computational systems or materials to perform computation. Researchers, academic educators, and professionals will find a comprehensive view of all aspects of natural computing with emphasis on its main branches.

This book addresses and disseminates research and development in the applications of intelligent techniques for computer vision, the field that works on enabling computers to see, identify, and process images in the same way that human vision does, and then providing appropriate output. The book provides contributions which include theory, case studies, and intelligent techniques pertaining to computer vision applications. The book helps readers grasp the essence of the recent advances in this complex field. The audience includes researchers, professionals, practitioners, and students from academia and industry who work in this interdisciplinary field. The authors aim to inspire future research both from theoretical and practical viewpoints to spur further advances in the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2019, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in September-October 2019. The 35 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 117 submissions. The papers cover such topics as optimization, operations research, optimal control, game theory, and their numerous applications in practical problems of operations research, data analysis, and software development.

This two-volume set (LNAI 11055 and LNAI 11056) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Collective Intelligence, ICCCI 2018, held in Bristol, UK, in September 2018 The 98 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 240 submissions. The conference focuses on knowledge engineering and semantic web, social network analysis, recommendation methods and recommender systems, agents and multi-agent systems, text processing and information retrieval, data mining methods and applications, decision support and control systems, sensor networks and internet of things, as well as computer vision techniques.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, PPSN 2013, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in September 2014. The total of 90 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 217 submissions. The meeting began with 7 workshops which offered an ideal opportunity to explore specific topics in evolutionary computation, bio-inspired computing and metaheuristics. PPSN XIII also included 9 tutorials. The papers are organized in topical sections on adaption, self-adaption and parameter tuning; classifier system, differential evolution and swarm intelligence; coevolution and artificial immune systems; constraint handling; dynamic and uncertain environments; estimation of distribution algorithms and metamodelling; genetic programming; multi-objective optimisation; parallel algorithms and hardware implementations; real world applications; and theory.

Differential evolution has proven itself a very simple while very powerful stochastic global optimizer. It has been applied to solve problems in many scientific and engineering fields. This book focuses on applications of differential evolution in electromagnetics to showcase its achievement and capability in solving synthesis and design problems in electromagnetics.Topics covered in this book include:• A comprehensive up-to-date literature survey on differential evolution• A systematic description of differential evolution• A topical review on applications of differential evolution in electromagnetics• Five new application examplesThis book is ideal for electromagnetic researchers and people in differential evolution community. It is also a valuable reference book for researchers and students in the optimization or electrical and electronic engineering field. In addition, managers and engineers in relevant fields will find it a helpful introductory guide.

Evolutionary algorithms are bio-inspired algorithms based on Darwin’s theory of evolution. They are expected to provide non-optimal but good quality solutions to problems whose resolution is impracticable by exact methods. In six chapters, this book presents the essential knowledge required to efficiently implement evolutionary algorithms. Chapter 1 describes a generic evolutionary algorithm as well as the basic operators that compose it. Chapter 2 is devoted to the solving of continuous optimization problems, without constraint. Three leading approaches are described and compared on a set of test functions. Chapter 3 considers continuous optimization problems with constraints. Various approaches suitable for evolutionary methods are presented. Chapter 4 is related to combinatorial optimization. It provides a catalog of variation operators to deal with order-based problems. Chapter 5 introduces the basic notions required to understand the issue of multi-objective optimization and a variety of approaches for its application. Finally, Chapter 6 describes different approaches of genetic programming able to evolve computer programs in the context of machine learning.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning, SEAL 2017, held in Shenzhen, China, in November 2017. The 85 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 145 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: evolutionary optimisation; evolutionary multiobjective optimisation; evolutionary machine learning; theoretical developments; feature selection and dimensionality reduction; dynamic and uncertain environments; real-world applications; adaptive systems; and swarm intelligence.