Evolutionary algorithms are general-purpose search procedures based on the mechanisms of natural selection and population genetics. They are appealing because they are simple, easy to interface, and easy to extend. This volume is concerned with applications of evolutionary algorithms and associated strategies in engineering. It will be useful for engineers, designers, developers, and researchers in any scientific discipline interested in the applications of evolutionary algorithms. The volume consists of five parts, each with four or five chapters. The topics are chosen to emphasize application areas in different fields of engineering. Each chapter can be used for self-study or as a reference by practitioners to help them apply evolutionary algorithms to problems in their engineering domains.

Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) are powerful search and optimisation techniques inspired by the mechanisms of natural evolution. They imitate, on an abstract level, biological principles such as a population based approach, the inheritance of information, the variation of information via crossover/mutation, and the selection of individuals based on fitness. The most well-known class of EA are Genetic Algorithms (GA), which have received much attention not only in the scientific community lately. Other variants of EA, in particular Genetic Programming, Evolution Strategies, and Evolutionary Programming are less popular, though very powerful too. Traditionally, most practical applications of EA have appeared in the technical sector. Management problems, for a long time, have been a rather neglected field of EA-research. This is surprising, since the great potential of evolutionary approaches for the business and economics domain was recognised in pioneering publications quite a while ago. John Holland, for instance, in his seminal book Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems (The University of Michigan Press, 1975) identified economics as one of the prime targets for a theory of adaptation, as formalised in his reproductive plans (later called Genetic Algorithms).

Evolutionary Computation and Optimization Algorithms in Software Engineering: Applications and Techniques lays the foundation for the successful integration of evolutionary computation into software engineering. It surveys techniques ranging from genetic algorithms, to swarm optimization theory, to ant colony optimization, demonstrating their uses and capabilities. These techniques are applied to aspects of software engineering such as software testing, quality assessment, reliability assessment, and fault prediction models, among others, to providing researchers, scholars and students with the knowledge needed to expand this burgeoning application.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th IFIP WG 12.5 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations, AIAI 2014, held in Rhodes, Greece, in September 2014. The 33 revised full papers and 29 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: learning-ensemble learning; social media and mobile applications of AI; hybrid-changing environments; agent (AGE); classification pattern recognition; genetic algorithms; image and video processing; feature extraction; environmental AI; simulations and fuzzy modeling; and data mining forecasting.

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are one of several techniques in the family of Evolutionary Algorithms - algorithms that search for solutions to optimization problems by "evolving" better and better solutions. Genetic Algorithms have been applied in science, engineering, business and social sciences. This book consists of 16 chapters organized into five sections. The first section deals with some applications in automatic control, the second section contains several applications in scheduling of resources, and the third section introduces some applications in electrical and electronics engineering. The next section illustrates some examples of character recognition and multi-criteria classification, and the last one deals with trading systems. These evolutionary techniques may be useful to engineers and scientists in various fields of specialization, who need some optimization techniques in their work and who may be using Genetic Algorithms in their applications for the first time. These applications may be useful to many other people who are getting familiar with the subject of Genetic Algorithms.

- Detailed MOEA applications discussed by international experts - State-of-the-art practical insights in tackling statistical optimization with MOEAs - A unique monograph covering a wide spectrum of real-world applications - Step-by-step discussion of MOEA applications in a variety of domains

Production scheduling dictates highly constrained mathematical models with complex and often contradicting objectives. Evolutionary algorithms can be formulated almost independently of the detailed shaping of the problems under consideration. As one would expect, a weak formulation of the problem in the algorithm comes along with a quite inefficient search. This book discusses the suitability of genetic algorithms for production scheduling and presents an approach which produces results comparable with those of more tailored optimization techniques.

The use of evolutionary computation techniques has grown considerably over the past several years. Over this time, the use and applications of these techniques have been further enhanced resulting in a set of computational intelligence (also known as modern heuristics) tools that are particularly adept for solving complex optimization problems. Moreover, they are characteristically more robust than traditional methods based on formal logics or mathematical programming for many real world OR/MS problems. Hence, evolutionary computation techniques have dealt with complex optimization problems better than traditional optimization techniques although they can be applied to easy and simple problems where conventional techniques work well. Clearly there is a need for a volume that both reviews state-of-the-art evolutionary computation techniques, and surveys the most recent developments in their use for solving complex OR/MS problems. This volume on Evolutionary Optimization seeks to fill this need. Evolutionary Optimization is a volume of invited papers written by leading researchers in the field. All papers were peer reviewed by at least two recognized reviewers. The book covers the foundation as well as the practical side of evolutionary optimization.

Metaheuristic optimization is a higher-level procedure or heuristic designed to find, generate, or select a heuristic (partial search algorithm) that may provide a sufficiently good solution to an optimization problem, especially with incomplete or imperfect information or limited computation capacity. This is usually applied when two or more objectives are to be optimized simultaneously. This book is presented with two major objectives. Firstly, it features chapters by eminent researchers in the field providing the readers about the current status of the subject. Secondly, algorithm-based optimization or advanced optimization techniques, which are applied to mostly non-engineering problems, are applied to engineering problems. This book will also serve as an aid to both research and industry. Usage of these methodologies would enable the improvement in engineering and manufacturing technology and support an organization in this era of low product life cycle. Features: Covers the application of recent and new algorithms Focuses on the development aspects such as including surrogate modeling, parallelization, game theory, and hybridization Presents the advances of engineering applications for both single-objective and multi-objective optimization problems Offers recent developments from a variety of engineering fields Discusses Optimization using Evolutionary Algorithms and Metaheuristics applications in engineering

As technology continues to become more sophisticated, mimicking natural processes and phenomena also becomes more of a reality. Continued research in the field of natural computing enables an understanding of the world around us, in addition to opportunities for man-made computing to mirror the natural processes and systems that have existed for centuries. Nature-Inspired Computing: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications takes an interdisciplinary approach to the topic of natural computing, including emerging technologies being developed for the purpose of simulating natural phenomena, applications across industries, and the future outlook of biologically and nature-inspired technologies. Emphasizing critical research in a comprehensive multi-volume set, this publication is designed for use by IT professionals, researchers, and graduate students studying intelligent computing.