Eric Alfredo Rincón-García

An optimization algorithm inspired by musical composition

In this paper we propose a new multiagent metaheuristic based in an artificial society that uses a dynamic creative system to compose music, called “Method of musical composition” or MMC. To show the performance of our proposed MMC algorithm, 13 benchmark continuous optimization problems and the related results are compared with harmony search, improved harmony search, global-best harmony search and self-adaptative harmony search. The experimental results demonstrate that MMC improves the results obtained by the other metaheuristics in a set of multi-modal functions.

Adaptation of the musical composition method for solving constrained optimization problems

Many real-world problems may be expressed as nonlinear constrained optimization problems (CNOP). For this kind of problems, the set of constraints specifies the feasible solution space. In the last decades, several algorithms have been proposed and developed for tackling CNOP. In this paper, we present an extension of the “Musical Composition Method” (MMC) for solving constrained optimization problems. MMC was proposed by Mora et al. (Artif Intell Rev 1–15, doi:10.1007/s10462-011-9309-8, 2012a). The MMC is based on a social creativity system used to compose music. We evaluated and analyzed the performance of MMC on 12 CNOP benchmark cases. The experimental results demonstrate that MMC significantly improves the global performances of the other tested metaheuristics on some benchmark functions.

An Efficient Algorithm for Unconstrained Optimization

This paper presents an original and efficient PSO algorithm, which is divided into three phases: (1) stabilization, (2) breadth-first search, and (3) depth-first search. The proposed algorithm, called PSO-3P, was tested with 47 benchmark continuous unconstrained optimization problems, on a total of 82 instances. The numerical results show that the proposed algorithm is able to reach the global optimum. This work mainly focuses on unconstrained optimization problems from 2 to 1,000 variables.

Development of seven hybrid methods based on collective intelligence for solving nonlinear constrained optimization problems

Many real-world problems can be seen as constrained nonlinear optimization problems (CNOP). These problems are relevant because they frequently appear in many industry and science fields, promoting, in the last decades, the design and development of many algorithms for solving CNOP. In this paper, seven hybrids techniques, based on particle swarm optimization, the method of musical composition and differential evolution, as well as a new fitness function formulation used to guide the search, are presented. In order to prove the performance of these techniques, twenty-four benchmark CNOP were used. The experimental results showed that the proposed hybrid techniques are competitive, since their behavior is similar to that observed for several methods reported in the specialized literature. More remarkably, new best known are identified for some test instances.

Redistricting in Mexico

Redistricting is the redrawing of the boundaries of legislative districts for electoral purposes in such a way that Federal or state requirements are fulfilled. In 2015 the National Electoral Institute of Mexico carried out the redistricting process of 15 states using a nonlinear programming model where population equality and compactness were considered as conflicting objective functions, whereas other criteria, such as contiguity, were included as constraints. In order to find high quality redistricting plans in acceptable amounts of time, two automated redistricting algorithms were designed: a Simulated Annealing based algorithm, and an Artificial Bee Colony inspired algorithm. Computational results prove that the population based technique is more robust than its counterpart for this kind of problems.

A comparative study of population-based algorithms for a political districting problem

Purpose This paper aims to propose comparing the performance of three algorithms based on different population-based heuristics, particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC) and method of musical composition (DMMC), for the districting problem. Design/methodology/approach In order to compare the performance of the proposed algorithms, they were tested on eight instances drawn from the Mexican electoral institute database, and their respective performance levels were compared. In addition, a simulated annealing-based (simulated annealing – SA) algorithm was used as reference to evaluate the proposed algorithms. This technique was included in this work because it has been used for Federal districting in Mexico since 1994. The performance of the algorithms was evaluated in terms of the quality of the approximated Pareto front and efficiency. Regarding solution quality, convergence and dispersion of the resulting non-dominated solutions were evaluated. Findings The results show that the quality and diversification of non-dominated solutions generated by population-based algorithms are better than those produced by Federal Electoral Institute’s (IFE’s) SA-based technique. More accurately, among population-based techniques, discrete adaptation of ABC and MMC outperform PSO. Originality/value The performance of three population-based techniques was evaluated for the districting problem. In this paper, the authors used the objective function proposed by the Mexican IFE, a weight aggregation function that seeks for a districting plan that represents the best balance between population equality and compactness. However, the weighting factors can be modified by political agreements; thus, the authors decided to produce a set of efficient solutions, using different weighting factors for the computational experiments. This way, the best algorithm will produce high quality solutions no matter the weighting factors used for a real districting process. The computational experiments proved that the proposed artificial bee colony and method of musical composition-based algorithms produce better quality efficient solutions than its counterparts. These results show that population-based algorithms can outperform traditional local search strategies. Besides, as far as we know, this is the first time that the method of musical composition is used for this kind of problems.

FUGA, A FUZZY GREEDY ALGORITHM FOR REDISTRICTING IN MEXICO

Redistricting is the redrawing of the boundaries of legislative districts for electoral purposes in such a way that the generated districts fulfill federal and state requirements such as contiguity, population equality and compactness. Redistricting is a multi-objective problem which has been proved to be NP-hard. In Mexico, the redistricting process has been done using an aggregation function, considering a weighted sum of the objectives. However, if different weighting factors are used then a set of diverse, high quality solutions can be generated and a new problem arises: which solution should be implemented? In this paper we propose a novel alternative, called FuGA, to select the best solution for the redistricting problem using a fuzzyfication of the objective function. The proposed algorithm was applied in a real case, and its solutions were compared with those produced by VIKOR, a well-known algorithm for decision making. FuGA showed a better performance since it was able to avoid the selection of dominated solutions.

Influence of social network on method musical composition

The method of musical composition (MMC) is a metaheuristic based on sociocultural creativity systems. Within the MMC, models of social influence and social learning are used and integrated in a social network, which is composed of a set of individuals with links between them and involves a set of interaction rules. In this paper, a comparative study on the performance of the MMC with different network structures is proposed. Sixteen benchmark nonlinear optimization problems are solved, taking into account nine social topologies, which are: (a) linear, (b) tree, (c) star, (d) ring, (e) platoons, (f) von Neumann, (g) full connection, (h) random and (i) small world. In addition, the update of each topology structure was tested according to four different strategies: one static, two dynamic and one self-adaptive states. An exhaustive statistical analysis of the obtained numerical results indicates that the social dynamics has no significant impact on the MMC’s behavior. However, the topology structures can be classified into groups that consistently influence the performance level of the MMC. More precisely, a structure characterized by a low value of its mean number of neighbors and a rather fast information transfer process (star topology) performs in a radically opposite way as structures where each agent has many neighbors (random and complete topologies). These observations allow to provide some guidelines for the selection of a network topology used within a social algorithm.