Omar Avalos

Cross entropy based thresholding for magnetic resonance brain images using Crow Search Algorithm

We use an evolutionary mechanism to improve the image segmentation process.We optimize the minimum cross entropy with an evolutionary method for image segmentation.We test the approach in multidimensional spaces.An alternative method for MR brain image segmentation is proposed.Comparisons and non-parametric test support the experimental results. Segmentation is considered the central part of an image processing system due to its high influence on the posterior image analysis. In recent years, the segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images has attracted the attention of the scientific community with the objective of assisting the diagnosis in different brain diseases. From several techniques, thresholding represents one of the most popular methods for image segmentation. Currently, an extensive amount of contributions has been proposed in the literature, where thresholding values are obtained by optimizing relevant criteria such as the cross entropy. However, most of such approaches are computationally expensive, since they conduct an exhaustive search strategy for obtaining the optimal thresholding values. This paper presents a general method for image segmentation. To estimate the thresholding values, the proposed approach uses the recently published evolutionary method called the Crow Search Algorithm (CSA) which is based on the behavior in flocks of crows. Different to other optimization techniques used for segmentation proposes, CSA presents a better performance, avoiding critical flaws such as the premature convergence to sub-optimal solutions and the limited exploration-exploitation balance in the search strategy. Although the proposed method can be used as a generic segmentation algorithm, its characteristics allow obtaining excellent results in the automatic segmentation of complex MR images. Under such circumstances, our approach has been evaluated using two sets of benchmark images; the first set is composed of general images commonly used in the image processing literature, while the second set corresponds to MR brain images. Experimental results, statistically validated, demonstrate that the proposed technique obtains better results in terms of quality and consistency.

A Comparison of Evolutionary Computation Techniques for IIR Model Identification

System identification is a complex optimization problem which has recently attracted the attention in the field of science and engineering. In particular, the use of infinite impulse response (IIR) models for identification is preferred over their equivalent FIR (finite impulse response) models since the former yield more accurate models of physical plants for real world applications. However, IIR structures tend to produce multimodal error surfaces whose cost functions are significantly difficult to minimize. Evolutionary computation techniques (ECT) are used to estimate the solution to complex optimization problems. They are often designed to meet the requirements of particular problems because no single optimization algorithm can solve all problems competitively. Therefore, when new algorithms are proposed, their relative efficacies must be appropriately evaluated. Several comparisons among ECT have been reported in the literature. Nevertheless, they suffer from one limitation: their conclusions are based on the performance of popular evolutionary approaches over a set of synthetic functions with exact solutions and well-known behaviors, without considering the application context or including recent developments. This study presents the comparison of various evolutionary computation optimization techniques applied to IIR model identification. Results over several models are presented and statistically validated.

Improving multi-criterion optimization with chaos: a novel Multi-Objective Chaotic Crow Search Algorithm

This paper presents two multi-criteria optimization techniques: the Multi-Objective Crow Search Algorithm (MOCSA) and an improved chaotic version called Multi-Objective Chaotic Crow Search Algorithm (MOCCSA). Both methods MOCSA and MOCCSA are based on an enhanced version of the recently published Crow Search Algorithm. Crows are intelligent animals with interesting strategies for protecting their food hatches. This compelling behavior is extended into a Multi-Objective approach. MOCCSA uses chaotic-based criteria on the optimization process to improve the diversity of solutions. To determinate if the performance of the algorithm is significantly enhanced, the incorporation of a chaotic operator is further validated by a statistical comparison between the proposed MOCCSA and its chaotic-free counterpart (MOCSA) indicating that the results of the two algorithms are significantly different from each other. The performance of MOCCSA is evaluated by a set of standard benchmark functions, and the results are contrasted with two well-known algorithms: Multi-Objective Dragonfly Algorithm and Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization. Both quantitative and qualitative results show competitive results for the proposed approach.

Unassisted thresholding based on multi-objective evolutionary algorithms

Abstract Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) are known to solve problems where two or more conflicting goals are involved. To accomplish it, MOEAs incorporate strategies to determinate optimal trade-offs between each of the objective functions. In this paper, an Unassisted image Thresholding (UTH) methodology is proposed based on MOEAs. UTH takes advantage of the trade-off mechanisms present on MOEAs to perform the image thresholding while simultaneously determinating the number thresholds required to segment each image and the best placement of each threshold along the histogram of the image. The image thresholding problem is commonly addressed as the search for the best possible thresholds able to partition a given image into a finite number of homogeneous classes. Such approach requires the assistance of a designer to determinate the number of threshold values that will properly segment the image. However, as images can vary significantly, the definition of an optimal number of thresholds should be performed for each image. Thus, a methodology able to determinate both the number of thresholds and the best placement of each value contributes to a general segmentation scheme. In the proposed approach, UTH redefines the thresholding problem as a multi-objective task with two conflicting goals. The first goal is the quality of the segmented image, and it is computed as a non-parametric criteria to evaluate candidate threshold points. The second goal is the normalized number of threshold points. Since the number of thresholds is not fixed, a particle encoding the thresholds with variable length is used. The strategy of UTH is coupled with three MOEAs namely NSGA-III, PESA-II and MOPSO using as the non-parametric criteria the Cross Entropy. According to the results, the UTH NSGA-III formulation outperforms UTH-PESA-II and UTH-MOPSO regarding convergence and quality of the resulting image.

Nonlinear system identification based on ANFIS-Hammerstein model using Gravitational search algorithm

The identification of real-world plants and processes, which are nonlinear in nature, represents a challenging problem. Currently, the Hammerstein model is one of the most popular nonlinear models. A Hammerstein model involves the combination of a nonlinear element and a linear dynamic system. On the other hand, the Adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) represents a powerful adaptive nonlinear network whose architecture can be divided into a nonlinear block and a linear system. In this paper, a nonlinear system identification method based on the Hammerstein model is introduced. In the proposed scheme, the system is modeled through the adaptation of an ANFIS scheme, taking advantage of the similarity between it and the Hammerstein model. To identify the parameters of the modeled system, the proposed approach uses a recent nature-inspired method called the Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA). Compared to most existing optimization algorithms, GSA delivers a better performance in complex multimodal problems, avoiding critical flaws such as a premature convergence to sub-optimal solutions. To show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, its modeling accuracy has been compared with other popular evolutionary computing algorithms through numerical simulations on different complex models.

Flower Pollination Algorithm for Multimodal Optimization

This paper proposes a new algorithm called Multimodal Flower Pollination Algorithm (MFPA). Under MFPA, the original Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) is enhanced with multimodal capabilities in order to find all possible optima in an optimization problem. The performance of the proposed MFPA is compared to several multimodal approaches considering the evaluation in a set of well-known benchmark functions. Experimental data indicate that the proposed MFPA provides better results over other multimodal competitors in terms of accuracy and robustness.

Induction Motor Parameter Identification Using a Gravitational Search Algorithm

The efficient use of electrical energy is a topic that has attracted attention for its environmental consequences. On the other hand, induction motors represent the main component in most industries. They consume the highest energy percentages in industrial facilities. This energy consumption depends on the operation conditions of the induction motor imposed by its internal parameters. Since the internal parameters of an induction motor are not directly measurable, an identification process must be conducted to obtain them. In the identification process, the parameter estimation is transformed into a multidimensional optimization problem where the internal parameters of the induction motor are considered as decision variables. Under this approach, the complexity of the optimization problem tends to produce multimodal error surfaces for which their cost functions are significantly difficult to minimize. Several algorithms based on evolutionary computation principles have been successfully applied to identify the optimal parameters of induction motors. However, most of them maintain an important limitation: They frequently obtain sub-optimal solutions as a result of an improper equilibrium between exploitation and exploration in their search strategies. This paper presents an algorithm for the optimal parameter identification of induction motors. To determine the parameters, the proposed method uses a recent evolutionary method called the gravitational search algorithm (GSA). Different from most of the existent evolutionary algorithms, the GSA presents a better performance in multimodal problems, avoiding critical flaws such as the premature convergence to sub-optimal solutions. Numerical simulations have been conducted on several models to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Electromagnetism-like mechanism with collective animal behavior for multimodal optimization

Evolutionary Computation Algorithms (ECA) are conceived as alternative methods for solving complex optimization problems through the search for the global optimum. Therefore, from a practical point of view, the acquisition of multiple promissory solutions is especially useful in engineering, since the global solution may not always be realizable due to several realistic constraints. Although ECAs perform well on the detection of the global solution, they are not suitable for finding multiple optima in a single execution due to their exploration-exploitation operators. This paper proposes a new algorithm called Collective Electromagnetism-like Optimization (CEMO). Under CEMO, a collective animal behavior is implemented as a memory mechanism simulating natural animal dominance over the population to extend the original Electromagnetism-like Optimization algorithm (EMO) operators to efficiently register and maintain all possible Optima in an optimization problem. The performance of the proposed CEMO is compared against several multimodal schemes over a set of benchmark functions considering the evaluation of multimodal performance indexes typically found in the literature. Experimental results are statistically validated to eliminate the random effect in the obtained solutions. The proposed method exhibits higher and more consistent performance against the rest of the tested multimodal techniques.

Correction to: Improving multi-criterion optimization with chaos: a novel Multi-Objective Chaotic Crow Search Algorithm

In the original publication, Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2 are incorrectly published with the same content.