Skip to main content

A Weed Colonization Inspired Algorithm for the Weighted Set Cover Problem

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2016 (ICCSA 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9790))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 1503 Accesses

Abstract

The Weighted Set Cover Problem (SCP) is a popular optimization problem that has been applied to different industrial applications, including scheduling, manufacturing, service planning and location problems. It consists in to find low cost solutions covering a set of requirements or needs. In this paper, we solve the SCP using a recent nature inspired algorithm: Invasive Weed Optimization (IWO). IWO imitates the invasive behavior of real weeds: natural reproduction and selection where the best weed has more chance of reproduction. We test our approach using known ORLIB test problems for the SCP. The computational results show that the IWO metaheuristic can find very good results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Adulyasak, Y., Cordeau, J.-F., Jans, R.: The production routing problem: a review of formulations and solution algorithms. Comput. Oper. Res. 55, 141–152 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Bai, R., Xue, N., Chen, J., Roberts, G.W.: A set-covering model for a bidirectional multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem. Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol. 79, 134–148 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Beasley, J.E.: OR-Library: distributing test problems by electronic mail. J. Oper. Res. Soc. 41(11), 1069–1072 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Cacchiani, V., Hemmelmayr, V.C., Tricoire, F.: A set-covering based heuristic algorithm for the periodic vehicle routing problem. Discrete Appl. Math. 163, 53–64 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Caprara, A., Fischetti, M., Toth, P.: A heuristic method for the set covering problem. Oper. Res. 47(5), 730–743 (1999)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Caprara, A., Toth, P., Fischetti, M.: Algorithms for the set covering problem. Ann. Oper. Res. 98(1–4), 353–371 (2000)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Chen, S., Shen, Y.: An improved column generation algorithm for crew scheduling problems. J. Inf. Comput. Sci. 10(1), 175–183 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Aballay, F., Misra, S., Johnson, F., Paredes, F.: A teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm for solving set covering problems. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Gavrilova, M.L., Rocha, A.M.A.C., Torre, C., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O. (eds.) ICCSA 2015. LNCS, vol. 9158, pp. 421–430. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Cuesta, R., Paredes, F.: Application of the artificial bee colony algorithm for solving the set covering problem. Scientific World J. 2014, 8 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Cuesta, R., Paredes, F.: Using the bee colony optimization method to solve the weighted set covering problem. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) HCI 2014, Part I. CCIS, vol. 434, pp. 493–497. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Monfroy, E.: Cultural algorithms for the set covering problem. In: Tan, Y., Shi, Y., Mo, H. (eds.) ICSI 2013, Part II. LNCS, vol. 7929, pp. 27–34. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Olivares-Suárez, M., Palma, W., Paredes, F., Olguin, E., Norero, E.: A binary coded firefly algorithm that solves the set covering problem. Rom. J. Inf. Sci. Technol. 17(3), 252–264 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Peña, C., Riquelme-Leiva, M., Torres-Rojas, C., Johnson, F., Paredes, F.: Binarization methods for shuffled frog leaping algorithms that solve set covering problems. In: Silhavy, R., Senkerik, R., Oplatkova, Z.K., Prokopova, Z., Silhavy, P. (eds.) CSOC2015. AISC, vol. 349, pp. 317–326. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Crawford, B., Soto, R., Torres-Rojas, C., Peña, C., Riquelme-Leiva, M., Misra, S., Johnson, F., Paredes, F.: A binary fruit fly optimization algorithm to solve the set covering problem. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Gavrilova, M.L., Rocha, A.M.A.C., Torre, C., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B.O. (eds.) ICCSA 2015. LNCS, vol. 9158, pp. 411–420. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Elizondo-Amaya, M.G., RÃos-Mercado, R.Z., DÃaz, J.A.: A dual bounding scheme for a territory design problem. Comput. Oper. Res. 44, 193–205 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Farahani, R.Z., Asgari, N., Heidari, N., Hosseininia, M., Goh, M.: Covering problems in facility location: a review. Comput. Ind. Eng. 62(1), 368–407 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Feo, T.A., Resende, M.G.: A probabilistic heuristic for a computationally difficult set covering problem. Oper. Res. Lett. 8(2), 67–71 (1989)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Juette, S., Thonemann, U.W.: Divide-and-price: a decomposition algorithm for solving large railway crew scheduling problems. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 219(2), 214–223 (2012)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Mehrabian, A.R., Lucas, C.: A novel numerical optimization algorithm inspired from weed colonization. Ecol. Inform. 1(4), 355–366 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Revelle, C., Marks, D., Liebman, J.C.: An analysis of private and public sector location models. Manag. Sci. 16(11), 692–707 (1970)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Schreuder, J.A.: Application of a location model to fire stations in rotterdam. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 6(2), 212–219 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Simeone, B., Nouno, G., Mezzadri, M., Lari, I.: A boolean theory of signatures for tonal scales. Discrete Appl. Math. 165, 283–294 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Soto, R., Crawford, B., Galleguillos, C., Paredes, F., Norero, E.: A hybrid alldifferent-Tabu search algorithm for solving sudoku puzzles. Comput. Int. Neurosci. 2015, 286354:1–286354:10 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Soto, R., Crawford, B., Muñoz, A., Johnson, F., Paredes, F.: Pre-processing, repairing and transfer functions can help binary electromagnetism-like algorithms. In: Silhavy, R., Senkerik, R., Oplatkova, Z.K., Prokopova, Z., Silhavy, P. (eds.) Artificial Intelligence Perspectives and Applications. AISC, vol. 347, pp. 89–97. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Toregas, C., Swain, R., ReVelle, C., Bergman, L.: The location of emergency service facilities. Oper. Res. 19(6), 1363–1373 (1971)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Veenhuis, C.: Binary invasive weed optimization. In: 2010 Second World Congress on Nature and Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC), pp. 449–454. IEEE (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Vidal, T., Crainic, T.G., Gendreau, M., Prins, C.: Heuristics for multi-attribute vehicle routing problems: a survey and synthesis. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 231(1), 1–21 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Walker, W.: Using the set-covering problem to assign fire companies to fire houses. Oper. Res. 22, 275–277 (1974)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Xu, Y., Kochenberger, G., Wang, H.: Pre-processing method with surrogate constraint algorithm for the set covering problem

    Google Scholar 

  30. Zhang, J., Wei, Q., Chen, G.: A heuristic approach for \(\lambda \)-representative information retrieval from large-scale data. Inf. Sci. 277, 825–841 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author Broderick Crawford is supported by grant CONICYT/FONDE-CYT/REGULAR/1140897 and Ricardo Soto is supported by grant CONICYT/FONDECYT/REGULAR/1160455.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ismael Fuenzalida Legüe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Crawford, B., Soto, R., Legüe, I.F., Misra, S., Olguín, E. (2016). A Weed Colonization Inspired Algorithm for the Weighted Set Cover Problem. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2016. ICCSA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9790. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42092-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42092-9_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42091-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42092-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics