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An Evolutionary Approach to Practical Constraints in Scheduling: A Case-Study of the Wine Bottling Problem

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Book cover Variants of Evolutionary Algorithms for Real-World Applications

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Abstract

Practical constraints associated with real-world problems are a key differentiator with respect to more artificially formulated problems. They create challenging variations on what might otherwise be considered as straightforward optimization problems from an evolutionary computation perspective. Through solving various commercial and industrial problems using evolutionary algorithms, we have gathered experience in dealing with practical dynamic constraints. Here, we present proven methods for dealing with these issues for scheduling problems. For use in real-world situations, an evolutionary algorithm must be designed to drive a software application that needs to be robust enough to deal with practical constraints in order to meet the demands and expectations of everyday use by domain specialists who are not necessarily optimization experts. In such situations, addressing these issues becomes critical to success. We show how these challenges can be dealt with by making adjustments to genotypic representation, phenotypic decoding, or the evaluation function itself. The ideas presented in this chapter are exemplified by the means of a case study of a real-world commercial problem, namely that of bottling wine in a mass-production environment. The methods described have the benefit of having been proven by a full-fledged implementation into a software application that undergoes continual and vigorous use in a live environment in which time-varying constraints, arising in multiple different combinations, are a routine occurrence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SolveIT Software Pty. Ltd., Level 1, 99 Frome Street, South Australia, 5000, Australia

    Arvind Mohais & Neal Wagner

  2. SolveIT Software Pty. Ltd., Suite 201. 198 Harbour Esplanade, Docklands, Victoria, 3008, Australia

    Sven Schellenberg

  3. School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia

    Maksud Ibrahimov & Zbigniew Michalewicz

  4. Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Ordona 21, 01-237, Warsaw, Poland

    Zbigniew Michalewicz

  5. Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology, ul. Koszykowa 86, 02-008, Warsaw, Poland

    Zbigniew Michalewicz

Authors
  1. Arvind Mohais
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  2. Sven Schellenberg
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  3. Maksud Ibrahimov
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  4. Neal Wagner
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  5. Zbigniew Michalewicz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of ICT, Swinburne University of Technology, 3122, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Raymond Chiong

  2. Nature Inspired Computation and Applications Laboratory School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), 230027, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Thomas Weise

  3. School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide, 5005, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Zbigniew Michalewicz

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mohais, A., Schellenberg, S., Ibrahimov, M., Wagner, N., Michalewicz, Z. (2012). An Evolutionary Approach to Practical Constraints in Scheduling: A Case-Study of the Wine Bottling Problem. In: Chiong, R., Weise, T., Michalewicz, Z. (eds) Variants of Evolutionary Algorithms for Real-World Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23424-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23424-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23423-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23424-8

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