Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms are a recently developed, population-based approach which has been successfully applied to optimization problems. However, in the ACO algorithms it is difficult to adjust the balance between intensification and diversification and thus the performance is not always very well. In this work, we propose an improved ACO algorithm in which some of ants can evolve by performing genetic operation, and the balance between intensification and diversification can be adjusted by numbers of ants which perform genetic operation. The proposed algorithm is tested by simulating the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Experimental studies show that the proposed ACO algorithm with genetic operation has superior performance when compared to other existing ACO algorithms.

An improved genetic algorithm for solving the graph planarization problem is presented. The improved genetic algorithm which is designed to embed a graph on a plane, performs crossover and mutation conditionally instead of probability. The improved genetic algorithm is verified by a large number of simulation runs and compared with other algorithms. The experimental results show that the improved genetic algorithm performs remarkably well and outperforms its competitors.

The facility layout problem is one of the most fundamental quadratic assignment problems in operations research. In this paper, we present an improved genetic algorithm for solving the facility layout problem. In our computational model, we propose several improvements to the basic genetic procedures including conditional crossover and mutation. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on some benchmark problems. Computational results showed that the improved genetic algorithm is capable of producing high-quality solutions.

In this paper, we present a modified genetic algorithm for solving combinatorial optimization problems. The modified genetic algorithm in which crossover and mutation are performed conditionally instead of probabilistically has higher global and local search ability and is more easily applied to a problem than the conventional genetic algorithms. Three optimization problems are used to test the performances of the modified genetic algorithm. Experimental studies show that the modified genetic algorithm produces better results over the conventional one and other methods.

In this paper, we present a hill-shift learning method of the Hopfield neural network for bipartite subgraph problem. The method uses the Hopfield neural network to get a near-maximum bipartite subgraph, and shifts the local minimum of energy function by adjusts the balance between two terms in the energy function to help the network escape from the state of the near-maximum bipartite subgraph to the state of the maximum bipartite subgraph or better one. A large number of instances are simulated to verify the proposed method with the simulation results showing that the solution quality is superior to that of best existing parallel algorithm.