Engineering Commons^™

A Binary Integer Linear Programming Model For Optimizing Underground Stope Layout, Theophilus Mensah

Masters Theses

"Underground mine planning engineers face significant challenges when determining what geometry provides the most profitable and safe stope for extraction. Several techniques and optimization algorithms have been developed in recent years, but most fail to find optimal solutions because they are heuristic or LP-based without efficient geometric constraints. This thesis work proposes a two-dimensional binary linear programming (BILP) model for determining the optimal combination of blocks in a stope that maximizes the economic value of the layout of stopes for a sublevel deposit. The work draws from Queyranne and Wolsey’s (2017 & 2018) formulations of tight constraints for bounded up/down …

Exact Models, Heuristics, And Supervised Learning Approaches For Vehicle Routing Problems, Zefeng Lyu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents contributions to the field of vehicle routing problems by utilizing exact methods, heuristic approaches, and the integration of machine learning with traditional algorithms. The research is organized into three main chapters, each dedicated to a specific routing problem and a unique methodology. The first chapter addresses the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Transshipments and Time Windows, a variant that permits product transfers between vehicles to enhance logistics flexibility and reduce costs. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient mixed-integer linear programming model that has been shown to outperform existing ones. The second chapter discusses a practical …

Optimal Inverter-Based Resource Installation To Minimize Technical Energy Losses In Distribution Systems, Felipe B. Dantas, Damasio Fernandes, Washington L.A. Neves, Alana K.X.B. Branco, Flavio Costa

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 2

This paper proposes an algorithm for the optimal installation of inverter-based resources (IBR) composed of wind energy conversion systems, photovoltaic systems, and battery energy storage systems in distribution systems using genetic algorithm (GA) and the cuckoo search (CS) as optimization techniques. The OpenDSS software is used to calculate the power flow in the distribution system with different penetration levels of IBRs. It is used a standard load shape of the IEEE 123 bus system programmed in OpenDSS and irradiance, temperature, and wind speed curves from Brazil. The proposed algorithm, using a genetic algorithm and cuckoo search, was able to define …

Designing Tomorrow's Reality: The Development And Validation Of An Augmented And Mixed Reality Heuristic Checklist, Jessyca Derby

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Augmented (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) are new and currently developing technologies. They have been used and shown promise and popularity in the domains of education, training, enterprise, retail, consumer products, and more. However, there is a lack of consistency and standards in AR and MR devices and applications. Interactions and standards in one application may drastically differ from another. This may make it difficult for users, especially those new to these technologies, to learn and feel comfortable using the devices or applications. It may also hinder the usability of the applications as designers may not follow proven techniques to …

Modeling And Solution Methodologies For Mixed-Model Sequencing In Automobile Industry, Ibrahim Ozan Yilmazlar

All Dissertations

The global competitive environment leads companies to consider how to produce high-quality products at a lower cost. Mixed-model assembly lines are often designed such that average station work satisfies the time allocated to each station, but some models with work-intensive options require more than the allocated time. Sequencing varying models in a mixed-model assembly line, mixed-model sequencing (MMS), is a short-term decision problem that has the objective of preventing line stoppage resulting from a station work overload. Accordingly, a good allocation of models is necessary to avoid work overload. The car sequencing problem (CSP) is a specific version of the …

Visibility Based Hospital Inpatient Unit Design., Uttam Karki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Patient fall is one of the adverse events in an inpatient unit of a hospital that can lead to disability and/or mortality. Healthcare literature suggests that increased visibility of patients by unit nurses is essential to improve patient monitoring and, in turn, reduce falls. However, such research has been descriptive in nature and does not provide an understanding of the characteristics of an optimal inpatient unit layout from a visibility-standpoint. This dissertation fills significant voids in this domain and adds much-needed realism to develop insights that hospital decision-makers can use to design their inpatient unit layout. Our first contribution (Chapter …

Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Algorithm – Performance Evaluation Under Parallel Schemes & Applications, Sandip Kumar

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) is a fairly recent yet popular single-solution heuristic for solving discrete optimization problems. Even though the heuristic has been a popular choice for researchers in recent times, the parallelization of this algorithm is not widely studied in the literature compared to the other classical metaheuristics. To extend the existing literature, this study proposes several different parallel schemes to parallelize the basic/sequential ALNS algorithm. More specifically, seven different parallel schemes are employed to target different characteristics of the ALNS algorithm and the capability of the local computers. The schemes of this study are implemented in a …

Design Of Environment Aware Planning Heuristics For Complex Navigation Objectives, Carter D. Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A heuristic is the simplified approximations that helps guide a planner in deducing the best way to move forward. Heuristics are valued in many modern AI algorithms and decision-making architectures due to their ability to drastically reduce computation time. Particularly in robotics, path planning heuristics are widely leveraged to aid in navigation and exploration. As the robotic platform explores and navigates, information about the world can and should be used to augment and update the heuristic to guide solutions. Complex heuristics that can account for environmental factors, robot capabilities, and desired actions provide optimal results with little wasted exploration, but …

Kernel Matrix-Based Heuristic Multiple Kernel Learning, Stanton R. Price, Derek T. Anderson, Timothy C. Havens, Steven R. Price

Michigan Tech Publications

Kernel theory is a demonstrated tool that has made its way into nearly all areas of machine learning. However, a serious limitation of kernel methods is knowing which kernel is needed in practice. Multiple kernel learning (MKL) is an attempt to learn a new tailored kernel through the aggregation of a set of valid known kernels. There are generally three approaches to MKL: fixed rules, heuristics, and optimization. Optimization is the most popular; however, a shortcoming of most optimization approaches is that they are tightly coupled with the underlying objective function and overfitting occurs. Herein, we take a different approach …

Using Heuristic Methods And Machine Learning To Enhance The Positional Accuracy Of Historical Geospatial Datasets, Pankaj Mani Dahal

Doctoral Dissertations

The recent availability of multiple geospatial datasets can be attributed to advancements in location-based technologies. The merging of various datasets, commonly known as conflation, is essential to strengthening the content of existing datasets by integrating information from various sources. However, complexities arise when these merged datasets contain distinct representations of the same real-world entities with differing accuracy, projections, data structure, and consideration of details. Although conflation has been an interest to researchers for a long time, the existing methods do not cater to the specific needs of some datasets. For example, historical datasets have lower resolution with richer attribute information, …

A Study Of Scheduling Problems With Sequence Dependent Restrictions And Preferences, Nitin Srinath

All Dissertations

In some applications like fabric dying, semiconductor wafer processing, and flexible manufacturing, the machines being used to process jobs must be set up and serviced frequently. These setup processes and associated setup times between jobs often depend on the jobs and the sequence in which jobs are placed onto machines. That is, the scheduling of jobs on machines must account for the sequence-dependent setup times as well. These setup times can be a major factor in operational costs. In fabric dyeing processes, the sequence in which jobs are processed is also important for quality, i.e., there is a strong preference …

Simulation-Based Optimization: Implications Of Complex Adaptive Systems And Deep Uncertainty, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Within the modeling and simulation community, simulation-based optimization has often been successfully used to improve productivity and business processes. However, the increased importance of using simulation to better understand complex adaptive systems and address operations research questions characterized by deep uncertainty, such as the need for policy support within socio-technical systems, leads to the necessity to revisit the way simulation can be applied in this new area. Similar observations can be made for complex adaptive systems that constantly change their behavior, which is reflected in a continually changing solution space. Deep uncertainty describes problems with inadequate or incomplete information about …

Building Competent Teams Of Experts Based On Project Completion Time And Skill Levels, Yalda Yazdanpanah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With many companies quickly expanding their sizes, building the best team of experts from the applicants has evolved into an interesting subject for computer-aided decision-making tasks. In this regard, the Team Formation Problem (TFP) has been well-studied in Artificial Intelligence and operations research literature in recent years. We consider a Team Formation Problem of assigning qualified experts to a given set of positions in a given set of projects where each position is to be filled with an expert with a required skill. In our setting, an expert can be quantitatively characterized by one level per skill, and each expert …

Automated Warehouse Systems: A Guideline For Future Research, Wenquan Dong

Doctoral Dissertations

This study aims to provide a comprehensive tool for the selection, design, and operation of automated warehouse systems considering multiple automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) options as well as different constraints and requirements from various business scenarios.

We first model the retrieval task scheduling problem in crane-based 3D AS/RS with shuttle-based depth movement mechanisms. We prove the problem is NP-hard and find an optimality condition to facilitate the development of an efficient heuristic. The heuristic demonstrates an advantage in terms of solving time and solution quality over the genetic algorithms and the other two algorithms taken from literature. Numerical …

Upshot Of Heterogeneous Catalysis In A Nanofluid Flow Over A Rotating Disk With Slip Effects And Entropy Optimization Analysis, Muhammad Ramzan, Saima Riasat, Jae Dong Chung, Yu-Ming Chu, M. Sheikholeslami, Seifedine Kadry, Fares Howari

All Works

The present study examines homogeneous (HOM)–heterogeneous (HET) reaction in magnetohydrodynamic flow through a porous media on the surface of a rotating disk. Preceding investigations mainly concentrated on the catalysis for the rotating disk; we modeled the impact of HET catalysis in a permeable media over a rotating disk with slip condition at the boundary. The HOM reaction is followed by isothermal cubic autocatalysis, however, the HET reactions occur on the surface governed by first-order kinetics. Additionally, entropy minimization analysis is also conducted for the envisioned mathematical model. The similarity transformations are employed to convert the envisaged model into a non-dimensional …

Distributed Estimation Algorithm For Multi-Dimensional Multi-Choice Knapsack Problem, Tan Yang, Liu Zhang, Zhou Hong

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: As it is difficult to realize local optimization of the Multidimensional Multiple-choice Knapsack Problem (MMKP), the Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (EDA) is applied to optimize the MMKP. In order to improve the local optimization ability of EDA, value weight factors of items for selection are built to improve the EDA initial model and probabilistic model updating methods. The impact of the extreme effects on the algorithm optimization process is balanced to overcome the defect that the local optimization ability of the traditional EDA is weak. A new non-feasible solution repair mechanism is adopted to maintain the facilitation of machine …

Comparison Of Novel Heuristic And Integer Programming Schedulers For The Usaf Space Surveillance Network, Kanit Dararutana

Theses and Dissertations

Space is a highly congested and contested domain begetting the importance of prioritizing the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) mission. With increased dependence on space assets, scheduling and tasking of the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) is vitally important to maintaining space dominance. According to the 2004 USSTRATCOM Strategic Directive 505-1 (SD 505-1) the SSN uses centralized tasking, with decentralized scheduling. Enhancing SSA within available resources is paramount, and the development of a centralized SSN scheduler to maximize performance is crucial. This research develops and compares novel scheduling models to a model reflecting the 2004 SD 505-1. Novel schedulers were developed to …

Heuristics For Client Assignment And Load Balancing Problems In Online Games, Shawn Michael Farlow

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have been very popular over the past decade. The infrastructure necessary to support a large number of players simultaneously playing these games raises interesting problems to solve. Since the computations involved in solving those problems need to be done while the game is being played, they should not be so expensive that they cause any noticeable slowdown, as this would lead to a poor player perception of the game. Many of the problems in MMOGs are NP-Hard or NP-Complete, therefore we must develop heuristics for those problems without negatively affecting the player experience as a …

Quantitative Methods For Select Problems In Facility Location And Facility Logistics, Bin Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presented three logistics problems. The first problem is a parallel machine scheduling problems that considers multiple unique characteristics including release dates, due dates, limited machine availability and job splitting. The objective of is to minimize the total amount of time required to complete work. A mixed integer programming model is presented and a heuristic is developed for solving the problem. The second problem extends the first parallel scheduling problem to include two additional practical considerations. The first is a setup time that occurs when warehouse staff change from one type of task to another. The second is a …

Dispatch Guided Allocation Optimization For Effective Emergency Response, Supriyo Ghosh, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Effective emergency (medical, fire or criminal) response iscrucial for improving safety and security in urban environments. Recent research in improving effectiveness of emergency management systems (EMSs) has utilized data-drivenoptimization models for efficient allocation of emergency response vehicles (ERVs) to base locations. However, thesedata-driven optimization models either ignore the dispatchstrategy of ERVs (typically the nearest available ERV is dispatched to serve an incident) or employ myopic approaches(e.g., greedy approach based on marginal gain). This resultsin allocations that are not synchronised with the real evolution dynamics on the ground or can be improved significantly.To bridge this gap, we make the following contributions: …

Methodologies For Solving Integrated Transportation And Scheduling Problems, Fereydoun Adbesh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes novel solution techniques to optimize two real-world problems in the area of scheduling and transportation. We first consider a model for optimizing the operations of dredges. In this problem, scheduling and assignment decisions are integrated across a finite planning horizon. Additional constraints and problem elements explicitly considered include, but are not limited, to environmental work window restrictions, budget limitations, dredge operation rates and schedule-dependent dredge availability. Our approach makes use of Constraint Programming (CP) to obtain quality and robust solutions within an amount of time small enough to be useful to practitioners. The expanded feature set of …

Loading Time Flexibility In Cross-Docking Systems, Dincer Konur, Mihalis M. Golias

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, we investigate truck-to-door assignment problem for loading outgoing trucks in a cross-docking system with flexible handling times. Specifically, a truck's loading time depends on the number of workers assigned to the outbound door, where the truck is being loaded. An optimization problem is formulated to jointly determine the number of workers and the trucks to be loaded at each door. The resulting problem is a nonlinear integer programming model. Due to the complexity of this model, two evolutionary heuristic methods are proposed for solution. First heuristic method is based on truck assignments while the second heuristic is …

A Metaheuristic Based On The Tabu Search For Hardware-Software Partitioning, Mehdi Jemai, Sonia Dimassi, Bouraoui Ouni, Abdellatif Mtibaa

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Several metaheuristics have become increasingly interesting in solving combinatorial problems. In this paper, we present an algorithm involving a metaheuristic based on tabu search and binary search trees to address the problem of hardware-software partitioning. Metaheuristics do not guarantee an optimum solution, but they can produce acceptable solutions in a reasonable time. Our proposed algorithm seeks to find the efficient hardware-software partitioning that minimizes the logic area of a system on a programmable chip under the condition of time constraints. Our goal is to have a better trade-off between the logic area of the application and its execution time. Finally, …

Adaptive Scheduling For Operating Room Management, Honghan Ye

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The perioperative process in hospitals can be modelled as a 3-stage no-wait flow shop. The utilization of OR units and the average waiting time of patients are related to makespan and total completion time, respectively. However, minimizations of makespan and total completion time are NP-hard and NP-complete. Consequently, achieving good effectiveness and efficiency is a challenge in no-wait flow shop scheduling. The average idle time (AIT) and current and future idle time (CFI) heuristics are proposed to minimize makespan and total completion time, respectively. To improve effectiveness, current idle times and future idle times are taken into consideration …

Modeling Mental Workload Via Rule-Based Expert System: A Comparison With Nasa-Tlx & Workload Profile, Lucas Rizzo, Sarah Jane Delany, Pierpaolo Dondio, Luca Longo

Conference papers

In the last few decades several fields have made use of the construct of human mental workload (MWL) for system and task design as well as for assessing human performance. Despite this interest, MWL remains a nebulous concept with multiple definitions and measurement techniques. State-of-the-art models of MWL are usually ad-hoc, considering different pools of pieces of evidence aggregated with different inference strategies. In this paper the aim is to deploy a rule-based expert system as a more structured approach to model and infer MWL. This expert system is built upon a knowledge-base of an expert and transates into computable …

Optimal Configuration Of Inspection And Rework Stations In A Multistage Flexible Flowline, Md. Shahriar Jahan Hossain

LSU Master's Theses

Inspection and rework are two important issues of quality control. In this research, an N-stage flowline is considered to make decisions on these two issues. When defective items are detected at the inspection station the items are either scrapped or reworked. A reworkable item may be repaired at the regular defect-creating workstation or at a dedicated off-line rework station. Two problems (end-of-line and multistage inspections) are considered here to deal with this situation. The end-of-line inspection (ELI) problem considers an inspection station located at the end of the line while the multistage inspection (MSI) problem deals with multiple in-line inspection …

Short Term Strategies For Solving A Variant Of Period Vehicle Routing Problem, Hsiu-Li Hsu, Ching-Wu Chu, Chao-Sheng Wu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

A company faces a variant of Period Vehicle Routing Problem (PVRP). Because of seasonal fluctuation in demand, the company outsources delivery to avoid maintaining excess vehicles or facing vehicle shortages. Customer orders can be classified into two groups, those that must be satisfied within two days, and those that must be fulfilled within three days. Currently, the company satisfies most orders the next day based on experience rather than any formal system. The objective of the studied company is to satisfy all received orders and minimize monthly transportation costs. This study proposes two short term strategies for the studied company. …

The Epistemological Basis Of Engineering, And Its Reflection In The Modern Engineering Curriculum, Mike Murphy, William Grimson

Books/Book chapters

Perhaps unlike other professions, engineering is strangely difficult to define or describe. This is nowhere as evident as when an attempt is made to articulate its epis-temological basis. Engineering has a rich and complex ‘gene pool’ which goes back to when people first built shelters and shaped implements for agricultural purposes. Throughout the ages one constant characteristic of engineering has been its readiness to avail of whatever material is on hand together with whatever knowledge or skill is available to meet the challenge of enhancing an object or making something which nev-er previously existed. On occasion engineers have created new …

A Preventive Maintenance Framework In Dairy Production Operations, Maria F. Vargas

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Dairy operations suffer frequent stops. Product shrinkage is a consequence of downtime, which includes losses of packaging material, scraped finish product and capacity. This work proposes a troubleshooting methodology to identify causes of downtime, estimation of waste cost, and minimization of operation disruptions by applying a combination of a cost function to assess waste, and performance measurements. The drinkable yogurt process is evaluated to find the principal areas for wasted bottles and yogurt. In order to make a decision about which of those sources to address, a General Cost Function is used to estimate waste cost which include measurements that …

A Heuristic Approach To The Theater Distribution Problem, Emily K. Power

Theses and Dissertations

Analysts at USTRANSCOM are tasked with providing vehicle mixtures that will support the distribution of requirements as provided in the form of TPFDD. An integer programming model exists to search for optimal solutions to these problems, but it is fairly time consuming, and produces only one of potentially several good quality solutions. This research constructs a number of heuristic approaches to solving the TDP. Two distinct shipping methods are examined and applied through both constructive and probabilistic vehicle assignment processes. Multistart metaheuristic approaches are designed and used in conjunction with the constructive and probabilistic approaches. Random TPFDDs of size 20, …