Search results for "PROB"
showing 10 items of 8859 documents
Meta-heuristic Algorithms for Nesting Problem of Rectangular Pieces
2017
Abstract Nesting problems consist of placing multiple items onto larger shapes finding a good arrangement. The goal of the nesting process is to minimize the waste of material. It is common to assume, as in the present work, that the stock sheet has fixed width and infinite height, since in the real world a company may have to cut pieces from a roll of material. The complexity of such problems is often faced with a two-stage approach, so-called “hybrid algorithm”, combining a placement routine and a meta-heuristic algorithm. Starting from a given positioning sequence, the placement routine generates a non-overlapping configuration. The encoded solution is manipulated and modified by the met…
Game Theoretic Decentralized Feedback Controls in Markov Jump Processes
2017
This paper studies a decentralized routing problem over a network, using the paradigm of mean-field games with large number of players. Building on a state-space extension technique, we turn the problem into an optimal control one for each single player. The main contribution is an explicit expression of the optimal decentralized control which guarantees the convergence both to local and to global equilibrium points. Furthermore, we study the stability of the system also in the presence of a delay which we model using an hysteresis operator. As a result of the hysteresis, we prove existence of multiple equilibrium points and analyze convergence conditions. The stability of the system is ill…
GRASP and tabu search for the generalized dispersion problem
2021
Abstract The problem of maximizing dispersion requires the selection of a specific number of elements from a given set, in such a way that the minimum distance between the pairs of selected elements is maximized. In recent years, this problem has received a lot of attention and has been solved with many complex heuristics. However, there is a recent variant in which the selected elements have to satisfy two realistic constraints, a minimum capacity limit and a maximum budget, which in spite of its practical significance in facility location, has received little attention. In this paper, we first propose mathematical models to obtain the optimal solution of small- and medium-size instances, …
The probabilistic pickup-and-delivery travelling salesman problem
2019
Abstract Transportation problems are essential in commercial logistics and have been widely studied in the literature during the last decades. Many of them consist in designing routes for vehicles to move commodities between locations. This article approaches a pickup-and-delivery single-vehicle routing problem where there is susceptibility to uncertainty in customer requests. The probability distributions of the requests are assumed to be known, and the objective is to design an a priori route with minimum expected length. The problem has already been approached in the literature, but through a heuristic method. This article proposes the first exact approach to the problem. Two mathematica…
A Hierarchical Learning Scheme for Solving the Stochastic Point Location Problem
2012
Published version of a chapter in the book: Advanced Research in Applied Artificial Intelligence. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31087-4_78 This paper deals with the Stochastic-Point Location (SPL) problem. It presents a solution which is novel in both philosophy and strategy to all the reported related learning algorithms. The SPL problem concerns the task of a Learning Mechanism attempting to locate a point on a line. The mechanism interacts with a random environment which essentially informs it, possibly erroneously, if the unknown parameter is on the left or the right of a given point which also is the current guess. The first pioneering work […
Decomposition and Mean-Field Approach to Mixed Integer Optimal Compensation Problems
2016
Mixed integer optimal compensation deals with optimization problems with integer- and real-valued control variables to compensate disturbances in dynamic systems. The mixed integer nature of controls could lead to intractability in problems of large dimensions. To address this challenge, we introduce a decomposition method which turns the original n-dimensional optimization problem into n independent scalar problems of lot sizing form. Each of these problems can be viewed as a two-player zero-sum game, which introduces some element of conservatism. Each scalar problem is then reformulated as a shortest path one and solved through linear programming over a receding horizon, a step that mirro…
Buckling and post-buckling analysis of cracked stiffened panels via an X-Ritz method
2019
Abstract A multi-domain eXtended Ritz formulation, called X-Ritz, for the analysis of buckling and post-buckling of stiffened panels with cracks is presented. The theoretical framework is based on the First-order Shear Deformation Theory and accounts for von Karman's geometric nonlinearities. The structure is modeled as assembly of plate elements. Penalty techniques are used to fulfill the continuity condition along the edges of contiguous elements and to satisfy essential boundary conditions requirements. The use of an extended set of approximating functions allows to model through-the-thickness cracks and to capture the crack opening and tip singular fields as well as the structural behav…
A singular elliptic equation and a related functional
2021
We study a class of Dirichlet boundary value problems whose prototype is [see formula in PDF] where 0 < p < 1 and f belongs to a suitable Lebesgue space. The main features of this problem are the presence of a singular term |u|p−2u and a datum f which possibly changes its sign. We introduce a notion of solution in this singular setting and we prove an existence result for such a solution. The motivation of our notion of solution to problem above is due to a minimization problem for a non–differentiable functional on [see formula in PDF] whose formal Euler–Lagrange equation is an equation of that type. For nonnegative solutions a uniqueness result is obtained.
Crowd-Averse Robust Mean-Field Games: Approximation via State Space Extension
2016
We consider a population of dynamic agents, also referred to as players. The state of each player evolves according to a linear stochastic differential equation driven by a Brownian motion and under the influence of a control and an adversarial disturbance. Every player minimizes a cost functional which involves quadratic terms on state and control plus a cross-coupling mean-field term measuring the congestion resulting from the collective behavior, which motivates the term “crowd-averse.” Motivations for this model are analyzed and discussed in three main contexts: a stock market application, a production engineering example, and a dynamic demand management problem in power systems. For th…
The magnitude of a product recall: offshore outsourcing vs. captive offshoring effects
2018
The escalation in product recalls in recent years is attributed to the rise of globalisation and associated challenges of offshoring. Extant SCM research suggests that product recalls have a significant negative impact on financial performance, but gaps exist relative to the managerial actions to minimise their impact. Recall response strategies have become more important in the press, given that a single recall may result in the mandatory withdrawal of millions of products from the market, with firms incurring enormous logistics costs and brand damage. In this study, we address this gap in the research, and using a measure of product recall defined as the volume of products withdrawn from …