A Cultural Algorithm with Operator Parameters Control for Solving Timetabling Problems

A cultural algorithm, together with a set of new operators for the timetabling problem(TP), is proposed in this paper. The new operators extract information about the problem during the evolutionary process, and they are combined with some previously proposed operators, in order to improve the performance of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is tested with a benchmark of 20 instances, and compared with respect to three other algorithms: two evolutionary algorithms and a simulated annealing algorithm which won an international competition on TP.

[1]  M. Ghiselin,et al.  Coevolution: Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity , 1991, Politics and the Life Sciences.

[2]  Franz Rothlauf,et al.  Network Random KeysA Tree Representation Scheme for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms , 2002, Evolutionary Computation.

[3]  Zbigniew Michalewicz,et al.  Parameter Control in Evolutionary Algorithms , 2007, Parameter Setting in Evolutionary Algorithms.

[4]  R. Reynolds AN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ALGORITHMS , 2008 .

[5]  T. M. English Proceedings of the third annual conference on evolutionary programming: A.V. Sebald and L.J. Fogel, River Edge, NJ: World Scientific, ISBN 981-02-1810-9, 371 pages, hardbound, $78 , 1995 .

[6]  Carlos A. Coello Coello,et al.  Adding Knowledge And Efficient Data Structures To Evolutionary Programming: A Cultural Algorithm For Constrained Optimization , 2002, GECCO.

[7]  Franz Rothlauf,et al.  Redundant Representations for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms , 2002 .

[8]  Ben Paechter,et al.  New crossover operators for timetabling with evolutionary algorithms. , 2004 .

[9]  Ben Paechter,et al.  A memetic algorithm for the university course timetabling. , 2004 .

[10]  Michael Sampels,et al.  Ant Algorithms for the University Course Timetabling Problem with Regard to the State-of-the-Art , 2003, EvoWorkshops.

[11]  Rolf Drechsler,et al.  Applications of Evolutionary Computing, EvoWorkshops 2008: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoHOT, EvoIASP, EvoMUSART, EvoNUM, EvoSTOC, and EvoTransLog, Naples, Italy, March 26-28, 2008. Proceedings , 2008, EvoWorkshops.

[12]  Robert G. Reynolds,et al.  CAEP: An Evolution-Based Tool for Real-Valued Function Optimization Using Cultural Algorithms , 1998, Int. J. Artif. Intell. Tools.

[13]  Marcel Bergerman,et al.  Cultural algorithms: concepts and experiments , 2000, Proceedings of the 2000 Congress on Evolutionary Computation. CEC00 (Cat. No.00TH8512).

[14]  Franz Rothlauf,et al.  Representations for genetic and evolutionary algorithms , 2002, Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing.

[15]  Martin H. Levinson Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution , 2006 .

[16]  P A Kostuch,et al.  Timetabling Competition - SA-based Heuristic , 2003 .