Constraint Handling in Metaheuristics and Applications

This book aims to discuss the core and underlying principles and analysis of the different constraint handling approaches. The main emphasis of the book is on providing an enriched literature on mathematical modelling of the test as well as real-world problems with constraints, and further development of generalized constraint handling techniques. These techniques may be incorporated in suitable metaheuristics providing a solid optimized solution to the problems and applications being addressed. The book comprises original contributions with an aim to develop and discuss generalized constraint handling approaches/techniques for the metaheuristics and/or the applications being addressed. A variety of novel as well as modified and hybridized techniques have been discussed in the book. The conceptual as well as the mathematical level in all the chapters is well within the grasp of the scientists as well as the undergraduate and graduate students from the engineering and computer science streams. The reader is encouraged to have basic knowledge of probability and mathematical analysis and optimization. The book also provides critical review of the contemporary constraint handling approaches. The contributions of the book may further help to explore new avenues leading towards multidisciplinary research discussions. This book is a complete reference for engineers, scientists, and students studying/working in the optimization, artificial intelligence (AI), or computational intelligence arena. 

Anand J Kulkarni holds a PhD in Distributed Optimization from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, MS in Artificial Intelligence from University of Regina, Canada, Bachelor of Engineering from Shivaji University, India and Diploma from the Board of Technical Education, Mumbai. He worked as a Research Fellow on a Cross-border Supply-chain Disruption project at Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Canada. Anand was Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), Pune, India for three years. Currently, he is Associate Professor at the Symbiosis Center for Research and Innovation, SIU. His research interests include optimization algorithms, multi-objective optimization, continuous, discrete and combinatorial optimization, multi-agent systems, complex systems, probability collectives, swarm optimization, game theory, self-organizing systems and fault-tolerant systems. Anand pioneered socio-inspired optimization methodologies such as Cohort Intelligence, Ideology Algorithm, Expectation Algorithm, Socio Evolution & Learning Optimization algorithm. He is the founder and chairman of the Optimization and Agent Technology (OAT) Research Lab and has published over 60 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, chapters and conferences along with 4 authored and 5 edited books.Dr Efrén Mezura-Montes is a full-time researcher with the Artificial Intelligence Research Center at the University of Veracruz, MEXICO. His research interests are the design, analysis and application of bio-inspired algorithms to solve complex optimization problems. He has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He also has one edited book and over 11 book chapters published by international publishing companies. From his work, Google Scholar reports over 6,900 citations. Dr Mezura-Montes is a member of the editorial board of the journals: “Swarm and Evolutionary Computation”, “Complex & Intelligent Systems”, “International Journal of Dynamics and Control”, the “Journal of Optimization” and the “International Journal of Students' Research in Technology & Management”. He is a former member of the editorial board of the journals “Computational Optimization and Applications” and “Soft Computing”. He is also a reviewer for more than 20 international specialized journals, including the MIT Press Evolutionary Computation Journal, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation and the IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. Dr Mezura-Montes is a member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Evolutionary Computation Technical Committee and he is the founder of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society task force on Nature-Inspired Constrained Optimization. He is a member of the IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics Society Soft Computing Technical Committee. He is also regular member of the Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs). Dr Mezura-Montes is a Level-2 member of the Mexican National