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Using MAP-Elites to support policy making around Workforce Scheduling and Routing (2020)
Journal Article
Urquhart, N., Hart, E., & Hutcheson, W. (2020). Using MAP-Elites to support policy making around Workforce Scheduling and Routing. Automatisierungstechnik, 68(2), https://doi.org/10.1515/auto-2019-0107

English abstract: Algorithms such as MAP-Elites provide a means of allowing users to explore a solution space by returning an archive of high-performing solutions. Such an archive, can allow the user an overview of the solution space which may be use... Read More about Using MAP-Elites to support policy making around Workforce Scheduling and Routing.

Increasing Trust in Meta-Heuristics by Using MAP-Elites (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., Guckert, M., & Powers, S. (2019). Increasing Trust in Meta-Heuristics by Using MAP-Elites. In GECCO '19 Companion (1345-1348). https://doi.org/10.1145/3319619.3326816

Intelligent AI systems using approaches containing emergent elements often encounter acceptance problems. Results do not get sufficiently explained and the procedure itself can not be fully retraced because the flow of control is dependent on stochas... Read More about Increasing Trust in Meta-Heuristics by Using MAP-Elites.

An Illumination Algorithm Approach to Solving the Micro-Depot Routing Problem (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., Hoehl, S., & Hart, E. (2019). An Illumination Algorithm Approach to Solving the Micro-Depot Routing Problem. In GECCO '19: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (1347-1355). https://doi.org/10.1145/3321707.3321767

An increasing emphasis on reducing pollution and congestion in city centres combined with an increase in online shopping is changing the ways in which logistics companies address vehicle routing problems (VRP). We introduce the {\em micro-depot}-VRP,... Read More about An Illumination Algorithm Approach to Solving the Micro-Depot Routing Problem.

Simulating Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems with Athos (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Hoffman, B., Guckert, M., Chalmers, K., & Urquhart, N. (2019). Simulating Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems with Athos. In Proceedings of the 33rd International ECMS Conference on Modelling and Simulation ECMS 2019 (296-302). https://doi.org/10.7148/2019-0296

Complex routing problems, such as vehicle routing problems with additional constraints, are both hard to solve and hard to express in a form that is accessible to the human expert and at the same time processible by a computer system that is supposed... Read More about Simulating Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems with Athos.

An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., & Powers, S. T. (2019). An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems. In PAAMS 2019: Advances in Practical Applications of Survivable Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: The PAAMS Collection: vol 1 – Main track and Demos proceedings (285-289). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24209-1_32

We present an agent based framework for improving multi-stakeholder optimisation problems, which we define as optimisation problems where the solution is utilised by a number of stakeholders who have their own local preferences. We explore our ideas... Read More about An Agent Based Technique for Improving Multi-Stakeholder Optimisation Problems.

Quantifying the effects of increasing user choice in MAP-Elites applied to a Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problem. (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., Hart, E., & Hutcheson, W. (2019). Quantifying the effects of increasing user choice in MAP-Elites applied to a Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problem. In EvoApplications 2019: Applications of Evolutionary Computation (49-63). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16692-2_4

Quality-diversity algorithms such as MAP-Elites provide a means of supporting the users when finding and choosing solutions to a problem by returning a set of solutions which are diverse according to set of user-defined features. The number of soluti... Read More about Quantifying the effects of increasing user choice in MAP-Elites applied to a Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problem..

Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Hoffman, B., Chalmers, K., Urquhart, N., & Guckert, M. (2019). Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems. . https://doi.org/10.1145/3300111.3300114

Implementing solutions for optimisation problems with general purpose high-level programming languages is a time consuming task that can only be carried out by professional software developers who typically are not domain experts. We address this pro... Read More about Athos - A Model Driven Approach to Describe and Solve Optimisation Problems.

Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems (2018)
Journal Article
Andras, P., Esterle, L., Guckert, M., Anh Han, T., Lewis, P. R., Milanovic, K., …Wells, S. (2018). Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems. IEEE technology & society magazine, 37(4), 76-83. https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2018.2876107

Intelligent machines have reached capabilities that go beyond a level that a human being can fully comprehend without sufficiently detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The choice of moves in the game Go (generated by Deep Mind?s Alpha... Read More about Trusting Intelligent Machines: Deepening Trust Within Socio-Technical Systems.

Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., & Hart, E. (2018). Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites. In Parallel Problem Solving from Nature – PPSN XV 15th International Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, September 8–12, 2018, Proceedings, Part I. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99253-2_39

Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problems (WSRP) are very common in many practical domains, and usually have a number of objectives. Illumination algorithms such as Map-Elites (ME) have recently gained traction in application to design problems, in p... Read More about Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-world Workforce Scheduling and Routing Application via Map-Elites.

A new rich vehicle routing problem model and benchmark resource (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Sim, K., Hart, E., Urquhart, N. B., & Pigden, T. (2018). A new rich vehicle routing problem model and benchmark resource. In Advances in Evolutionary and Deterministic Methods for Design, Optimization and Control in Engineering and Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89988-6_30

We describe a new rich VRP model that captures many real-world constraints, following a recently proposed taxonomy that addresses both scenario and problem physical characteristics. The model is used to generate 4800 new instances of rich VRPs which... Read More about A new rich vehicle routing problem model and benchmark resource.

Towards reducing complexity of multi-agent simulations by applying model-driven techniques (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Hoffman, B., Chalmers, K., Urquhart, N., Farrenkopf, T., & Guckert, M. (2018). Towards reducing complexity of multi-agent simulations by applying model-driven techniques. In Y. Demazeau, B. An, J. Bajo, & A. Fernández-Caballero (Eds.), Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Complexity: The PAAMS Collection. PAAMS 2018 (187-199). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94580-4_15

Creating multi-agent simulations is a challenging task often requiring programming skills at the professional software developer level. Model driven methods of software development are an appropriate tool for reducing the complexity of the developmen... Read More about Towards reducing complexity of multi-agent simulations by applying model-driven techniques.

A Domain-Specific Language For Routing Problems (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Hoffmann, B., Hoffman, B., Guckert, M., Farrenkopf, T., Chalmers, K., & Urquhart, N. (2018). A Domain-Specific Language For Routing Problems. In L. Nolle, A. Burger, C. Tholen, J. Werner, & J. Wellhausen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MODELLING AND SIMULATION. https://doi.org/10.7148/2018-0262

Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) are commonly used as benchmark optimisation problems and they also have many applications in industry. Using agent-based approaches to solve VRPs allows the analysis of dynamic VRP instances that incorporate congestion... Read More about A Domain-Specific Language For Routing Problems.

Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N. (2018). Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts. In Applications of Evolutionary Computation (523-537). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77538-8_36

EvoFilter is an evolutionary algorithm based tool for searching through large non-dominated fronts in order to find a subset of solutions that are of interest to the user. EvoFilter is designed to take the output of existing Multi Objective Evolutio... Read More about Evaluating the Performance of an Evolutionary Tool for Exploring Solution Fronts.

Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem (2017)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N. (2017). Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem. In GECCO ’17 Companion, B (1335-1340). https://doi.org/10.1145/3067695.3082485

Optimisation problems based upon real-world instances often contain many objectives. Many existing Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm techniques return a set of solutions from which the user must make a final selection; typically such a set of so... Read More about Combining parallel coordinates with multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in a real-world optimisation problem.

A Unifying Software Framework for Vehicle Routing and Logistics (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Enenkel, J., Geyer, J., Keiner, J., Nguyen, J., Steuler, J. L., & Urquhart, N. (2017, July). A Unifying Software Framework for Vehicle Routing and Logistics. Paper presented at Annual Workshop of the EURO Working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics optimization (VeRoLog), Amsterdam

A wide range of open source tools and real world data are available to support those working on vehicle routing and logistics optimisation. Despite such tools being available there is still a requirement for a unifying software API to allow researche... Read More about A Unifying Software Framework for Vehicle Routing and Logistics.

Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem (2017)
Conference Proceeding
Urquhart, N., & Fonzone, A. (2017). Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem. In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2017 (1264-1271). https://doi.org/10.1145/3071178.3071207

Agencies who provide social care services typically have to optimise staff allocations and the travel whilst attempting to satisfy conflicting objectives. In such cases it is desirable to have a range of solutions to choose from, allowing the agenc... Read More about Evolving solution choice and decision support for a real-world optimisation problem.

Information Diffusion in Multi-Agent Communities (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., Urquhart, N., & Wells, S. (2017, June). Information Diffusion in Multi-Agent Communities. Paper presented at 6th World Congress of the International Microsimulation Association, Moncalieri, Italy

Understanding the course of events when newly launched products penetrate a market, and how those products supersede existing dominant products, is crucial. Besides potential applications for business purposes the ability to simulate scenarios to mod... Read More about Information Diffusion in Multi-Agent Communities.

Ontology Based Business Simulations (2016)
Journal Article
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., Urquhart, N., & Wells, S. (2016). Ontology Based Business Simulations. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 19(4), https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.3266

Within business games there is a need to provide realistic feedback for decisions made, if such business games are to continue to remain relevant in increasingly complex business environments. We address this problem by using soware agents to simula... Read More about Ontology Based Business Simulations.

Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations (2016)
Conference Proceeding
Farrenkopf, T., Guckert, M., Urquhart, N. B., & Wells, S. (2016). Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations. In Advances in Practical Applications of Scalable Multi-agent Systems. The PAAMS Collection (256-259). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39324-7_25

Simulations of real world scenarios often require considerably large numbers of agents. With increasing level of detail and resolution in the underlying models machine limitations both in the aspect of memory and computing power are reached. Even... Read More about Demo paper: AGADE - Scalability of ontology based agent simulations.