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Hyper-heuristics. (2005)
Book Chapter
Ross, P. (2005). Hyper-heuristics. In E. Burke, & G. Kendall (Eds.), Search Methodologies: Introductory Tutorials in Optimization and Decision Support Techniques (529-556). Springer-Verlag

This chapter introduces and overviews an emerging methodology in search and optimisation. One of the key aims of these new approaches, which have been termed hyper-heuristics, is to raise the level of generality at which optimisation systems can oper... Read More about Hyper-heuristics..

Improving vehicle routing using a customer waiting time colony. (2004)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Sa'adah, S., Ross, P., & Paechter, B. (2004, April). Improving vehicle routing using a customer waiting time colony

In the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW), there are two main objectives. The primary objective is to reduce the number of vehicles, the secondary one is to minimise the total distance travelled by all vehicles. This paper describes so... Read More about Improving vehicle routing using a customer waiting time colony..

Genetic algorithms and timetabling (2003)
Book Chapter
Ross, P., Hart, E., & Corne, D. (2003). Genetic algorithms and timetabling. In A. Ghosh, & K. Tsutsui (Eds.), Advances in Evolutionary Optimisation. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18965-4_30

Genetic algorithms can be used to search very large spaces, and it would seem natural to use them for tackling the nastier kinds of timetabling problem. We completed an EPSRC-funded project on this last year, and distribute a free package that handle... Read More about Genetic algorithms and timetabling.

Requirements for getting a robot to grow-up (2003)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ross, P., Hart, E., Lawson, A., Webb, A., Prem, E., Poelz, P., & Morgavi, G. (2003, September). Requirements for getting a robot to grow-up. Presented at 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany

Much of current robot research is about learning tasks in which the task to be achieved is pre-specified, a suitable technology for the task is chosen and the learning process is then experimentally investigated. In this paper we discuss a different... Read More about Requirements for getting a robot to grow-up.

Routing using evolutionary agents and proactive transitions. (2003)
Book Chapter
Urquhart, N. B., Ross, P., Paechter, B., & Chisholm, K. (2003). Routing using evolutionary agents and proactive transitions. In Applications of Evolutionary Computing (696-705). Springer-Verlag

The authors have previously introduced the concept of building a delivery network using an agent-based system. The delivery networks are built in response to a real-world problem that involves delivering post to a large number of households within an... Read More about Routing using evolutionary agents and proactive transitions..

Controlling a simulated Khepera with an XCS classifier system with memory. (2003)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Webb, A., Hart, E., Ross, P., & Lawson, A. (2003, September). Controlling a simulated Khepera with an XCS classifier system with memory. Presented at 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 2003: Advances in Artificial Life

Autonomous agents commonly suffer from perceptual aliasing in which differing situations are perceived as identical by the robots sensors, yet require different courses of action. One technique for addressing this problem is to use additional interna... Read More about Controlling a simulated Khepera with an XCS classifier system with memory..

A systematic investigation of GA performance on jobshop scheduling problems. (2003)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (2000, April). A systematic investigation of GA performance on jobshop scheduling problems. Presented at EvoWorkshops 2000: EvoIASP, EvoSCONDI, EvoTel, EvoSTIM, EvoRob, and EvoFlight, Edinburgh

Although there has been a wealth of work reported in the literature on the application of genetic algorithms (GAs) to jobshop scheduling problems, much of it contains some gross over-generalisations, i.e that the observed performance of a GA on a sma... Read More about A systematic investigation of GA performance on jobshop scheduling problems..

Combining choices of heuristics. (2002)
Book Chapter
Ross, P., & Hart, E. (2002). Combining choices of heuristics. In R. Sarker, M. Mohammadian, & X. Yao (Eds.), Evolutionary Optimization (229-252). Kluwer

Exploiting the analogy between immunology and sparse distributed memory. (2002)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (2002, September). Exploiting the analogy between immunology and sparse distributed memory. Presented at ICARIS 2002

The relationship between immunological memory and a class of associative memories known as sparse distributed memories (SDM) is well known. This paper proposes a new model for clustering non-stationary data based on a combination of salient features... Read More about Exploiting the analogy between immunology and sparse distributed memory..

Solving a real world routing problem using multiple evolutionary algorithms. (2002)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Urquhart, N. B., Ross, P., Paechter, B., & Chisholm, K. (2002, September). Solving a real world routing problem using multiple evolutionary algorithms. Presented at 7th International Conference PPSN: International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature-, Granada, Spain

This paper investigates the solving of a real world routing problem using evolutionary algorithms embedded within a Multi-agent system (MAS). An architecture for the MAS is proposed and mechanisms for controlling the interactions of agents are invest... Read More about Solving a real world routing problem using multiple evolutionary algorithms..

Clustering Moving Data with a Modified Immune Algorithm (2001)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (2001, April). Clustering Moving Data with a Modified Immune Algorithm. Presented at Workshops on Applications of Evolutionary Computation EvoWorkshops 2001, Como, Italy

In this paper we present a prototype of a new model for performing clustering in large, non-static databases. Although many machine learning algorithms for data clustering have been proposed, none appear to specifically address the task of clustering... Read More about Clustering Moving Data with a Modified Immune Algorithm.

Enhancing the performance of a GA through visualisation. (2000)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (2000, July). Enhancing the performance of a GA through visualisation. Presented at GECCO 2000

This article describes a new tool for visualising genetic algorithms, (GAs) which is designed in order to allow the implicit mechanisms
of the GA | i.e. crossover and mutation | to be thoroughly analysed. This allows the user to determine whether th... Read More about Enhancing the performance of a GA through visualisation..

An immune system approach to scheduling in changing environments. (1999)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (1999, July). An immune system approach to scheduling in changing environments. Presented at Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference ; GECCO-99

This paper describes the application of an artificial immune system, (AIS), model to a scheduling application, in which sudden changes in the scheduling environment require the rapid production of new schedules. The model operates in two phases: In t... Read More about An immune system approach to scheduling in changing environments..

Scheduling chicken catching - an investigation into the success of a genetic algorithm on a real world scheduling problem. (1999)
Journal Article
Hart, E., Ross, P., & Nelson, J. (1999). Scheduling chicken catching - an investigation into the success of a genetic algorithm on a real world scheduling problem. Annals of Operations Research, 92, 363-380. https://doi.org/10.1023/A%3A1018951218434

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are a class of evolutionary algorithms that have been successfully
applied to scheduling problems, in particular job-shop and flow-shop type problems
where a number of theoretical benchmarks exist. This work applies a genet... Read More about Scheduling chicken catching - an investigation into the success of a genetic algorithm on a real world scheduling problem..

Some observations about GA-based exam timetabling. (1998)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ross, P., Hart, E., & Corne, D. (1997, August). Some observations about GA-based exam timetabling. Presented at Second International Conference, PATAT’97, Toronto, Canada

Although many people have tried using genetic algorithms (GAs) for exam timetabling, far fewer have done systematic investigations to try to determine whether a GA is a good choice of method or not. We have extensively studied GAs that use one partic... Read More about Some observations about GA-based exam timetabling..

An adaptive mutation scheme for a penalty-based graph-colouring GA. (1998)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Ross, P., & Hart, E. (1998, September). An adaptive mutation scheme for a penalty-based graph-colouring GA

The folklore of evolutionary algorithms still seems to contain some gross over-generalistions, such as that direct encodings are inferior to indirect ones, that penalty-function methods are often poor, and that observed performance on a few instances... Read More about An adaptive mutation scheme for a penalty-based graph-colouring GA..

A heuristic combination method for solving job-shop scheduling problems. (1998)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., & Ross, P. (1998, September). A heuristic combination method for solving job-shop scheduling problems

This paper describes a heuristic combination based genetic algorithm, (GA), for tackling dynamic job-shop scheduling problems. Our approach is novel in that the genome encodes a choice of algorithm to be used to produce a set of schedulable operation... Read More about A heuristic combination method for solving job-shop scheduling problems..

Producing robust schedules via an artificial immune system. (1998)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hart, E., Ross, P., & Nelson, J. (1998, May). Producing robust schedules via an artificial immune system

This paper describes an artificial immune system (AIS) approach
to producing robust schedules for a dynamic jobshop
scheduling problem in which jobs arrive continually,
and the environment is subject to change due to practical
reasons. We investi... Read More about Producing robust schedules via an artificial immune system..