Human-computer Cooperative Brain Storm
Optimization Algorithm for the Two-echelon
Vehicle Routing Problem
Xueming Yan
∗
, Zhifeng Hao
†
, Han Huang
‡
(Corresponding Author)* and Gang Li
§
∗
School of Computer Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology Guangzhou, China
†
School of Mathematics and Big Data, Foshan University, Foshan, China
‡
School of Software Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, 510006,
Email:hhan@scut.edu.cn
§
School of Computer and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Abstract—This paper presents a human-computer coop-
erative brain storm optimization algorithm, which is based
on an improved brain storm optimization algorithm with
human intelligence in computer game. In our algorithm,
the initial population is provided with some better ideas
obtained by computer game. Moreover, converging oper-
ation and diverging operation also employ the solutions
from different players to generate ideas during evolution
process. With the help of human-machine cooperation, our
algorithm, integrating strategy development capabilities of
players with brain storm optimization algorithm, is applied
to solve some complex optimized problems. We apply the
proposed method to two-echelon vehicle routing problem
to verify its effectiveness and usefulness.
I. INTRODUCTION
Lenat and Feigenbaum [1] first proposed the idea
on human-machine cooperation in 1991. Recently, the
rapid growth of information systems has led to the wide
development of research on human-machine relationship.
Some new human-machine cooperation approaches are
necessary to be introduced by this trend [2]. According
to this idea, we attempt to take into account the inte-
gration of human strategy developing capabilities with
optimization algorithms for solving various scientific and
engineering problems. People exert great amounts of
problem-solving effort on playing computer games. For
example, protein structures prediction tasks have been
successfully through games [3]. However, it is not clear
whether more complex scientific problems can be solved
with the combination of human-direct computing and
traditional computational algorithms through multiplayer
games.
Many approaches are proposed to solve two-echelon
vehicle routing problems [4]. However, researchers still
believe that it is necessary to develop new methods
and technologies for optimizing, using the resources
presently available for reducing the impact of different
sources of nuisance [5]. Two-echelon vehicle routing
problems deal with how to find a set of primary and
secondary routes, with which the demand of all cus-
tomers is satisfied, while the total distribution cost is
minimized [4]. Brain storm optimization (BSO) is a
new kind of swarm intelligence algorithm inspired by
human brainstorming in problem solving process [7].
The effectiveness and usefulness of BSO algorithms in
optimization problems can be illustrated in [8].
The framework of BSO algorithm is proposed by Shi.
There are five main operations of BSO [7]. The first step
is to initialize a population of solutions uniformly and
randomly in searching space. Each individual is evaluat-
ed in the second step, and an evaluation value is got for
each solution as its fitness. The third step is converging
operation which clusters all the individuals generated in
the current generation. Next step is diverging operator
that creates new individual by adding random noise to
the individual of one selected group or the individuals
of two groups, or the individual from even more groups.
Finally, the updating step updates individuals by creating
and selecting individuals in the population [9]. Recently
some approaches based on converging operation are
proposed in some literatures. Simple clustering algo-
rithms are employed in [11][12], which can accelerate
the speed of algorithm. Besides, self-determining number
of clusters approach in [13] is proposed to seek for higher
efficiency. Another convergent operation is proposed to
solve multi-objective optimization problems in [14][15].
Moreover, diverging operation is replaced based on the
basic BSO with closed-loop strategy in [16]. In this
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