<p>There are two symmetrical resolution rules applicable to logic programs - SL-resolution which yields a top-down refutation and unit-resolution which yields a bottom-up refutation. Both resolution principles need to be coupled with a search rule before they can be used in practice. The search rule determines in which order program clauses are used in the refutation and affects both performance, completeness and quality of solutions. The thesis surveys exhaustive and heuristic search rules for SL-resolution and transformation techniques for (general) logic programs that makes unit-resolution goal oriented.</p><p>The search rules were implemented as meta-interpreters for Prolog and were benchmarked on a suite of programs incorporating both deterministic and nondeterministic code. Whenever deemed applicable benchmark programs were permuted with respect to clause and goal ordering to see if it affected the interpreters performance and termination.</p><p>With the help of the evaluation the conclusion was that alternative search rules for SL-resolution should not be used for performance gains but can in some cases greatly improve the quality of solutions, e.g. in planning or other applications where the quality of an answer correlates with the length of the refutation. It was also established that A* is more flexible than exhaustive search rules since its behavior can be fine-tuned with weighting, and can in some cases be more efficient than both iterative deepening and breadth-first search. The bottom-up interpreter based on unit-resolution and magic transformation had several advantages over the top-down interpreters. Notably for programs where subgoals are recomputed many times. The great disparity in implementation techniques made direct performance comparisons hard however, and it is not clear if even an optimized bottom-up interpreter is competitive against a top-down interpreter with tabling of answers.</p>

The problem of domain-independent automated planning has been a topic of research in Artificial Intelligence since the very beginnings of the field. Due to the desire not to rely on vast quantities of problem specific knowledge, the most widely adopted approach to automated planning is search. The topic of this thesis is the development of methods for achieving effective search control for domain-independent optimal planning through the construction of admissible heuristics. The particular planning problem considered is the so called “classical” AI planning problem, which makes several restricting assumptions. Optimality with respect to two measures of plan cost are considered: in planning with additive cost, the cost of a plan is the sum of the costs of the actions that make up the plan, which are assumed independent, while in planning with time, the cost of a plan is the total execution time – makespan – of the plan. The makespan optimization objective can not, in general, be formulated as a sum of independent action costs and therefore necessitates a problem model slightly different from the classical one. A further small extension to the classical model is made with the introduction of two forms of capacitated resources. Heuristics are developed mainly for regression planning, but based on principles general enough that heuristics for other planning search spaces can be derived on the same basis. The thesis describes a collection of methods, including the hm, additive hm and improved pattern database heuristics, and the relaxed search and boosting techniques for improving heuristics through limited search, and presents two extended experimental analyses of the developed methods, one comparing heuristics for planning with additive cost and the other concerning the relaxed search technique in the context of planning with time, aimed at discovering the characteristics of problem domains that determine the relative effectiveness of the compared methods. Results indicate that some plausible such characteristics have been found, but are not entirely conclusive.

The most popular methods for solving the shortest-path problem in Artificial Intelligence are heuristic search algorithms. The main contributions of this research are new heuristic search algorithms that are either faster or scale up to larger problems than existing algorithms. Our contributions apply to both online and offline tasks. For online tasks, existing real-time heuristic search algorithms learn better informed heuristic values and in some cases eventually converge to a shortest path by repeatedly executing the action leading to a successor state with a minimum cost-to-goal estimate. In contrast, we claim that real-time heuristic search converges faster to a shortest path when it always selects an action leading to a state with a minimum f-value, where the f-value of a state is an estimate of the cost of a shortest path from start to goal via the state, just like in the offline A* search algorithm. We support this claim by implementing this new non-trivial action-selection rule in FALCONS and by showing empirically that FALCONS significantly reduces the number of actions to convergence of a state-of-the-art real-time search algorithm. For offline tasks, we improve on two existing ways of scaling up best-first search to larger problems. First, it is known that the WA* algorithm (a greedy variant of A*) solves larger problems when it is either diversified (i.e., when it performs expansions in parallel) or committed (i.e., when it chooses the state to expand next among a fixed-size subset of the set of generated but unexpanded states). We claim that WA* solves even larger problems when it is enhanced with both diversity and commitment. We support this claim with our MSC-KWA* algorithm. Second, it is known that breadth-first search solves larger problems when it prunes unpromising states, resulting in the beam search algorithm. We claim that beam search quickly solves even larger problems when it is enhanced with backtracking based on limited discrepancy search. We support this claim with our BULB algorithm. We show that both MSC-KWA* and BULB scale up to larger problems than several state-of-the-art offline search algorithms in three standard benchmark domains. Finally, we present an anytime variant of BULB and apply it to the multiple sequence alignment problem in biology.

Wire Bonder and Molding are the most costive equipments in the investment of IC packaging; and the packaging quality, cost and delivery are concerned most in the assembly processes. An inappropriate process scheduling may result in the wastes of resources and assembly bottleneck. Manager must allocate the resources appropriately to adapt the changeable products and production lines. We would introduce several heuristic search methods, especially the Tabu search. Tabu search is one of the most popular methods of heuristic search. We also use Tabu list to record several latest moves and avoid to the duplication of the paths or loops. It starts from an initial solution and keep moving the solution to the best neighborhood without stock by Tabu. The iterations would be repeated until the terminating condition is reached. At last of the report, an example will be designed to approach the best wire bonding and molding scheduling by Tabu search; and verify the output volume is more than those with FIFO in the same period of production time. Tabu search will be then confirmed to be effective for flexible flow shop.

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are a general framework used by Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers to model decision theoretic planning problems. Solving real world MDPs has been a major and challenging research topic in the AI literature. This paper discusses two main groups of approaches in solving MDPs. The first group of approaches combines the strategies of heuristic search and dynamic programming to expedite the convergence process. The second makes use of graphical structures in MDPs to decrease the effort of classic dynamic programming algorithms. Two new algorithms proposed by the author, MBLAO* and TVI, are described here.

The one- and two-sided bipartite graph drawing problem alms to find a layout of a bipartite graph, with vertices of the two parts placed on parallel imaginary lines, that has the minimum number of edge-crossings. Vertices of one part are in fixed positions for the one-sided problem, whereas all vertices are free to move along their lines in the two-sided version. Many different heuristics exist for finding approximations to these problems, which are NP-hard. New sequential and parallel methods for producing drawings with low edgecrossings are investigated and compared to existing algorithms, notably Penalty Minimisation and Sifting, the current leaders. For the one-sided problem, new methods that include those based on simple stochastic hillclimbing, simulated annealing and genet.ic algorithms were tested. The new block-crossover genetic algorithm produced very good results with lower crossings than existing methods, although it tended to be slower. However, time was a secondary aim, the priority being to achieve low numbers of crossings. This algorithm can also be seeded with the output of an existing algorithm to improve results; combining with Penalty Minimisation in this way improved both the speed and number of crossings. Four parallel methods for the one-sided problem have been created, although two were abandoned because they gave bad results for even simple graphs. The other two methods, based on stochastic hill-climbing, produced acceptable results in faster times than similar sequential methods. PVM was used as the parallel communication system. Two new heuristics were studied for the two-sided problem, for which the only known existing method is to apply one-sided algorithms iteratively. The first is based on a heuristic for the linear arrangment problem; the second is a method of performing stochastic hill-climbing on two sides. A way of applying anyone-sided algorithm iteratively was also created. The linear arrangement method based on the Koren-Harel multi-scale algorithm achieved the best results, outperforming iterative Barycentre (previously the best method) and iterative Penalty Minimisation. Another area of this work created three new heuristics for the k-planar drawing problem where k > 1. These are the first known practical algorithms to solve this problem. A sequential genetic algorithm based on TimGA is devised to work on k-planar graphs. Two parallel algorithms, one island model and the other a 'mesh' model, are also given. Comparison of results for k = 2 indicate that the parallel island method is better than the other two methods. MPI was used for the parallel communication. Overall, 14 new methods are introduced, of which 10 were developed into working algorithms. For the one-sided bipartite graph drawing problem the new block-crossover genetic algorithm can produce drawings with lower crossings than the current best available algorithms. The parallel methods do not perform as well as the sequential ones, although they generally achieved the same results faster. All of the new two-sided methods worked well; the weighted two-sided swap stochastic hill-climbing method was comparable to the existing best method, iterative Barycentre, and generally produced drawings with lower crossings, although it suffered with needing a good termination condition. The new methods based on the linear arrangement problem consistently produced drawings with lower crossings than iterative Barycentre, although they were nearly always slower. A new parallel algorithm for the k-planar drawing problem, based on the island model, generally created drawings with the lowest edge-crossings, although no algorithms were known to exist to make comparisons.

Submitted by Marco Antônio de Ramos Chagas (mchagas@ufv.br) on 2016-09-09T18:25:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2101606 bytes, checksum: c4227b09a3bae62b835f5aabafc917b3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-09T18:25:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2101606 bytes, checksum: c4227b09a3bae62b835f5aabafc917b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Neste trabalho apresentamos um modelo computacional baseado em teorias de design para gerar mapas de jogos de plataforma visualmente agradáveis. Nós estudamos o problema de geração de mapas como um problema de otimização e provamos que uma versão simplificada do problema é computacionalmente difícil. Em seguida, propomos uma abordagem de busca heurística para resolver o problema de geração de mapas e utilizamos ela para gerar níveis de um clone do Super Mario Bros (SMB), chamado Infinite Mario Bros (IMB). Antes de avaliar os níveis de IMB gerados pelo nosso sistema, realizamos um estudo detalhado das abordagens comumente utilizadas para avaliar o conteúdo gerado por programas de computador. A avaliação utilizada em trabalhos anteriores utiliza apenas métricas computacionais. Embora esses indicadores são importantes para uma avaliação inicial e exploratória do conteúdo gerado, não é claro se são capazes de capturar a percepção do jogador sobre o conteúdo gerado. Neste trabalho, comparamos os conhecimentos adquiridos a partir de um estudo com seres humanos usando níveis de IMB gerados por diferentes sistemas, com os conhecimentos adquiridos a partir de análise dos valores de métricas computacionais. Os nossos resultados sugerem que as m ́etricas computacionais atuais não devem substituir estudos com seres humanos para avaliar o conteúdo gerado por programas de computador. Usando os conhecimentos adquiridos em nosso experimento anterior, foi realizado outro estudo com seres humanos para avaliar os níveis de IMB gerados pelo nosso método. Os resultados mostram a vantagem do nosso método em relação a outras abordagens em termos de estética visual e diversão. Finalmente, foi realizado outro estudo com seres humanos, mostrando que o nosso método é capaz de gerar níveis de IMB semelhantes aos níveis de SMB criados por designers profissionais. / In this work we introduce a computational model based on theories of graphical design to generate visually pleasing video game maps. We cast the problem of map generation as an optimization problem and prove it to be computationally hard. Then, we propose a heuristic search approach to solve the map generation problem and use it to generate levels of a clone of Super Mario Bros (SMB) called Infinite Mario Bros (IMB). Before evaluating the levels of IMB generated by our system, we perform a detailed study of the approaches commonly used to evaluate the content generated by computer programs. The evaluation used in previous works often relies on computational metrics. While these metrics are important for an initial exploratory evaluation of the content generated, it is not clear whether they are able to capture the player’s perception of the content generated. In this work we compare the insights gained from a user study with IMB levels generated by different systems with the insights gained from analyzing computational metric values. Our results suggest that current computational metrics should not be used in lieu of user studies for evaluating content generated by computer programs. Using the insights gained in our previous experiment, we performed another user study to evaluate the IMB levels generated by our method. The results show the advantage of our method over other approaches in terms of visual aesthetics and enjoyment. Finally, we performed one last user study that showed that our method is able to generate IMB levels with striking similarity to SMB levels created by professional designers. / Autor sem Lattes e arquivo PDF não criptografou

Orientador: Fernando Antonio Campos Gomide / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T00:48:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tazoniero_Alexandre_M.pdf: 2202986 bytes, checksum: eac2bab1d27c5baaf56ef296663e1cef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O transporte ferroviário tem grande participação no transporte de cargas e passageiros em todo o mundo. No Brasil a malha ferroviária sofreu um processo de abandono e deterioração no período de 1960 a 1990. A partir de 1990 a privatização da rede ferroviária nacional iniciou uma retomada de investimentos e nos últimos anos à demanda por transporte ferroviário vem crescendo significativamente. É necessário, então, que os recursos da ferrovia sejam utilizados de maneira eficiente para atender a crescente demanda, o que exige planejamento estratégico, táctico e operacional. No nível operacional uma das principais etapas e também umas das mais carentes de ferramentas computacionais é o Planejamento de Circulação de trens. O processo operacional de uma ferrovia é dinâmico, sujeito a inúmeras interferências imprevisíveis e uma ferramenta computacional para o apoio ao planejamento de circulação de trens deve fornecer soluções com tempo de processamento compatível com essa realidade. Este trabalho propõe algoritmos para o planejamento de circulação de trens em tempo real, utilizando metodologias de inteligência computacional e conjuntos nebulosos. Um algoritmo objetiva decidir localmente a preferência entre trens concorrendo pelo uso de um segmento de linha singela de modo a seguir uma referência de percurso fornecida por algum algoritmo de otimização ou por um especialista. Outro algoritmo decide, além da preferência entre trens, a velocidade de percurso dos trens para mantê-los o mais próximo possível de suas referências. O terceiro algoritmo usa elementos de busca em árvore para obter uma solução para o planejamento de circulação de trens. É feito um estudo comparativo dos algoritmos aqui propostos e de algoritmos existentes na literatura. O estudo comparativo é feito a pm1ir de instâncias pequenas de problema de planejamento de circulação e uma instância que considera dados reais de uma ferrovia brasileira. Os resultados mostram que os algoritmos propostos obtêm soluções próximas às ótimas para as instâncias pequenas e soluções satisfatórias para o caso real / Abstract: Railways plays a major role in freight and passenger transportation in the whole world. The Brazilian railway system has suffered a process of abandon and deterioration from 1960 to 1990. Since 1990 the privatization of the national railways brought new investments and in the last years the demand for railway transportation has increased significantly. Railway resources must be efficiently managed to match the increasingly transportation demand. This requires efficient strategic, tactical and operational planning. One of the main tasks at the operational planning level concerns train circulation and associated tools. Railway operation is a very dynamic process because trains are subject to many unexpected interferences. Computational tools to help trains circulation planning must provide solutions in a time range consistent with real-time needs. This work suggests algorithms for real-time train movement planning, using computational intelligence and fuzzy set theory methodology. One of the algorithms decides the preference between trains competing for a single line track at the same moment. The aim is to drive train circulation as dose as possible to reference trajectories supplied by human experts, global optimization algorithms or both. Other algorithm decides preference between trains and chose the velocity with which trains must travel to remain as dose as possible to its references. The third algorithm uses depth search algorithm to obtain a solution for train circulation problems. A comparative study considering the algorithms proposed herein and algorithms suggested in the literature. The comparative study is done using small railway system instances. Data of a major Brazilian railway is adopted to illustrate how the algorithms behave to solve larger instances. Results show that the algorithms here proposed obtain near optimal solutions for small instances and satisfactory solutions for the real case / Mestrado / Automação / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

There are two symmetrical resolution rules applicable to logic programs - SL-resolution which yields a top-down refutation and unit-resolution which yields a bottom-up refutation. Both resolution principles need to be coupled with a search rule before they can be used in practice. The search rule determines in which order program clauses are used in the refutation and affects both performance, completeness and quality of solutions. The thesis surveys exhaustive and heuristic search rules for SL-resolution and transformation techniques for (general) logic programs that makes unit-resolution goal oriented. The search rules were implemented as meta-interpreters for Prolog and were benchmarked on a suite of programs incorporating both deterministic and nondeterministic code. Whenever deemed applicable benchmark programs were permuted with respect to clause and goal ordering to see if it affected the interpreters performance and termination. With the help of the evaluation the conclusion was that alternative search rules for SL-resolution should not be used for performance gains but can in some cases greatly improve the quality of solutions, e.g. in planning or other applications where the quality of an answer correlates with the length of the refutation. It was also established that A* is more flexible than exhaustive search rules since its behavior can be fine-tuned with weighting, and can in some cases be more efficient than both iterative deepening and breadth-first search. The bottom-up interpreter based on unit-resolution and magic transformation had several advantages over the top-down interpreters. Notably for programs where subgoals are recomputed many times. The great disparity in implementation techniques made direct performance comparisons hard however, and it is not clear if even an optimized bottom-up interpreter is competitive against a top-down interpreter with tabling of answers.

A large class of practical planning problems that require reasoning about uncertain outcomes, as well as tradeoffs among competing goals, can be modeled as Markov decision processes (MDPs). This model has been studied for over 60 years, and has many applications that range from stochastic inventory control and supply-chain planning, to probabilistic model checking and robotic control. Standard dynamic programming algorithms solve these problems for the entire state space. A more efficient heuristic search approach focuses computation on solving these problems for the relevant part of the state space only, given a start state, and using heuristics to identify irrelevant parts of the state space that can be safely ignored. This dissertation considers the heuristic search approach to this class of problems, and makes three contributions that advance this approach. The first contribution is a novel algorithm for solving MDPs that integrates the standard value iteration algorithm with branch-and-bound search. Called branch-and-bound value iteration, the new algorithm has several advantages over existing algorithms. The second contribution is the integration of recently-developed suboptimality bounds in heuristic search algorithm for MDPs, making it possible for iterative algorithms for solving these planning problems to detect convergence to a bounded-suboptimal solution. The third contribution is the evaluation and analysis of some techniques that are widely-used by state-of-the-art planning algorithms, the identification of some weaknesses of these techniques, and the development of a more efficient implementation of one of these techniques -- a solved-labeling procedure that speeds converge by leveraging a decomposition of the state-space graph of a planning problem into strongly-connected components. The new algorithms and techniques introduced in this dissertation are experimentally evaluated on a range of widely-used planning benchmarks.