A multi-algorithm approach for operational human resources workload balancing in a last mile urban delivery system

Efficient workload assignment to the workforce is critical in last-mile package delivery systems. In this context, traditional methods of assigning package deliveries to workers based on geographical proximity can be inefficient and surely guide to an unbalanced workload distribution among delivery workers. In this paper, we look at the problem of operational human resources workload balancing in last-mile urban package delivery systems. The idea is to consider the effort workload to optimize the system, i.e., the optimization process is now focused on improving the delivery time, so that the workload balancing is complete among all the staff. This process should correct significant decompensations in workload among delivery workers in a given zone. Specifically, we propose a multi-algorithm approach to tackle this problem. The proposed approach takes as input a set of delivery points and a defined number of workers, and then assigns packages to workers, in such a way that it ensures that each worker completes a similar amount of work per day. The proposed algorithms use a combination of distance and workload considerations to optimize the allocation of packages to workers. In this sense, the distance between the delivery points and the location of each worker is also taken into account. The proposed multi-algorithm methodology includes different versions of k-means, evolutionary approaches, recursive assignments based on k-means initialization with different problem encodings, and a hybrid evolutionary ensemble algorithm. We have illustrated the performance of the proposed approach in a real-world problem in an urban last-mile package delivery workforce operating at Azuqueca de Henares, Spain.

Evolutionary optimization of spatially-distributed multi-sensors placement for indoor surveillance environments with security levels

The surveillance multisensor placement is an important optimization problem that consists of positioning several sensors of different types to maximize the coverage of a determined area while minimizing the cost of the deployment. In this work, we tackle a modified version of the problem, consisting of spatially distributed multisensor placement for indoor surveillance. Our approach is focused on security surveillance of sensible indoor spaces, such as military installations, where distinct security levels can be considered. We propose an evolutionary algorithm to solve the problem, in which a novel special encoding,integer encoding with binary conversion, and effective initialization have been defined to improve the performance and convergence of the proposed algorithm. We also consider the probability of detection for each surveillance point, which depends on the distance to the sensor at hand, to better model real-life scenarios. We have tested the proposed evolutionary approach in different instances of the problem, varying both size and difficulty, and obtained excellent results in terms of the cost of sensors placement and convergence time of the algorithm.

CoSeNet: A Novel Approach for Optimal Segmentation of Correlation Matrices

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for the optimal identification of correlated segments in noisy correlation matrices. The proposed model is known as CoSeNet (Correlation Seg-mentation Network) and is based on a four-layer algorithmic architecture that includes several processing layers: input, formatting, re-scaling, and segmentation layer. The proposed model can effectively identify correlated segments in such matrices, better than previous approaches for similar problems. Internally, the proposed model utilizes an overlapping technique and uses pre-trained Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, which makes it robust and generalizable. CoSeNet approach also includes a method that optimizes the parameters of the re-scaling layer using a heuristic algorithm and fitness based on a Window Difference-based metric. The output of the model is a binary noise-free matrix representing optimal segmentation as well as its seg-mentation points and can be used in a variety of applications, obtaining compromise solutions between efficiency, memory, and speed of the proposed deployment model.