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From: EC13@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Brand New Optimization Software
Message-ID: <91149.152946EC13@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>
Date: 29 May 91 14:29:46 GMT
Organization: University of Liverpool
Lines: 36


The most popular vector optimization methods are: the weighting objective
functions method & constraint method. Although they are good but have some
disadvantages known to people work on that subject.

  Two new vector optimization methods have been developed, based on Shannon's
informational entropy. They have some unique properties which no other
method does:

1) It minimizes the prohibitive level of time needed to generate the
whole Pareto solutions.

2) It gives Pareto solutions arranged in order with respect to one
of the objectives.

   Because of that, discovering the performance-performance space, performance
-design space and design-design space becomes obtainable which is very
important in real-world problems, particularly eng. design problems.



   On the other hand, two new single-criteria minimization methods, also
based on Shannon's entropy. They seek to eliminate the following problems:

(i) The solution obtained is heavily dependent on the starting solution;
and

(ii) The methods often converge to inferior local optima.

All these methods are COMPUTER PROGRAMMABLE and solutions can be generated
automatically.

The four methods have been applied successfully to solve problems in fields
like eng. design, production planning, and mathematics.

A. Sultan