We consider the problem of optimal anchor placement for area‐based localisation algorithms with the goal of providing cost‐effective, simple, and robust positioning in wireless sensor networks. Due to the high complexity of the problem, we propose two placement algorithms based on heuristics. The first, called genetic algorithm anchors placement (GAAP), is based on genetic algorithms meta‐heuristic, and the second, called local search anchors placement (LSAP), is based on an intuitive heuristic inspired from search techniques used in quad‐trees. For the evaluation of these algorithms, we built a simulation framework, which we made publicly available for the community, and compared their performance against a Brute force (BF) algorithm, and against RND, a random walk‐inspired algorithm. Obtained results show that GAAP provides anchor placements that lead to a very high accuracy while keeping execution time drastically smaller compared to LSAP, BF, and RND.

Estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) is a subset of evolutionary algorithms widely used in various optimization problems, known for their favorable results. Each generation of EDAs builds a probabilistic model to represent the most promising individuals, and the next generation is created by sampling from this model. The primary challenge in designing such algorithms lies in effectively constructing the probabilistic model. The mutual exclusivity constraint imposes an additional challenge for EDAs to approach permutation-based problems. In this study, we propose a new EDA called Position-Guided Sampling Estimation of Distribution Algorithm (PGS-EDA) specifically designed for permutation-based problems. Unlike conventional approaches, our algorithm focuses on the positions rather than the elements during the sampling phase. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm on the Permutation Flow-shop Scheduling Problem (PFSP). The experiments conducted on various sizes of Taillard instances provide evidence of the effectiveness of our algorithm in addressing the PFSP, particularly for small and medium-sized problems. The comparison results with other EDAs designed to handle permutation problems demonstrate that our PSG-EDA algorithm consistently achieves the lowest Average Relative Percentage Deviation (ARPD) values in 19 out of the 30 instances of sizes 20 and 50 used in the study. These findings validate the superior performance of our algorithm in terms of minimizing the makespan criterion of the PFSP.

We propose CEDA, a Copula-based Estimation of Distribution Algorithm, to increase the size, achieve high diversity and convergence of optimal solutions for a multiobjective optimization problem. The algorithm exploits the statistical properties of Copulas to produce new solutions from the existing ones through the estimation of their distribution. CEDA starts by taking initial solutions provided by any MOEA (Multi Objective Evolutionary Algorithm), construct Copulas to estimate their distribution, and uses the constructed Copulas to generate new solutions. This design saves CEDA the need of running an MOEA every time alternative solutions are requested by a Decision Maker when the found solutions are not satisfactory. CEDA was tested on a set of benchmark problems traditionally used by the community, namely UF1, UF2, ..., UF10 and CF1, CF2, ..., CF10. CEDA used along with SPEA2 and NSGA2 as two examples of MOEA thus resulting in two variants CEDA-SPEA2 and CEDA-NSGA2 and compare them with SPEA2 and NSGA2. The results of The experiments show that, with both variants of CEDA, new solutions can be generated in a significantly smaller without compromising quality compared to those found SPEA2 and NSGA2.