The rapid expansion of Edge and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems has intensified the risk and complexity of cyberattacks. Detecting advanced intrusions in these heterogeneous and high-dimensional environments remains challenging. As the IIoT becomes integral to critical infrastructure, ensuring security is crucial to prevent disruptions and data breaches. Traditional IDS approaches often fall short against evolving threats, highlighting the need for intelligent and adaptive solutions. While deep learning (DL) offers strong capabilities for pattern recognition, single-model architectures often lack robustness. Thus, hybrid and optimized DL models are increasingly necessary to improve detection performance and address data imbalance and noise. In this study, we propose an optimized hybrid DL framework that combines a transformer, generative adversarial network (GAN), and autoencoder (AE) components, referred to as Transformer–GAN–AE, for robust intrusion detection in Edge and IIoT environments. To enhance the training and convergence of the GAN component, we integrate an improved chimp optimization algorithm (IChOA) for hyperparameter tuning and feature refinement. The proposed method is evaluated using three recent and comprehensive benchmark datasets, WUSTL-IIoT-2021, EdgeIIoTset, and TON_IoT, widely recognized as standard testbeds for IIoT intrusion detection research. Extensive experiments are conducted to assess the model’s performance compared to several state-of-the-art techniques, including standard GAN, convolutional neural network (CNN), deep belief network (DBN), time-series transformer (TST), bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). Evaluation metrics include accuracy, recall, AUC, and run time. Results demonstrate that the proposed Transformer–GAN–AE framework outperforms all baseline methods, achieving a best accuracy of 98.92%, along with superior recall and AUC values. The integration of IChOA enhances GAN stability and accelerates training by optimizing hyperparameters. Together with the transformer for temporal feature extraction and the AE for denoising, the hybrid architecture effectively addresses complex, imbalanced intrusion data. The proposed optimized Transformer–GAN–AE model demonstrates high accuracy and robustness, offering a scalable solution for real-world Edge and IIoT intrusion detection.

The increasing complexity of multi-scale energy systems makes robust anomaly detection essential to ensure system resilience and operational continuity. Recent advances in DL enable effective modeling of high-dimensional, non-linear energy data by capturing latent spatio-temporal patterns. In this paper, we proposed an optimized deep reinforcement learning–generative adversarial network (ODRL-GAN) framework for reliable anomaly detection in multi-scale energy systems. The integration of DRL and GAN brings a key innovation: while DRL enables adaptive decision-making under dynamic operating conditions, GAN enhances detection by reconstructing normal patterns and exposing subtle deviations. To further strengthen the model, a novel multi-objective chimp optimization algorithm (NMOChOA) is employed for hyper-parameter tuning, improving accuracy, and convergence. This design allows the ODRL–GAN to effectively capture high-dimensional spatio-temporal dependencies while maintaining robustness against diverse anomaly patterns. The framework is validated on two benchmark datasets, PSML and LEAD1.0, and compared against state-of-the-art baselines including transformer, deep belief network (DBN), convolutional neural network (CNN), gated recurrent unit (GRU), and support vector machines (SVM). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a maximum detection accuracy of 99.58% and recall of 99.75%, significantly surpassing all baselines. Furthermore, the model exhibits superior runtime efficiency, faster convergence, and lower variance across trials, highlighting both robustness and scalability. The optimized DRL–GAN framework provides a powerful and generalizable solution for anomaly detection in complex energy systems, offering a pathway toward secure and resilient next-generation energy infrastructures.

Forecasting fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) is critically important due to its adverse effects on human health and environmental sustainability. Although ground-based monitoring stations provide accurate measurements, their limited spatial coverage restricts large-scale PM_2.5 assessment, especially in complex urban regions. Consequently, aerosol optical depth (AOD) derived from satellite imagery, combined with advanced deep learning (DL) techniques, has emerged as an effective alternative by offering wide spatial coverage and rich spatio-temporal information. This paper proposed an optimization-driven fuzzy transformer–deep belief network (ODFT-DBN) for accurate PM_2.5 air pollution prediction. The proposed framework integrates a fuzzy inference module to model uncertainty and nonlinear environmental relationships, a transformer encoder to capture long-range spatio-temporal dependencies, and a DBN to extract hierarchical features and improve prediction robustness. In addition, a novel multi-objective gray wolf optimizer (NMOGWO) is employed to jointly optimize the model hyper-parameters and fuzzy membership functions. The proposed approach is implemented for the city of Tehran, Iran, using meteorological variables, topographical features, ground-based PM_2.5 measurements, and satellite-derived AOD data. The ODFT-DBN model is compared with several benchmark methods, including bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), transformer, long short-term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit (GRU), convolutional neural network (CNN), DBN, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves superior predictive performance, attaining an R² value of 0.94 and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.8 μg/m³. Scatter plot analyses indicate a strong agreement between predicted and observed PM_2.5 values, while the proposed model exhibits low variance, stable convergence behavior, and acceptable computational time. Overall, the results confirm the effectiveness, robustness, and practical applicability of the proposed ODFT-DBN framework for spatio-temporal PM_2.5 forecasting.

The rapid evolution of multi-scale energy systems (spanning electricity, hydrogen, and renewable integration) has introduced unprecedented complexity, making robust anomaly detection a critical challenge. The vast heterogeneity and dynamic nature of these systems expose them to faults and cyber–physical risks, where timely detection is vital to ensure resilience, safety, and uninterrupted operation. Nowadays, deep learning (DL) techniques have emerged as powerful tools for modeling large-scale, non-linear, and high-dimensional energy data, enabling the extraction of latent spatio-temporal patterns. In this paper, we proposed an optimized deep reinforcement learning–generative adversarial network (ODRL-GAN) framework for reliable anomaly detection in multi-scale energy systems. The integration of DRL and GAN brings a key innovation: while DRL enables adaptive decision-making under dynamic operating conditions, GAN enhances detection by reconstructing normal patterns and exposing subtle deviations. To further strengthen the model, a novel multi-objective chimp optimization algorithm (NMOChOA) is employed for hyper-parameter tuning, improving accuracy, and convergence. This design allows the ODRL–GAN to effectively capture high-dimensional spatio-temporal dependencies while maintaining robustness against diverse anomaly patterns. The framework is validated on two benchmark datasets, PSML and LEAD1.0, and compared against state-of-the-art baselines including transformer, deep belief network (DBN), convolutional neural network (CNN), gated recurrent unit (GRU), and support vector machines (SVM). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a maximum detection accuracy of 99.58% and recall of 99.75%, significantly surpassing all baselines. Furthermore, the model exhibits superior runtime efficiency, faster convergence, and lower variance across trials, highlighting both robustness and scalability. The optimized DRL–GAN framework provides a powerful and generalizable solution for anomaly detection in complex energy systems, offering a pathway toward secure and resilient next-generation energy infrastructures.