Interactive Genetic Algorithms for Optimal Assignment of Blocks into Workspaces of Shipbuilding Industry

AbstractIn this paper one of the fundamental problems of Shipbuilding Industry known as block assignment problem is modeled and solved. The irregular shape of blocks and the inherent intractability of this problem is the primary motivation to use the interactive genetic algorithms with a specialized chromosome level "repair" operator. Without loss of generality, some domain knowledge has been incorporated during the process of exploration and exploitation of an optimal assignment. Therefore the best attributes of objective and subjective evaluation at system level has been realized. The experimental study confirms that the incorporation of the domain knowledge and a new repair operator in interactive genetic algorithms for assigning blocks in workspaces leads to faster convergence and at the same time it reduces the local optimality.