A bat algorithm for the redundancy allocation problem

Abstract

This article uses a recently developed bat algorithm (BA) meta-heuristic optimization method to solve the reliability redundancy allocation problem (RAP). The RAP is a well-known NP-hard problem which has been the subject of much prior work, generally of a restricted form where each component must consist of identical components in parallel to make computations tractable. Meta-heuristic methods overcome this limitation and allow for larger instances to be solved for a more general case where different components can be placed in parallel. The BA has not yet been used in reliability design, as it was a method initially designed for continuous problems. A BA is devised and tested on a well-known suite of problems from the literature. It is shown that the BA is competitive with the best known heuristics for redundancy allocation.

Keywords:

• bat algorithm
• combinatorial optimization
• redundancy allocation
• series–parallel system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.