A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation

Neha Majhi; Rajashree Mishra

doi:10.12688/f1000research.154598.1

Home Browse A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s...

ALL Metrics

Views

Downloads

Get PDF

Get XML

Export

▬

✚

Research Article

A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation

[version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]

Neha Majhi¹, Rajashree Mishra ¹

PUBLISHED 19 Sep 2024

Author details Author details

¹ Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751024, India

Neha Majhi
Roles: Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Rajashree Mishra
Roles: Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing

OPEN PEER REVIEW

REVIEWER STATUS

This article is included in the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning gateway.

Abstract

Background

Traditional optimization methods often struggle to balance global exploration and local refinement, particularly in complex real-world problems. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel hybrid optimization strategy that integrates the Nelder-Mead (NM) technique and the Genetic Algorithm (GA), named the Genetic and Nelder-Mead Algorithm (GANMA). This hybrid approach aims to enhance performance across various benchmark functions and parameter estimation tasks.

Methods

GANMA combines the global search capabilities of GA with the local refinement strength of NM. It is first tested on 15 benchmark functions commonly used to evaluate optimization strategies. The effectiveness of GANMA is also demonstrated through its application to parameter estimation problems, showcasing its practical utility in real-world scenarios.

Results

GANMA outperforms traditional optimization methods in terms of robustness, convergence speed, and solution quality. The hybrid algorithm excels across different function landscapes, including those with high dimensionality and multimodality, which are often encountered in real-world optimization issues. Additionally, GANMA improves model accuracy and interpretability in parameter estimation tasks, enhancing both model fitting and prediction.

Conclusions

GANMA proves to be a flexible and powerful optimization method suitable for both benchmark optimization and real-world parameter estimation challenges. Its capability to efficiently explore parameter spaces and refine solutions makes it a promising tool for scientific, engineering, and economic applications. GANMA offers a valuable solution for improving model performance and effectively handling complex optimization problems.

Keywords

Genetic Algorithm, Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Nelder-Mead algorithm, Power Density, Weibull Distribution, Wind speed analysis

Corresponding author: Rajashree Mishra

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Grant information: Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright: © 2024 Majhi N and Mishra R. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite: Majhi N and Mishra R. A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2024, 13:1073 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.1) First published: 19 Sep 2024, 13:1073 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.1) Latest published: 07 Apr 2025, 13:1073 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.3)

1. Introduction

In the continuous pursuit of optimization, where achieving the finest possible outcomes with utmost efficiency and accuracy is crucial, the fusion of diverse methodologies frequently yields superior solutions. Optimization algorithms are always looking for ways to improve efficiency and robustness, encouraging professionals and scholars to investigate novel ideas that happen to be mostly inspired by nature or mathematical concepts. Hybridization in optimization algorithms has garnered significant attention in recent years, offering a potent means to enhance efficacy and efficiency. Among these methodologies, Genetic Algorithms (GA) and the Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm (NM) emerge as prominent contenders, each boasting distinct advantages and applications. However, the fusion of these theories has recently proven to be an enticing strategy for enhancing optimization capabilities across various domains.

Inspired by evolution and natural selection, genetic algorithms operate by repeatedly developing a population of potential solutions over a series of generations. The concepts of genetic recombination and survival of the fittest are collectively mirrored by the selection, crossover, and mutation operators involved in this evolutionary process. GAs are a popular choice in various industries, including engineering, finance, and biology, because of their impressive effectiveness in solving complicated, high-dimensional optimization problems with non-linear and multimodal objective functions.

The Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm, on the other hand, provides a geometric method for repeatedly refining a simplex—a multi-dimensional geometric shape in the direction of the ideal solution. Its foundation is mathematical optimization. Nelder- Mead algorithms are especially well-suited for problems with few variables or smooth objective functions because, in contrast to GAs, which rely on a population-based approach, they operate on a single point or simplex at each iteration. Due to its ease of use, simplicity, and speedy convergence to local optima, it now has a deserving place within the optimization toolbox.

Individually, both GA and NM have strengths and limits that make them appropriate for specific optimization scenarios. GA excels in global exploration, utilizing population variety to explore large solution spaces and avoid local optima. On the other hand, NM excels at local refinement, expertly traversing convex and smooth terrain to locate specific optima. By fusing two different but complementary methods, the hybridization of GA and NM aims to get the best of both worlds and encourage synergy in optimization techniques.

Many GA combinations have been proposed in the literature before our study; we briefly mention a few of them below. A hybrid algorithm for the collocation approach of boundary value problem-solving was presented by Nikos E. Mastorakis.¹ A combined NM and GA was proposed by Durand and Alliot,² and evaluated on two benchmark functions where the employment of either technique alone is useless. Their research demonstrates the speed boost that NM provides. The trade-off in global optimization between computing time, precision, and dependability was initially noted by Renders and Flasse.³ By fusing a genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and the Nelder-Mead simplex search methodology, Fanetal.⁴ have created a revolutionary strategy. Their research was focused on determining the global best solution for non-linear continuous variable functions. They have shown how their technique performs comparably on 10 test issues in their study article. Hwang and He⁵ have presented an inventive adaptive real-parameter simulated annealing genetic method in a similar spirit. The benefits of simulated annealing and genetic algorithms are both effectively maintained by this approach. A comparative examination of the algorithm’s performance on two engineering design issues and sixteen benchmark problems has been provided by the authors.

Many industries are interested in using the Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm (NM) working together with Genetic Algorithms (GA), including bioinformatics, finance, and engineering. Combining these methods provides a potent method of resolving challenging optimization issues in engineering, where designs are complicated and rules are demanding. Combining GA with NM helps improve portfolio management and risk assessment in the financial industry, where on-time and correct choices are essential. Similarly, in bioinformatics, where understanding biology relies on smart computer methods, hybrid algorithms speed up tasks like genomic analysis and drug discovery. This article explores how combining NM and GA enhances both, highlighting how they work together to solve real-world issues. In this paper, the GANMA algorithm has been tested on fifteen benchmark problems on three different dimensions (10, 20, and 30). According to the results from the experiment, the suggested GANMA algorithm is a promising one that can quickly find the best or almost the best solution for the majority of the functions that were examined.

The remaining portion of the research study is structured as follows: Section 2 covers the fundamentals of the Genetic Algorithm and Nelder-Mead simplex search; comprehensive information about the suggested techniques is provided in Section 3; and the performance and result analysis of the proposed algorithm is offered in Section 4. Information about parameter estimation and the Weibull distribution is shown in Section 5, information regarding estimation techniques is presented in Section 6, and a simulation test and result regarding an estimation approach is shown in Section 7. Two real-world Wind speed data sets are provided as examples in Section 8 to show how effective the suggested technique is. Section 9 finally has some concluding observations.

2. Overview of GA, and NM

A brief overview of GA, and NM have been described below.

2.1 Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (GA)

GA is an approach to heuristic search. The ideas of the biological evolution of species serve as its inspiration. In contrast to traditional optimization methods, GA⁶^,⁷ starts with a collection of starting solutions known as chromosomes.

Genetic algorithms (GAs) work by continually improving solutions based on their fitness, which measures how well they solve a problem. Unlike some traditional methods, GAs don’t assume anything about the problem, like whether it’s smooth or has just one best solution. Instead, they explore different possibilities to find good solutions, even in complex situations where there might be many equally good answers. GAs have been used successfully in many difficult optimization problems. They often work better than traditional methods, especially when there are multiple equally good solutions. This flexibility and ability to handle complex situations make GAs a valuable tool for solving optimization problems in various fields.

Following is a summary of the GA stages in this study:

I. Initialization:
- • First, create a vector of real values for each variable between predefined ranges. This vector will represent the initial population of individuals.
II. Evaluation:
- • Evaluate the fitness of each individual using an objective function.
III. Selection:
- • Select individuals from the population to create a mating pool based on their fitness values.
IV. Crossover (Recombination):
- • Pair selected individuals and perform crossover to create offspring by blending or combining their real values.
V. Mutation:
- • Introduce random changes to the real values of offspring to promote exploration of the search space.
VI. Combining Populations:
- • Combine the offspring generated from crossover and mutation with the initial population.
VII. Sorting:
- • The combined population is sorted based on their fitness levels, with the most fit people having the lowest fitness values.
VIII. Elitism:
- • Keep only the top half of the sorted population, discarding the bottom half. This ensures that the best-performing individuals from the previous generation are preserved for next generation.
IX. Termination:
- • Steps 2 through 8 should be repeated for the designated number of generations or until a termination criterion—such as achieving a maximum number of iterations or reaching a certain fitness level is satisfied.

This approach with elitism helps maintain diversity in the population while ensuring that the best individuals are preserved across generations, ultimately leading to the discovery of better solutions in the optimization process. Real-coded genetic algorithms are suitable for optimization problems with continuous decision variables and offer advantages such as direct representation of real-valued solutions, robustness, and ability to handle high-dimensional search spaces.

2.2 Nelder–Mead Simplex Search Method (NM)

The simplex search technique addresses basic unconstrained minimization cases like Olsson & Nelson,⁸ nonlinear least squares, nonlinear simultaneous equations, and function minimization. Spendley, Hext, and Himsworth⁹ initially suggested the simplex search technique, which was later improved upon by Nelder and Mead.¹⁰

The steps of the Nelder-Mead¹⁰^,¹¹ algorithm are summarized in as follows:

I. Initialization:
- • A simplex is a collection of n + 1 vertices in a n dimensional space. These vertices can be deliberately selected or created at random.
- • At every simplex vertex, evaluate the objective of the function.
II. Ordering:
- • Order the vertices based on their corresponding function values.
- • Let x₁, x₂, …, x_n+1 denote the vertices such that f (x₁) ≤ f (x₂) ≤ … ≤ f (x_n+1).
III. Centroid:
- • Calculate the centroid of each vertex, except the worst (highest) one:
  $x_{centroid} = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i}$
IV. Reflection:
- • Reflect the worst vertex (highest) through the centroid to obtain a trial point
  $x_{r} = x_{centroid} + α (x_{centroid} - x_{n + 1})$
  where α is a reflection coefficient, typically set to 1
- • Evaluate the objective function at $x_{r}$ .
V. Expansion:
- • Expanding further should be considered if the reflected point $x_{e}$ is superior to the second-worst vertex:
  $x_{e} = x_{centroid} + γ (x_{r} - x_{centroid})$
  where $γ$ is an expansion coefficient, usually $γ > 1$
- • Evaluate the objective function at $x_{e}$ .
VI. Contraction:
- • Contraction should be done if the reflected point $x_{r}$ is worse than the worst vertex:
  - – Outside contraction: $x_{c} = x_{centroid} + ρ (x_{r} - x_{centroid})$
  - – Inside contraction: $x_{c} = x_{centroid} + ρ (x_{r} - x_{centroid})$
    where ρ is a contraction coefficient, typically 0 < ρ <1 (typically 0.5).
- • Evaluate the objective function at $x_{c}$ .
VII. Update simplex:
- • Replace the worst vertex with the new trial point if it improves the function value.
VIII. Termination:
- • Till a termination criterion such as a maximum number of iterations, a small modification in step size, or a slight modification in the function value is satisfied, repeat the steps described above.

The algorithm converges when the simplex becomes sufficiently small or when the function values at the vertices are close to each other. The choice of parameters α, γ, and ρ can significantly affect the performance of the algorithm and may need to be tuned based on the problem characteristics.

3. Methods

3.1 Motivation

The combination of Genetic Algorithms (GA) with the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm (NM) is driven by their supportive characteristics in both global exploration and local exploitation. GA is a population-based technique that effectively explores diverse sections of the search space, although fine-tuning solutions at local optima may provide issues. In contrast, it requires greater capacity for worldwide investigation. Combining both methods intends to take advantage of the characteristics of both algorithms, resulting in a more balanced and efficient optimization process. This hybridization method has the potential to improve convergence rates, solution quality, and robustness, making it a compelling choice for handling complicated optimization problems across several domains.

3.2 Genetic algorithm with Nelder-Mead Simplex Search (GANMA)

The suggested algorithm’s (GANMA) stages are summed up as follows:

I. Initialization:
- • Generate an initial population of solutions for the GA.
II. Evaluation:
- • Analyze each solution’s objective function within the population.
III. Genetic Algorithm (GA) Cycle:
- • Selection: Select a parent from the current population. Selection techniques that are often used include rank-based, roulette wheel, and tournament selection.
- • Crossover: Perform crossover to create offspring solutions. Since this is a real coded GA, a common method is the arithmetic crossover or simulated binary crossover.
- • Mutation: Apply mutation operators to the offspring solutions. Here is where the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm comes into play. After mutation, the simplex is formed around the mutated solutions.
- • Elitism: Combine the initial population and offspring after mutation, then calculate the mean combination. Sort the combined population according to their fitness and keep the first half population while rejecting the other half.
- • Replacement: Replace the initial population with the best half from the previous step.
IV. Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm:
- • Define the simplex for the NM algorithm. This can be done by selecting a set of initial points around the best solution found by the GA so far.
- • Reflection: Take the centroid of the remaining points and reflect the worst point of the simplex.
- • Expansion: Attempt to extend the simplex in that direction if the reflected point is superior to the second-worst but not superior to the greatest.
  - • Contraction: If neither reflection nor expansion produces a better point, contract the simplex towards the best point.
  - • Update the simplex based on the chosen operation (reflection, expansion, contraction, or shrinkage).
  - • Repeat the above steps until convergence criteria are met.
V. Termination:
- • Repeat the GA cycle and NM algorithm until a termination criterion is satisfied. This could be a maximum number of iterations, reaching a specific fitness threshold, or convergence of the simplex.
VI. Output:
- • The best solution found after the termination criterion is met.
- • Apply the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm to the best solution.
VII. Optimal:
- • The best solution found after the NM algorithm.

By combining GA with NM in this way, you leverage the global exploration capability of the GA with the local refinement ability of the NM algorithm, potentially leading to improved convergence and robustness in optimization tasks.

The pseudo-code for the hybridization of the GA and Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm is presented in Algorithm.¹²

Algorithm Combination of GA and Nelder-Mead.

1: Initialize GA parameters (size of population, rate of mutation, rate of crossover, number of generations)

2: Initial population

3: while termination condition is not met do

4: Evaluate each individual’s current level of fitness

5: Select parents (using tournament selection) for crossover

6: for each pair of parents do

7: Apply one-point crossover

8: Apply uniform mutation

9: end for

10: Combine initial population with offspring

11: Evaluate the fitness of the combined population

12: Sort the combined population by fitness

13: Keep the top half of the sorted population

14: Create a simplex from the best individuals (e.g., top 2)

15: Perform Nelder-Mead steps on the simplex:

16: - Reflection

17: - Expansion

18: - Contraction

19: - Shrink

20: Update the simplex

21: Replace the worst individuals with the simplex’s best individuals

22: Evaluate the fitness of the updated population

23: end while

24: From the final population, choose the best solution

25: Perform Nelder-Mead steps on the best solution

26: Find the optimal solution

4. The performance of GANMA

This study analyzes 15 benchmark test functions for simulation tests to fully investigate the feasibility as well as the effectiveness of GANMA. Windows is used as the experimental environment, while Python 3.11 is used as the programming environment. The 15 benchmark test functions (denoted as f₁ to f₁₅), cover different types. The unimodal functions f₁ through f₄ are included in the first kind. Multimodal functions f₅ through f₉ are included in the second category. Shifted unimodal and multimodal functions, f₁₀ - f₁₅, are included in the third category. Table 1 displays the expressions, ranges, and global minimum values of the 15 test functions. The function’s dimensions (n) are 10, 20, and 30, in that order. The GANMA method was compared to two well-known algorithms, the GA and NM algorithms. To ensure fair and reliable test results, the population size is uniformly set to 100, the number of iterations is set to 300, 400, and 600 for n = 10, 20, and 30, respectively, and the three algorithms are run 30 times independently for each of the three dimensions. The probability of crossover and mutation are (P_c = 0.8) and (P_m = 0.05) respectively, γ = 1.5, β = 0.5, and η = 0.5 have been chosen as the hybrid algorithm’s parameter values. The NM algorithm has a step size of 1.0 and a termination threshold of 1E-5.

Table 1. Benchmark test functions.

No	Function name	Formulation	Range
$f_{1}$	$Sphere$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {x_{i}}^{2}$	[-100,100]
$f_{2}$	$Rosenbrock$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n - 1} (100 {(x_{i + 1} - {x_{i}}^{2})}^{2} + {(1 - x_{i})}^{2})$	[-2,2]
$f_{3}$	Rotated high conditioned elliptic	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(10^{6})}^{\frac{i - 1}{n - 1}} {x_{i}}^{2}$	[-100,100]
$f_{4}$	$Ellipsoid$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(i . x_{i})}^{2}$	[-100,100]
$f_{5}$	$Ackley$	$- 20 exp (- 0.2 \sqrt{\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} {x_{i}}^{2}}) - exp (\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} cos (2 π x_{i})) + 20 + e$	[-30,30]
$f_{6}$	$Griewank$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {x_{i}}^{2} / 4000 - \prod_{i = 1}^{n} cos (\frac{x_{i}}{\sqrt{i}}) + 1$	[-600,600]
$f_{7}$	$Rastrigin$	$10 n + \sum_{i = 1}^{n} ({x_{i}}^{2} - 10 cos (2 π x_{i}))$	[-5,5]
$f_{8}$	$Schwefel$	$418.9829 n - \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i} sin (\sqrt{\| x_{i} \|})$	[-500,500]
$f_{9}$	$Schwefel 1.2$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} \| x_{i} \|$	[-5,5]
$f_{10}$	$Shifted Sphere$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2}$	[-100,100]
$f_{11}$	$Shifted Elliptic$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(10^{6})}^{\frac{i - 1}{n - 1}} {(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2}$	[-100,100]
$f_{12}$	$Shifted Rosenbrock$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n - 1} (100 {(x_{i + 1} - {x_{i}}^{2})}^{2} + {(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2})$	[-30,30]
$f_{13}$	$Shifted Rastrigin$	$\sum_{i = 1}^{n} [{(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2} - 10 cos (2 π (x_{i} - Ο_{i}))]$	[-5,5]
$f_{14}$	$Shifted Griewank$	$\frac{1}{4000} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2} - \prod_{i = 1}^{n} cos (\frac{x_{i} - Ο_{i}}{\sqrt{i}}) + 1$	[-600,600]
$f_{15}$	$Shifted$ $Ackley$	$- 20 exp (- 0.2 \sqrt{\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} {(x_{i} - Ο_{i})}^{2}}) - exp (\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} cos (2 π (x_{i} - Ο_{i}))) + 20 + e$	[-30,30]

Table 2 demonstrates how the performance of the GANMA, GA, and NM algorithms for dimensions (n) 10, 20, and 30 have been evaluated by comparing the mean value (Mean), standard deviation (Std), and best value (Best) of the final solutions for each benchmark function throughout 30 trials. The algorithm achieves the best optimization performance with the least standard deviation, optimal value, and average value closer to the theoretical ideal value. Any value less than 10⁻⁶ in terms of mean, standard deviation, and best value will be regarded as zero. The ideal experimental outcomes are truncated.

Table 2. For n = 10, 20, and 30, the best, mean, and standard deviation of the GANMA, GA, and NM solutions.

Fun	Method	n = 10 Best	Mean	Std	n = 20 Best	Mean	Std	n = 30 Best	Mean	Std
	GANMA	3.92E-278	1.01E-235	0.00E+00	4.62E-52	1.10E-45	3.30E-45	1.09E-20	4.10E-17	1.10E-16
f₁	GA	2.96E-01	8.90E-01	1.39E-02	1.24E+00	3.03E+00	1.45E+00	1.5E+02	2.8E+02	1.0E+02
	NM	3.96E-183	6.63E-166	0.00E+00	5.39E-37	2.03E-32	5.48E-32	2.51E-18	7.47E-13	1.11E-12
	GANMA	5.22E-29	1.44E-28	7.60E-29	3.69E-27	6.94E-26	9.75E-26	6.49E-18	1.80E-14	1.85E-14
f₂	GA	5.67E+00	6.90E+00	8.78E-01	1.64E+01	1.74E+01	4.81E-01	2.62E+01	4.07E+01	1.63E+01
	NM	5.91E-29	2.38E-27	2.31E-27	1.89E-26	2.30E-25	3.20E-25	9.10E-16	1.43E-11	2.60E-11
	GANMA	7.88E-243	4.78E-232	0.00E+00	6.93E-49	3.97E-45	1.12E-44	1.58E-16	7.55E-14	1.39E-13
f₃	GA	1.36E+03	5.08E+04	1.03E+04	9.85E+03	5.22E+04	2.93E+04	7.98E+03	2.41E+04	1.00E+04
	NM	9.32E-186	4.62E-165	0.00E+00	1.16E+01	1.44E+04	1.14E+04	8.87E+04	9.68E+05	3.88E+05
	GANMA	7.43E-250	6.45E-235	0.00E+00	2.09E-50	5.42E-44	1.57E-43	1.44E-16	3.78E-15	4.98E-15
f₄	GA	8.60E-02	5.56E-01	3.81E-01	1.11E+00	7.66E+00	6.05E+00	1.38E+04	2.15E+04	6.00E+03
	NM	6.30E-184	4.58E-171	0.00E+00	4.59E-39	1.00E-32	2.53E-32	2.31E-15	3.89E-11	1.05E-10
	GANMA	2.88E-14	3.18E-13	1.62E-13	4.01E-13	1.11E-11	1.45E-11	7.09E-10	4.39E-11	1.29E-11
f₅	GA	7.17E-02	9.74E-01	6.37E-01	4.40E-01	8.93E-01	2.78E-01	2.23E+00	3.21E+00	5.99E-01
	NM	1.86E+01	1.93E+01	3.00E-01	1.90E+01	1.94E+01	2.17E-01	1.84E+01	1.89E+01	2.53E-01
	GANMA	7.13E-02	1.46E-01	5.22E-02	1.66E-01	2.52E-01	2.17E-01	9.41E-01	1.66E+00	5.25E-01
f₆	GA	1.86E-01	3.56E-01	1.11E-01	1.00E+00	1.02E+00	1.39E-02	2.47E+00	3.53E+00	9.43E-01
	NM	1.42E+00	2.57E+01	1.34E+01	7.39E-02	5.71E+00	7.57E+00	9.09E-13	2.02E+00	1.65E+00
	GANMA	1.96E-05	2.00E-04	2.00E-03	4.00E-04	8.90E-03	7.70E-03	1.19E+00	2.84E+00	1.16E+00
f₇	GA	6.29E-05	2.20E-02	3.40E-02	1.00E-03	1.46E-02	1.56E-02	2.47E+00	3.58E+00	1.80E+00
	NM	8.30E+01	1.06E+02	1.74E+01	1.19E+02	1.71E+02	5.18E+01	1.88E+02	2.89E+02	5.49E+01
	GANMA	-1.97E+01	-1.57E+01	7.89E+00	-3.94E+01	-1.18E+01	1.57E+01	-9.86E+01	-4.73E+01	2.95E+01
f₈	GA	3.45E-02	7.88E-02	4.12E-02	6.72E+00	8.25E+00	1.10E+00	1.09E+02	1.54E+02	3.0E+01
	NM	6.31E+02	1.37E+04	3.81E+02	2.32E+03	2.84E+03	3.82E+02	4.06E+03	5.23E+03	1.04E+03
	GANMA	5.11E-09	4.88E-06	4.95E-06	4.77E-06	1.56E-05	8.25E-06	8.83E-06	2.30E-05	1.05E-05
f₉	GA	8.00E-05	8.50E-02	7.60E-02	2.56E-01	5.47E-01	1.80E-01	2.38E+00	3.89E+00	9.46E-01
	NM	6.98E-01	1.21E+00	4.94E-01	1.87E+00	6.43E+00	5.55E+00	2.25E+00	7.34E+00	4.84E+00
	GANMA	2.46E-31	8.02E-31	5.62E-31	1.01E-29	4.13E-29	2.00E-29	9.12E-16	1.05E-16	3.02E-16
f₁₀	GA	1.18E-05	3.14E-02	6.74E-02	9.86E+01	1.37E+02	3.49E+01	1.89E+03	3.65E+03	1.11E+03
	NM	1.78E-30	7.60E-30	6.09E-30	5.08E-29	1.96E-28	1.51E-28	1.84E-15	1.13E-09	3.00E-09
	GANMA	2.90E-26	5.12E-25	5.85E-24	3.16E-24	7.45E-24	3.25E-24	1.46E-15	8.71E-14	1.69E-13
f₁₁	GA	1.01E+00	3.49E+02	5.78E+02	1.00E+05	1.62E+05	8.76E+03	5.63E+05	1.11E+06	3.41E+06
	NM	3.68E-26	7.21E-25	1.13E-24	2.93E+03	1.98E+04	1.55E+04	1.29E+04	2.49E+05	1.51E+05
	GANMA	8.13E-29	6.12E-28	4.43E-28	1.59E-26	1.45E-25	1.92E-25	1.14E-18	2.20E-15	4.29E-15
f₁₂	GA	9.03E+00	4.87E+01	3.27E+01	1.46E+02	2.11E+02	7.77E+01	7.88E+03	2.52E+04	1.12E+04
	NM	1.15E-27	1.59E+00	1.95E+00	3.40E-25	7.97E-01	1.59E+00	2.94E-14	3.18E+00	1.59E+00
	GANMA	1.44E-02	2.13E-02	1.02E-02	2.82E+00	3.74E+00	1.71E+00	9.01E+00	1.05E+01	1.43E+00
f₁₃	GA	4.60E-02	1.49E-01	1.19E-01	8.14E+00	9.42E+00	1.12E+00	1.58E+01	1.98E+01	3.71E+00
	NM	6.40E+01	8.76E+01	2.60E+01	1.70E+02	2.07E+02	2.36E+01	2.08E+02	3.03E+02	5.42E+01
	GANMA	1.42E-02	4.42E-02	2.85E-02	8.11E-02	1.21E-01	7.64E-02	1.21E-13	4.90E-02	4.10E-02
f₁₄	GA	2.10E-01	4.81E-01	1.79E-01	1.83E+00	2.32E+00	2.97E-01	2.73E+00	3.75E+00	5.10E-01
	NM	5.36E+00	3.23E+01	4.09E+01	2.40E-01	1.34E+01	9.05E+00	7.30E-02	7.99E-01	9.70E-01
	GANMA	5.01E-14	1.98E-12	3.10E-12	3.25E-12	1.43E+00	1.77E+01	2.22E+00	4.27E+00	3.10E+00
f₁₅	GA	1.10E-01	4.17E-01	1.20E-01	2.91E+00	3.85E+00	6.97E-01	9.29E+00	1.04E+01	1.23E+00
	NM	1.85E+01	1.89E+01	2.95E-01	1.89E+01	1.93E+01	2.33E-01	1.92E+01	1.93E+01	1.31E-01

4.1 Experimental results and analysis

The statistical results of GANMA’s performance on 15 benchmark functions with dimensions (n) of 10, 20, and 30 are shown in Table 2. It also contains the final solutions’ best (Best), mean (Mean), and standard deviation (Std) across a 30-run period for each benchmark function. All benchmark functions for unimodal functions (f₁ - f₄) have been solved in all three dimensions (10, 20, and 30). For the multimodal functions (f₅ – f₉), the solutions for f₅ and f₉ occur in 10, 20, and 30 dimensions, whereas the solutions for f₆ and f₇ in 10 and 20 dimensions are almost optimal. The standard deviation range is 1.62E − 13 ∼ 7.89E + 00, 1.45E − 11 ∼ 1.57E + 01, and 1.29E − 11 ∼ 2.95E + 01, respectively, while the mean value’s variations range in the 10, 20, and 30 dimensions is 3.18E − 13 ∼ 1.46E − 01, 1.11E − 11 ∼ 2.52E − 01, and 4.39E − 11 ∼ 2.84E + 00.

Six shifted test functions have been chosen for this study to validate the performance of GANMA: three shifted multimodal test functions, denoted as f₁₃ to f₁₅; and three shifted unimodal test functions, denoted as f₁₀ to f₁₂, Sphere, Elliptic, and Rosenbrock. On functions f₁₀, f₁₁, f₁₂ (in 10, 20, and 30), and f₁₅ (in 10), GANMA achieved optimum solutions; on functions f₁₃ (in 10) and f₁₄ (in 10, 20, and 30), the solutions are nearly optimal. Even while GA is outperformed by the solutions of f₁₃ and f₁₅ (in 20 and 30) in GANMA, the solutions are still far from the optimal ones. Furthermore, the Std that GANMA found on five test functions is not too high, suggesting that GANMA’s performance on shifted test functions is steady.

Therefore, for all unimodal functions (in 10, 20, and 30 dimensions), GANMA can obtain the global optimum. GANMA can identify outcomes with negligible deviations from the global optimal value for multimodal functions. Except for f₅ and f₉ in dimensions 10, 20, and 30, the results of f₆, and f₇ in dimensions 10 and 20 are quite near to the optimal value. The outcomes produced by GANMA algorithms for shifted unimodal and multimodal functions are optimal or extremely near-optimal in all functions for all three dimensions, except f₁₃ and f₁₅ (in 20 and 30). The benefits of the GANMA algorithm include excellent robustness, high convergence accuracy, and steady performance in all scenarios, whether they involve multimodal functions, unimodal functions, or shifting unimodal and multimodal functions. This is shown in Table 2 under the various numbers of iterations for the corresponding dimensions, which are 300, 400, and 600 for the dimensions 10, 20, and 30, respectively.

To help further investigate the evolutionary behavior of various methods, the convergence curves of GANMA and GA for a few chosen benchmark functions are displayed in Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 4 for dimensions (n) = 10, 20, and 30, respectively. These graphs demonstrate the convergence behavior of methods that can help to analyze the evolutionary behavior of various algorithms. The y- and x-axes, respectively, represent the values of the fitness function and the number of iterations. The blue solid line shows the genetic algorithm (GA), while the suggested method GANMA is shown by the solid orange line.

Figure 1. Different values of (a) shape parameter β and (b) scale parameter η are plotted in Weibull PDF (solid line) and CDF (dashed line) plots.

Figure 2. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 10.

Figure 3. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 20.

Figure 4. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 30.

Until the ideal solution is discovered, GA shows a decreasing trend for unimodal functions like f₁, f₂, f₃, and f₄. In contrast, GANMA presents a straight line for all three dimensions (n = 10, 20, and 30). Similar to this, for multimodal functions other than f₅ and f₇ (in 30), there is a greater similarity between the global optimum solution and the GANMA optimal solution in f₅, f₇ (in 10, and 20), and f₆, f₈ (in 10, 20, and 30). As a result, of these two algorithms, the lowest optimum solution and the fastest rate of convergence are found through GANMA. The curves for shifted functions, except f₁₅ (in 20 and 30), demonstrate how well the proposed method was able to obtain the ideal solution for other functions like f₁₀, f₁₁, and f₁₂ (in 10, 20, and 30). Out of these two methods, GANMA yields the lowest optimum solution and has the fastest convergence rate than GA’s in both the multimodal and shifted functions.

Examining the convergence curve and experimental results, it can be shown that GANMA generally performs exceptionally well on the 15 test functions, with a proportion of correct convergence to the global optimal solution that approaches 90%. When compared to GA and the NM algorithm, GANMA outperforms both in terms of exploration and exploitation. As a result, GANMA can meet the requirements for addressing diverse optimization issues, increasing its competitiveness.

5. Application of proposed algorithm (GANMA) for Weibull-Parameter Estimation

The Weibull distribution is a probability distribution that is often used in reliability and survival research. Weibull et al.¹³ had shown that the Weibull distribution fit many different datasets and offered satisfactory results, even for small samples. The Weibull distribution, known for its flexibility in modeling various failure and survival scenarios, is defined by two parameters: the shape (β) and scale (η) parameters. In some cases, a location (α) parameter is added to create a three-parameter Weibull distribution, allowing for greater flexibility in fitting data with location shifts. The three-parameter probability density function (pdf) will have only two parameters¹⁴ when the location parameter (α) is equal to zero. Because no failure may occur before or after the time is zero, the two Weibull parameters are frequently utilized in failure analysis.¹⁵

Weibull parameter estimation employs a variety of methods. Method of Moments (MOM), the maximum likelihood (ML) approach, and modified maximum likelihood (MML) methods were all used by Seguro and Lambert.¹⁶ They discovered that the time series data sets are more suited for the ML approach. They advised utilizing the MML technique for data sets that were formatted as frequency distributions. The least squares approach, the ML method, and the MML method were contrasted by Akgül et al.¹⁷ ML was shown to be the most effective approach overall, but they also noted that MML and ML are equally effective for big data sets, despite MML’s lower computational complexity. The ML technique was used in the studies of Kollu et al.¹⁸ and Akpnar and Akpnar¹⁹ to estimate the Weibull parameters. Teimouri et al.²⁰ investigated the MoM using their proposed L-moment estimator, the ML approach, the logarithmic moment method, and the percentile method. They discovered that the ML method and their suggested approach are the most effective estimators. The power density approach was proposed by Akdağ and Dinler.¹² They concluded that it outperformed popular techniques like MoM and ML techniques. After evaluating five different methods for approximating the Weibull distribution, Saleh et al.²¹ recommended the mean wind speed methodology and the ML method. Azad and colleagues²² discovered that the MoM and ML techniques were more effective than other approaches.

Considering the Weibull distribution has a nonlinear log-likelihood function and is compatible with numerical optimization techniques like Newton-Raphson (NR) and Nelder-Mead (NM), previous studies have often used MLE approaches for parameterizing the Weibull distribution. However, the effectiveness of these iterative methods heavily relies on the initial value chosen. In a departure from traditional approaches, this study employs Genetic Algorithms (GAs) as a heuristic search method, considering a set of solutions within the search space rather than individual points, to address the initial value problem in Weibull parameter Maximum Likelihood estimation.²³^,²⁴ GAs have been successfully applied in various optimization contexts, ranging from optimizing mixing parameters for high-performance concrete to signal control optimization. Parameterization of distributions such as the skew-normal distribution,²⁵ nonlinear regression,²⁶ and negative binomial gamma mixed distribution²⁷ have all been applied previously. Notably, Thomas et al.²⁸ pioneered the use of GA for Weibull distribution parameter estimation in the context of break-down periods of insulating fluid data, achieving performance comparable to traditional methods based on maximizing the log-likelihood function.

5.1 Weibull distribution

A versatile continuous probability distribution, the Weibull distribution is frequently used in survival analysis and reliability engineering. It is characterized by its ability to model the distribution of time until an event occurs. Named after Wallodi Weibull, who described it in the 1950s, the distribution is flexible and can take different shapes depending on its parameters. The shape parameter affects the structure of the Weibull distribution curve resulting in whether the distribution appears to be a Rayleigh distribution (β = 2), an exponential distribution (β = 1), or another shape. The scale parameter determines the distribution’s scale or size. Together, these factors enable the Weibull distribution to simulate a wide range of events with varying shapes and sizes.

The following is the Weibull two-parameter distribution’s probability density function (PDF):

(1)

f (x; β, η) = {\begin{array}{l} \frac{β}{η} {(\frac{x}{η})}^{β - 1} e^{- {(x / η)}^{β}}, & x \geq 0 \\ 0, & x < 0 \end{array}

where:

• x is the random variable,
• $β$ is the shape parameter,
• $η$ is the scale parameter.

The following represents the Weibull distribution’s cumulative distribution function (or CDF):

(2)

F (x; β, η) = {\begin{cases} 1 - e^{- {(x / η)}^{β}}, & x \geq 0 \\ 0, & x < 0 \end{cases}

Probability density and cumulative distribution plots for some different parameter values are given in Figure 1.

Two-Parameter Weibull is Commonly applied in reliability engineering for modeling time until the failure of components. Whereas, Three-Parameter Weibull is Useful when considering scenarios where the event initiation may not be at zero, such as analyzing the time until an event occurs after a certain threshold.

6. Methods for estimating parameters

Estimating the parameters of the Weibull distribution poses a significant challenge due to the intricacies involved in utilizing sample data for accurate estimation. Parameter estimation involves the process of determining the distribution’s parameters using available sample data, aiming to derive optimal values that provide meaningful insights into the underlying data. Making incorrect parameter choices can lead to misleading results, underscoring the importance of analyzing and selecting appropriate estimation techniques for accurate modeling. Therefore, a thorough evaluation of estimation methods is essential to determine the most suitable approach for a given dataset and analysis context.

6.1 Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE)

The statistical method known as Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) is used to estimate Weibull parameters by maximizing the likelihood function, which determines how well the distribution fits the observed data. MLE is known for its efficiency, but its optimization can be complex due to non-linear equations and numerical stability issues. The PDF of the Weibull distribution is given by Equation (1). Given a sample x₁, x₂, … x_n from a Weibull distribution, the likelihood function is given by:

(3)

L (β, η) = \prod_{i = 1}^{n} f (x_{i}; β, η)

where, f (x; β, η) is the probability density function of the Weibull distribution.

The Weibull distribution’s log-likelihood function is as follows:

(4)

LnL (β, η) = \sum_{i = 1}^{n} [ln (\frac{β}{η}) + (β - 1) ln (\frac{x_{i}}{η}) - {(\frac{x_{i}}{η})}^{β}]

(5)

LnL (β, η) = nlnβ - nβln η + (β - 1) \sum_{i = 1}^{n} ln x_{i} - η^{- β} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i} β

The log-likelihood function is differentiated with respect to β and η, the derivatives are set to zero, and the resultant system of equations is solved to get the MLE.

(6)

\frac{\partial L}{\partial η} = - \frac{nβ}{η} + \frac{β}{η^{β} + 1} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i}^{β} = 0

(7)

\frac{\partial L}{\partial β} = \frac{n}{β} - nlnη - \frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i} β - ln η \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i} β}{η^{β}} + \sum_{i = 1}^{n} ln x_{i} = 0

By eliminating α from the above equations and simplifying the equations we get,

(8)

\hat{η} = {(\frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i} β)}^{\frac{1}{β}}

(9)

\frac{1}{β} - \frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i}^{β} ln x_{i}}{\sum_{i = 1}^{n} x_{i}^{β}} + \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} ln x_{i} = 0

Eqn. (8) may be used to calculate the estimate $\hat{η}$ . However, because of Eqn. (9) did not give an analytical solution, the estimate $\hat{β}$ must be calculated numerically. This is possible by using the optimization strategy. The Nelder-Mead, Newton Rapson, simulated annealing, or GA algorithms can all be used to solve the nonlinear function that the ML estimator of the shape parameter β contains. In this study, the suggested method, GA, and NM were all used to optimize the log-likelihood function. Nelder-Mead is a powerful algorithm that converges quickly, but its performance is dependent on the initial guess. As a result, we took into account the GA while maximizing the Weibull distribution’s loglikelihood function. Eqn. (5) is considered a fitness function for GA and NM methods.

Below the proposed method on MLE of Weibull Distribution has been described briefly.

6.1.1 Proposed method

(Genetic and Nelder -Mead Algorithm (GANMA))

To improve the precision and reliability of parameter estimation, we proposed a hybrid approach GANMA that integrates the GA and the NM method with MLE for two-parameter Weibull distributions. The GA aids in exploring the parameter space globally, generating diverse candidate solutions, while the NM fine-tunes these solutions through local search, aiming for optimal parameter estimates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first instance where the GANMA is being utilized to estimate the Weibull distribution’s parameters.

The steps of the proposed method in this study are summarized as follows:

Step 1: Problem Formulation - We aim to find the MLE parameters β (shape) and η (scale) for a Weibull distribution.

Step 2: Genetic Algorithm (GA) Phase -

• Generate an initial population (P) of possible solutions. For the Weibull distribution, each solution indicates a collection of parameters (β, η).
• Define the fitness function f(β, η) that measures the goodness of fit between the observed data and the Weibull distribution with the given parameters. A suitable fitness function could be the log-likelihood shown in Equation 5.
• Select individuals within the population according to their fitness by using a selection process (tournament selection). Higher fitness levels increase the probability of selection.
• Apply crossover operations (one-point crossover) to pairs of selected individuals to create new candidate solutions.
• Introduce small random changes (mutations) to the parameters of some individuals to add diversity to the population.

Step 3: Nelder-Mead Algorithm (NM) Phase -

• Take the best individual from the final population of the GA as an initial guess for the parameters (β1, η1).
• Define the log-likelihood function L(β, η) for the Weibull distribution shown in equation 5.
• To minimize the log-likelihood function and improve the parameter estimations (i.e., reflection, expansion, contraction, and shrinkage), apply the Nelder-Mead method.
• Repeat the iterations until convergence criteria are met (e.g., small changes in parameters or a maximum number of iterations).

Step 4: Repeat the selection, crossover, and mutation steps for several generations until convergence is met (i.e. end of GA phase).

Step 5: Apply the NM method to the best GA solution once again after the GA phase.

Step 6: Result - The final parameters ( $\hat{β}$ , $\hat{η}$ ) obtained from the Nelder-Mead optimization represent the Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) for the Weibull distribution.

7. Monte Carlo simulations

The two-parameter Weibull distribution parameter estimation methods were investigated using a Monte Carlo simulation. The scale parameter was set to 1, while the other shape parameters were set to 0.5, 1, 3, and 6. The simulation has been repeated 1000 times for sample sizes of 20, 100, and 500 respectively. With a population size of 100, the GA and GANMA have corresponding crossover and mutation rates of 0.1 and 0.8. The parameters that are used to compare the goodness-of-fit of different parameter estimating methods are mean absolute error (MAE) and bias. For the parameters β (shape) and η (scale), MAE and bias are computed using the formula provided by:

(For shape parameter)

(10)

MAE (\hat{β}) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} | \hat{β_{i}} - β_{i} |

(11)

bias (\hat{β}) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} (\hat{β_{i}} - β_{i})

(For scale parameter)

(12)

MAE (\hat{η}) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} | \hat{η_{i}} - η_{i} |

(13)

bias (\hat{η}) = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} (\hat{η_{i}} - η_{i})

Greater efficiency is implied by lower absolute values of the bias and MAE. For various data sizes and shape parameters, Tables 3-5 displays the parameter estimates, bias, and MAE for each parameter estimation method. The results of the simulation demonstrate that the GANMA approach performed better than NM and GA when estimating shape and scale parameters based on MAE and bias criteria. The best results are highlighted in bold.

Table 3. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 20 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

n	β	Method	$\hat{β}$			$\hat{η}$
			Mean	MAE	Bias	Mean	MAE	Bias
		NM	0.62394	0.12395	0.12393	2.19877	1.19876	1.19871
	0.5	GA	0.60901	0.13641	0.10901	1.76523	0.81895	0.76523
		GANMA	0.60514	0.10514	0.10514	1.50806	0.50806	0.50806
	1	NM	1.21029	0.21028	0.21029	1.22803	0.22810	0.22808
		GA	1.23962	0.29000	0.23961	1.38053	0.41456	0.38053
		GANMA	1.21029	0.21029	0.21009	1.22803	0.22803	0.22805
20	3	NM	2.04136	0.95863	-0.95863	1.95863	0.14136	-0.14163
		GA	3.63089	0.70843	0.41377	1.07488	0.09595	0.074881
		GANMA	3.41374	0.63089	0.63088	1.07087	0.07087	0.070870
		NM	3.08815	2.91184	-2.91146	1.91184	0.08815	-0.08813
	6	GA	5.3846	1.0844	-0.61433	1.05115	0.07196	0.05115
		GANMA	6.26177	1.06178	1.26178	1.03482	0.03482	0.034828

Table 4. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 100 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

n	β	Method	$\hat{β}$			$\hat{η}$
			Mean	MAE	Bias	Mean	MAE	Bias
		NM	0.50000	2.66453	2.88657	1.24999	0.24999	0.24989
	0.5	GA	0.58267	0.08833	-0.04039	1.74933	0.92293	0.67225
		GANMA	0.49477	0.01522	-0.0152	0.08211	0.17880	-0.17868
	1	NM	1.00000	1.7763	1.7322	1.00000	0.0000	0.0000
		GA	0.76607	0.17435	-0.01683	0.83393	0.28349	0.11227
		GANMA	0.97954	0.03045	-0.03045	0.90620	0.09379	-0.09386
100	3	NM	2.10606	0.89393	-0.89396	0.89393	0.10606	-0.10606
		GA	2.90103	0.45456	-0.01648	1.07781	0.09780	-0.08386
		GANMA	2.91863	0.09136	-0.09135	0.96769	0.03230	-0.03231
		NM	2.12499	3.87500	-3.87501	0.87500	0.12499	-0.12497
	6	GA	4.48285	1.10891	-0.93864	0.98534	0.05621	-0.01811
		GANMA	5.51726	0.18273	-0.182731	0.98371	0.01628	-0.01625

Table 5. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 500 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

n	β	Method	$\hat{β}$			$\hat{η}$
			Mean	MAE	Bias	Mean	MAE	Bias
		NM	0.50392	0.00392	0.00391	1.24934	0.249345	0.249344
	0.5	GA	0.5055	0.0863	0.0055	1.8336	0.9586	0.8336
		GANMA	0.49826	0.00677	-0.00671	1.0054	0.00545	-0.00544
		NM	1.000	0.000	0.000	1.000	0.000	0.000
	1	GA	0.9676	0.1473	-0.0323	1.1998	0.29807	0.19986
500		GANM	0.98653	0.0134	-0.0133	1.00272	0.00272	-0.00277
		NM	2.0825	0.91747	-0.91746	0.91747	0.08252	-0.08251
	3	GA	3.2000	0.52541	0.2000	1.0404	0.08547	0.0404
		GANMA	2.95959	0.04040	-0.04040	1.00090	0.00090	-0.00080
		NM	2.11664	3.88335	-3.88334	0.883357	0.11664	-0.11667
	6	GA	5.2108	1.0329	-0.7891	1.0060	0.06851	0.00605
		GANMA	5.6191	0.08080	-0.08081	1.0004	0.00045	-0.00043

7.1 Result analysis

Figures 5-7 illustrate the outcome across various shape parameters while keeping the scale parameter constant—as well as various data sizes by plotting the convergence graph of the PDF of Weibull parameters and the PDF of MLE of parameters using NM, GA, and GANMA. The solid black line depicts the PDF of parameters (β, η), whilst the usual genetic algorithm is illustrated by the solid green line, the yellow solid line shows the Weibull PDF using NM, and the suggested method GANMA is shown by the solid red line. It has been found that parameter estimation using the suggested technique converges with the original PDF as the shape parameter and data size increase. GANMA, the suggested algorithm, performs better than GA and NM in all types of situations.

Figure 5. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 20.

Figure 6. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 100.

Figure 7. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 500.

Based on MAE and bias criteria, the simulation results demonstrate that the GANMA technique outperformed NM and GA in the estimation of shape and scale parameters. In each simulated scenario, the GANMA technique yielded the best shape parameter efficiency in terms of bias and MAE for sample sizes of 20, 100, and 500 respectively.

Throughout almost every simulated scenario, GANMA achieved the maximum efficiency in the estimate of scale parameters for sample sizes of 20, 100, and 500, based on at least one decision criterion. By analyzing MAE and bias for each simulation scenario, GANMA proved to be the most effective approach for the data size 20. For small, moderate, and high sample sizes, GANMA is a fairly effective strategy overall. Additionally shown in Figures 8-11 are the absolute values of the biases and the MAE.

Figure 8. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for β using the MAE criteria.

Figure 9. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for η using the MAE criteria.

Figure 10. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for $β$ using the bias criteria.

Figure 11. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for $η$ using the bias criteria.

The MAE values for the shape parameter β are shown in Figure 8. In every simulated scenario, GANMA outperformed NM and GA in terms of efficiency. The second-best approach is NM. An increase in sample size resulted in lower MAE values. On the other hand, MAE values increased along with an increase in the form parameter value.

The scale parameter η’s MAE values are displayed in Figure 9. For sample sizes of 20, 100, and 500, GANMA proved to be the most effective approach. When the shape parameter is set to a higher value, the MAE values drop. Likewise, as the sample size is raised, the MAE values drop.

The shape parameter β’s absolute bias value is displayed in Figure 10. The most efficient results were obtained using GANMA. NM outperformed GA on some occasions. As with MAE values, larger sample sizes resulted in lower absolute bias levels. Increasing the parameter value resulted in higher absolute bias levels.

The absolute bias for the scale parameter η is shown in Figure 11. Most of the time, GANMA outperformed other methods in terms of efficiency. The second-best approach is NM. Increasing the shape parameter and sample size leads to lower absolute bias levels.

8. Estimation of Weibull-Parameter in Wind speed analysis

The decrease in fossil fuel supplies and their lack of reliability in meeting future energy demands have made renewable energy a hot topic for academics. Wind is one of the main sources of renewable energy, and wind speed modeling has been studied in great detail. In wind power applications, the most popular Weibull distribution is two parameters. It has been discovered that this PDF is correct for the majority of wind regimes observed in nature, is easy to use, and is adaptable. In several research, it has been noted that the wind speed data cannot be adequately represented for specific applications, including those with bimodal distributions, short time horizons, low and high wind speeds, and domains with a high frequency of nulls.¹²^,²⁹^,³⁰ The given equation may be used to determine the probability density function.

(14)

f (v) = \frac{β}{η} {(\frac{v}{η})}^{β - 1} e^{- {(v / η)}^{β}}

where v is wind speed.

Power density

Power density in wind speed analysis refers to the amount of power that can be obtained from the wind per unit area. This statistic is critical when evaluating the feasibility and potential viability of wind energy projects since it quantifies the energy available from the wind at a given place. The power density (P_D) may be easily calculated using the following equation once β and η have been established.

(15)

P_{D} = \frac{ρ_{a} η^{3}}{2} \frac{3}{β} Γ (\frac{3}{β})

where,

ρ_{a}

is the air density and symbol

Γ

denotes the gamma function. The standard value of air density

ρ_{a}

is taken as

ρ_{a} = 1.225 kg / m^{3}

8.1. Result and Discussion

In this challenge, two real-world data sets have been used to examine wind-speed analysis. The very first set of data came from the seas surrounding the Maluku Islands and Sulawesi. The data under analysis were gathered by the satellite Quikscat, which measured the ocean wind 10 meters above sea level using a scatterometer. The measurement’s horizontal and vertical spatial resolution is 0.25°earth grid. The information from the January measurement point at latitude 116° and longitude 85.5° is included in the accessible data.³¹

Tarama Island and Iriomote Island, which are close to northern Taiwan, had their wind speeds recorded in the second data set. At Iriomotejima Meteorological Station, the maximum daily wind speed and direction were recorded in March 2012.³²

The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test is a nonparametric statistical test used to compare two distributions. The K-S test calculates the maximum absolute difference between the empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) of the distributions being compared, providing a test statistic (D). A p-value derived from this statistic indicates the significance of the difference, helping in goodness-of-fit testing, comparing sample distributions, and model validation without assuming any specific distribution for the data.

The statistical confirmation that the monthly data sets come from the Weibull distribution can be obtained by doing the K-S test separately for each data set. The most significant difference between the theoretical distribution, S_N(x), and the observed distribution, F₀(x), is the K-S test statistic.³³

(16)

D = max | F_{o} (x) - S_{N} (x) |

Monthly distributions from the Weibull distribution are selected for further investigation following the K-S test $(p - value \geq 0.05$ ), which indicates the probability of observing a discrepancy as large as the one computed if the two distributions were the same.

Results across shape and scale parameters were obtained by plotting the convergence graph between the PDF and CDF of MLE of parameters using NM, GA, and GANMA, as shown in Figures 12 and 13. The solid green line and dotted green line represent the PDF and CDF of the standard genetic algorithm, the yellow solid line, and dotted yellow line represent the Weibull PDF and CDF using NM, and the solid red line and dotted red line represent the suggested method for both the PDF and CDF, respectively. Figure 12 illustrates that the PDF and CDF for both GANMA and NM convergence are on the same line.

Figure 12. Histogram, MLE PDF and CDF using GA, NM, and GANMA for data set 1.

Figure 13. Histogram, MLE PDF and CDF using GA, NM, and GANMA for data set 2.

Tables 6 and 7 present the shape and scale parameters, k-s value, p-value, and power density for the first and second data sets, respectively, for all three estimation techniques. The greatest p-value and the lowest k-s statistic for both data sets are produced by the suggested approach (GANMA) out of the three estimation techniques. The Weibull distribution and the actual wind speed data seem similar, as indicated by the p-value exceeding the selected significance threshold (e.g., 0.05). In other words, the data is well-fitted by the Weibull distribution. The parameters estimated using GANMA are considered the best fit for describing the wind speed data, based on the K-S test findings. The observed wind speed data and the predicted Weibull distribution with these parameters were well recognized, as evidenced by the low K-S statistic and high p-value.

Table 6. Parameter estimations for data set-1.

Method	$\hat{β}$	$\hat{η}$	k-s value	p-value	P_D (watt/m²)
NM	9.52382	6.44868	0.13685	0.56069	147.05921
GA	3.48312	4.97007	0.67756	1.274E-14	71.36770
GANMA	9.52340	6.44863	0.13682	0.560978	147.05541

Table 7. Parameter estimations for data set-2.

Method	$\hat{β}$	$\hat{η}$	k-s value	p-value	P_D (watt/m²)
NM	2.0	1.0	0.99999	2.63E-285	0.81422
GA	1.07418	4.97152	0.62512	3.105E-12	350.27224
GANMA	1.35925	9.85611	0.35982	0.00042	1431.63678

The maximum power density is demonstrated by the parameters estimated through MLE implementing NM, as shown in Table 6. This suggests that the parameters possess greater absolute performance in terms of power generation. Despite the slightly lower power density value of the parameters estimated by MLE using GANMA compared to NM, they are nevertheless selected as the best fit since they have the greatest p-value and the least k-s statistic. This suggests that for wind speed data set 1, parameters calculated by MLE using GANMA offer the best match.

The parameters that are estimated by MLE using GANMA are found to provide the best fit in Table 7, as shown by their lowest K-S statistic and highest p-value. Additionally, superior performance in terms of power generation is indicated by the higher power density value associated with these parameters.

9. Conclusion

To improve the exploitation capabilities of GA, this study presents a unique hybridized approach called the Genetic and Nelder-Mead Algorithm (GANMA), in which NM is included. GANMA has been employed to verify the robustness and efficiency of the suggested technique on fifteen benchmark problems for three separate dimensions. Because of its high level of accuracy and stability, GANMA performs very well in improving unimodal, multimodal, and shifting unimodal/multi-modal functions, as shown by the test function comparison experiment table. According to the testing results, the suggested method is strong and has the potential to solve benchmark issues more quickly than the other two algorithms in the majority of situations.

Furthermore, estimating the Weibull distribution’s scale (η) and shape (β) parameters, this study aims to assess the efficacy of three estimation methods: ML estimators employing GA, NM, and GANMA. The MAE and bias criteria are used to assess the efficiency of the parameter estimating techniques. Based on the conclusions drawn from the Monte Carlo simulation and the examination of real-world wind speed data, the ML estimator using GANMA performs better in Weibull parameter estimation than the ML estimator using NM and GA estimator. We used the K-S test to compare three sets of parameters for two fitting wind speed data sets with a Weibull distribution and selected the set of parameters that minimized the K-S statistic and maximized the associated p-value, indicating the best fit. Moreover, it may be said that the two sets of data were collected in two different geographic locations with different meteorological conditions. In these data sets, which included a variety of meteorological situations, GANMA demonstrated superiority.

Compliance with ethical standards

Disclosures & disclaimer

We certify that the submitted manuscript is our original work that is not currently being considered elsewhere. The paper is an unfunded independent piece of labor.

Ethical approval

This article does not include any research that any of the authors conducted using humans or animals.

Data availability

Underlying data

All data supporting the findings of this study, including figures and tables, have been deposited in the given link; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309711 ³⁴

The files are as follows:

[Data Sets] data has been obtained from a third party for two real-life problems, which are available at data sets.docx

Extended data

The extended data files are available in Zenodo at the following DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309711.v3]³⁴

[Algorithm] The algorithm described in the manuscript available at algorithm.docx

The files included: raw data of functions.docx and raw data of functions(generation wise).docx Contains data analysis that supports the study but are not included in the main manuscript.

[Tables] This file contains all the tables referenced in the manuscript. tables.docx

[Figures] This file contains all the figures referenced in the manuscript, including detailed captions. figures.docx

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).

Software availability

Python is an open-source source and is available at https://python.org

Archived software available from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309711 ³⁴ (source code.zip) where archived source code can be accessed.

References

1. Mastorakis NE: On the solution of ill-conditioned systems of linear and non-linear equations via genetic algorithms (gas) and nelder-mead simplex search nikos e. mastorakis. WSEAS Trans. Inf. Sci. Appl. 2005; 2(5): 460–466.
2. Durand N, Alliot J-M: A combined nelder-mead simplex and genetic algorithm. HAL. 1999; 1999.
3. Renders J-M, Flasse SP: Hybrid methods using genetic algorithms for global optimization. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. B Cybern. 1996; 26(2): 243–258. Publisher Full Text
4. Fan S-KS, Liang Y-C, Zahara E: A genetic algorithm and a particle swarm optimizer hybridized with nelder–mead simplex search. Comput. Ind. Eng. 2006; 50(4): 401–425. Publisher Full Text
5. Hwang S-F, He R-S: A hybrid real-parameter genetic algorithm for function optimization. Adv. Eng. Inform. 2006; 20(1): 7–21. Publisher Full Text
6. Beasley D: An overview of genetic algorithms. University Computing. 1993; 15: 170–181.
7. Holland JH: Adaptation in natural and artificial systems. Ann Arbor: univ. of mich. press; 1975; vol. 7. ; 390–401.
8. Olsson DM, Nelson LS: The Nelder-mead simplex procedure for function minimization. Technometrics. 1975; 17(1): 45–51. Publisher Full Text
9. Spendley WGRFR, Hext GR, Himsworth FR: Sequential application of simplex designs in optimisation and evolutionary operation. Technometrics. 1962; 4(4): 441–461. Publisher Full Text
10. Nelder JA, Mead R: A simplex method for function minimization. Comput. J. 1965; 7(4): 308–313. Publisher Full Text
11. Selvam M, Ramachandran M, Saravanan V: Nelder–mead simplex search method-a study. Data Anal. Comput. Artif. Intell. 2022; 2(2): 117–122. Publisher Full Text
12. Akdağ SA, Dinler A: A new method to estimate weibull parameters for wind energy applications. Energy Convers. Manag. 2009; 50(7): 1761–1766. Publisher Full Text
13. Weibull W: A statistical theory of strength of materials. IVB-Handl; 1939.
14. Bütikofer L, Stawarczyk B, Roos M: Two regression methods for esti- mation of a two-parameter weibull distribution for reliability of dental materials. Dent. Mater. 2015; 31(2): e33–e50. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text
15. Coles S, Bawa J, Trenner L, et al.: An introduction to statistical modeling of extreme values. Springer; 2001; vol. 208. . Publisher Full Text
16. Seguro JV, Lambert TW: Modern estimation of the parameters of the weibull wind speed distribution for wind energy analysis. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 2000; 85(1): 75–84. Publisher Full Text
17. Akgül FG, Şenoğlu B, Arslan T: An alternative distribution to weibull for modeling the wind speed data: Inverse weibull distribution. Energy Convers. Manag. 2016; 114: 234–240. Publisher Full Text
18. Kollu R, Rayapudi SR, Narasimham SVL, et al.: Mixture probability distribution functions to model wind speed distributions. Int. J. Energy Environ. Eng. 2012; 3: 10–27. Publisher Full Text
19. Kavak Akpinar E, Akpinar S: Determination of the wind energy potential for maden-elazig, turkey. Energy Convers. Manag. 2004; 45(18-19): 2901–2914. Publisher Full Text
20. Teimouri M, Hoseini SM, Nadarajah S: Comparison of estimation methods for the weibull distribution. Statistics. 2013; 47(1): 93–109. Publisher Full Text
21. Saleh H, Abou El-Azm Aly A, Abdel-Hady S: Assessment of different methods used to estimate weibull distribution parameters for wind speed in zafarana wind farm, suez gulf, Egypt. Energy. 2012; 44(1): 710–719. Publisher Full Text
22. Azad AK, Rasul MG, Yusaf T: Statistical diagnosis of the best weibull methods for wind power assessment for agricultural applications. Energies. 2014; 7(5): 3056–3085. Publisher Full Text
23. Dempster AP, Laird NM, Rubin DB: Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the em algorithm. J. R. Stat. Soc. Series B (Methodol). 1977; 39(1): 1–22. Publisher Full Text
24. Gove JH, Fairweather SE: Maximum-likelihood estimation of weibull func- tion parameters using a general interactive optimizer and grouped data. For. Ecol. Manag. 1989; 28(1): 61–69. Publisher Full Text
25. Yalçınkaya A, Şenoğlu B, Yolcu U: Maximum likelihood estimation for the parameters of skew-normal distribution using genetic algorithm. Swarm Evol. Comput. 2018; 38: 127–138. Publisher Full Text
26. Altunkaynak B, Alptekin ESİN: The genetic algorithm method for parameter estimation in nonlinear regression. Gazi Univ. J. Sci. 2004; 17(2): 43–51.
27. Gençtürk Y, Yiğiter A: Modelling claim number using a new mixture model: negative binomial gamma distribution. J. Stat. Comput. Simul. 2016; 86(10): 1829–1839. Publisher Full Text
28. Thomas GM, Gerth R, Velasco T, et al.: Using real-coded genetic algorithms for weibull parameter estimation. Comput. Ind. Eng. 1995; 29(1-4): 377–381. Publisher Full Text
29. Kusiak A, Zheng H, Song Z: On-line monitoring of power curves. Renew. Energy. 2009; 34(6): 1487–1493. Publisher Full Text
30. Morgan EC, Lackner M, Vogel RM, et al.: Probability distributions for offshore wind speeds. Energy Convers. Manag. 2011; 52(1): 15–26. Publisher Full Text
31. Mahmuddin F: Analysis of wind energy potential with a mobile floating structure around sulawesi and maluku islands of indonesia. International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. American Society of Mechanical Engineers; 2015; volume 56574. : p. V009T09A064.
32. Komatsu T, Mizuno S, Natheer A, et al.: Unusual distribution of floating seaweeds in the east china sea in the early spring of 2012. J. Appl. Phycol. 2014; 26: 1169–1179. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text
33. Massey FJ Jr: The kolmogorov-smirnov test for goodness of fit. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 1951; 46(253): 68–78. Publisher Full Text
34. Mishra R, Majhi N: Python code and raw data for our proposed algorithm (GANMA).2024. Publisher Full Text

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 3

VERSION 3 PUBLISHED 19 Sep 2024

Author details Author details

¹ Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751024, India

Neha Majhi
Roles: Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation

Rajashree Mishra
Roles: Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing

Competing interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Grant information

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Article Versions (3)

version 3

Revised

Published: 07 Apr 2025, 13:1073

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.3

version 2

Revised

Published: 10 Mar 2025, 13:1073

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.2

version 1

Published: 19 Sep 2024, 13:1073

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.1

© 2024 Majhi N and Mishra R. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download

Export To

metrics

	Views	Downloads
F1000Research	-	-
PubMed Central Data from PMC are received and updated monthly.	-	-

Citations

SEE MORE DETAILS

CITE

how to cite this article

Majhi N and Mishra R. A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2024, 13:1073 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.154598.1)

NOTE: If applicable, it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.

track

receive updates on this article

Track an article to receive email alerts on any updates to this article.

Open Peer Review

Version 1

VERSION 1

PUBLISHED 19 Sep 2024

Views

Reviewer Report 06 Dec 2024

Olympia Roeva, Bioinformatics and mathematical modelling, Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Approved with Reservations

https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.169646.r343361

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?No. The paper structure should be reconsidered. First, all used/known methods and knowledge used in the research should be presented and then the proposed

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?No. The paper structure should be reconsidered. First, all used/known methods and knowledge used in the research should be presented and then the proposed new techniques, the new results obtained – only results and experiments made by the authors. The presented results should be discussed and compared with similar published results.

The references are not up to date. Recent titles should be added. 1/3 of the references are related to Weibull-Parameter Estimation and at the same time there is no deep analysis of the hybrids based on GA – their advantages and disadvantages, the existing gaps, and the role of the proposed hybrid in the current state of the art.
The figures should appear after their introduction in the text. Figure 1 is mentioned on page 19, but appears on page 12.

Is the study design appropriate and does the work have academic merit?

Yes.

Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

No. For example, the applied GA selection operator is not given. The GA parameter, ggap, is not given. The fitness function is unknown.

If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Yes.

Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes.

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes.

I have a few questions:

Why reference 12 is cited in the sentence “The pseudo-code for the hybridization of the GA and Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm is presented in Algorithm.¹²”?
The NM algorithm works with a single solution and GA works with a population of the solutions. How is it performed the following step in pseudo-code 21: “Replace the worst individuals with the simplex’s best individuals”? The NM algorithm returns/gives only one solution, so only one worst individual can be replaced.
How the GA and NM algorithm parameters are set? Are these parameters optimal?

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

No
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Yes
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: metaheuristic algorithms for mathematical modelling and optimization

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard, however I have significant reservations, as outlined above.

CITE

Report a concern

Author Response 10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

10 Mar 2025

Author Response
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.
1. Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.
2. We acknowledge the reviewer’s
... Continue reading
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.

We acknowledge the reviewer’s observation regarding the application of the Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithm, which works with a single solution while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) operates on a population. In our implementation, we address this by applying the NM algorithm to the first five best individuals from the population. For each individual, NM refines the solution, and the improved solution replaces the corresponding worst individual in the population. This process ensures that the benefits of NM’s local refinement are distributed across multiple candidates, effectively enhancing the population's overall quality. This approach leverages NM's exploitation strength while maintaining the diversity necessary for GA’s global exploration, striking an effective balance between the two methods. We address this in, sub-section 3.2(IV)

We have created a section for parameter setups for GA, NMA, and GANMA. To ensure these parameters were suitable for our specific application, we conducted sensitivity analyses on a subset of benchmark functions, varying key parameters and assessing their impact on convergence speed and solution quality. The selected parameters demonstrated consistent performance across unimodal, multimodal, and shifted test functions, indicating that they are close to optimal for the problems studied. However, we acknowledge that further tuning could potentially improve performance for specific problem instances and are open to exploring adaptive parameter control in future work.
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.

We acknowledge the reviewer’s observation regarding the application of the Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithm, which works with a single solution while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) operates on a population. In our implementation, we address this by applying the NM algorithm to the first five best individuals from the population. For each individual, NM refines the solution, and the improved solution replaces the corresponding worst individual in the population. This process ensures that the benefits of NM’s local refinement are distributed across multiple candidates, effectively enhancing the population's overall quality. This approach leverages NM's exploitation strength while maintaining the diversity necessary for GA’s global exploration, striking an effective balance between the two methods. We address this in, sub-section 3.2(IV)

We have created a section for parameter setups for GA, NMA, and GANMA. To ensure these parameters were suitable for our specific application, we conducted sensitivity analyses on a subset of benchmark functions, varying key parameters and assessing their impact on convergence speed and solution quality. The selected parameters demonstrated consistent performance across unimodal, multimodal, and shifted test functions, indicating that they are close to optimal for the problems studied. However, we acknowledge that further tuning could potentially improve performance for specific problem instances and are open to exploring adaptive parameter control in future work.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern
Respond or Comment

COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT

Author Response 10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

10 Mar 2025

Author Response
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.
1. Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.
2. We acknowledge the reviewer’s
... Continue reading
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.

We acknowledge the reviewer’s observation regarding the application of the Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithm, which works with a single solution while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) operates on a population. In our implementation, we address this by applying the NM algorithm to the first five best individuals from the population. For each individual, NM refines the solution, and the improved solution replaces the corresponding worst individual in the population. This process ensures that the benefits of NM’s local refinement are distributed across multiple candidates, effectively enhancing the population's overall quality. This approach leverages NM's exploitation strength while maintaining the diversity necessary for GA’s global exploration, striking an effective balance between the two methods. We address this in, sub-section 3.2(IV)

We have created a section for parameter setups for GA, NMA, and GANMA. To ensure these parameters were suitable for our specific application, we conducted sensitivity analyses on a subset of benchmark functions, varying key parameters and assessing their impact on convergence speed and solution quality. The selected parameters demonstrated consistent performance across unimodal, multimodal, and shifted test functions, indicating that they are close to optimal for the problems studied. However, we acknowledge that further tuning could potentially improve performance for specific problem instances and are open to exploring adaptive parameter control in future work.
Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.

We acknowledge the reviewer’s observation regarding the application of the Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithm, which works with a single solution while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) operates on a population. In our implementation, we address this by applying the NM algorithm to the first five best individuals from the population. For each individual, NM refines the solution, and the improved solution replaces the corresponding worst individual in the population. This process ensures that the benefits of NM’s local refinement are distributed across multiple candidates, effectively enhancing the population's overall quality. This approach leverages NM's exploitation strength while maintaining the diversity necessary for GA’s global exploration, striking an effective balance between the two methods. We address this in, sub-section 3.2(IV)

We have created a section for parameter setups for GA, NMA, and GANMA. To ensure these parameters were suitable for our specific application, we conducted sensitivity analyses on a subset of benchmark functions, varying key parameters and assessing their impact on convergence speed and solution quality. The selected parameters demonstrated consistent performance across unimodal, multimodal, and shifted test functions, indicating that they are close to optimal for the problems studied. However, we acknowledge that further tuning could potentially improve performance for specific problem instances and are open to exploring adaptive parameter control in future work.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern

Views

Reviewer Report 28 Oct 2024

HABBI FATIHA, Saad Dahlab University of Blida Faculty of Technology (Ringgold ID: 272254), Blida, Blida Province, Algeria; Saad Dahlab University of Blida (Ringgold ID: 213442), Blida, Blida Province, Algeria

El-ghalia Boudissa, Faculty of Technology, Saad Dahlab University of Blida, Blida,, Blida Province, Algeria; Automatic-Electrotechnic, Saad Dahlab University of Blida Faculty of Technology (Ringgold ID: 272254), Blida, Blida Province, Algeria

Approved with Reservations

https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.169646.r329147

This paper aims to present a novel hybrid GA and NMA. It should make a contribution to enhance the exploitation capabilities of GA by using NMA. To highlight the performance of GANMA, it is tested across various benchmark functions and parameter estimation tasks. There are a number of issues with the methods and analysis that need to be clarified. The comments for authors are listed below
1- The authors should firstly focus on the necessity to hybrid the GA with NMA. This is followed by highlighting the problem that is still not covered by other researchers.
2- In the overview section, the authors mention that: GA is an approach to heuristic search. So, what is the difference between metaheuristic optimization method and heuristic search approach?
3- In Nelder–Mead Simplex Search Method section, the equations must be numbered. There is a sign error in one of the contraction equations of NMA. Equations 5 and 7 must be verified
4-The justification of using NMA in this paper is not clear. What is the merit of using NMA, while there are thousands of optimization algorithms?
5-The theoretical explanation on why the NMA tends to provide local solution, is not clearly explained. Please show a detail explanation on the demerit of the NMA. The author may support with some preliminary experiments
6-The authors define the simplex for the NM algorithm by selecting a set of initial points around the best solution found by the GA so far in the suggested algorithm’s (GANMA). Please show a detail explanation on the initial conditions choice of NMA
7-The authors must clarify what makes after mutation; just the mutated solutions are affected by NM algorithm. Or, the NM algorithm is applied to only the best solution after reproduction and when the end of the main loop is met.
8- When checking the Table 2, it shows less performance of GANMA for f₈ in three dimensions (-1.97E+01 (Best solution for n=10), -3.94E+01(Best solution for n=20),
-9.86E+01(Best solution for n=30)). Please comment on these numbers. Therefore, the authors must clarify what makes the proposed method superior.
9- In conclusion, the authors mention that: To improve the exploitation capabilities of GA, this study presents a unique hybridized approach called the GANMA, in which NM is included. Please explain the point of a unique hybridized approach
10- The literature for the Weibull-parameter estimation methods is too old. The authors are required to use the most recent ones.
Additionally, please put recent optimization algorithms
Ref 1
Ref 2
Ref 3
Ref 4
Ref 5

The comments of co-reviewer
This paper is an interesting study about parameter estimation using a hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder Mead approach. Below, I give some major comments for improving it:
1. The authors need to mind the proper use of abbreviations and switching between them and their original terminologies.
2. Added reference to formulas.
3. An flowchart for proposed GANMA may be given by the authors in the paper for better understanding of the readers.
4. What is the role of benchmark function for an optimization technique?
5. In Table 2 on page 10 (f8 function), the GA gives best results than the GANMA in 10, 20 and 30 dimensions. Please comment on these numbers.
6. In page 7 (fourth section), the chosen reflected value α

is not given in the paper. Also, the reason for the selected values of: γ=1.5, β=0.5 and η=0.5

must be listed. Why didn’t you use the standard NMA values (α=1, β=2 and γ= η=0.5

). In addition, these values (α, β,γ and η)

are the same values used for Weibull-Parameter Estimation.
7. In Figures 3 (f15), 4 (f5, f15) why there is a zigzag in the fitness graph.
7. In order to check the performance of the proposed GANMA, it is suggested to compare the proposed GANMA with another way of hybridization, which is explained below.
- Apply the GA to locate the interval, which likely contains the global minimum.
- Then, switch to the NMA assuming the final solution of the GA as a starting solution for NMA.
8. The literature for the Weibull-parameter estimation methods seems too old. Please put the recent optimization algorithms.

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

Partly
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

Yes
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

I cannot comment. A qualified statistician is required.
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

References

1. Bounekhla M, Habbi F, Boudissa E, Maamoun M, et al.: Combination of quadratic ranking selection real-coded genetic algorithm with the Hooke-Jeeves optimisation method for solar photovoltaic parameter estimation. International Journal of Ambient Energy. 2022; 43 (1): 7754-7765 Publisher Full Text
2. Boudissa E, Habbi F, Gabour N, Bounekhla M: Improved Nelder-Mead algorithm for output voltage control of a synchronous generator. International Journal of Ambient Energy. 2023; 44 (1): 2283-2295 Publisher Full Text
3. Guo J, Kong X, Wu N, Xie L: Weibull parameter estimation and reliability analysis with small samples based on successive approximation method. Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology. 2023; 37 (11): 5797-5811 Publisher Full Text
4. Zhang C: Weibull parameter estimation and reliability analysis with zero-failure data from high-quality products. Reliability Engineering & System Safety. 2021; 207. Publisher Full Text
5. EL-G BOUDISSA F, HABBI M, BOUNEKHLA N, DIF: A MEMETIC ALGORITHM APPLIED TO INDUCTION MACHINE PARAMETERS IDENTIFICATION BASED ON AN OUTPUT ERROR. https://journal.iem.pub.ro/rrst-ee/article/view/403/308. 2023.

Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: Optimization methods; meta-heuristics; identification; induction machine; synchrounous generator; Automatic Voltage Regulation; Photovoltaic systems

We confirm that we have read this submission and believe that we have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard, however we have significant reservations, as outlined above.

CITE

Report a concern

Author Response 10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

10 Mar 2025

Author Response
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:
1. Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:
  
  Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning
... Continue reading
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:

Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning solutions near optima, which NMA excels at. This synergy improves the algorithm's convergence speed and solution quality. Other researchers have primarily focused on individual optimization methods or hybridizations excluding GA and NMA, leaving a gap in fully exploiting the complementary strengths of these methods.

Difference Between Metaheuristic Optimization and Heuristic Search:

Response: Metaheuristic optimization methods like GA are higher-level frameworks designed to guide heuristic or local search procedures. In contrast, heuristic searches are problem-specific strategies for exploring the solution space. GA leverages metaheuristic principles to perform heuristic searches iteratively, balancing exploration and exploitation.

Errors in NMA Equations:

Response: We have numbered all equations in the Nelder-Mead section and verify equations 5 and 7 for correctness. The contraction equations has been checked thoroughly for any sign errors and updated accordingly.

Justification for Using NMA:

Response: NMA is chosen for its simplicity and effectiveness in refining solutions locally, complementing the GA’s global search. While numerous algorithms exist, NMA’s low computational overhead and robustness in small-dimensional spaces make it a practical choice in this hybrid.

Theoretical Explanation of NMA's Local Optimum Behavior:

Response: NMA’s reliance on simplex geometry and local operations limits its exploration, often leading to convergence at local optima in complex landscapes. This demerit is illustrated through preliminary experiments (to be included) demonstrating its limitations in multimodal functions without GA’s global search support.

Initial Conditions Choice in NMA:

Response: The simplex in NMA is defined around the best GA solution to ensure the refinement starts near a promising region. This choice leverages GA's exploration strength, as demonstrated in our results section.

Application of NMA After Mutation:

Response: NMA is applied to the best solution after reproduction and mutation in each iteration, not just the final solution. This strategy allows continuous refinement throughout the optimization process.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: The less favorable performance of GANMA in f8 indicates its limitations in specific multimodal functions with narrow global basins. This highlights the need for further tuning of algorithm parameters or additional hybrid mechanisms to improve robustness.

Unique Hybridized Approach:

Response: GANMA uniquely integrates GA’s exploration with NMA’s exploitation in a seamless manner, ensuring a balance between global and local optimization that is not seen in existing hybrid methods.

Recent Literature for Weibull Parameter Estimation:

Response: Recent references for Weibull parameter estimation methods will be incorporated. We will also discuss newer optimization algorithms to enrich the literature review.

Co-Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Proper Use of Abbreviations:

Response: We will ensure consistent use of abbreviations and their original terminologies throughout the manuscript.

References to Formulas:

Response: Additional references will be provided for all formulas where relevant.

Flowchart for GANMA:

Response: A flowchart illustrating GANMA’s process has been included to enhance understanding.

Role of Benchmark Functions:

Response: Benchmark functions serve as standard testbeds to evaluate and compare the performance of optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: Addressed in point 8 above.

Chosen NMA Parameters:

Response: The chosen parameters (α, β, γ, η) align with standard practices and are validated through experiments for this study’s problem context. Their values are consistent across benchmark functions and Weibull parameter estimation.

Zigzag in Fitness Graphs:

Response: The zigzag behavior in Figures 3 and 4 reflects algorithm dynamics during exploitation phases, influenced by local searches or mutation operations.

Alternative Hybridization Comparison:

Response: We have added experimental result comparing with GANMA with a two-phase hybridization where GA identifies the interval, and NMA refines within it (GA-NMA). Section 5 (Table 2)

Recent Optimization Algorithms:

Response: Recent optimization methods has been reviewed and included to strengthen the manuscript’s relevance.
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:

Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning solutions near optima, which NMA excels at. This synergy improves the algorithm's convergence speed and solution quality. Other researchers have primarily focused on individual optimization methods or hybridizations excluding GA and NMA, leaving a gap in fully exploiting the complementary strengths of these methods.

Difference Between Metaheuristic Optimization and Heuristic Search:

Response: Metaheuristic optimization methods like GA are higher-level frameworks designed to guide heuristic or local search procedures. In contrast, heuristic searches are problem-specific strategies for exploring the solution space. GA leverages metaheuristic principles to perform heuristic searches iteratively, balancing exploration and exploitation.

Errors in NMA Equations:

Response: We have numbered all equations in the Nelder-Mead section and verify equations 5 and 7 for correctness. The contraction equations has been checked thoroughly for any sign errors and updated accordingly.

Justification for Using NMA:

Response: NMA is chosen for its simplicity and effectiveness in refining solutions locally, complementing the GA’s global search. While numerous algorithms exist, NMA’s low computational overhead and robustness in small-dimensional spaces make it a practical choice in this hybrid.

Theoretical Explanation of NMA's Local Optimum Behavior:

Response: NMA’s reliance on simplex geometry and local operations limits its exploration, often leading to convergence at local optima in complex landscapes. This demerit is illustrated through preliminary experiments (to be included) demonstrating its limitations in multimodal functions without GA’s global search support.

Initial Conditions Choice in NMA:

Response: The simplex in NMA is defined around the best GA solution to ensure the refinement starts near a promising region. This choice leverages GA's exploration strength, as demonstrated in our results section.

Application of NMA After Mutation:

Response: NMA is applied to the best solution after reproduction and mutation in each iteration, not just the final solution. This strategy allows continuous refinement throughout the optimization process.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: The less favorable performance of GANMA in f8 indicates its limitations in specific multimodal functions with narrow global basins. This highlights the need for further tuning of algorithm parameters or additional hybrid mechanisms to improve robustness.

Unique Hybridized Approach:

Response: GANMA uniquely integrates GA’s exploration with NMA’s exploitation in a seamless manner, ensuring a balance between global and local optimization that is not seen in existing hybrid methods.

Recent Literature for Weibull Parameter Estimation:

Response: Recent references for Weibull parameter estimation methods will be incorporated. We will also discuss newer optimization algorithms to enrich the literature review.

Co-Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Proper Use of Abbreviations:

Response: We will ensure consistent use of abbreviations and their original terminologies throughout the manuscript.

References to Formulas:

Response: Additional references will be provided for all formulas where relevant.

Flowchart for GANMA:

Response: A flowchart illustrating GANMA’s process has been included to enhance understanding.

Role of Benchmark Functions:

Response: Benchmark functions serve as standard testbeds to evaluate and compare the performance of optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: Addressed in point 8 above.

Chosen NMA Parameters:

Response: The chosen parameters (α, β, γ, η) align with standard practices and are validated through experiments for this study’s problem context. Their values are consistent across benchmark functions and Weibull parameter estimation.

Zigzag in Fitness Graphs:

Response: The zigzag behavior in Figures 3 and 4 reflects algorithm dynamics during exploitation phases, influenced by local searches or mutation operations.

Alternative Hybridization Comparison:

Response: We have added experimental result comparing with GANMA with a two-phase hybridization where GA identifies the interval, and NMA refines within it (GA-NMA). Section 5 (Table 2)

Recent Optimization Algorithms:

Response: Recent optimization methods has been reviewed and included to strengthen the manuscript’s relevance.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern
Respond or Comment

COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT

Author Response 10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

10 Mar 2025

Author Response
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:
1. Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:
  
  Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning
... Continue reading
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:

Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning solutions near optima, which NMA excels at. This synergy improves the algorithm's convergence speed and solution quality. Other researchers have primarily focused on individual optimization methods or hybridizations excluding GA and NMA, leaving a gap in fully exploiting the complementary strengths of these methods.

Difference Between Metaheuristic Optimization and Heuristic Search:

Response: Metaheuristic optimization methods like GA are higher-level frameworks designed to guide heuristic or local search procedures. In contrast, heuristic searches are problem-specific strategies for exploring the solution space. GA leverages metaheuristic principles to perform heuristic searches iteratively, balancing exploration and exploitation.

Errors in NMA Equations:

Response: We have numbered all equations in the Nelder-Mead section and verify equations 5 and 7 for correctness. The contraction equations has been checked thoroughly for any sign errors and updated accordingly.

Justification for Using NMA:

Response: NMA is chosen for its simplicity and effectiveness in refining solutions locally, complementing the GA’s global search. While numerous algorithms exist, NMA’s low computational overhead and robustness in small-dimensional spaces make it a practical choice in this hybrid.

Theoretical Explanation of NMA's Local Optimum Behavior:

Response: NMA’s reliance on simplex geometry and local operations limits its exploration, often leading to convergence at local optima in complex landscapes. This demerit is illustrated through preliminary experiments (to be included) demonstrating its limitations in multimodal functions without GA’s global search support.

Initial Conditions Choice in NMA:

Response: The simplex in NMA is defined around the best GA solution to ensure the refinement starts near a promising region. This choice leverages GA's exploration strength, as demonstrated in our results section.

Application of NMA After Mutation:

Response: NMA is applied to the best solution after reproduction and mutation in each iteration, not just the final solution. This strategy allows continuous refinement throughout the optimization process.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: The less favorable performance of GANMA in f8 indicates its limitations in specific multimodal functions with narrow global basins. This highlights the need for further tuning of algorithm parameters or additional hybrid mechanisms to improve robustness.

Unique Hybridized Approach:

Response: GANMA uniquely integrates GA’s exploration with NMA’s exploitation in a seamless manner, ensuring a balance between global and local optimization that is not seen in existing hybrid methods.

Recent Literature for Weibull Parameter Estimation:

Response: Recent references for Weibull parameter estimation methods will be incorporated. We will also discuss newer optimization algorithms to enrich the literature review.

Co-Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Proper Use of Abbreviations:

Response: We will ensure consistent use of abbreviations and their original terminologies throughout the manuscript.

References to Formulas:

Response: Additional references will be provided for all formulas where relevant.

Flowchart for GANMA:

Response: A flowchart illustrating GANMA’s process has been included to enhance understanding.

Role of Benchmark Functions:

Response: Benchmark functions serve as standard testbeds to evaluate and compare the performance of optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: Addressed in point 8 above.

Chosen NMA Parameters:

Response: The chosen parameters (α, β, γ, η) align with standard practices and are validated through experiments for this study’s problem context. Their values are consistent across benchmark functions and Weibull parameter estimation.

Zigzag in Fitness Graphs:

Response: The zigzag behavior in Figures 3 and 4 reflects algorithm dynamics during exploitation phases, influenced by local searches or mutation operations.

Alternative Hybridization Comparison:

Response: We have added experimental result comparing with GANMA with a two-phase hybridization where GA identifies the interval, and NMA refines within it (GA-NMA). Section 5 (Table 2)

Recent Optimization Algorithms:

Response: Recent optimization methods has been reviewed and included to strengthen the manuscript’s relevance.
Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:

Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning solutions near optima, which NMA excels at. This synergy improves the algorithm's convergence speed and solution quality. Other researchers have primarily focused on individual optimization methods or hybridizations excluding GA and NMA, leaving a gap in fully exploiting the complementary strengths of these methods.

Difference Between Metaheuristic Optimization and Heuristic Search:

Response: Metaheuristic optimization methods like GA are higher-level frameworks designed to guide heuristic or local search procedures. In contrast, heuristic searches are problem-specific strategies for exploring the solution space. GA leverages metaheuristic principles to perform heuristic searches iteratively, balancing exploration and exploitation.

Errors in NMA Equations:

Response: We have numbered all equations in the Nelder-Mead section and verify equations 5 and 7 for correctness. The contraction equations has been checked thoroughly for any sign errors and updated accordingly.

Justification for Using NMA:

Response: NMA is chosen for its simplicity and effectiveness in refining solutions locally, complementing the GA’s global search. While numerous algorithms exist, NMA’s low computational overhead and robustness in small-dimensional spaces make it a practical choice in this hybrid.

Theoretical Explanation of NMA's Local Optimum Behavior:

Response: NMA’s reliance on simplex geometry and local operations limits its exploration, often leading to convergence at local optima in complex landscapes. This demerit is illustrated through preliminary experiments (to be included) demonstrating its limitations in multimodal functions without GA’s global search support.

Initial Conditions Choice in NMA:

Response: The simplex in NMA is defined around the best GA solution to ensure the refinement starts near a promising region. This choice leverages GA's exploration strength, as demonstrated in our results section.

Application of NMA After Mutation:

Response: NMA is applied to the best solution after reproduction and mutation in each iteration, not just the final solution. This strategy allows continuous refinement throughout the optimization process.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: The less favorable performance of GANMA in f8 indicates its limitations in specific multimodal functions with narrow global basins. This highlights the need for further tuning of algorithm parameters or additional hybrid mechanisms to improve robustness.

Unique Hybridized Approach:

Response: GANMA uniquely integrates GA’s exploration with NMA’s exploitation in a seamless manner, ensuring a balance between global and local optimization that is not seen in existing hybrid methods.

Recent Literature for Weibull Parameter Estimation:

Response: Recent references for Weibull parameter estimation methods will be incorporated. We will also discuss newer optimization algorithms to enrich the literature review.

Co-Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Proper Use of Abbreviations:

Response: We will ensure consistent use of abbreviations and their original terminologies throughout the manuscript.

References to Formulas:

Response: Additional references will be provided for all formulas where relevant.

Flowchart for GANMA:

Response: A flowchart illustrating GANMA’s process has been included to enhance understanding.

Role of Benchmark Functions:

Response: Benchmark functions serve as standard testbeds to evaluate and compare the performance of optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios.

Performance in Table 2 (f8):

Response: Addressed in point 8 above.

Chosen NMA Parameters:

Response: The chosen parameters (α, β, γ, η) align with standard practices and are validated through experiments for this study’s problem context. Their values are consistent across benchmark functions and Weibull parameter estimation.

Zigzag in Fitness Graphs:

Response: The zigzag behavior in Figures 3 and 4 reflects algorithm dynamics during exploitation phases, influenced by local searches or mutation operations.

Alternative Hybridization Comparison:

Response: We have added experimental result comparing with GANMA with a two-phase hybridization where GA identifies the interval, and NMA refines within it (GA-NMA). Section 5 (Table 2)

Recent Optimization Algorithms:

Response: Recent optimization methods has been reviewed and included to strengthen the manuscript’s relevance.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 3

VERSION 3 PUBLISHED 19 Sep 2024

Open Peer Review

Reviewer Status

Reviewer Reports

	Invited Reviewers
	1	2	3
Version 3 (revision) 07 Apr 25			read
Version 2 (revision) 10 Mar 25	read
Version 1 19 Sep 24	read	read

El-ghalia Boudissa, Saad Dahlab University of Blida, Blida,, Algeria; Saad Dahlab University of Blida Faculty of Technology (Ringgold ID: 272254), Blida, Algeria

HABBI FATIHA, Saad Dahlab University of Blida Faculty of Technology (Ringgold ID: 272254), Blida, Algeria; Saad Dahlab University of Blida (Ringgold ID: 213442), Blida, Algeria
Olympia Roeva, Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Gyan Singh, National Institute of Technology Agartala, Agartala, India

Comments on this article

All Comments(0)

Add a comment

Browse by related subjects

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

3 Views

14 Aug 2025 | for Version 3

Gyan Singh, National Institute of Technology Agartala, Agartala, Tripura, India

3 Views Cite this report Responses(0)

Approved

The approach leverages the global exploration capabilities of the GA to identify promising regions in the search space ,then utilize the local refinement capabilities of the Nelder-Mead algorithm to find the optimal solution within that region .The hybrid approach is applied to various parameter estimation problems, demonstrating its solutions compared to traditional methods.

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

Yes
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

Partly
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Yes
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Optimization and Hybrid Of Optimization Algorithm and Fuzzy logic

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Respond to this report

Responses (0)

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

17 Views

25 Mar 2025 | for Version 2

17 Views Cite this report Responses(1)

Approved

We are pleased to inform you of the final decision about the revised paper "A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation"

Reviewer 1: Dr. BOUDISSA EL GHALIA

Decision: Accepted

Reference 44 should be corrected as follows:

44. Boudissa E.,Habbi F., Bounekhla M., Dif N.: A Memetic algorithm applied to induction machine parameters identification based on an output error. Revue Roumaine Des Sciences Techniques — Série Électrotechnique et Énergétique. 2023; 68(3): 266–270 . Publisher Full Text https://journal.iem.pub.ro/rrst-

Reviewer 2: Dr. FATIHA HABBI

I recommended that this manuscript can be indexed.

References

1. BOUDISSA E, HABBI F, BOUNEKHLA M, DIF N: A MEMETIC ALGORITHM APPLIED TO INDUCTION MACHINE PARAMETERS IDENTIFICATION BASED ON AN OUTPUT ERROR. REVUE ROUMAINE DES SCIENCES TECHNIQUES — SÉRIE ÉLECTROTECHNIQUE ET ÉNERGÉTIQUE. 2023; 68 (3): 266-270 Publisher Full Text
2. Boudissa E, Habbi F, Gabour N, Bounekhla M: Improved Nelder-Mead algorithm for output voltage control of a synchronous generator. International Journal of Ambient Energy. 2023; 44 (1): 2283-2295 Publisher Full Text
3. Guo J, Kong X, Wu N, Xie L: Weibull parameter estimation and reliability analysis with small samples based on successive approximation method. Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology. 2023; 37 (11): 5797-5811 Publisher Full Text
4. Zhang C: Weibull parameter estimation and reliability analysis with zero-failure data from high-quality products. Reliability Engineering & System Safety. 2021; 207. Publisher Full Text
5. Fatiha.H., Nour El Houda G., Mohamed B., El Ghalia.B: Output voltage control of synchronous generator using Nelder –Mead algorithm based PI controller. IEEE xplore. Publisher Full Text

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Optimization methods; meta-heuristics; identification; induction machine; synchrounous generator; Automatic Voltage Regulation; Photovoltaic systems

We confirm that we have read this submission and believe that we have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Respond to this report

Responses (1)

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

14 Views

06 Dec 2024 | for Version 1

Olympia Roeva, Bioinformatics and mathematical modelling, Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

14 Views Cite this report Responses(1)

Approved With Reservations

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?No. The paper structure should be reconsidered. First, all used/known methods and knowledge used in the research should be presented and then the proposed new techniques, the new results obtained – only results and experiments made by the authors. The presented results should be discussed and compared with similar published results.

Is the study design appropriate and does the work have academic merit?

Yes.

Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

No. For example, the applied GA selection operator is not given. The GA parameter, ggap, is not given. The fitness function is unknown.

If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Yes.

Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes.

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes.

I have a few questions:

Why reference 12 is cited in the sentence “The pseudo-code for the hybridization of the GA and Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm is presented in Algorithm.¹²”?
The NM algorithm works with a single solution and GA works with a population of the solutions. How is it performed the following step in pseudo-code 21: “Replace the worst individuals with the simplex’s best individuals”? The NM algorithm returns/gives only one solution, so only one worst individual can be replaced.
How the GA and NM algorithm parameters are set? Are these parameters optimal?

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

No
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

No
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

Yes
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

metaheuristic algorithms for mathematical modelling and optimization

Respond to this report

Responses (1)

Author Response

10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Sorry, I have wrongly mentioned it and I have corrected it in the given new manuscript.
We acknowledge the reviewer’s observation regarding the application of the Nelder-Mead (NM) algorithm, which works with a single solution while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) operates on a population. In our implementation, we address this by applying the NM algorithm to the first five best individuals from the population. For each individual, NM refines the solution, and the improved solution replaces the corresponding worst individual in the population. This process ensures that the benefits of NM’s local refinement are distributed across multiple candidates, effectively enhancing the population's overall quality. This approach leverages NM's exploitation strength while maintaining the diversity necessary for GA’s global exploration, striking an effective balance between the two methods. We address this in, sub-section 3.2(IV)
We have created a section for parameter setups for GA, NMA, and GANMA. To ensure these parameters were suitable for our specific application, we conducted sensitivity analyses on a subset of benchmark functions, varying key parameters and assessing their impact on convergence speed and solution quality. The selected parameters demonstrated consistent performance across unimodal, multimodal, and shifted test functions, indicating that they are close to optimal for the problems studied. However, we acknowledge that further tuning could potentially improve performance for specific problem instances and are open to exploring adaptive parameter control in future work.

View more View less

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

33 Views

28 Oct 2024 | for Version 1

33 Views Cite this report Responses(1)

Approved With Reservations

is not given in the paper. Also, the reason for the selected values of: γ=1.5, β=0.5 and η=0.5

must be listed. Why didn’t you use the standard NMA values (α=1, β=2 and γ= η=0.5

). In addition, these values (α, β,γ and η)

Is the work clearly and accurately presented and does it cite the current literature?

Partly
Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?

Yes
If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?

I cannot comment. A qualified statistician is required.
Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?

Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results?

Yes

References

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Optimization methods; meta-heuristics; identification; induction machine; synchrounous generator; Automatic Voltage Regulation; Photovoltaic systems

Respond to this report

Responses (1)

Author Response

10 Mar 2025

Rajashree Mishra, Mathematics, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751024, India

Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Necessity of Hybridizing GA with NMA:
- Response: The hybridization of GA with NMA addresses the limitation of GA in fine-tuning solutions near optima, which NMA excels at. This synergy improves the algorithm's convergence speed and solution quality. Other researchers have primarily focused on individual optimization methods or hybridizations excluding GA and NMA, leaving a gap in fully exploiting the complementary strengths of these methods.
Difference Between Metaheuristic Optimization and Heuristic Search:
- Response: Metaheuristic optimization methods like GA are higher-level frameworks designed to guide heuristic or local search procedures. In contrast, heuristic searches are problem-specific strategies for exploring the solution space. GA leverages metaheuristic principles to perform heuristic searches iteratively, balancing exploration and exploitation.
Errors in NMA Equations:
- Response: We have numbered all equations in the Nelder-Mead section and verify equations 5 and 7 for correctness. The contraction equations has been checked thoroughly for any sign errors and updated accordingly.
Justification for Using NMA:
- Response: NMA is chosen for its simplicity and effectiveness in refining solutions locally, complementing the GA’s global search. While numerous algorithms exist, NMA’s low computational overhead and robustness in small-dimensional spaces make it a practical choice in this hybrid.
Theoretical Explanation of NMA's Local Optimum Behavior:
- Response: NMA’s reliance on simplex geometry and local operations limits its exploration, often leading to convergence at local optima in complex landscapes. This demerit is illustrated through preliminary experiments (to be included) demonstrating its limitations in multimodal functions without GA’s global search support.
Initial Conditions Choice in NMA:
- Response: The simplex in NMA is defined around the best GA solution to ensure the refinement starts near a promising region. This choice leverages GA's exploration strength, as demonstrated in our results section.
Application of NMA After Mutation:
- Response: NMA is applied to the best solution after reproduction and mutation in each iteration, not just the final solution. This strategy allows continuous refinement throughout the optimization process.
Performance in Table 2 (f8):
- Response: The less favorable performance of GANMA in f8 indicates its limitations in specific multimodal functions with narrow global basins. This highlights the need for further tuning of algorithm parameters or additional hybrid mechanisms to improve robustness.
Unique Hybridized Approach:
- Response: GANMA uniquely integrates GA’s exploration with NMA’s exploitation in a seamless manner, ensuring a balance between global and local optimization that is not seen in existing hybrid methods.
Recent Literature for Weibull Parameter Estimation:
- Response: Recent references for Weibull parameter estimation methods will be incorporated. We will also discuss newer optimization algorithms to enrich the literature review.

Co-Reviewer Comments and Suggested Responses:

Proper Use of Abbreviations:
- Response: We will ensure consistent use of abbreviations and their original terminologies throughout the manuscript.
References to Formulas:
- Response: Additional references will be provided for all formulas where relevant.
Flowchart for GANMA:
- Response: A flowchart illustrating GANMA’s process has been included to enhance understanding.
Role of Benchmark Functions:
- Response: Benchmark functions serve as standard testbeds to evaluate and compare the performance of optimization algorithms in diverse scenarios.
Performance in Table 2 (f8):
- Response: Addressed in point 8 above.
Chosen NMA Parameters:
- Response: The chosen parameters (α, β, γ, η) align with standard practices and are validated through experiments for this study’s problem context. Their values are consistent across benchmark functions and Weibull parameter estimation.
Zigzag in Fitness Graphs:
- Response: The zigzag behavior in Figures 3 and 4 reflects algorithm dynamics during exploitation phases, influenced by local searches or mutation operations.
Alternative Hybridization Comparison:
- Response: We have added experimental result comparing with GANMA with a two-phase hybridization where GA identifies the interval, and NMA refines within it (GA-NMA). Section 5 (Table 2)
Recent Optimization Algorithms:
- Response: Recent optimization methods has been reviewed and included to strengthen the manuscript’s relevance.

View more View less

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:

Approved - the paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested

Approved with reservations - A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.

Not approved - fundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions

[1] 1. Mastorakis NE: On the solution of ill-conditioned systems of linear and non-linear equations via genetic algorithms (gas) and nelder-mead simplex search nikos e. mastorakis. WSEAS Trans. Inf. Sci. Appl. 2005; 2(5): 460–466.

[2] 2. Durand N, Alliot J-M: A combined nelder-mead simplex and genetic algorithm. HAL. 1999; 1999.

[3] 3. Renders J-M, Flasse SP: Hybrid methods using genetic algorithms for global optimization. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. B Cybern. 1996; 26(2): 243–258. Publisher Full Text

[4] 4. Fan S-KS, Liang Y-C, Zahara E: A genetic algorithm and a particle swarm optimizer hybridized with nelder–mead simplex search. Comput. Ind. Eng. 2006; 50(4): 401–425. Publisher Full Text

[5] 5. Hwang S-F, He R-S: A hybrid real-parameter genetic algorithm for function optimization. Adv. Eng. Inform. 2006; 20(1): 7–21. Publisher Full Text

[6] 6. Beasley D: An overview of genetic algorithms. University Computing. 1993; 15: 170–181.

[7] 7. Holland JH: Adaptation in natural and artificial systems. Ann Arbor: univ. of mich. press; 1975; vol. 7. ; 390–401.

[8] 8. Olsson DM, Nelson LS: The Nelder-mead simplex procedure for function minimization. Technometrics. 1975; 17(1): 45–51. Publisher Full Text

[9] 9. Spendley WGRFR, Hext GR, Himsworth FR: Sequential application of simplex designs in optimisation and evolutionary operation. Technometrics. 1962; 4(4): 441–461. Publisher Full Text

[10] 10. Nelder JA, Mead R: A simplex method for function minimization. Comput. J. 1965; 7(4): 308–313. Publisher Full Text

[11] 11. Selvam M, Ramachandran M, Saravanan V: Nelder–mead simplex search method-a study. Data Anal. Comput. Artif. Intell. 2022; 2(2): 117–122. Publisher Full Text

[12] 12. Akdağ SA, Dinler A: A new method to estimate weibull parameters for wind energy applications. Energy Convers. Manag. 2009; 50(7): 1761–1766. Publisher Full Text

[13] 13. Weibull W: A statistical theory of strength of materials. IVB-Handl; 1939.

[14] 14. Bütikofer L, Stawarczyk B, Roos M: Two regression methods for esti- mation of a two-parameter weibull distribution for reliability of dental materials. Dent. Mater. 2015; 31(2): e33–e50. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text

[15] 15. Coles S, Bawa J, Trenner L, et al.: An introduction to statistical modeling of extreme values. Springer; 2001; vol. 208. . Publisher Full Text

[16] 16. Seguro JV, Lambert TW: Modern estimation of the parameters of the weibull wind speed distribution for wind energy analysis. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 2000; 85(1): 75–84. Publisher Full Text

[17] 17. Akgül FG, Şenoğlu B, Arslan T: An alternative distribution to weibull for modeling the wind speed data: Inverse weibull distribution. Energy Convers. Manag. 2016; 114: 234–240. Publisher Full Text

[18] 18. Kollu R, Rayapudi SR, Narasimham SVL, et al.: Mixture probability distribution functions to model wind speed distributions. Int. J. Energy Environ. Eng. 2012; 3: 10–27. Publisher Full Text

[19] 19. Kavak Akpinar E, Akpinar S: Determination of the wind energy potential for maden-elazig, turkey. Energy Convers. Manag. 2004; 45(18-19): 2901–2914. Publisher Full Text

[20] 20. Teimouri M, Hoseini SM, Nadarajah S: Comparison of estimation methods for the weibull distribution. Statistics. 2013; 47(1): 93–109. Publisher Full Text

[21] 21. Saleh H, Abou El-Azm Aly A, Abdel-Hady S: Assessment of different methods used to estimate weibull distribution parameters for wind speed in zafarana wind farm, suez gulf, Egypt. Energy. 2012; 44(1): 710–719. Publisher Full Text

[22] 22. Azad AK, Rasul MG, Yusaf T: Statistical diagnosis of the best weibull methods for wind power assessment for agricultural applications. Energies. 2014; 7(5): 3056–3085. Publisher Full Text

[23] 23. Dempster AP, Laird NM, Rubin DB: Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the em algorithm. J. R. Stat. Soc. Series B (Methodol). 1977; 39(1): 1–22. Publisher Full Text

[24] 24. Gove JH, Fairweather SE: Maximum-likelihood estimation of weibull func- tion parameters using a general interactive optimizer and grouped data. For. Ecol. Manag. 1989; 28(1): 61–69. Publisher Full Text

[25] 25. Yalçınkaya A, Şenoğlu B, Yolcu U: Maximum likelihood estimation for the parameters of skew-normal distribution using genetic algorithm. Swarm Evol. Comput. 2018; 38: 127–138. Publisher Full Text

[26] 26. Altunkaynak B, Alptekin ESİN: The genetic algorithm method for parameter estimation in nonlinear regression. Gazi Univ. J. Sci. 2004; 17(2): 43–51.

[27] 27. Gençtürk Y, Yiğiter A: Modelling claim number using a new mixture model: negative binomial gamma distribution. J. Stat. Comput. Simul. 2016; 86(10): 1829–1839. Publisher Full Text

[28] 28. Thomas GM, Gerth R, Velasco T, et al.: Using real-coded genetic algorithms for weibull parameter estimation. Comput. Ind. Eng. 1995; 29(1-4): 377–381. Publisher Full Text

[29] 29. Kusiak A, Zheng H, Song Z: On-line monitoring of power curves. Renew. Energy. 2009; 34(6): 1487–1493. Publisher Full Text

[30] 30. Morgan EC, Lackner M, Vogel RM, et al.: Probability distributions for offshore wind speeds. Energy Convers. Manag. 2011; 52(1): 15–26. Publisher Full Text

[31] 31. Mahmuddin F: Analysis of wind energy potential with a mobile floating structure around sulawesi and maluku islands of indonesia. International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. American Society of Mechanical Engineers; 2015; volume 56574. : p. V009T09A064.

[32] 32. Komatsu T, Mizuno S, Natheer A, et al.: Unusual distribution of floating seaweeds in the east china sea in the early spring of 2012. J. Appl. Phycol. 2014; 26: 1169–1179. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text

[33] 33. Massey FJ Jr: The kolmogorov-smirnov test for goodness of fit. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 1951; 46(253): 68–78. Publisher Full Text

[34] 34. Mishra R, Majhi N: Python code and raw data for our proposed algorithm (GANMA).2024. Publisher Full Text

A novel hybrid genetic algorithm and Nelder-Mead approach and it’s application for parameter estimation

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Overview of GA, and NM

2.1 Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm (GA)

2.2 Nelder–Mead Simplex Search Method (NM)

3. Methods

3.1 Motivation

3.2 Genetic algorithm with Nelder-Mead Simplex Search (GANMA)

Algorithm Combination of GA and Nelder-Mead.

4. The performance of GANMA

Table 1. Benchmark test functions.

Table 2. For n = 10, 20, and 30, the best, mean, and standard deviation of the GANMA, GA, and NM solutions.

4.1 Experimental results and analysis

Figure 1. Different values of (a) shape parameter β and (b) scale parameter η are plotted in Weibull PDF (solid line) and CDF (dashed line) plots.

Figure 2. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 10.

Figure 3. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 20.

Figure 4. Convergence graphs of functions for n = 30.

5. Application of proposed algorithm (GANMA) for Weibull-Parameter Estimation

5.1 Weibull distribution

(1)

(2)

6. Methods for estimating parameters

6.1 Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

7. Monte Carlo simulations

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

Table 3. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 20 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

Table 4. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 100 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

Table 5. Estimations of parameters, MAE, and bias values for several simulation scenarios with n = 500 of a two-parameter distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6.

7.1 Result analysis

Figure 5. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 20.

Figure 6. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 100.

Figure 7. Histogram and MLE PDF of Weibull 2- parameter Distribution for β = 0.5, 1, 3, and 6 with n = 500.

Figure 8. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for β using the MAE criteria.

Figure 9. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for η using the MAE criteria.

Figure 10. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for β using the bias criteria.

Figure 11. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for η using the bias criteria.

8. Estimation of Weibull-Parameter in Wind speed analysis

(14)

(15)

8.1. Result and Discussion

(16)

Figure 12. Histogram, MLE PDF and CDF using GA, NM, and GANMA for data set 1.

Figure 13. Histogram, MLE PDF and CDF using GA, NM, and GANMA for data set 2.

Table 6. Parameter estimations for data set-1.

Table 7. Parameter estimations for data set-2.

9. Conclusion

Compliance with ethical standards

Disclosures & disclaimer

Ethical approval

Data availability

Underlying data

Extended data

Software availability

References

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Open Peer Review

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Open Peer Review

Reviewer Status

Reviewer Reports

Comments on this article

Browse by related subjects

Competing Interests Policy

Stay Updated

Figure 10. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for $β$ using the bias criteria.

Figure 11. Comparison of parameter estimate approaches for $η$ using the bias criteria.