Integrating relevance vector machines and genetic algorithms for optimization of seed-separating process

A hybrid intelligent approach based on relevance vector machines (RVMs) and genetic algorithms (GAs) has been developed for optimal control of parameters of nonlinear manufacturing processes. It concerns the finding of the near-optimal control parameters of the nonlinear discrete manufacturing process with a specific objective. First, the nonlinear process with measurement noise is regressed by the relevance vector learning mechanism based on a kernel-based Bayesian framework. For minimizing the approximate error, uniform design sampling, online incremental learning and cross-validation are used in the learning process of RVMs. Such well-trained models become a specialized process simulation tool, which is valuable in prediction and optimization of nonlinear processes. Next, the near-optimal setpoints of the control system, which maximize the objective function, are sought by GAs from the numerous values of the objective function obtained from the simulation. As a case study, the seed separator system (5XZW-1.5) is used for evaluating the proposed intelligent approach. The control parameters to reach the maximum weighted objective, which combine the system output and evaluation functions, are optimized. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid approach. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.