A two-stage discrete particle swarm optimization for the problem of multiple multi-level redundancy allocation in series systems

Nowadays, the redundancy allocation problem (RAP) is increasingly becoming an important tool in the initial stages of or prior to planning, designing, and control of systems. The multiple multi-level redundancy allocation problem (MMRAP) is an extension of the traditional RAP such that all available items for redundancy (system, module and component) can be simultaneously chosen. In this paper, a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) called the two-stage discrete PSO (2DPSO) is presented to solve MMRAP in series systems such that some subsystems or modules consist of different components in series. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to use a PSO to MMRAP. The proposed PSO used a totally new, very simple, effective and efficient mechanism to move to the next position without velocity. The result obtained by 2DPSO has been compared with those obtained by genetic algorithm (GA) and binary PSO (BPSO). Computational results show that the proposed 2DPSO is very competitive and performs well in the number of times it finds the best solutions, the average numbers of the earliest finding of the best solutions, and computation times.