As an alternative to classical techniques, the problem of image segmentation has also been handle... more As an alternative to classical techniques, the problem of image segmentation has also been handled through evolutionary methods. Recently, several algorithms based on evolutionary principles have been successfully applied to image segmentation with interesting performances. However, most of them maintain two important limitations: (1) they frequently obtain suboptimal results (misclassifications) as a consequence of an inappropriate balance between exploration and exploitation in their search strategies; (2) the number of classes is fixed and known in advance. This paper presents an algorithmfor the automatic selection of pixel classes for image segmentation. The proposed method combines a novel evolutionary method with the definition of a new objective function that appropriately evaluates the segmentation quality with respect to the number of classes. The new evolutionary algorithm, called Locust Search (LS), is based on the behavior of swarms of locusts. Different to the most of existent evolutionary algorithms, it explicitly avoids the concentration of individuals in the best positions, avoiding critical flaws such as the premature convergence to suboptimal solutions and the limited exploration-exploitation balance. Experimental tests over several benchmark functions and images validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy and robustness.
This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that ... more This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that employs evolutionary optimization. Thevisual control task is approached as a nonlinear optimization problem that naturally handles relevant visual servoing constraints such as workspace limitations and visibility restrictions. As the predictive scheme requires a reliable model, this paper uses a local model that is based on the visual interaction matrix and a global model that employs 3D trajectory data extracted froma quaternionbased interpolator. The work assumes a free-flying camera with 6-DOF simulation whose results support the discussion on the constraint handling and the image prediction scheme.
In this paper, a new method for robustly estimating multiple view relations frompoint corresponde... more In this paper, a new method for robustly estimating multiple view relations frompoint correspondences is presented. The approach combines the popular randomsampling consensus (RANSAC) algorithmand the evolutionary method harmony search (HS). With this combination, the proposed method adopts a different sampling strategy than RANSAC to generate putative solutions. Under the new mechanism, at each iteration, new candidate solutions are built taking into account the quality of the models generated by previous candidate solutions, rather than purely random as it is the case of RANSAC. The rules for the generation of candidate solutions (samples) are motivated by the improvisation process that occurs when a musician searches for a better state of harmony. As a result, the proposed approach can substantially reduce the number of iterations still preserving the robust capabilities of RANSAC. The method is generic and its use is illustrated by the estimation of homographies, considering synthetic and real images. Additionally, in order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach within a real engineering application, it is employed to solve the problem of position estimation in a humanoid robot. Experimental results validate the efficiency of the proposed method in terms of accuracy, speed, and robustness.
Image segmentation plays an important role in image processing and computer vision. It is often u... more Image segmentation plays an important role in image processing and computer vision. It is often used to classify an image into separate regions, which ideally correspond to different real-world objects. Several segmentation methods have been proposed in the literature, being thresholding techniques the most popular. In such techniques, it is selected a set of proper threshold values that optimize a determined functional criterion, so that each pixel is assigned to a determined class according to its corresponding threshold points. One interesting functional criterion is the Tsallis entropy, which gives excellent results in bi-level thresholding. However, when it is applied to multilevel thresholding, its evaluation becomes computationally expensive, since each threshold point adds restrictions, multimodality and complexity to its functional formulation. Therefore, in the process of finding the appropriate threshold values, it is desired to limit the number of evaluations of the objective function (Tsallis entropy). Under such circumstances, most of the optimization algorithms do not seem to be suited to face such problems as they usually require many evaluations before delivering an acceptable result. On the other hand, the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is an evolutionary optimization approach which emulates the attraction–repulsion mechanism among charges for evolving the individuals of a population. This technique exhibits interesting search capabilities whereas maintains a low number of function evaluations. In this paper, a new algorithm for multilevel segmentation based on the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is proposed. In the approach, the optimization algorithm based on the electromagnetism theory is used to find the optimal threshold values by maximizing the Tsallis entropy. Experimental results over several images demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to improve the convergence velocity, compared with similar methods such as Cuckoo search, and Particle Swarm Optimization.
Classical optimization methods often face great difficulties while dealing with several engineerin... more Classical optimization methods often face great difficulties while dealing with several engineering applications. Under such conditions, the use of computational intelligence approaches has been recently extended to address challenging real-world optimization problems. On the other hand, the interesting and exotic collective behavior of social insects have fascinated and attracted researchers for many years. The collaborative swarming behavior observed in these groups provides survival advantages, where insect aggregations of relatively simple and “unintelligent” individuals can accomplish very complex tasks using only limited local information and simple rules of behavior. Swarm intelligence, as a computational intelligence paradigm, models the collective behavior in swarms of insects or animals. Several algorithms arising from such models have been proposed to solve a wide range of complex optimization problems. In this chapter, a novel swarm algorithm called the Social Spider Optimization (SSO) is proposed for solving optimization tasks. The SSO algorithm is based on the simulation of cooperative behavior of social-spiders. In the proposed algorithm, individuals emulate a group of spiders which interact to each other based on the biological laws of the cooperative colony. The algorithm considers two different search agents (spiders): males and females. Depending on gender, each individual is conducted by a set of different evolutionary operators which mimic different cooperative behaviors that are typically found in the colony. In order to illustrate the proficiency and robustness of the proposed approach, it is compared to other well-known evolutionary methods. The comparison examines several standard benchmark functions that are commonly considered within the literature of evolutionary algorithms. The outcome shows a high performance of the proposed method for searching a global optimum with several benchmark functions.
Abstract Classical image processing methods often face great difficulties while dealing with image... more Abstract Classical image processing methods often face great difficulties while dealing with images containing noise and distortions. Under such conditions, the use of soft computing approaches has been recently extended to address challenging real-world image processing problems. The automatic detection of Leukocytes or White Blood Cells (WBC) still remains as an unsolved issue in medical imaging. The analysis of WBC images has engaged researchers from fields of medicine and image processing alike. Since WBC can be approximated by an ellipsoid form, an ellipse detector algorithm may be successfully applied in order to recognize such elements. This chapter presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of leukocytes embedded into complicated and cluttered smear images that considers the complete process as a multi-ellipse detection problem. The approach, which is based on the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, transforms the detection task into an optimization problem whose individuals represent candidate ellipses. An objective function evaluates if such candidate ellipses are actually present in the edge map of the smear image. Guided by the values of such function, the set of encoded candidate ellipses (individuals) are evolved using the DE algorithm so that they can fit into the leukocytes which are enclosed within the edge map of the smear image. Experimental results from white blood cell images with a varying range of complexity are included to validate the efficiency of the proposed technique in terms of its accuracy and robustness.
Bio-inspired computing has demonstrated to be useful in several application areas. Over the last ... more Bio-inspired computing has demonstrated to be useful in several application areas. Over the last decade, new bio-inspired algorithms have emerged with applications for detection, optimisation and classification for use in computer vision tasks. On the other hand, automatic circle detection in digital images is considered an important and complex task for the computer vision community. Consequently, a tremendous amount of research has been devoted to find an optimal circle detector. This article presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated and noisy images with no consideration of the conventional Hough transform principles. The proposed algorithm is based on newly developed Artificial Immune Optimisation (AIO) technique, known as the Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA). The CSA is an effective method for searching and optimising following the Clonal Selection Principle (CSP) in the human immune system which generates a response according to the relationship between antigens (Ags), i.e. patterns to be recognised and antibodies (Abs), i.e. possible solutions. The algorithm uses the encoding of three points as candidate circles (x,y,r) over the edge image. An objective function evaluates if such candidate circles (Ab) are actually present in the edge image (Ag). Guided by the values of this objective function, the set of encoded candidate circles are evolved using the CSA so that they can fit to the actual circles on the edge map of the image. Experimental results over several synthetic as well as natural images with varying range of complexity validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy, speed and robustness.
System identification is a complex optimization problem which has recently attracted the attentio... more System identification is a complex optimization problem which has recently attracted the attention in the field of science and engineering. In particular, the use of infinite impulse response (IIR) models for identification is preferred over their equivalent FIR (finite impulse response) models since the former yield more accurate models of physical plants for real world applications. However, IIR structures tend to produce multimodal error surfaces whose cost functions are significantly difficult to minimize. Evolutionary computation techniques (ECT) are used to estimate the solution to complex optimization problems. They are often designed to meet the requirements of particular problems because no single optimization algorithm can solve all problems competitively. Therefore, when new algorithms are proposed, their relative efficacies must be appropriately evaluated. Several comparisons among ECT have been reported in the literature. Nevertheless, they suffer from one limitation: their conclusions are based on the performance of popular evolutionary approaches over a set of synthetic functions with exact solutions and well-known behaviors, without considering the application context or including recent developments. This study presents the comparison of various evolutionary computation optimization techniques applied to IIR model identification. Results over several models are presented and statistically validated.
Block matching (BM) motion estimation plays a very important role in video coding. In a BM approa... more Block matching (BM) motion estimation plays a very important role in video coding. In a BM approach, image frames in a video sequence are divided into blocks. For each block in the current frame, the best matching block is identified inside a region of the previous frame, aiming to minimize the sum of absolute differences (SAD). Unfortunately, the SAD evaluation is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. Therefore, BM motion estimation can be approached as an optimization problem, where the goal is to find the best matching block within a search space. The simplest available BM method is the full search algorithm (FSA) which finds the most accurate motion vector through an exhaustive computation of SAD values for all elements of the search window. Recently, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the number of SAD operations by calculating only a fixed subset of search locations at the price of poor accuracy. In this paper, a new algorithm based on Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimization is proposed to reduce the number of search locations in the BM process. In our algorithm, the computation of search locations is drastically reduced by considering a fitness calculation strategy which indicates when it is feasible to calculate or only estimate new search locations. Since the proposed algorithm does not consider any fixed search pattern or any other movement assumption as most of other BM approaches do, a high probability for finding the true minimum (accurate motion vector) is expected. Conducted simulations show that the proposed method achieves the best balance over other fast BM algorithms, in terms of both estimation accuracy and computational cost.
Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all... more Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all motion estimation approaches, block-matching (BM) algorithms are the most popular methods due to their effectiveness and simplicity for both software and hardware implementations. A BM approach assumes that the movement of pixels within a defined region of the current frame (macro block, MB) can be modeled as a translation of pixels contained in the previous frame. In this procedure, the motion vector is obtained by minimizing the sum of absolute differences (SAD) produced by the MB of the current frame over a determined search window from the previous frame. The SAD evaluation is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. The most straightforward BM method is the full search algorithm (FSA), which finds the most accurate motion vector, exhaustively calculating the SAD values for all the elements of the search window. Over this decade, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the number of SAD operations by calculating only a fixed subset of search locations at the cost of poor accuracy. In this paper, a new algorithm based on differential evolution (DE) is proposed to reduce the number of search locations in the BM process. To avoid computing several search locations, the algorithm estimates the SAD values (fitness) for some locations using the SAD values of previously calculated neighboring positions. As the proposed algorithm does not consider any fixed search pattern or any other different assumption, a high probability for finding the true minimum (accurate motion vector) is expected. In comparison with other fast BM algorithms, the proposed method deploys more accurate motion vectors, yet delivering competitive time rates.
Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all... more Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all motion estimation approaches, Block-matching (BM) algorithms are the most popular methods due to their effectiveness and simplicity for both software and hardware implementations. A BM approach assumes that the movement of pixels within a defined region of the current frame can be modeled as a translation of pixels contained in the previous frame. In this procedure, the motion vector is obtained by minimizing a certain matching metric that is produced for the current frame over a determined search window from the previous frame. Unfortunately, the evaluation of such matching measurement is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. Therefore, BM motion estimation can be viewed as an optimization problem whose goal is to find the best-matching block within a search space. The simplest available BM method is the Full Search Algorithm (FSA) which finds the most accurate motion vector through an exhaustive computation of all the elements of the search space. Recently, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the search positions by calculating only a fixed subset of motion vectors despite lowering its accuracy. On the other hand, the Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is a population-based optimization method that is inspired by the music improvisation process in which a musician searches for harmony and continues to polish the pitches to obtain a better harmony. In this paper, a new BM algorithm that combines HS with a fitness approximation model is proposed. The approach E. Cuevas ( ) uses motion vectors belonging to the search window as potential solutions. A fitness function evaluates the matching quality of each motion vector candidate. In order to save computational time, the approach incorporates a fitness calculation strategy to decide which motion vectors can be only estimated or actually evaluated. Guided by the values of such fitness calculation strategy, the set of motion vectors is evolved through HS operators until the best possible motion vector is identified. The proposed method has been compared to other BM algorithms in terms of velocity and coding quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm exhibits the best balance between coding efficiency and computational complexity.
Interest in multimodal optimization is expanding rapidly, since many practical engineering proble... more Interest in multimodal optimization is expanding rapidly, since many practical engineering problems demand the localization of multiple optima within a search space. On the other hand, the cuckoo search (CS) algorithm is a simple and effective global optimization algorithm which can not be directly applied to solve multimodal optimization problems. This paper proposes a new multimodal optimization algorithm called the multimodal cuckoo search (MCS). Under MCS, the original CS is enhanced with multimodal capacities by means of (1) the incorporation of a memory mechanism to efficiently register potential local optima according to their fitness value and the distance to other potential solutions, (2) the modification of the original CS individual selection strategy to accelerate the detection process of new local minima, and (3) the inclusion of a depuration procedure to cyclically eliminate duplicated memory elements. The performance of the proposed approach is compared to several state-of-theart multimodal optimization algorithms considering a benchmark suite of fourteen multimodal problems. Experimental results indicate that the proposed strategy is capable of providing better and even a more consistent performance over existing well-known multimodal algorithms for the majority of test problems yet avoiding any serious computational deterioration.
Template matching (TM) plays an important role in several image-processing applications such as f... more Template matching (TM) plays an important role in several image-processing applications such as feature tracking, object recognition, stereo matching, and remote sensing. The TM approach seeks for the bestpossible resemblance between a subimage known as template and its coincident region within a source image. TM involves two critical aspects: similarity measurement and search strategy. The simplest available TM method aims for the best-possible coincidence between the images through an exhaustive computation of the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) values (similarity measurement) for all elements of the source image (search strategy). Recently, several TM algorithms that are based on evolutionary approaches have been proposed to reduce the number of NCC operations by calculating only a
In order to improve the performance of solar energy systems, accurate modeling of current vs. vol... more In order to improve the performance of solar energy systems, accurate modeling of current vs. voltage (I eV) characteristics of solar cells has attracted the attention of various researches. The main drawback in accurate modeling is the lack of information about the precise parameter values which indeed characterize the solar cell. Since such parameters cannot be extracted from the datasheet specifications, an optimization technique is necessary to adjust experimental data to the solar cell model. Considering the I eV characteristics of solar cells, the optimization task involves the solution of complex non-linear and multi-modal objective functions. Several optimization approaches have been proposed to identify the parameters of solar cells. However, most of them obtain sub-optimal solutions due to their premature convergence and their difficulty to overcome local minima in multi-modal problems. This paper proposes the use of the ABC (artificial bee colony) algorithm to accurately identify the solar cells' parameters. The ABC algorithm is an evolutionary method inspired by the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. In comparison with other evolutionary algorithms, ABC exhibits a better search capacity to face multimodal objective functions. In order to illustrate the proficiency of the proposed approach, it is compared to other well-known optimization methods. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance of the proposed method in terms of robustness and accuracy.
The authors propose two equations based on the pixel geometry and connectivity properties, which ... more The authors propose two equations based on the pixel geometry and connectivity properties, which can be used to compute, efficiently, the Euler number of a binary digital image with either thick or thin boundaries. Although computing this feature, the authors' technique extracts the underlying topological information provided by the shape pixels of the given image. The correctness of computing the Euler number using the new equations is also established theoretically. The performance of the proposed method is compared against other available alternatives. Experimental results on a large image database demonstrate that the authors technique for computing the Euler number outperforms the earlier approaches significantly in terms of the number of basic arithmetic operations needed per pixel. Both equations are specialised only for 4-connectivity cases.
This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated ... more This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated and noisy images with no consideration of the conventional Hough transform principles. The proposed algorithm is based on a newly developed evolutionary algorithm called the Adaptive Population with Reduced Evaluations (APRE). Our proposed algorithm reduces the number of function evaluations through the use of two mechanisms: (1) adapting dynamically the size of the population and (2) incorporating a fitness calculation strategy, which decides whether the calculation or estimation of the new generated individuals is feasible. As a result, the approach can substantially reduce the number of function evaluations, yet preserving the good search capabilities of an evolutionary approach. Experimental results over several synthetic and natural images, with a varying range of complexity, validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy, speed, and robustness.
Resumen. El diseño de algoritmos que operen sobre plantas con dinámicas no modeladas aún represen... more Resumen. El diseño de algoritmos que operen sobre plantas con dinámicas no modeladas aún representa un reto en el área de control automático. Una solución podría ser el uso de algoritmos capaces de aprender en tiempo real mediante la interacción directa con la planta. El modelo NEFCON, permite construir la estructura de un controlador difuso del tipo Mamdani capaz de aprender las reglas y adaptar los conjuntos difusos. La principal ventaja del modelo NEFCON respecto a otros enfoques de aprendizaje, es que su diseño se reduce a expresar la calidad del error actual de la planta a controlar. Sin embargo, una desventaja del modelo NEFCON es la pobre exploración de los estados de la planta durante el aprendizaje, lo cual hace imposible su aplicación para sistemas dinámicos no lineales. En este trabajo se propone la adición de ruido Gaussiano a las variables de estado de la planta, con el objetivo de asegurar una exploración amplia de los estados, facilitando la convergencia del algoritmo de aprendizaje, cuando se aplica a sistemas no lineales. En particular, se muestra la efectividad de la propuesta en el control del sistema dinámico de la "pelota y el balancín" (Ball and Beam) Palabras clave: Sistemas de control adaptativos, sistemas de control por aprendizaje, control inteligente, control no lineal.
La computación basada en principios físicos recientemente ha ganado respeto en la comunidad cient... more La computación basada en principios físicos recientemente ha ganado respeto en la comunidad científi ca. Esta área emergente, en poco tiempo ha logrado desarrollar un amplio rango de técnicas y métodos que han servido para resolver diversos problemas, considerados como complejos. Por otra parte, la detección automática de círculos en imágenes se considera una tarea importante, es por esto que se han realizado un gran número de trabajos tratando de encontrar el detector de círculos óptimo. Este artículo presenta un nuevo algoritmo para la detección de primitivas circulares contenidas en imágenes sin la consideración de la transformada de Hough. El algoritmo propuesto está basado en un nuevo enfoque inspirado en principios físicos llamado: Electromagnetism-Like Optimization (EMO), el cual es un método heurístico que emplea algunos principios de la teoría del electromagnetismo para resolver problemas complejos de optimización. En el algoritmo EMO las soluciones se construyen considerando la atracción y repulsión electromagnética entre las partículas cargadas; dicha carga representa la afi nidad que tiene cada partícula con la solución. El algoritmo de detección de círculos emplea una codifi cación de tres puntos no colineales, dichos puntos representan los círculos candidatos sobre una imagen que sólo contiene sus bordes. Empleando una función objetivo, el conjunto de círculos candidatos considerados como partículas cargadas, son operados por medio del algoritmo EMO hasta que logren coincidir con los círculos existentes en la imagen real. Los resultados experimentales en diversas imágenes complejas validaron la efi ciencia de la técnica propuesta en cuanto a su exactitud, velocidad y robustez.
Cuevas E y cols. Segmentación y detección de glóbulos blancos en imágenes usando sistemas inmunes... more Cuevas E y cols. Segmentación y detección de glóbulos blancos en imágenes usando sistemas inmunes artificiales www.medigraphic.org.mxwww.medigraphic.org.mx ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓN ORIGINAL Vol. XXXI, Núm. 2 Diciembre 2010 pp 119 -134
In this paper an alternative way to compute the (E) Euler number of a binary image via informatio... more In this paper an alternative way to compute the (E) Euler number of a binary image via information about its pixels is presented. The perimeter of the objects in the image, their contact perimeter and the T-type pixel are used to obtain this important invariant. This is the second time the Euler number is described in terms of the contact perimeter of the objects in an image but with new results. The first paper that reports computing the Euler number of a binary shape in terms of the and is in [E. Bribiesca, Computation of the Euler number using the contact perimeter, Computers and Mathematics with Applications 60:1364-137 ]. Bribiesca's proposal is useful only for unit-width shapes. In this paper, we extend Bribiesca's method for non-unit-width shapes.
As an alternative to classical techniques, the problem of image segmentation has also been handle... more As an alternative to classical techniques, the problem of image segmentation has also been handled through evolutionary methods. Recently, several algorithms based on evolutionary principles have been successfully applied to image segmentation with interesting performances. However, most of them maintain two important limitations: (1) they frequently obtain suboptimal results (misclassifications) as a consequence of an inappropriate balance between exploration and exploitation in their search strategies; (2) the number of classes is fixed and known in advance. This paper presents an algorithmfor the automatic selection of pixel classes for image segmentation. The proposed method combines a novel evolutionary method with the definition of a new objective function that appropriately evaluates the segmentation quality with respect to the number of classes. The new evolutionary algorithm, called Locust Search (LS), is based on the behavior of swarms of locusts. Different to the most of existent evolutionary algorithms, it explicitly avoids the concentration of individuals in the best positions, avoiding critical flaws such as the premature convergence to suboptimal solutions and the limited exploration-exploitation balance. Experimental tests over several benchmark functions and images validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy and robustness.
This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that ... more This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that employs evolutionary optimization. Thevisual control task is approached as a nonlinear optimization problem that naturally handles relevant visual servoing constraints such as workspace limitations and visibility restrictions. As the predictive scheme requires a reliable model, this paper uses a local model that is based on the visual interaction matrix and a global model that employs 3D trajectory data extracted froma quaternionbased interpolator. The work assumes a free-flying camera with 6-DOF simulation whose results support the discussion on the constraint handling and the image prediction scheme.
In this paper, a new method for robustly estimating multiple view relations frompoint corresponde... more In this paper, a new method for robustly estimating multiple view relations frompoint correspondences is presented. The approach combines the popular randomsampling consensus (RANSAC) algorithmand the evolutionary method harmony search (HS). With this combination, the proposed method adopts a different sampling strategy than RANSAC to generate putative solutions. Under the new mechanism, at each iteration, new candidate solutions are built taking into account the quality of the models generated by previous candidate solutions, rather than purely random as it is the case of RANSAC. The rules for the generation of candidate solutions (samples) are motivated by the improvisation process that occurs when a musician searches for a better state of harmony. As a result, the proposed approach can substantially reduce the number of iterations still preserving the robust capabilities of RANSAC. The method is generic and its use is illustrated by the estimation of homographies, considering synthetic and real images. Additionally, in order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach within a real engineering application, it is employed to solve the problem of position estimation in a humanoid robot. Experimental results validate the efficiency of the proposed method in terms of accuracy, speed, and robustness.
Image segmentation plays an important role in image processing and computer vision. It is often u... more Image segmentation plays an important role in image processing and computer vision. It is often used to classify an image into separate regions, which ideally correspond to different real-world objects. Several segmentation methods have been proposed in the literature, being thresholding techniques the most popular. In such techniques, it is selected a set of proper threshold values that optimize a determined functional criterion, so that each pixel is assigned to a determined class according to its corresponding threshold points. One interesting functional criterion is the Tsallis entropy, which gives excellent results in bi-level thresholding. However, when it is applied to multilevel thresholding, its evaluation becomes computationally expensive, since each threshold point adds restrictions, multimodality and complexity to its functional formulation. Therefore, in the process of finding the appropriate threshold values, it is desired to limit the number of evaluations of the objective function (Tsallis entropy). Under such circumstances, most of the optimization algorithms do not seem to be suited to face such problems as they usually require many evaluations before delivering an acceptable result. On the other hand, the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is an evolutionary optimization approach which emulates the attraction–repulsion mechanism among charges for evolving the individuals of a population. This technique exhibits interesting search capabilities whereas maintains a low number of function evaluations. In this paper, a new algorithm for multilevel segmentation based on the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is proposed. In the approach, the optimization algorithm based on the electromagnetism theory is used to find the optimal threshold values by maximizing the Tsallis entropy. Experimental results over several images demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to improve the convergence velocity, compared with similar methods such as Cuckoo search, and Particle Swarm Optimization.
Classical optimization methods often face great difficulties while dealing with several engineerin... more Classical optimization methods often face great difficulties while dealing with several engineering applications. Under such conditions, the use of computational intelligence approaches has been recently extended to address challenging real-world optimization problems. On the other hand, the interesting and exotic collective behavior of social insects have fascinated and attracted researchers for many years. The collaborative swarming behavior observed in these groups provides survival advantages, where insect aggregations of relatively simple and “unintelligent” individuals can accomplish very complex tasks using only limited local information and simple rules of behavior. Swarm intelligence, as a computational intelligence paradigm, models the collective behavior in swarms of insects or animals. Several algorithms arising from such models have been proposed to solve a wide range of complex optimization problems. In this chapter, a novel swarm algorithm called the Social Spider Optimization (SSO) is proposed for solving optimization tasks. The SSO algorithm is based on the simulation of cooperative behavior of social-spiders. In the proposed algorithm, individuals emulate a group of spiders which interact to each other based on the biological laws of the cooperative colony. The algorithm considers two different search agents (spiders): males and females. Depending on gender, each individual is conducted by a set of different evolutionary operators which mimic different cooperative behaviors that are typically found in the colony. In order to illustrate the proficiency and robustness of the proposed approach, it is compared to other well-known evolutionary methods. The comparison examines several standard benchmark functions that are commonly considered within the literature of evolutionary algorithms. The outcome shows a high performance of the proposed method for searching a global optimum with several benchmark functions.
Abstract Classical image processing methods often face great difficulties while dealing with image... more Abstract Classical image processing methods often face great difficulties while dealing with images containing noise and distortions. Under such conditions, the use of soft computing approaches has been recently extended to address challenging real-world image processing problems. The automatic detection of Leukocytes or White Blood Cells (WBC) still remains as an unsolved issue in medical imaging. The analysis of WBC images has engaged researchers from fields of medicine and image processing alike. Since WBC can be approximated by an ellipsoid form, an ellipse detector algorithm may be successfully applied in order to recognize such elements. This chapter presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of leukocytes embedded into complicated and cluttered smear images that considers the complete process as a multi-ellipse detection problem. The approach, which is based on the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, transforms the detection task into an optimization problem whose individuals represent candidate ellipses. An objective function evaluates if such candidate ellipses are actually present in the edge map of the smear image. Guided by the values of such function, the set of encoded candidate ellipses (individuals) are evolved using the DE algorithm so that they can fit into the leukocytes which are enclosed within the edge map of the smear image. Experimental results from white blood cell images with a varying range of complexity are included to validate the efficiency of the proposed technique in terms of its accuracy and robustness.
Bio-inspired computing has demonstrated to be useful in several application areas. Over the last ... more Bio-inspired computing has demonstrated to be useful in several application areas. Over the last decade, new bio-inspired algorithms have emerged with applications for detection, optimisation and classification for use in computer vision tasks. On the other hand, automatic circle detection in digital images is considered an important and complex task for the computer vision community. Consequently, a tremendous amount of research has been devoted to find an optimal circle detector. This article presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated and noisy images with no consideration of the conventional Hough transform principles. The proposed algorithm is based on newly developed Artificial Immune Optimisation (AIO) technique, known as the Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA). The CSA is an effective method for searching and optimising following the Clonal Selection Principle (CSP) in the human immune system which generates a response according to the relationship between antigens (Ags), i.e. patterns to be recognised and antibodies (Abs), i.e. possible solutions. The algorithm uses the encoding of three points as candidate circles (x,y,r) over the edge image. An objective function evaluates if such candidate circles (Ab) are actually present in the edge image (Ag). Guided by the values of this objective function, the set of encoded candidate circles are evolved using the CSA so that they can fit to the actual circles on the edge map of the image. Experimental results over several synthetic as well as natural images with varying range of complexity validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy, speed and robustness.
System identification is a complex optimization problem which has recently attracted the attentio... more System identification is a complex optimization problem which has recently attracted the attention in the field of science and engineering. In particular, the use of infinite impulse response (IIR) models for identification is preferred over their equivalent FIR (finite impulse response) models since the former yield more accurate models of physical plants for real world applications. However, IIR structures tend to produce multimodal error surfaces whose cost functions are significantly difficult to minimize. Evolutionary computation techniques (ECT) are used to estimate the solution to complex optimization problems. They are often designed to meet the requirements of particular problems because no single optimization algorithm can solve all problems competitively. Therefore, when new algorithms are proposed, their relative efficacies must be appropriately evaluated. Several comparisons among ECT have been reported in the literature. Nevertheless, they suffer from one limitation: their conclusions are based on the performance of popular evolutionary approaches over a set of synthetic functions with exact solutions and well-known behaviors, without considering the application context or including recent developments. This study presents the comparison of various evolutionary computation optimization techniques applied to IIR model identification. Results over several models are presented and statistically validated.
Block matching (BM) motion estimation plays a very important role in video coding. In a BM approa... more Block matching (BM) motion estimation plays a very important role in video coding. In a BM approach, image frames in a video sequence are divided into blocks. For each block in the current frame, the best matching block is identified inside a region of the previous frame, aiming to minimize the sum of absolute differences (SAD). Unfortunately, the SAD evaluation is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. Therefore, BM motion estimation can be approached as an optimization problem, where the goal is to find the best matching block within a search space. The simplest available BM method is the full search algorithm (FSA) which finds the most accurate motion vector through an exhaustive computation of SAD values for all elements of the search window. Recently, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the number of SAD operations by calculating only a fixed subset of search locations at the price of poor accuracy. In this paper, a new algorithm based on Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimization is proposed to reduce the number of search locations in the BM process. In our algorithm, the computation of search locations is drastically reduced by considering a fitness calculation strategy which indicates when it is feasible to calculate or only estimate new search locations. Since the proposed algorithm does not consider any fixed search pattern or any other movement assumption as most of other BM approaches do, a high probability for finding the true minimum (accurate motion vector) is expected. Conducted simulations show that the proposed method achieves the best balance over other fast BM algorithms, in terms of both estimation accuracy and computational cost.
Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all... more Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all motion estimation approaches, block-matching (BM) algorithms are the most popular methods due to their effectiveness and simplicity for both software and hardware implementations. A BM approach assumes that the movement of pixels within a defined region of the current frame (macro block, MB) can be modeled as a translation of pixels contained in the previous frame. In this procedure, the motion vector is obtained by minimizing the sum of absolute differences (SAD) produced by the MB of the current frame over a determined search window from the previous frame. The SAD evaluation is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. The most straightforward BM method is the full search algorithm (FSA), which finds the most accurate motion vector, exhaustively calculating the SAD values for all the elements of the search window. Over this decade, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the number of SAD operations by calculating only a fixed subset of search locations at the cost of poor accuracy. In this paper, a new algorithm based on differential evolution (DE) is proposed to reduce the number of search locations in the BM process. To avoid computing several search locations, the algorithm estimates the SAD values (fitness) for some locations using the SAD values of previously calculated neighboring positions. As the proposed algorithm does not consider any fixed search pattern or any other different assumption, a high probability for finding the true minimum (accurate motion vector) is expected. In comparison with other fast BM algorithms, the proposed method deploys more accurate motion vectors, yet delivering competitive time rates.
Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all... more Motion estimation is one of the major problems in developing video coding applications. Among all motion estimation approaches, Block-matching (BM) algorithms are the most popular methods due to their effectiveness and simplicity for both software and hardware implementations. A BM approach assumes that the movement of pixels within a defined region of the current frame can be modeled as a translation of pixels contained in the previous frame. In this procedure, the motion vector is obtained by minimizing a certain matching metric that is produced for the current frame over a determined search window from the previous frame. Unfortunately, the evaluation of such matching measurement is computationally expensive and represents the most consuming operation in the BM process. Therefore, BM motion estimation can be viewed as an optimization problem whose goal is to find the best-matching block within a search space. The simplest available BM method is the Full Search Algorithm (FSA) which finds the most accurate motion vector through an exhaustive computation of all the elements of the search space. Recently, several fast BM algorithms have been proposed to reduce the search positions by calculating only a fixed subset of motion vectors despite lowering its accuracy. On the other hand, the Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is a population-based optimization method that is inspired by the music improvisation process in which a musician searches for harmony and continues to polish the pitches to obtain a better harmony. In this paper, a new BM algorithm that combines HS with a fitness approximation model is proposed. The approach E. Cuevas ( ) uses motion vectors belonging to the search window as potential solutions. A fitness function evaluates the matching quality of each motion vector candidate. In order to save computational time, the approach incorporates a fitness calculation strategy to decide which motion vectors can be only estimated or actually evaluated. Guided by the values of such fitness calculation strategy, the set of motion vectors is evolved through HS operators until the best possible motion vector is identified. The proposed method has been compared to other BM algorithms in terms of velocity and coding quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm exhibits the best balance between coding efficiency and computational complexity.
Interest in multimodal optimization is expanding rapidly, since many practical engineering proble... more Interest in multimodal optimization is expanding rapidly, since many practical engineering problems demand the localization of multiple optima within a search space. On the other hand, the cuckoo search (CS) algorithm is a simple and effective global optimization algorithm which can not be directly applied to solve multimodal optimization problems. This paper proposes a new multimodal optimization algorithm called the multimodal cuckoo search (MCS). Under MCS, the original CS is enhanced with multimodal capacities by means of (1) the incorporation of a memory mechanism to efficiently register potential local optima according to their fitness value and the distance to other potential solutions, (2) the modification of the original CS individual selection strategy to accelerate the detection process of new local minima, and (3) the inclusion of a depuration procedure to cyclically eliminate duplicated memory elements. The performance of the proposed approach is compared to several state-of-theart multimodal optimization algorithms considering a benchmark suite of fourteen multimodal problems. Experimental results indicate that the proposed strategy is capable of providing better and even a more consistent performance over existing well-known multimodal algorithms for the majority of test problems yet avoiding any serious computational deterioration.
Template matching (TM) plays an important role in several image-processing applications such as f... more Template matching (TM) plays an important role in several image-processing applications such as feature tracking, object recognition, stereo matching, and remote sensing. The TM approach seeks for the bestpossible resemblance between a subimage known as template and its coincident region within a source image. TM involves two critical aspects: similarity measurement and search strategy. The simplest available TM method aims for the best-possible coincidence between the images through an exhaustive computation of the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) values (similarity measurement) for all elements of the source image (search strategy). Recently, several TM algorithms that are based on evolutionary approaches have been proposed to reduce the number of NCC operations by calculating only a
In order to improve the performance of solar energy systems, accurate modeling of current vs. vol... more In order to improve the performance of solar energy systems, accurate modeling of current vs. voltage (I eV) characteristics of solar cells has attracted the attention of various researches. The main drawback in accurate modeling is the lack of information about the precise parameter values which indeed characterize the solar cell. Since such parameters cannot be extracted from the datasheet specifications, an optimization technique is necessary to adjust experimental data to the solar cell model. Considering the I eV characteristics of solar cells, the optimization task involves the solution of complex non-linear and multi-modal objective functions. Several optimization approaches have been proposed to identify the parameters of solar cells. However, most of them obtain sub-optimal solutions due to their premature convergence and their difficulty to overcome local minima in multi-modal problems. This paper proposes the use of the ABC (artificial bee colony) algorithm to accurately identify the solar cells' parameters. The ABC algorithm is an evolutionary method inspired by the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. In comparison with other evolutionary algorithms, ABC exhibits a better search capacity to face multimodal objective functions. In order to illustrate the proficiency of the proposed approach, it is compared to other well-known optimization methods. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance of the proposed method in terms of robustness and accuracy.
The authors propose two equations based on the pixel geometry and connectivity properties, which ... more The authors propose two equations based on the pixel geometry and connectivity properties, which can be used to compute, efficiently, the Euler number of a binary digital image with either thick or thin boundaries. Although computing this feature, the authors' technique extracts the underlying topological information provided by the shape pixels of the given image. The correctness of computing the Euler number using the new equations is also established theoretically. The performance of the proposed method is compared against other available alternatives. Experimental results on a large image database demonstrate that the authors technique for computing the Euler number outperforms the earlier approaches significantly in terms of the number of basic arithmetic operations needed per pixel. Both equations are specialised only for 4-connectivity cases.
This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated ... more This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic detection of circular shapes from complicated and noisy images with no consideration of the conventional Hough transform principles. The proposed algorithm is based on a newly developed evolutionary algorithm called the Adaptive Population with Reduced Evaluations (APRE). Our proposed algorithm reduces the number of function evaluations through the use of two mechanisms: (1) adapting dynamically the size of the population and (2) incorporating a fitness calculation strategy, which decides whether the calculation or estimation of the new generated individuals is feasible. As a result, the approach can substantially reduce the number of function evaluations, yet preserving the good search capabilities of an evolutionary approach. Experimental results over several synthetic and natural images, with a varying range of complexity, validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy, speed, and robustness.
Resumen. El diseño de algoritmos que operen sobre plantas con dinámicas no modeladas aún represen... more Resumen. El diseño de algoritmos que operen sobre plantas con dinámicas no modeladas aún representa un reto en el área de control automático. Una solución podría ser el uso de algoritmos capaces de aprender en tiempo real mediante la interacción directa con la planta. El modelo NEFCON, permite construir la estructura de un controlador difuso del tipo Mamdani capaz de aprender las reglas y adaptar los conjuntos difusos. La principal ventaja del modelo NEFCON respecto a otros enfoques de aprendizaje, es que su diseño se reduce a expresar la calidad del error actual de la planta a controlar. Sin embargo, una desventaja del modelo NEFCON es la pobre exploración de los estados de la planta durante el aprendizaje, lo cual hace imposible su aplicación para sistemas dinámicos no lineales. En este trabajo se propone la adición de ruido Gaussiano a las variables de estado de la planta, con el objetivo de asegurar una exploración amplia de los estados, facilitando la convergencia del algoritmo de aprendizaje, cuando se aplica a sistemas no lineales. En particular, se muestra la efectividad de la propuesta en el control del sistema dinámico de la "pelota y el balancín" (Ball and Beam) Palabras clave: Sistemas de control adaptativos, sistemas de control por aprendizaje, control inteligente, control no lineal.
La computación basada en principios físicos recientemente ha ganado respeto en la comunidad cient... more La computación basada en principios físicos recientemente ha ganado respeto en la comunidad científi ca. Esta área emergente, en poco tiempo ha logrado desarrollar un amplio rango de técnicas y métodos que han servido para resolver diversos problemas, considerados como complejos. Por otra parte, la detección automática de círculos en imágenes se considera una tarea importante, es por esto que se han realizado un gran número de trabajos tratando de encontrar el detector de círculos óptimo. Este artículo presenta un nuevo algoritmo para la detección de primitivas circulares contenidas en imágenes sin la consideración de la transformada de Hough. El algoritmo propuesto está basado en un nuevo enfoque inspirado en principios físicos llamado: Electromagnetism-Like Optimization (EMO), el cual es un método heurístico que emplea algunos principios de la teoría del electromagnetismo para resolver problemas complejos de optimización. En el algoritmo EMO las soluciones se construyen considerando la atracción y repulsión electromagnética entre las partículas cargadas; dicha carga representa la afi nidad que tiene cada partícula con la solución. El algoritmo de detección de círculos emplea una codifi cación de tres puntos no colineales, dichos puntos representan los círculos candidatos sobre una imagen que sólo contiene sus bordes. Empleando una función objetivo, el conjunto de círculos candidatos considerados como partículas cargadas, son operados por medio del algoritmo EMO hasta que logren coincidir con los círculos existentes en la imagen real. Los resultados experimentales en diversas imágenes complejas validaron la efi ciencia de la técnica propuesta en cuanto a su exactitud, velocidad y robustez.
Cuevas E y cols. Segmentación y detección de glóbulos blancos en imágenes usando sistemas inmunes... more Cuevas E y cols. Segmentación y detección de glóbulos blancos en imágenes usando sistemas inmunes artificiales www.medigraphic.org.mxwww.medigraphic.org.mx ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓN ORIGINAL Vol. XXXI, Núm. 2 Diciembre 2010 pp 119 -134
In this paper an alternative way to compute the (E) Euler number of a binary image via informatio... more In this paper an alternative way to compute the (E) Euler number of a binary image via information about its pixels is presented. The perimeter of the objects in the image, their contact perimeter and the T-type pixel are used to obtain this important invariant. This is the second time the Euler number is described in terms of the contact perimeter of the objects in an image but with new results. The first paper that reports computing the Euler number of a binary shape in terms of the and is in [E. Bribiesca, Computation of the Euler number using the contact perimeter, Computers and Mathematics with Applications 60:1364-137 ]. Bribiesca's proposal is useful only for unit-width shapes. In this paper, we extend Bribiesca's method for non-unit-width shapes.
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Papers by Erik Cuevas