An Interactive Genetic Algorithm applied to the design of recycling plants

This contribution presents an approach to consider subjective features of the designer (Decision Maker: DM) using an Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) in Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem (UA-FLP) applied to recycling plants design. The DM guides the evolutionary process adjusting it to his/her preferences at every iteration of the algorithm. In order to avoid the DM fatigue he/she evaluates only the most representative individuals of the population chosen by means of a soft computing clustering method. The empirical evaluation shows that the proposed algorithm is capable to capture the DM preferences and to reach good solutions in a reasonable number of iterations.