Metaheuristic Optimisation Approach for Designing Reliable and Robust Geodetic Networks

Abstract

Robustness analysis is a combination of reliability and geometrical strength analysis using a strain technique. It refers to the ability of a network to resist deformations caused by the largest undetectable blunders. The displacement of each point in the network is computed in order to measure the robustness of the network. This paper tries to optimally design a geodetic network in the sense of high reliability and geometrical strength. For this purpose, a metaheuristic method called the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) is used to solve the first order design problem in which the geometric configuration of the network is optimised. Such algorithms have been developed to determine high quality solutions to complex optimisation problems. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated using a synthetic network example. The results show that the displacements can be decreased by maximising the minimum redundancy number in the network. This procedure can yield both reliable and robust networks.