This paper proposes a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the fine-tuning meta-heuristic algorithm (FTMA) for solving global optimization problems. In this algorithm, the solutions are fine-tuned using the fundamental steps in meta-heuristic optimization, namely, exploration, exploitation, and randomization, in such a way that if one step improves the solution, then it is unnecessary to execute the remaining steps. The performance of the proposed FTMA has been compared with that of five other optimization algorithms over ten benchmark test functions. Nine of them are well-known and already exist in the literature, while the tenth one is proposed by the authors and introduced in this article. One test trial was shown t

The purpose of this paper is to solve the stochastic demand for the unbalanced transport problem using heuristic algorithms to obtain the optimum solution, by minimizing the costs of transporting the gasoline product for the Oil Products Distribution Company of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. The most important conclusions that were reached are the results prove the possibility of solving the random transportation problem when the demand is uncertain by the stochastic programming model. The most obvious finding to emerge from this work is that the genetic algorithm was able to address the problems of unbalanced transport, And the possibility of applying the model approved by the oil products distribution company in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to m

The conception and experimental assessment of a removable friction-based shear connector (FBSC) for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The FBSC uses pre-tensioned high-strength steel bolts that pass through countersunk holes drilled on the top flange of the steel beam. Pre-tensioning of the bolts provides the FBSC with significant frictional resistance that essentially prevents relative slip displacement of the concrete slab with respect to the steel beam under service loading. The countersunk holes are grouted to prevent sudden slip of the FBSC when friction resistance is exceeded. Moreover, the FBSC promotes accelerated bridge construction by fully exploiting prefabrication, does not raise issues relevant to precast co

It takes a lot of time to classify the banana slices by sweetness level using traditional methods. By assessing the quality of fruits more focus is placed on its sweetness as well as the color since they affect the taste. The reason for sorting banana slices by their sweetness is to estimate the ripeness of bananas using the sweetness and color values of the slices. This classifying system assists in establishing the degree of ripeness of bananas needed for processing and consumption. The purpose of this article is to compare the efficiency of the SVM-linear, SVM-polynomial, and LDA classification of the sweetness of banana slices by their LRV level. The result of the experiment showed that the highest accuracy of 96.66% was achieved by the

This paper presents an approach to license plate localization and recognition. A proposed method is designed to control the opening of door gate based on the recognition of the license plates number in Iraq. In general the system consists of four stages; Image capturing, License plate cropping, character segmentation and character recognition. In the first stage, the vehicle photo is taken from standard camera placed on the door gate with a specific distance from the front of vehicle to be processed by our system. Then, the detection method searches for the matching of the license plate in the image with a standard plate. The segmentation stage is performed by is using edge detection. Then character recognition, done by comparing with templ