Determination of optimal tool path in drilling operation using Modified Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm

Sa？etak Applications like boilerplates, food-industry processing separator, printed circuit boards, drum and trammel screens, etc. consists of a matrix of a large number of holes. The primary issue involved in hole-making operations is a tool travel time. It is often necessary to find the optimal sequence of operations so that the total processing cost of hole-making operations can be minimized. In this work, therefore an attempt is made to reduce the total tool travel of hole-making operations by applying a relatively new optimization algorithm known as modified shuffled frog leaping for determining the optimal sequence of operations. Modification is made in the existing shuffled frog-leaping algorithm by introducing three parameters with their positive values to widen the search capability of existing algorithms. A case study of the printed circuit board is considered in this work to demonstrate the proposed approach. Obtained results of optimization using modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm are compared with those obtained using particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm and shortest path search algorithm