Constraints Separation Based Evolutionary Multitasking for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization Problems

Constrained multi-objective optimization problems(CMOPs)generally contain multiple constraints,which not only form multiple discrete feasible regions but also reduce the size of optimal feasible regions,thus they propose serious challenges for solvers.Among all constraints,some constraints are highly correlated with optimal feasible regions;thus they can provide effective help to find feasible Pareto front.However,most of the existing constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithms tackle constraints by regarding all constraints as a whole or directly ignoring all constraints,and do not consider judging the relations among constraints and do not utilize the information from promising single constraints.Therefore,this paper attempts to identify promising single constraints and utilize them to help solve CMOPs.To be specific,a CMOP is transformed into a multitasking optimization problem,where multiple auxiliary tasks are created to search for the Pareto fronts that only consider a single constraint respectively.Besides,an auxiliary task priority method is designed to identify and retain some high-related auxiliary tasks according to the information of relative positions and dominance relationships.Moreover,an improved tentative method is designed to find and transfer useful knowledge among tasks.Experimental results on three benchmark test suites and 11 realworld problems with different numbers of constraints show better or competitive performance of the proposed method when compared with eight state-of-the-art peer methods.

Enhancing Evolutionary Algorithms With Pattern Mining for Sparse Large-Scale Multi-Objective Optimization Problems

Sparse large-scale multi-objective optimization problems(SLMOPs)are common in science and engineering.However,the large-scale problem represents the high dimensionality of the decision space,requiring algorithms to traverse vast expanse with limited computational resources.Furthermore,in the context of sparse,most variables in Pareto optimal solutions are zero,making it difficult for algorithms to identify non-zero variables efficiently.This paper is dedicated to addressing the challenges posed by SLMOPs.To start,we introduce innovative objective functions customized to mine maximum and minimum candidate sets.This substantial enhancement dramatically improves the efficacy of frequent pattern mining.In this way,selecting candidate sets is no longer based on the quantity of nonzero variables they contain but on a higher proportion of nonzero variables within specific dimensions.Additionally,we unveil a novel approach to association rule mining,which delves into the intricate relationships between non-zero variables.This novel methodology aids in identifying sparse distributions that can potentially expedite reductions in the objective function value.We extensively tested our algorithm across eight benchmark problems and four real-world SLMOPs.The results demonstrate that our approach achieves competitive solutions across various challenges.

Multi-objective integrated optimization based on evolutionary strategy with a dynamic weighting schedule

The evolutionary strategy with a dynamic weighting schedule is proposed to find all the compromised solutions of the multi-objective integrated structure and control optimization problem, where the optimal system performance and control cost are defined by H2 or H∞ norms. During this optimization process, the weights are varying with the increasing generation instead of fixed values. The proposed strategy together with the linear matrix inequality （LMI） or the Riccati controller design method can find a series of uniformly distributed nondominated solutions in a single run. Therefore, this method can greatly reduce the computation intensity of the integrated optimization problem compared with the weight-based single objective genetic algorithm. Active automotive suspension is adopted as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Even Search in a Promising Region for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization

In recent years, a large number of approaches to constrained multi-objective optimization problems(CMOPs) have been proposed, focusing on developing tweaked strategies and techniques for handling constraints. However, an overly finetuned strategy or technique might overfit some problem types,resulting in a lack of versatility. In this article, we propose a generic search strategy that performs an even search in a promising region. The promising region, determined by obtained feasible non-dominated solutions, possesses two general properties.First, the constrained Pareto front(CPF) is included in the promising region. Second, as the number of feasible solutions increases or the convergence performance(i.e., approximation to the CPF) of these solutions improves, the promising region shrinks. Then we develop a new strategy named even search,which utilizes the non-dominated solutions to accelerate convergence and escape from local optima, and the feasible solutions under a constraint relaxation condition to exploit and detect feasible regions. Finally, a diversity measure is adopted to make sure that the individuals in the population evenly cover the valuable areas in the promising region. Experimental results on 45 instances from four benchmark test suites and 14 real-world CMOPs have demonstrated that searching evenly in the promising region can achieve competitive performance and excellent versatility compared to 11 most state-of-the-art methods tailored for CMOPs.

Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization With Deep Reinforcement Learning Assisted Operator Selection

Solving constrained multi-objective optimization problems with evolutionary algorithms has attracted considerable attention.Various constrained multi-objective optimization evolutionary algorithms(CMOEAs)have been developed with the use of different algorithmic strategies,evolutionary operators,and constraint-handling techniques.The performance of CMOEAs may be heavily dependent on the operators used,however,it is usually difficult to select suitable operators for the problem at hand.Hence,improving operator selection is promising and necessary for CMOEAs.This work proposes an online operator selection framework assisted by Deep Reinforcement Learning.The dynamics of the population,including convergence,diversity,and feasibility,are regarded as the state;the candidate operators are considered as actions;and the improvement of the population state is treated as the reward.By using a Q-network to learn a policy to estimate the Q-values of all actions,the proposed approach can adaptively select an operator that maximizes the improvement of the population according to the current state and thereby improve the algorithmic performance.The framework is embedded into four popular CMOEAs and assessed on 42 benchmark problems.The experimental results reveal that the proposed Deep Reinforcement Learning-assisted operator selection significantly improves the performance of these CMOEAs and the resulting algorithm obtains better versatility compared to nine state-of-the-art CMOEAs.

Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm for Grouping Decision Variables Based on Extreme Point Pareto Frontier

The existing algorithms for solving multi-objective optimization problems fall into three main categories:Decomposition-based,dominance-based,and indicator-based.Traditional multi-objective optimization problemsmainly focus on objectives,treating decision variables as a total variable to solve the problem without consideringthe critical role of decision variables in objective optimization.As seen,a variety of decision variable groupingalgorithms have been proposed.However,these algorithms are relatively broad for the changes of most decisionvariables in the evolution process and are time-consuming in the process of finding the Pareto frontier.To solvethese problems,a multi-objective optimization algorithm for grouping decision variables based on extreme pointPareto frontier(MOEA-DV/EPF)is proposed.This algorithm adopts a preprocessing rule to solve the Paretooptimal solution set of extreme points generated by simultaneous evolution in various target directions,obtainsthe basic Pareto front surface to determine the convergence effect,and analyzes the convergence and distributioneffects of decision variables.In the later stages of algorithm optimization,different mutation strategies are adoptedaccording to the nature of the decision variables to speed up the rate of evolution to obtain excellent individuals,thusenhancing the performance of the algorithm.Evaluation validation of the test functions shows that this algorithmcan solve the multi-objective optimization problem more efficiently.

A Survey of Evolutionary Algorithms for Multi-Objective Optimization Problems With Irregular Pareto Fronts

Evolutionary algorithms have been shown to be very successful in solving multi-objective optimization problems(MOPs).However,their performance often deteriorates when solving MOPs with irregular Pareto fronts.To remedy this issue,a large body of research has been performed in recent years and many new algorithms have been proposed.This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the research on MOPs with irregular Pareto fronts.We start with a brief introduction to the basic concepts,followed by a summary of the benchmark test problems with irregular problems,an analysis of the causes of the irregularity,and real-world optimization problems with irregular Pareto fronts.Then,a taxonomy of the existing methodologies for handling irregular problems is given and representative algorithms are reviewed with a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses.Finally,open challenges are pointed out and a few promising future directions are suggested.

A Fast Clustering Based Evolutionary Algorithm for Super-Large-Scale Sparse Multi-Objective Optimization

During the last three decades,evolutionary algorithms(EAs)have shown superiority in solving complex optimization problems,especially those with multiple objectives and non-differentiable landscapes.However,due to the stochastic search strategies,the performance of most EAs deteriorates drastically when handling a large number of decision variables.To tackle the curse of dimensionality,this work proposes an efficient EA for solving super-large-scale multi-objective optimization problems with sparse optimal solutions.The proposed algorithm estimates the sparse distribution of optimal solutions by optimizing a binary vector for each solution,and provides a fast clustering method to highly reduce the dimensionality of the search space.More importantly,all the operations related to the decision variables only contain several matrix calculations,which can be directly accelerated by GPUs.While existing EAs are capable of handling fewer than 10000 real variables,the proposed algorithm is verified to be effective in handling 1000000 real variables.Furthermore,since the proposed algorithm handles the large number of variables via accelerated matrix calculations,its runtime can be reduced to less than 10%of the runtime of existing EAs.

Evolutionary Multi-objective Portfolio Optimization in Practical Context

This paper addresses evolutionary multi-objective portfolio optimization in the practical context by incorporating realistic constraints into the problem model and preference criterion into the optimization search process. The former is essential to enhance the realism of the classical mean-variance model proposed by Harry Markowitz, since portfolio managers often face a number of realistic constraints arising from business and industry regulations, while the latter reflects the fact that portfolio managers are ultimately interested in specific regions or points along the efficient frontier during the actual execution of their investment orders. For the former, this paper proposes an order-based representation that can be easily extended to handle various realistic constraints like floor and ceiling constraints and cardinality constraint. An experimental study, based on benchmark problems obtained from the OR-library, demonstrates its capability to attain a better approximation of the efficient frontier in terms of proximity and diversity with respect to other conventional representations. The experimental results also illustrated its viability and practicality in handling the various realistic constraints. A simple strategy to incorporate preferences into the multi-objective optimization process is highlighted and the experimental study demonstrates its capability in driving the evolutionary search towards specific regions of the efficient frontier.

Integrating Conjugate Gradients Into Evolutionary Algorithms for Large-Scale Continuous Multi-Objective Optimization

Large-scale multi-objective optimization problems(LSMOPs)pose challenges to existing optimizers since a set of well-converged and diverse solutions should be found in huge search spaces.While evolutionary algorithms are good at solving small-scale multi-objective optimization problems,they are criticized for low efficiency in converging to the optimums of LSMOPs.By contrast,mathematical programming methods offer fast convergence speed on large-scale single-objective optimization problems,but they have difficulties in finding diverse solutions for LSMOPs.Currently,how to integrate evolutionary algorithms with mathematical programming methods to solve LSMOPs remains unexplored.In this paper,a hybrid algorithm is tailored for LSMOPs by coupling differential evolution and a conjugate gradient method.On the one hand,conjugate gradients and differential evolution are used to update different decision variables of a set of solutions,where the former drives the solutions to quickly converge towards the Pareto front and the latter promotes the diversity of the solutions to cover the whole Pareto front.On the other hand,objective decomposition strategy of evolutionary multi-objective optimization is used to differentiate the conjugate gradients of solutions,and the line search strategy of mathematical programming is used to ensure the higher quality of each offspring than its parent.In comparison with state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms,mathematical programming methods,and hybrid algorithms,the proposed algorithm exhibits better convergence and diversity performance on a variety of benchmark and real-world LSMOPs.

Multi-objective evolutionary optimization for geostationary orbit satellite mission planning

In the past few decades, applications of geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites have attracted increasing attention, and with the development of optical technologies, GEO optical satellites have become popular worldwide. This paper proposes a general working pattern for a GEO optical satellite, as well as a target observation mission planning model. After analyzing the requirements of users and satellite control agencies, two objectives are simultaneously considered: maximization of total profit and minimization of satellite attitude maneuver angle. An NSGA-II based multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed, which contains some heuristic principles in the initialization phase and mutation operator, and is embedded with a traveling salesman problem (TSP) optimization. The validity and performance of the proposed method are verified by extensive numerical simulations that include several types of point target distributions.

Evolutionary Multitasking With Global and Local Auxiliary Tasks for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization

Constrained multi-objective optimization problems(CMOPs) include the optimization of objective functions and the satisfaction of constraint conditions, which challenge the solvers.To solve CMOPs, constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithms(CMOEAs) have been developed. However, most of them tend to converge into local areas due to the loss of diversity. Evolutionary multitasking(EMT) is new model of solving complex optimization problems, through the knowledge transfer between the source task and other related tasks. Inspired by EMT, this paper develops a new EMT-based CMOEA to solve CMOPs, in which the main task, a global auxiliary task, and a local auxiliary task are created and optimized by one specific population respectively. The main task focuses on finding the feasible Pareto front(PF), and global and local auxiliary tasks are used to respectively enhance global and local diversity. Moreover, the global auxiliary task is used to implement the global search by ignoring constraints, so as to help the population of the main task pass through infeasible obstacles. The local auxiliary task is used to provide local diversity around the population of the main task, so as to exploit promising regions. Through the knowledge transfer among the three tasks, the search ability of the population of the main task will be significantly improved. Compared with other state-of-the-art CMOEAs, the experimental results on three benchmark test suites demonstrate the superior or competitive performance of the proposed CMOEA.

A New Evolutionary Algorithm for Solving Multi-Objective Optimization Problems

Multi-objective optimization is a new focus of evolutionary computation research. This paper puts forward a new algorithm, which can not only converge quickly, but also keep diversity among population efficiently, in order to find the Pareto-optimal set. This new algorithm replaces the worst individual with a newly-created one by 'multi-parent crossover' , so that the population could converge near the true Pareto-optimal solutions in the end. At the same time, this new algorithm adopts niching and fitness-sharing techniques to keep the population in a good distribution. Numerical experiments show that the algorithm is rather effective in solving some Benchmarks. No matter whether the Pareto front of problems is convex or non-convex, continuous or discontinuous, and the problems are with constraints or not, the program turns out to do well.

A Modified Bi-Directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization Procedure with Variable Evolutionary Volume Ratio Applied to Multi-Objective Topology Optimization Problem

Natural frequency and dynamic stiffness under transient loading are two key performances for structural design related to automotive,aviation and construction industries.This article aims to tackle the multi-objective topological optimization problem considering dynamic stiffness and natural frequency using modified version of bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization(BESO).The conventional BESO is provided with constant evolutionary volume ratio(EVR),whereas low EVR greatly retards the optimization process and high EVR improperly removes the efficient elements.To address the issue,the modified BESO with variable EVR is introduced.To compromise the natural frequency and the dynamic stiffness,a weighting scheme of sensitivity numbers is employed to form the Pareto solution space.Several numerical examples demonstrate that the optimal solutions obtained from the modified BESO method have good agreement with those from the classic BESO method.Most importantly,the dynamic removal strategy with the variable EVR sharply springs up the optimization process.Therefore,it is concluded that the modified BESO method with variable EVR can solve structural design problems using multi-objective optimization.

Interactive Evolutionary Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm Using Cone Dominance

As the number of objectives increases,the performance of the Pareto dominance-based Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization( EMO) algorithms such as NSGA-II,SPEA2 severely deteriorates due to the drastic increase in the Pareto-incomparable solutions. We propose a sorting method which classifies these incomparable solutions into several ordered classes by using the decision maker's( DM) preference information.This is accomplished by designing an interactive evolutionary algorithm and constructing convex cones. This method allows the DMs to drive the search process toward a preferred region of the Pareto optimal front. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed for two,three,and four-objective knapsack problems. The results demonstrate the algorithm ' s ability to converge to the most preferred point. The evaluation and comparison of the results indicate that the proposed approach gives better solutions than that of NSGA-II. In addition,the approach is more efficient compared to NSGA-II in terms of the number of generations required to reach the preferred point.

Synergetic Optimization of Missile Shapes for Aerodynamic and Radar Cross-Section Performance Based on Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm

A multiple-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) with a new Decision Making (DM) scheme for MOD of conceptual missile shapes was presented, which is contrived to determine suitable tradeoffs from Pareto optimal set using interactive preference articulation. There are two objective functions, to maximize ratio of lift to drag and to minimize radar cross-section (RCS) value. 3D computational electromagnetic solver was used to evaluate RCS, electromagnetic performance. 3D Navier-Stokes flow solver was adopted to evaluate aerodynamic performance. A flight mechanics solver was used to analyze the stability of the missile. Based on the MOEA, a synergetic optimization of missile shapes for aerodynamic and radar cross-section performance is completed. The results show that the proposed approach can be used in more complex optimization case of flight vehicles.

Zoning Search With Adaptive Resource Allocating Method for Balanced and Imbalanced Multimodal Multi-Objective Optimization

Maintaining population diversity is an important task in the multimodal multi-objective optimization.Although the zoning search(ZS)can improve the diversity in the decision space,assigning the same computational costs to each search subspace may be wasteful when computational resources are limited,especially on imbalanced problems.To alleviate the above-mentioned issue,a zoning search with adaptive resource allocating(ZS-ARA)method is proposed in the current study.In the proposed ZS-ARA,the entire search space is divided into many subspaces to preserve the diversity in the decision space and to reduce the problem complexity.Moreover,the computational resources can be automatically allocated among all the subspaces.The ZS-ARA is compared with seven algorithms on two different types of multimodal multi-objective problems(MMOPs),namely,balanced and imbalanced MMOPs.The results indicate that,similarly to the ZS,the ZS-ARA achieves high performance with the balanced MMOPs.Also,it can greatly assist a“regular”algorithm in improving its performance on the imbalanced MMOPs,and is capable of allocating the limited computational resources dynamically.

Optimal setting and placement of FACTS devices using strength Pareto multi-objective evolutionary algorithm

This work proposes a novel approach for multi-type optimal placement of flexible AC transmission system(FACTS) devices so as to optimize multi-objective voltage stability problem. The current study discusses a way for locating and setting of thyristor controlled series capacitor(TCSC) and static var compensator(SVC) using the multi-objective optimization approach named strength pareto multi-objective evolutionary algorithm(SPMOEA). Maximization of the static voltage stability margin(SVSM) and minimizations of real power losses(RPL) and load voltage deviation(LVD) are taken as the goals or three objective functions, when optimally locating multi-type FACTS devices. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed approach has been validated by the simulation results of the IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems. The proposed approach is compared with non-dominated sorting particle swarm optimization(NSPSO) algorithm. This comparison confirms the usefulness of the multi-objective proposed technique that makes it promising for determination of combinatorial problems of FACTS devices location and setting in large scale power systems.

An improved multi-objective optimization algorithm for solving flexible job shop scheduling problem with variable batches

In order to solve the flexible job shop scheduling problem with variable batches,we propose an improved multiobjective optimization algorithm,which combines the idea of inverse scheduling.First,a flexible job shop problem with the variable batches scheduling model is formulated.Second,we propose a batch optimization algorithm with inverse scheduling in which the batch size is adjusted by the dynamic feedback batch adjusting method.Moreover,in order to increase the diversity of the population,two methods are developed.One is the threshold to control the neighborhood updating,and the other is the dynamic clustering algorithm to update the population.Finally,a group of experiments are carried out.The results show that the improved multi-objective optimization algorithm can ensure the diversity of Pareto solutions effectively,and has effective performance in solving the flexible job shop scheduling problem with variable batches.

A Multi-Objective Optimal Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Tree-Ranking

Multi-objective optimal evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are a kind of new effective algorithms to solve Multi-objective optimal problem (MOP). Because ranking, a method which is used by most MOEAs to solve MOP, has some shortcoming s, in this paper, we proposed a new method using tree structure to express the relationship of solutions. Experiments prove that the method can reach the Pare-to front, retain the diversity of the population, and use less time.