A MIXED SUPERLINEARLY CONVERGENT ALGORITHM WITH NONMONOTONE SEARCH FOR CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATIONS

In the paper, a new mixed algorithm combined with schemes of nonmonotone line search, the systems of linear equations for higher order modification and sequential quadratic programming for constrained optimizations is presented. Under some weaker assumptions,without strict complementary condition, the algorithm is globally and superlinearly convergent.

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.

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.

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.

Improved Differential Evolution with Shrinking Space Technique for Constrained Optimization

Most of the current evolutionary algorithms for constrained optimization algorithm are low computational efficiency. In order to improve efficiency, an improved differential evolution with shrinking space technique and adaptive trade-off model, named ATMDE, is proposed to solve constrained optimization problems. The proposed ATMDE algorithm employs an improved differential evolution as the search optimizer to generate new offspring individuals into evolutionary population. For the con- straints, the adaptive trade-off model as one of the most important constraint-handling techniques is employed to select better individuals to retain into the next population, which could effectively handle multiple constraints. Then the shrinking space technique is designed to shrink the search region according to feedback information in order to improve computational efficiency without losing accuracy. The improved DE algorithm introduces three different mutant strategies to generate different offspring into evo- lutionary population. Moreover, a new mutant strategy called ＂DE/rand/best/l＂ is constructed to generate new individuals according to the feasibility proportion ofcurrent population. Finally, the effectiveness of the pro- posed method is verified by a suite of benchmark functions and practical engineering problems. This research presents a constrained evolutionary algorithm with high efficiency and accuracy for constrained optimization problems.

A New Strategy for Solving a Class of Constrained Nonlinear Optimization Problems Related to Weather and Climate Predictability

There are three common types of predictability problems in weather and climate, which each involve different constrained nonlinear optimization problems： the lower bound of maximum predictable time, the upper bound of maximum prediction error, and the lower bound of maximum allowable initial error and parameter error. Highly effcient algorithms have been developed to solve the second optimization problem. And this optimization problem can be used in realistic models for weather and climate to study the upper bound of the maximum prediction error. Although a filtering strategy has been adopted to solve the other two problems, direct solutions are very time-consuming even for a very simple model, which therefore limits the applicability of these two predictability problems in realistic models. In this paper, a new strategy is designed to solve these problems, involving the use of the existing highly effcient algorithms for the second predictability problem in particular. Furthermore, a series of comparisons between the older filtering strategy and the new method are performed. It is demonstrated that the new strategy not only outputs the same results as the old one, but is also more computationally effcient. This would suggest that it is possible to study the predictability problems associated with these two nonlinear optimization problems in realistic forecast models of weather or climate.

Multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for dynamic nonlinear constrained optimization problems

A new method to solve dynamic nonlinear constrained optimization problems （DNCOP） is proposed. First, the time （environment） variable period of DNCOP is divided into several equal subperiods. In each subperiod, the DNCOP is approximated by a static nonlinear constrained optimization problem （SNCOP）. Second, for each SNCOP, inspired by the idea of multiobjective optimization, it is transformed into a static bi-objective optimization problem. As a result, the original DNCOP is approximately transformed into several static bi-objective optimization problems. Third, a new multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is proposed based on a new selection operator and an improved nonuniformity mutation operator. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm is effective for DNCOP.

A TRUST REGION METHOD WITH A CONIC MODEL FOR NONLINEARLY CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION

Trust region methods are powerful and effective optimization methods. The conic model method is a new type of method with more information available at each iteration than standard quadratic-based methods. The advantages of the above two methods can be combined to form a more powerful method for constrained optimization. The trust region subproblem of our method is to minimize a conic function subject to the linearized constraints and trust region bound. At the same time, the new algorithm still possesses robust global properties. The global convergence of the new algorithm under standard conditions is established.

Remarks on a benchmark nonlinear constrained optimization problem

Remarks on a benchmark nonlinear constrained optimization problem are made. Due to a citation error, two absolutely different results for the benchmark problem are obtained by independent researchers. Parallel simulated annealing using simplex method is employed in our study to solve the benchmark nonlinear constrained problem with mistaken formula and the best-known solution is obtained, whose optimality is testified by the Kuhn Tucker conditions.

MODIFIED INTEGRAL-LEVEL SET METHOD FOR THE CONSTRAINED SOLVING GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION

The constrained global optimization problem being considered, a modified integral_level set method was illustrated based on Chew_Zheng's paper on Integral Global Optimization and (Wu's) paper on Implementable Algorithm Convergence of Modified Integral_Level Set Method for Global Optimization Problem. It has two characters: 1) Each phase must construct a new function which has the same global optimal value as that of primitive objective function; 2) Comparing it with (Zheng's) method, solving level set procedure is avoided. An implementable algorithm also is given and it is proved that this algorithm is convergent.

Novel constrained multi-objective biogeography-based optimization algorithm for robot path planning

A constrained multi-objective biogeography-based optimization algorithm （CMBOA） was proposed to solve robot path planning （RPP）. For RPP, the length and smoothness of path were taken as the optimization objectives, and the distance from the obstacles was constraint. In CMBOA, a new migration operator with disturbance factor was designed and applied to the feasible population to generate many more non-dominated feasible individuals; meanwhile, some infeasible individuals nearby feasible region were recombined with the nearest feasible ones to approach the feasibility. Compared with classical multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, the current study indicates that CM- BOA has better performance for RPP.

An improved flexible tolerance method for solving nonlinear constrained optimization problems:Application in mass integration

This paper proposes the use of the flexible tolerance method(FTM) modified with adaptive Nelder–Mead parameters and barrier to solve constrained optimization problems. The problems used to analyze the performance of the methods were taken from G-Suite functions, and the methods with the best performance were applied in mass integration problems. Four methods were proposed:(1) flexible tolerance method(FTM) using adaptive parameters(FTMA),(2) flexible tolerance method with scaling(FTMS) and with adaptive parameters(FTMAS),(3) FTMS including the barrier modification(MFTMS) and(4) MFTMS hybridized with PSO(MFTMS-PSO). The success rates of these methods were 100%(MFTMS), 85%(MFTMS-PSO), 40%(FTMAS) and 30%(FTMA).Numerical experiments indicated that the MFTMS could efficiently and reliably improve the accuracy of global optima. In mass integration, the method was able, from current process situation, to reach the optimum process configuration that includes integration issues, which was not possible using FTM in its standard formulation. The hybridization of FTMS with PSO(without barrier), FTMS-PSO, was also able to solve mass integration problems efficiently.

Convergence analysis of a nonlinear Lagrange algorithm for general nonlinear constrained optimization problems

The convergence analysis of a nonlinear Lagrange algorithm for solving nonlinear constrained optimization problems with both inequality and equality constraints is explored in detail. The estimates for the derivatives of the multiplier mapping and the solution mapping of the proposed algorithm are discussed via the technique of the singular value decomposition of matrix. Based on the estimates, the local convergence results and the rate of convergence of the algorithm are presented when the penalty parameter is less than a threshold under a set of suitable conditions on problem functions. Furthermore, the condition number of the Hessian of the nonlinear Lagrange function with respect to the decision variables is analyzed, which is closely related to efficiency of the algorithm. Finally, the preliminary numericM results for several typical test problems are reported.

A Level-Value Estimate Method for Solving Constrained Global Optimization

The penalty method is a popular method for solving constrained optimization problems, which can change the constrained optimization to the unconstrained optimization. With the integral-level set method, a new approach was proposed, which is briefer than the penalty method, to achieve the transform by constructing a simple function, then a level-value function was introduced to construct the equivalence between the unconstrained optimization and a nonlinear equality. By studying the properties of the function, a level-value estimate algorithm and an implementation algorithm were given by means of the uniform distribution of the good point set. Key words global optimization - constrained optimization - integral-level set - level-value estimate MSC 2000 90C05

A new evolutionary algorithm for constrained optimization problems

To solve single-objective constrained optimization problems,a new population-based evolutionary algorithm with elite strategy(PEAES) is proposed with the concept of single and multi-objective optimization.Constrained functions are combined to be an objective function.During the evolutionary process,the current optimal solution is found and treated as the reference point to divide the population into three sub-populations:one feasible and two infeasible ones.Different evolutionary operations of single or multi-objective optimization are respectively performed in each sub-population with elite strategy.Thirteen famous benchmark functions are selected to evaluate the performance of PEAES in comparison of other three optimization methods.The results show the proposed method is valid in efficiency,precision and probability for solving single-objective constrained optimization problems.

New exact penalty function for solving constrainedfinite min-max problems

This paper introduces a new exact and smooth penalty function to tackle constrained min-max problems. By using this new penalty function and adding just one extra variable, a constrained rain-max problem is transformed into an unconstrained optimization one. It is proved that, under certain reasonable assumptions and when the penalty parameter is sufficiently large, the minimizer of this unconstrained optimization problem is equivalent to the minimizer of the original constrained one. Numerical results demonstrate that this penalty function method is an effective and promising approach for solving constrained finite min-max problems.

A CLASS OF TRUST REGION METHODS FOR LINEAR INEQUALITY CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION AND ITS THEORY ANALYSIS Ⅱ．LOCAL CONVERGENCE RATE AND NUMERICAL TESTS

In this paper we prove that a class of trust region methods presented in part I is superlinearly convergent. Numerical tests are reported thereafter. Results by solving a set of typical problems selected from literatures have demonstrated that our algorithm is effective.

A CLASS OF TRUST REGION METHODS FOR LINEAR INEQUALITY CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION AND ITS THEORY ANALYSIS：I．ALGORITHM AND GLOBAL CONVERGENCE

A class of trust region methods for solving linear inequality constrained problems is proposed in this paper. It is shown that the algorithm is of global convergence.The algorithm uses a version of the two-sided projection and the strategy of the unconstrained trust region methods. It keeps the good convergence properties of the unconstrained case and has the merits of the projection method. In some sense, our algorithm can be regarded as an extension and improvement of the projected type algorithm.

A SMOOTHING QP-FREE INFEASIBLE METHOD FOR NONLINEAR INEQUALITY CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION

In this paper, a smoothing QP-free infeasible method is proposed for nonlinear inequality constrained optimization problems. This iterative method is based on the solution of nonlinear equations which is obtained by the multipliers and the smoothing FisheroBurmeister function for the KKT first-order optimality conditions. Comparing with other QP-free methods, this method does not request the strict feasibility of iteration. In particular, this method is implementable and globally convergent without assuming the strict complementarity condition and the isolatedness of accumulation points. ~rthermore, the gradients of active constraints are not requested to be linearly independent. Preliminary numerical results indicate that this smoothing QP-free infeasible method is quite promising.

A New Unified Path to Smoothing Nonsmooth Exact Penalty Function for the Constrained Optimization

We propose a new unified path to approximately smoothing the nonsmooth exact penalty function in this paper. Based on the new smooth penalty function, we give a penalty algorithm to solve the constrained optimization problem, and discuss the convergence of the algorithm under mild conditions.