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.

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.

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.

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.

Novel Adaptive Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization

In recent years, sinmlated annealing algo-rithms have been extensively developed and uti-lized to solve nmlti-objective optimization problems. In order to obtain better optimization perfonmnce, this paper proposes a Novel Adaptive Simulated Annealing （NASA） algorithm for constrained multi-objective optimization based on Archived Multi-objective Simulated Annealing （AMOSA）. For han-dling multi-objective, NASA makes improverrents in three aspects： sub-iteration search, sub-archive and adaptive search, which effectively strengthen the stability and efficiency of the algorithnm For handling constraints, NASA introduces corresponding solution acceptance criterion. Furtherrrore, NASA has also been applied to optimize TD-LTE network perform-ance by adjusting antenna paranleters; it can achieve better extension and convergence than AMOSA, NS-GAII and MOPSO. Analytical studies and simulations indicate that the proposed NASA algorithm can play an important role in improving multi-objective optimi-zation performance.

Immune Optimization Approach for Dynamic Constrained Multi-Objective Multimodal Optimization Problems

This work investigates one immune optimization approach for dynamic constrained multi-objective multimodal optimization in terms of biological immune inspirations and the concept of constraint dominance. Such approach includes mainly three functional modules, environmental detection, population initialization and immune evolution. The first, inspired by the function of immune surveillance, is designed to detect the change of such kind of problem and to decide the type of a new environment;the second generates an initial population for the current environment, relying upon the result of detection;the last evolves two sub-populations along multiple directions and searches those excellent and diverse candidates. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can adaptively track the environmental change and effectively find the global Pareto-optimal front in each environment.

A Multi-Period Constrained Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm with Orthogonal Learning for Solving the Complex Carbon Neutral Stock Portfolio Optimization Model

Financial market has systemic complexity and uncertainty.For investors,return and risk often coexist.How to rationally allocate funds into different assets and achieve excess returns with effectively controlling risk are main problems to be solved in the field of portfolio optimization(PO).At present,due to the influence of modeling and algorithm solving,the PO models established by many researchers are still mainly focused on single-stage single-objective models or single-stage multiobjective models.PO is actually considered as a multi-stage multi-objective optimization problem in real investment scenarios.It is more difficult than the previous single-stage PO model for meeting the realistic requirements.In this paper,the authors proposed a mean-improved stable tail adjusted return ratio-maximum drawdown rate(M-ISTARR-MD)PO model which effectively characterizes the real investment scenario.In order to solve the multi-stage multi-objective PO model with complex multi-constraints,the authors designed a multi-stage constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with orthogonal learning(MSCMOEA-OL).Comparing with four well-known intelligence algorithms,the MSCMOEA-OL algorithm has competitive advantages in solving the M-ISTARR-MD model on the proposed constructed carbon neutral stock dataset.This paper provides a new way to construct and solve the complex PO model.

Energy-Saving Distributed Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Optimization with Dual Resource Constraints Based on Integrated Q-Learning Multi-Objective Grey Wolf Optimizer

The distributed flexible job shop scheduling problem(DFJSP)has attracted great attention with the growth of the global manufacturing industry.General DFJSP research only considers machine constraints and ignores worker constraints.As one critical factor of production,effective utilization of worker resources can increase productivity.Meanwhile,energy consumption is a growing concern due to the increasingly serious environmental issues.Therefore,the distributed flexible job shop scheduling problem with dual resource constraints(DFJSP-DRC)for minimizing makespan and total energy consumption is studied in this paper.To solve the problem,we present a multi-objective mathematical model for DFJSP-DRC and propose a Q-learning-based multi-objective grey wolf optimizer(Q-MOGWO).In Q-MOGWO,high-quality initial solutions are generated by a hybrid initialization strategy,and an improved active decoding strategy is designed to obtain the scheduling schemes.To further enhance the local search capability and expand the solution space,two wolf predation strategies and three critical factory neighborhood structures based on Q-learning are proposed.These strategies and structures enable Q-MOGWO to explore the solution space more efficiently and thus find better Pareto solutions.The effectiveness of Q-MOGWO in addressing DFJSP-DRC is verified through comparison with four algorithms using 45 instances.The results reveal that Q-MOGWO outperforms comparison algorithms in terms of solution quality.

Multi-Strategy Assisted Multi-Objective Whale Optimization Algorithm for Feature Selection

In classification problems,datasets often contain a large amount of features,but not all of them are relevant for accurate classification.In fact,irrelevant features may even hinder classification accuracy.Feature selection aims to alleviate this issue by minimizing the number of features in the subset while simultaneously minimizing the classification error rate.Single-objective optimization approaches employ an evaluation function designed as an aggregate function with a parameter,but the results obtained depend on the value of the parameter.To eliminate this parameter’s influence,the problem can be reformulated as a multi-objective optimization problem.The Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA)is widely used in optimization problems because of its simplicity and easy implementation.In this paper,we propose a multi-strategy assisted multi-objective WOA(MSMOWOA)to address feature selection.To enhance the algorithm’s search ability,we integrate multiple strategies such as Levy flight,Grey Wolf Optimizer,and adaptive mutation into it.Additionally,we utilize an external repository to store non-dominant solution sets and grid technology is used to maintain diversity.Results on fourteen University of California Irvine(UCI)datasets demonstrate that our proposed method effectively removes redundant features and improves classification performance.The source code can be accessed from the website:https://github.com/zc0315/MSMOWOA.

Multi-objective optimization and evaluation of supercritical CO_(2) Brayton cycle for nuclear power generation

The supercritical CO_(2) Brayton cycle is considered a promising energy conversion system for Generation IV reactors for its simple layout,compact structure,and high cycle efficiency.Mathematical models of four Brayton cycle layouts are developed in this study for different reactors to reduce the cost and increase the thermohydraulic performance of nuclear power generation to promote the commercialization of nuclear energy.Parametric analysis,multi-objective optimizations,and four decision-making methods are applied to obtain each Brayton scheme’s optimal thermohydraulic and economic indexes.Results show that for the same design thermal power scale of reactors,the higher the core’s exit temperature,the better the Brayton cycle’s thermo-economic performance.Among the four-cycle layouts,the recompression cycle(RC)has the best overall performance,followed by the simple recuperation cycle(SR)and the intercooling cycle(IC),and the worst is the reheating cycle(RH).However,RH has the lowest total cost of investment(C_(tot))of$1619.85 million,and IC has the lowest levelized cost of energy(LCOE)of 0.012$/(kWh).The nuclear Brayton cycle system’s overall performance has been improved due to optimization.The performance of the molten salt reactor combined with the intercooling cycle(MSR-IC)scheme has the greatest improvement,with the net output power(W_(net)),thermal efficiencyη_(t),and exergy efficiency(η_(e))improved by 8.58%,8.58%,and 11.21%,respectively.The performance of the lead-cooled fast reactor combined with the simple recuperation cycle scheme was optimized to increase C_(tot) by 27.78%.In comparison,the internal rate of return(IRR)increased by only 7.8%,which is not friendly to investors with limited funds.For the nuclear Brayton cycle,the molten salt reactor combined with the recompression cycle scheme should receive priority,and the gas-cooled fast reactor combined with the reheating cycle scheme should be considered carefully.

A modified back analysis method for deep excavation with multi-objective optimization procedure

Real-time prediction of excavation-induced displacement of retaining pile during the deep excavation process is crucial for construction safety.This paper proposes a modified back analysis method with multi-objective optimization procedure,which enables a real-time prediction of horizontal displacement of retaining pile during construction.As opposed to the traditional stage-by-stage back analysis,time series monitoring data till the current excavation stage are utilized to form a multi-objective function.Then,the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is applied for parameter identification.The optimized model parameters are immediately adopted to predict the excavation-induced pile deformation in the continuous construction stages.To achieve efficient parameter optimization and real-time prediction of system behavior,the back propagation neural network (BPNN) is established to substitute the finite element model,which is further implemented together with MOPSO for automatic operation.The proposed approach is applied in the Taihu tunnel excavation project,where the effectiveness of the method is demonstrated via the comparisons with the site monitoring data.The method is reliable with a prediction accuracy of more than 90%.Moreover,different optimization algorithms,including non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II),Pareto Envelope-based Selection Algorithm II (PESA-II) and MOPSO,are compared,and their influences on the prediction accuracy at different excavation stages are studied.The results show that MOPSO has the best performance for high dimensional optimization task.

A reduced combustion mechanism of ammonia/diesel optimized with multi-objective genetic algorithm

For the deep understanding on combustion of ammonia/diesel,this study develops a reduced mechanism of ammonia/diesel with 227 species and 937 reactions.The sub-mechanism on ammonia/interactions of N-based and C-based species(N—C)/NOx is optimized using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II(NSGA-II)with 200 generations.The optimized mechanism(named as 937b)is validated against combustion characteristics of ammonia/methane(which is used to examine the accuracy of N—C interactions)and ammonia/diesel blends.The ignition delay times(IDTs),the laminar flame speeds and most of key intermediate species during the combustion of ammonia/methane blends can be accurately simulated by 937b under a wide range of conditions.As for ammonia/diesel blends with various diesel energy fractions,reasonable predictions on the IDTs under pressures from 1.0 MPa to5.0 MPa as well as the laminar flame speeds are also achieved by 937b.In particular,with regard to the IDT simulations of ammonia/diesel blends,937b makes progress in both aspects of overall accuracy and computational efficiency,compared to a detailed ammonia/diesel mechanism.Further kinetic analysis reveals that the reaction pathway of ammonia during the combustion of ammonia/diesel blend mainly differs in the tendencies of oxygen additions to NH_2 and NH with different equivalence ratios.

Multi-objective global optimization approach predicted quasi-layered ternary TiOS crystals with promising photocatalytic properties

Titanium dioxide(TiO_(2))has attracted considerable research attentions for its promising applications in solar cells and photocatalytic devices.However,the intrinsic challenge lies in the relatively low energy conversion efficiency of TiO_(2),primarily attributed to the substantial band gaps(exceeding 3.0 eV)associated with its rutile and anatase phases.Leveraging multi-objective global optimization,we have identified two quasi-layered ternary Ti-O-S crystals,composed of titanium,oxygen,and sulfur.The calculations of formation energy,phonon dispersions,and thermal stability confirm the chemical,dynamical and thermal stability of these newly discovered phases.Employing the state-of-art hybrid density functional approach and many-body perturbation theory(quasiparticle GW approach and Bethe-Salpeter equation),we calculate the optical properties of both the TiOS phases.Significantly,both phases show favorable photocatalytic characteristics,featuring band gaps suitable for visible optical absorption and appropriate band alignments with water for effective charge carrier separation.Therefore,ternary compound TiOS holds the potential for achieving high-efficiency photochemical conversion,showing our multi-objective global optimization provides a new approach for novel environmental and energy materials design with multicomponent compounds.

DeepSurNet-NSGA II:Deep Surrogate Model-Assisted Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm for Enhancing Leg Linkage in Walking Robots

This research paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the effectiveness of the DeepSurNet-NSGA II(Deep Surrogate Model-Assisted Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II)for solving complex multiobjective optimization problems,with a particular focus on robotic leg-linkage design.The study introduces an innovative approach that integrates deep learning-based surrogate models with the robust Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II,aiming to enhance the efficiency and precision of the optimization process.Through a series of empirical experiments and algorithmic analyses,the paper demonstrates a high degree of correlation between solutions generated by the DeepSurNet-NSGA II and those obtained from direct experimental methods,underscoring the algorithm’s capability to accurately approximate the Pareto-optimal frontier while significantly reducing computational demands.The methodology encompasses a detailed exploration of the algorithm’s configuration,the experimental setup,and the criteria for performance evaluation,ensuring the reproducibility of results and facilitating future advancements in the field.The findings of this study not only confirm the practical applicability and theoretical soundness of the DeepSurNet-NSGA II in navigating the intricacies of multi-objective optimization but also highlight its potential as a transformative tool in engineering and design optimization.By bridging the gap between complex optimization challenges and achievable solutions,this research contributes valuable insights into the optimization domain,offering a promising direction for future inquiries and technological innovations.

Crashworthiness Design and Multi-Objective Optimization of Bionic Thin-Walled Hybrid Tube Structures

Thin-walled structures are widely used in cars due to their lightweight construction and energy-absorbing properties.However,issues such as high initial stress and lowenergy-absorbing efficiency arise.This study proposes a novel energy-absorbing structure inwhich a straight tube is combinedwith a conical tube and a bamboo-inspired bulkhead structure is introduced.This configuration allows the conical tube to flip outward first and then fold together with the straight tube.This deformation mode absorbs more energy and less peak force than the conical tube sinking and flipping inward.Through finite element numerical simulation,the specific energy absorption capacity of the structure is increased by 26%compared to that of a regular circular cross-section tube.Finally,the impact resistance of the bionic straight tapered tube structure is further improved through multi-objective optimization,promoting the engineering application and lightweight design of hybrid cross-section tubes.

Multi-objective Design of Blending Fuel by Intelligent Optimization Algorithms

Fuel design is a complex multi-objective optimization problem in which facile and robust methods are urgently demanded.Herein,a complete workflow for designing a fuel blending scheme is presented,which is theoretically supported,efficient,and reliable.Based on the data distribution of the composition and properties of the blending fuels,a model of polynomial regression with appropriate hypothesis space was established.The parameters of the model were further optimized by different intelligence algorithms to achieve high-precision regression.Then,the design of a blending fuel was described as a multi-objective optimization problem,which was solved using a Nelder–Mead algorithm based on the concept of Pareto domination.Finally,the design of a target fuel was fully validated by experiments.This study provides new avenues for designing various blending fuels to meet the needs of next-generation engines.

MOALG: A Metaheuristic Hybrid of Multi-Objective Ant Lion Optimizer and Genetic Algorithm for Solving Design Problems

This study proposes a hybridization of two efficient algorithm’s Multi-objective Ant Lion Optimizer Algorithm(MOALO)which is a multi-objective enhanced version of the Ant Lion Optimizer Algorithm(ALO)and the Genetic Algorithm(GA).MOALO version has been employed to address those problems containing many objectives and an archive has been employed for retaining the non-dominated solutions.The uniqueness of the hybrid is that the operators like mutation and crossover of GA are employed in the archive to update the solutions and later those solutions go through the process of MOALO.A first-time hybrid of these algorithms is employed to solve multi-objective problems.The hybrid algorithm overcomes the limitation of ALO of getting caught in the local optimum and the requirement of more computational effort to converge GA.To evaluate the hybridized algorithm’s performance,a set of constrained,unconstrained test problems and engineering design problems were employed and compared with five well-known computational algorithms-MOALO,Multi-objective Crystal Structure Algorithm(MOCryStAl),Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization(MOPSO),Multi-objective Multiverse Optimization Algorithm(MOMVO),Multi-objective Salp Swarm Algorithm(MSSA).The outcomes of five performance metrics are statistically analyzed and the most efficient Pareto fronts comparison has been obtained.The proposed hybrid surpasses MOALO based on the results of hypervolume(HV),Spread,and Spacing.So primary objective of developing this hybrid approach has been achieved successfully.The proposed approach demonstrates superior performance on the test functions,showcasing robust convergence and comprehensive coverage that surpasses other existing algorithms.

A Prediction-Based Multi-Objective VM Consolidation Approach for Cloud Data Centers

Virtual machine(VM)consolidation aims to run VMs on the least number of physical machines(PMs).The optimal consolidation significantly reduces energy consumption(EC),quality of service(QoS)in applications,and resource utilization.This paper proposes a prediction-basedmulti-objective VMconsolidation approach to search for the best mapping between VMs and PMs with good timeliness and practical value.We use a hybrid model based on Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average(ARIMA)and Support Vector Regression(SVR)(HPAS)as a prediction model and consolidate VMs to PMs based on prediction results by HPAS,aiming at minimizing the total EC,performance degradation(PD),migration cost(MC)and resource wastage(RW)simultaneously.Experimental results usingMicrosoft Azure trace show the proposed approach has better prediction accuracy and overcomes the multi-objective consolidation approach without prediction(i.e.,Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm 2,Nsga2)and the renowned Overload Host Detection(OHD)approaches without prediction,such as Linear Regression(LR),Median Absolute Deviation(MAD)and Inter-Quartile Range(IQR).

Prediction Model-based Multi-objective Optimization for Mix-ratio Design of Recycled Aggregate Concrete

The prediction model for mechanical properties of RAC was established through the Bayesian optimization-based Gaussian process regression(BO-GPR)method,where the input variables in BO-GPR model depend on the mix ratio of concrete.Then the compressive strength prediction model,the material cost,and environmental factors were simultaneously considered as objectives,while a multi-objective gray wolf optimization algorithm was developed for finding the optimal mix ratio.A total of 730 RAC datasets were used for training and testing the predication model,while the optimal design method for mix ratio was verified through RAC experiments.The experimental results show that the predicted,testing,and expected compressive strengths are nearly consistent,illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.