scholarly journals The dilemma between eliminating dominance-resistant solutions and preserving boundary solutions of extremely convex Pareto fronts

Author(s):  
Zhenkun Wang ◽  
Qingyan Li ◽  
Qite Yang ◽  
Hisao Ishibuchi

AbstractIt has been acknowledged that dominance-resistant solutions (DRSs) extensively exist in the feasible region of multi-objective optimization problems. Recent studies show that DRSs can cause serious performance degradation of many multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). Thereafter, various strategies (e.g., the $$\epsilon $$ ϵ -dominance and the modified objective calculation) to eliminate DRSs have been proposed. However, these strategies may in turn cause algorithm inefficiency in other aspects. We argue that these coping strategies prevent the algorithm from obtaining some boundary solutions of an extremely convex Pareto front (ECPF). That is, there is a dilemma between eliminating DRSs and preserving boundary solutions of the ECPF. To illustrate such a dilemma, we propose a new multi-objective optimization test problem with the ECPF as well as DRSs. Using this test problem, we investigate the performance of six representative MOEAs in terms of boundary solutions preservation and DRS elimination. The results reveal that it is quite challenging to distinguish between DRSs and boundary solutions of the ECPF.

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 794-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Fallah-Mehdipour ◽  
O. Bozorg Haddad ◽  
M. A. Mariño

The main reason for applying evolutionary algorithms in multi-objective optimization problems is to obtain near-optimal nondominated solutions/Pareto fronts, from which decision-makers can choose a suitable solution. The efficiency of multi-objective optimization algorithms depends on the quality and quantity of Pareto fronts produced by them. To compare different Pareto fronts resulting from different algorithms, criteria are considered and applied in multi-objective problems. Each criterion denotes a characteristic of the Pareto front. Thus, ranking approaches are commonly used to evaluate different algorithms based on different criteria. This paper presents three multi-objective optimization methods based on the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm. To evaluate these methods, bi-objective mathematical benchmark problems are considered. Results show that all proposed methods are successful in finding near-optimal Pareto fronts. A ranking method is used to compare the capability of the proposed methods and the best method for further study is suggested. Moreover, the nominated method is applied as an optimization tool in real multi-objective optimization problems in multireservoir system operations. A new technique in multi-objective optimization, called warm-up, based on the PSO algorithm is then applied to improve the quality of the Pareto front by single-objective search. Results show that the proposed technique is successful in finding an optimal Pareto front.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Saúl Zapotecas-Martínez ◽  
Abel García-Nájera ◽  
Adriana Menchaca-Méndez

One of the major limitations of evolutionary algorithms based on the Lebesgue measure for multi-objective optimization is the computational cost required to approximate the Pareto front of a problem. Nonetheless, the Pareto compliance property of the Lebesgue measure makes it one of the most investigated indicators in the designing of indicator-based evolutionary algorithms (IBEAs). The main deficiency of IBEAs that use the Lebesgue measure is their computational cost which increases with the number of objectives of the problem. On this matter, the investigation presented in this paper introduces an evolutionary algorithm based on the Lebesgue measure to deal with box-constrained continuous multi-objective optimization problems. The proposed algorithm implicitly uses the regularity property of continuous multi-objective optimization problems that has suggested effectiveness when solving continuous problems with rough Pareto sets. On the other hand, the survival selection mechanism considers the local property of the Lebesgue measure, thus reducing the computational time in our algorithmic approach. The emerging indicator-based evolutionary algorithm is examined and compared versus three state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms based on the Lebesgue measure. In addition, we validate its performance on a set of artificial test problems with various characteristics, including multimodality, separability, and various Pareto front forms, incorporating concavity, convexity, and discontinuity. For a more exhaustive study, the proposed algorithm is evaluated in three real-world applications having four, five, and seven objective functions whose properties are unknown. We show the high competitiveness of our proposed approach, which, in many cases, improved the state-of-the-art indicator-based evolutionary algorithms on the multi-objective problems adopted in our investigation.


Author(s):  
Weijun Wang ◽  
Stéphane Caro ◽  
Fouad Bennis ◽  
Oscar Brito Augusto

For Multi-Objective Robust Optimization Problem (MOROP), it is important to obtain design solutions that are both optimal and robust. To find these solutions, usually, the designer need to set a threshold of the variation of Performance Functions (PFs) before optimization, or add the effects of uncertainties on the original PFs to generate a new Pareto robust front. In this paper, we divide a MOROP into two Multi-Objective Optimization Problems (MOOPs). One is the original MOOP, another one is that we take the Robustness Functions (RFs), robust counterparts of the original PFs, as optimization objectives. After solving these two MOOPs separately, two sets of solutions come out, namely the Pareto Performance Solutions (PP) and the Pareto Robustness Solutions (PR). Make a further development on these two sets, we can get two types of solutions, namely the Pareto Robustness Solutions among the Pareto Performance Solutions (PR(PP)), and the Pareto Performance Solutions among the Pareto Robustness Solutions (PP(PR)). Further more, the intersection of PR(PP) and PP(PR) can represent the intersection of PR and PP well. Then the designer can choose good solutions by comparing the results of PR(PP) and PP(PR). Thanks to this method, we can find out the optimal and robust solutions without setting the threshold of the variation of PFs nor losing the initial Pareto front. Finally, an illustrative example highlights the contributions of the paper.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Xiaoli Li ◽  
Kang Wang

The key characteristic of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is that it can find a good approximate multi-objective optimal solution set when solving multi-objective optimization problems(MOPs). However, most multi-objective evolutionary algorithms perform well on regular multi-objective optimization problems, but their performance on irregular fronts deteriorates. In order to remedy this issue, this paper studies the existing algorithms and proposes a multi-objective evolutionary based on niche selection to deal with irregular Pareto fronts. In this paper, the crowding degree is calculated by the niche method in the process of selecting parents when the non-dominated solutions converge to the first front, which improves the the quality of offspring solutions and which is beneficial to local search. In addition, niche selection is adopted into the process of environmental selection through considering the number and the location of the individuals in its niche radius, which improve the diversity of population. Finally, experimental results on 23 benchmark problems including MaF and IMOP show that the proposed algorithm exhibits better performance than the compared MOEAs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 945-949 ◽  
pp. 2241-2247
Author(s):  
De Gao Zhao ◽  
Qiang Li

This paper deals with application of Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm with elitism (NSGA-II) to solve multi-objective optimization problems of designing a vehicle-borne radar antenna pedestal. Five technical improvements are proposed due to the disadvantages of NSGA-II. They are as follow: (1) presenting a new method to calculate the fitness of individuals in population; (2) renewing the definition of crowding distance; (3) introducing a threshold for choosing elitist; (4) reducing some redundant sorting process; (5) developing a self-adaptive arithmetic cross and mutation probability. The modified algorithm can lead to better population diversity than the original NSGA-II. Simulation results prove rationality and validity of the modified NSGA-II. A uniformly distributed Pareto front can be obtained by using the modified NSGA-II. Finally, a multi-objective problem of designing a vehicle-borne radar antenna pedestal is settled with the modified algorithm.


Author(s):  
Jesper Kristensen ◽  
You Ling ◽  
Isaac Asher ◽  
Liping Wang

Adaptive sampling methods have been used to build accurate meta-models across large design spaces from which engineers can explore data trends, investigate optimal designs, study the sensitivity of objectives on the modeling design features, etc. For global design optimization applications, adaptive sampling methods need to be extended to sample more efficiently near the optimal domains of the design space (i.e., the Pareto front/frontier in multi-objective optimization). Expected Improvement (EI) methods have been shown to be efficient to solve design optimization problems using meta-models by incorporating prediction uncertainty. In this paper, a set of state-of-the-art methods (hypervolume EI method and centroid EI method) are presented and implemented for selecting sampling points for multi-objective optimizations. The classical hypervolume EI method uses hyperrectangles to represent the Pareto front, which shows undesirable behavior at the tails of the Pareto front. This issue is addressed utilizing the concepts from physical programming to shape the Pareto front. The modified hypervolume EI method can be extended to increase local Pareto front accuracy in any area identified by an engineer, and this method can be applied to Pareto frontiers of any shape. A novel hypervolume EI method is also developed that does not rely on the assumption of hyperrectangles, but instead assumes the Pareto frontier can be represented by a convex hull. The method exploits fast methods for convex hull construction and numerical integration, and results in a Pareto front shape that is desired in many practical applications. Various performance metrics are defined in order to quantitatively compare and discuss all methods applied to a particular 2D optimization problem from the literature. The modified hypervolume EI methods lead to dramatic resource savings while improving the predictive capabilities near the optimal objective values.


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