A New Hybrid Algorithm for Multi-Objective Robust Optimization With Interval Uncertainty

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Cheng ◽  
Jianhua Zhou ◽  
Mian Li

Uncertainty is a very critical but inevitable issue in design optimization. Compared to single-objective optimization problems, the situation becomes more difficult for multi-objective engineering optimization problems under uncertainty. Multi-objective robust optimization (MORO) approaches have been developed to find Pareto robust solutions. While the literature reports on many techniques in MORO, few papers focus on using multi-objective differential evolution (MODE) for robust optimization (RO) and performance improvement of its solutions. In this article, MODE is first modified and developed for RO problems with interval uncertainty, formulating a new MODE-RO algorithm. To improve the solutions’ quality of MODE-RO, a new hybrid (MODE-sequential quadratic programming (SQP)-RO) algorithm is proposed further, where SQP is incorporated into the procedure to enhance the local search. The proposed hybrid approach takes the advantage of MODE for its capability of handling not-well behaved robust constraint functions and SQP for its fast local convergence. Two numerical and one engineering examples, with two or three objective functions, are tested to demonstrate the applicability and performance of the proposed algorithms. The results show that MODE-RO is effective in solving MORO problems while, on the average, MODE-SQP-RO improves the quality of robust solutions obtained by MODE-RO with comparable numbers of function evaluations.

Author(s):  
Shuo Cheng ◽  
Mian Li

Multi-Objective Robust Optimization (MORO) can find Pareto solutions to multi-objective engineering problems while keeping the variation of the solutions being within an acceptable range when parameters vary. While the literature reports on many techniques in MORO, few papers focus on the implementation of Multi-Objective Differential Evolution (MODE) for robust optimization and the performance improvement of solutions. In this paper, MODE is first modified and implemented for robust optimization, formulating a new MODE-RO algorithm. To improve the solutions’ quality of MODE-RO, a new hybrid MODE-SQP-RO algorithm is further proposed, where Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) is incorporated to enhance the local search. In the hybrid algorithm, two criteria, indicating the convergence speed of MODE-RO and the switch between MODE and SQP are proposed respectively. One numerical and one engineering examples are tested to demonstrate the applicability and performance of the proposed algorithms. The results show that MODE-RO is effective in solving Multi-Objective Robust Optimization problems; while on the average, MODE-SQP-RO significantly improves the quality of robust solutions with comparable numbers of function evaluations.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 580-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Zhou ◽  
Xinyu Shao ◽  
Ping Jiang ◽  
Tingli Xie ◽  
Jiexiang Hu ◽  
...  

Purpose Engineering system design and optimization problems are usually multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties in the inputs. These uncertainties might significantly degrade the overall performance of engineering systems and change the feasibility of the obtained solutions. This paper aims to propose a multi-objective robust optimization approach based on Kriging metamodel (K-MORO) to obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach In K-MORO, the nested optimization structure is reduced into a single loop optimization structure to ease the computational burden. Considering the interpolation uncertainty from the Kriging metamodel may affect the robustness of the Pareto optima, an objective switching and sequential updating strategy is introduced in K-MORO to determine (1) whether the robust analysis or the Kriging metamodel should be used to evaluate the robustness of design alternatives, and (2) which design alternatives are selected to improve the prediction accuracy of the Kriging metamodel during the robust optimization process. Findings Five numerical and engineering cases are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The results illustrate that K-MORO is able to obtain robust Pareto frontier, while significantly reducing computational cost. Practical implications The proposed approach exhibits great capability for practical engineering design optimization problems that are multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties. Originality/value A K-MORO approach is proposed, which can obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty and ease the computational burden of the robust optimization process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Xiatong Cai ◽  
Abdolmajid Mohammadian ◽  
Hamidreza Shirkhani

Combining multiple modules into one framework is a key step in modelling a complex system. In this study, rather than focusing on modifying a specific model, we studied the performance of different calculation structures in a multi-objective optimization framework. The Hydraulic and Risk Combined Model (HRCM) combines hydraulic performance and pipe breaking risk in a drainage system to provide optimal rehabilitation strategies. We evaluated different framework structures for the HRCM model. The results showed that the conventional framework structure used in engineering optimization research, which includes (1) constraint functions; (2) objective functions; and (3) multi-objective optimization, is inefficient for drainage rehabilitation problem. It was shown that the conventional framework can be significantly improved in terms of calculation speed and cost-effectiveness by removing the constraint function and adding more objective functions. The results indicated that the model performance improved remarkably, while the calculation speed was not changed substantially. In addition, we found that the mixed-integer optimization can decrease the optimization performance compared to using continuous variables and adding a post-processing module at the last stage to remove the unsatisfying results. This study (i) highlights the importance of the framework structure inefficiently solving engineering problems, and (ii) provides a simplified efficient framework for engineering optimization problems.


Author(s):  
W. Hu ◽  
M. Li ◽  
S. Azarm ◽  
S. Al Hashimi ◽  
A. Almansoori ◽  
...  

Many real-world engineering design optimization problems are multi-objective and have uncertainty in their parameters. For such problems it is useful to obtain design solutions that are both multi-objectively optimum and robust. A robust design is one whose objective and constraint function variations under uncertainty are within an acceptable range. While the literature reports on many techniques in robust optimization for single objective optimization problems, very few papers report on methods in robust optimization for multi-objective optimization problems. The Multi-Objective Robust Optimization (MORO) technique with interval uncertainty proposed in this paper is a significant improvement, with respect to computational effort, over a previously reported MORO technique. In the proposed technique, a master problem solves a relaxed optimization problem whose feasible domain is iteratively confined by constraint cuts determined by the solutions from a sub-problem. The proposed approach and the synergy between the master problem and sub-problem are demonstrated by three examples. The results obtained show a general agreement between the solutions from the proposed MORO and the previous MORO technique. Moreover, the number of function calls for obtaining solutions from the proposed technique is an order of magnitude less than that from the previous MORO technique.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Alejandro Castellanos-Alvarez ◽  
Laura Cruz-Reyes ◽  
Eduardo Fernandez ◽  
Nelson Rangel-Valdez ◽  
Claudia Gómez-Santillán ◽  
...  

Most real-world problems require the optimization of multiple objective functions simultaneously, which can conflict with each other. The environment of these problems usually involves imprecise information derived from inaccurate measurements or the variability in decision-makers’ (DMs’) judgments and beliefs, which can lead to unsatisfactory solutions. The imperfect knowledge can be present either in objective functions, restrictions, or decision-maker’s preferences. These optimization problems have been solved using various techniques such as multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs). This paper proposes a new MOEA called NSGA-III-P (non-nominated sorting genetic algorithm III with preferences). The main characteristic of NSGA-III-P is an ordinal multi-criteria classification method for preference integration to guide the algorithm to the region of interest given by the decision-maker’s preferences. Besides, the use of interval analysis allows the expression of preferences with imprecision. The experiments contrasted several versions of the proposed method with the original NSGA-III to analyze different selective pressure induced by the DM’s preferences. In these experiments, the algorithms solved three-objectives instances of the DTLZ problem. The obtained results showed a better approximation to the region of interest for a DM when its preferences are considered.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-36
Author(s):  
Mohammed Mahseur ◽  
Abdelmadjid Boukra ◽  
Yassine Meraihi

Multicast routing is the problem of finding the spanning tree of a set of destinations whose roots are the source node and its leaves are the set of destination nodes by optimizing a set of quality of service parameters and satisfying a set of transmission constraints. This article proposes a new hybrid multicast algorithm called Hybrid Multi-objective Multicast Algorithm (HMMA) based on the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA) to evaluate and classify the population in dominated solutions and non-dominated solutions. Dominated solutions are evolved by the Bat Algorithm, and non-dominated solutions are evolved by the Firefly Algorithm. Old and weak solutions are replaced by new random solutions by a process of mutation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to find good Pareto optimal solutions compared to other algorithms.


2014 ◽  
Vol 984-985 ◽  
pp. 419-424
Author(s):  
P. Sabarinath ◽  
M.R. Thansekhar ◽  
R. Saravanan

Arriving optimal solutions is one of the important tasks in engineering design. Many real-world design optimization problems involve multiple conflicting objectives. The design variables are of continuous or discrete in nature. In general, for solving Multi Objective Optimization methods weight method is preferred. In this method, all the objective functions are converted into a single objective function by assigning suitable weights to each objective functions. The main drawback lies in the selection of proper weights. Recently, evolutionary algorithms are used to find the nondominated optimal solutions called as Pareto optimal front in a single run. In recent years, Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) finds increasing applications in solving multi objective problems comprising of conflicting objectives because of low computational requirements, elitism and parameter-less sharing approach. In this work, we propose a methodology which integrates NSGA-II and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for solving a two bar truss problem. NSGA-II searches for the Pareto set where two bar truss is evaluated in terms of minimizing the weight of the truss and minimizing the total displacement of the joint under the given load. Subsequently, TOPSIS selects the best compromise solution.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijun Wang ◽  
Stéphane Caro ◽  
Fouad Bennis ◽  
Ricardo Soto ◽  
Broderick Crawford

Toward a multi-objective optimization robust problem, the variations in design variables (DVs) and design environment parameters (DEPs) include the small variations and the large variations. The former have small effect on the performance functions and/or the constraints, and the latter refer to the ones that have large effect on the performance functions and/or the constraints. The robustness of performance functions is discussed in this paper. A postoptimality sensitivity analysis technique for multi-objective robust optimization problems (MOROPs) is discussed, and two robustness indices (RIs) are introduced. The first one considers the robustness of the performance functions to small variations in the DVs and the DEPs. The second RI characterizes the robustness of the performance functions to large variations in the DEPs. It is based on the ability of a solution to maintain a good Pareto ranking for different DEPs due to large variations. The robustness of the solutions is treated as vectors in the robustness function space (RF-Space), which is defined by the two proposed RIs. As a result, the designer can compare the robustness of all Pareto optimal solutions and make a decision. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to highlight the contributions of this paper. The first example is about a numerical problem, whereas the second problem deals with the multi-objective robust optimization design of a floating wind turbine.


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