Comparison of a novel dominance-based differential evolution method with the state-of-the-art methods for solving multi-objective real-valued optimization problems

Differential Evolution algorithm (DE) is a well-known nature-inspired method in evolutionary computations scope. This paper adds some new features to DE algorithm and proposes a novel method focusing on ranking technique. The proposed method is named as Dominance-Based Differential Evolution, called DBDE from this point on, which is the improved version of the standard DE algorithm. The suggested DBDE applies some changes on the selection operator of the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm and modifies the crossover and initialization phases to improve the performance of DE. The dominance ranks are used in the selection phase of DBDE to be capable of selecting higher quality solutions. A dominance-rank for solution X is the number of solutions dominating X. Moreover, some vectors called target vectors are used through the selection process. Effectiveness and performance of the proposed DBDE method is experimentally evaluated using six well-known benchmarks, provided by CEC2009, plus two additional test problems namely Kursawe and Fonseca & Fleming. The evaluation process emphasizes on specific bi-objective real-valued optimization problems reported in literature. Likewise, the Inverted Generational Distance (IGD) metric is calculated for the obtained results to measure the performance of algorithms. To follow up the evaluation rules obeyed by all state-of-the-art methods, the fitness evaluation function is called 300.000 times and 30 independent runs of DBDE is carried out. Analysis of the obtained results indicates that the performance of the proposed algorithm (DBDE) in terms of convergence and robustness outperforms the majority of state-of-the-art methods reported in the literatur

Particle swarm optimization for cooperative multi-robot task allocation: a multi-objective approach

This paper presents a new Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) approach to a Cooperative Multi Robot Task Allocation (CMRTA) problem, where the robots have to minimize the total team cost and, additionally, balance their workloads. We formulate the CMRTA problem as a more complex variant of multiple Travelling Salesman Problems (mTSP) and, in particular, address how to minimize the total travel distance of the entire robot team, as well as how to minimize the highest travel distance of an individual robot. The proposed approach extends the standard single-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to cope with the multiple objectives, and its novel feature lies in a Pareto front refinement strategy and a probability-based leader selection strategy. To validate the proposed approach, we first use three benchmark functions to evaluate the performance of finding the true Pareto fronts in comparison with four existing well-known algorithms in continuous spaces. Afterwards, we use six datasets to investigate the task allocation mechanisms in dealing with the CMRTA problem in discrete spaces.benchmark functions to evaluate the performance of findingthe true Pareto fronts in comparison with four existing wellknownalgorithms in continuous spaces. Afterwards, we use sixdatasets to investigate the task allocation mechanisms in dealingwith the CMRTA problem in discrete spaces

An effective surrogate model assisted algorithm for multi-objective optimization: application to wind farm layout design

Due to the intricate and diverse nature of industrial systems, traditional optimization algorithms require a significant amount of time to search for the optimal solution throughout the entire design space, making them unsuitable for meeting practical industrial demands. To address this issue, we propose a novel approach that combines surrogate models with optimization algorithms. Firstly, we introduce the Sparse Gaussian Process regression (SGP) into the surrogate model, proposing the SGP surrogate-assisted optimization method. This approach effectively overcomes the computational expense caused by the large amount of data required in Gaussian Process model. Secondly, we use grid partitioning to divide the optimization problem into multiple regions, and utilize the multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm to optimize particles in each region. By combining the advantages of grid partitioning and particle swarm optimization, which overcome the limitations of traditional optimization algorithms in handling multi-objective problems. Lastly, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are verified through three types of 12 test functions and a wind farm layout optimization case study. The results show that the combination of meshing and SGP surrogate enables more accurate identification of optimal solutions, thereby improving the accuracy and speed of the optimization results. Additionally, the method demonstrates its applicability to a variety of complex multi-objective optimization problems