A novel grey prediction evolution algorithm for multimodal multiobjective optimization

Abstract

In practical applications, solving multimodal multiobjective optimization problems (MMOPs), which have multiple Pareto optimal sets (PSs) in the decision space mapping to the same Pareto front (PF) in the objective space, has great significance for decision makers. The issue of how to maintain diversity in both decision space and objective space remains a key problem for existing multimodal multiobjective evolutionary algorithms. To address this issue, a novel grey prediction evolution algorithm for multimodal multiobjective optimization, termed MMGPE, is proposed in this paper. This is the first time that the grey prediction evolution algorithm (GPE), which is a recently proposed competitive optimization algorithm with strong exploration capability, is improved for MMOPs. These improvements are conducted in the following four aspects: (1) an initialization operator based on particle swarm optimization, (2) an adaptive parameter setting strategy depending on the domain of decision variables of MMOPs, (3) an accelerating convergence mechanism inspired by the niche principle, and (4) an environmental selection operator based on a nondominated sorting mechanism and a special crowding distance approach. The performance of MMGPE is compared with two state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithms and four multimodal multiobjective evolutionary algorithms on 11 multimodal multiobjective test functions. MMGPE is also applied to solve a practical problem. The results show the MMGPE’s effectiveness and superiority in achieving the goal of finding multiple PSs while obtaining a well-distributed PF.