Constrained multiobjective differential evolution algorithm with infeasible-proportion control mechanism

Abstract

When solving constrained multiobjective optimization problems, it is crucial to deal with several conflicting objectives and various constraints simultaneously. To address these two issues, a constrained multiobjective differential evolution algorithm with an infeasible-proportion control mechanism is presented in this paper. Specifically, two populations are cooperatively employed in the evolution process. The first population is used to solve the original problem, that is, to explore the constrained Pareto front, while the second population is created to search for high-quality objective function information. Furthermore, differential evolution with two specific mutation strategies is employed to update each population. Cooperative strategies can not only balance diversity and convergence but also realize information exchange between the two populations provide new evolutionary directions. In addition, an infeasible-proportion control mechanism is used to gradually decrease the proportion of infeasible solutions in the second population. This enables the main population to pass through the infeasible region barrier in the early evolution stage and facilitates the search for a constrained Pareto front in the later evolution stage. Systematic experiments on 65 benchmark test functions show that the proposed algorithm is superior to or at least comparable to five well-established constrained multiobjective optimization methods.