Cooperative coevolution for pareto multiobjective optimization: An empirical study using SPEA2

Abstract

Cooperative coevolution has been shown to be useful in evolutionary multiobjective optimization for biobjective problems. However, this approach has yet to be investigated for multi-objective problems with higher dimensionality. In this paper, our objective is to conduct comprehensive empirical tests for cooperative coevolution using an evolutionary multiobjective algorithm for 3- dimensional problems. A new algorithm which integrates Cooperative Coevolutionary (CC) and the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2) is proposed to achieve this objective. The resulting algorithm is referred to as the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 with Cooperative Coevolution (SPEA2-CC). The performance between SPEA2- CC is compared against SPEA2 in solving tri-objectives problems in DTLZ suite of test problems. The results showed that SPEA2-CC clearly outperforms SPEA2, further proving the validity and effectiveness of augmenting evolutionary multi-objective algorithms with the cooperative coevolution approach.