Hierarchical Multiobjective Analysis for Large-Scale Systems: Current Status

Abstract

Large-scale systems are often characterized by hierarchical structure, and they usually have multiple objectives that are noncommensurable. Two well-known approaches to the analysis of systems--hierarchical system theory and multiobjective optimization--have been developed to deal with these two aspects of large-scale systems. The past decade has seen an increasing concern with the integration of these two approaches into a unified framework for large scale systems, leading to the emergence of a new field known as hierarchical multiobjective analysis. This paper provides a systematic survey of the literature associated with the modeling and optimization of large scale systems, focusing on research based on the hierarchical multiobjective approach, the overlapping decomposition approach, and the multimodel approach. A large number of recently published papers that fall within these areas are reviewed.