Improved Membrane Algorithm Under the Framework of P Systems to Solve Multimodal Multiobjective Problems

Abstract

Multimodal multiobjective problems (MMOPs) exist in scientific research and practical projects, and their Pareto solution sets correspond to the same Pareto front. Existing evolutionary algorithms often fall into local optima when solving such problems, which usually leads to insufficient search solutions and their uneven distribution in the Pareto front. In this work, an improved membrane algorithm is proposed for solving MMOPs, which is based on the framework of P system. More specifically, the proposed algorithm employs three elements from P system: object, reaction rule, and membrane structure. The object is implemented by real number coding and represents a candidate solution to the optimization problem to be solved. The function of the reaction rule of the proposed algorithm is similar to the evolution operation of the evolutionary algorithm. It can evolve the object to obtain a better candidate solution set. The membrane structure is the evolutionary logic of the proposed algorithm. It consists of several membranes, each of which is an independent evolutionary unit. This structure is used to maintain the diversity of objects, so that it provides multiple Pareto sets as output. The effectiveness verification study was carried out in simulation experiments. The simulation results show that compared with other experimental algorithms, the proposed algorithm has a competitive advantage in solving all 22 multimodal benchmark test problems in CEC2019.