Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms are widely used by researchers and practitioners to solve multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs), since they require minimal assumptions and are capable of computing a finite size approximation of the entire solution set in one run of the algorithm. So far, however, the adequate treatment of equality constraints has played a minor role. Equality constraints are particular since they typically reduce the dimension of the search space, which causes problems for stochastic search algorithms such as evolutionary strategies. In this paper, we show that multi-objective evolutionary algorithms hybridized with continuation-like techniques lead to fast and reliable numerical solvers. For this, we first propose three new problems with different characteristics that are indeed hard to solve by evolutionary algorithms. Next, we develop a variant of NSGA-II with a continuation method. We present numerical results on several equality-constrained MOPs to show that the resulting method is highly competitive to state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms.

Multi-objective optimization is an active field of research that has many applications. Owing to its success and because decision-making processes are becoming more and more complex, there is a recent trend for incorporating many objectives into such problems. The challenge with such problems, however, is that the dimensions of the solution sets—the so-called Pareto sets and fronts—grow with the number of objectives. It is thus no longer possible to compute or to approximate the entire solution set of a given problem that contains many (e.g. more than three) objectives. On the other hand, the computation of single solutions (e.g. via scalarization methods) leads to unsatisfying results in many cases, even if user preferences are incorporated. In this article, the Pareto Explorer tool is presented—a global/local exploration tool for the treatment of many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs). In the first step, a solution of the problem is computed via a global search algorithm that ideally already includes user preferences. In the second step, a local search along the Pareto set/front of the given MaOP is performed in user specified directions. For this, several continuation-like procedures are proposed that can incorporate preferences defined in decision, objective, or in weight space. The applicability and usefulness of Pareto Explorer is demonstrated on benchmark problems as well as on an application from industrial laundry design.

Optimization problems where several objectives have to be considered concurrently arise in many applications. Since decision-making processes are getting more and more complex, there is a recent trend to consider more and more objectives in such problems, known as many objective optimization problems (MaOPs). For such problems, it is not possible any more to compute finite size approximations that suitably represent the entire solution set. If no users preferences are at hand, so-called knee points are promising candidates since they represent at least locally the best trade-off solutions among the considered objective values. In this paper, we extend the global/local exploration tool Pareto Explorer (PE) for the detection of such solutions. More precisely, starting from an initial solution, the goal of the modified PE is to compute a path of evenly spread solutions from this point along the Pareto front leading to a knee of the MaOP. The knee solution, as well as all other points from this path, are of potential interest for the underlying decision-making process. The benefit of the approach is demonstrated in several examples.