Solving dynamic multi-objective problems with an evolutionary multi-directional search approach

Abstract The challenge of solving dynamic multi-objective optimization problems is to effectively and efficiently trace the varying Pareto optimal front and/or Pareto optimal set. To this end, this paper proposes a multi-direction search strategy, aimed at finding the dynamic Pareto optimal front and/or Pareto optimal set as quickly and accurately as possible before the next environmental change occurs. The proposed method adopts a multi-directional search approach which mainly includes two parts: an improved local search and a global search. The first part uses individuals from the current population to produce solutions along each decision variable’s direction within a certain range and updates the population using the generated solutions. As a result, the first strategy enhances the convergence of the population. In part two, individuals are generated in a specific random method along every dimension’s orientation in the decision variable space, so as to achieve good diversity as well as guarantee the avoidance of local optimal solutions. The proposed algorithm is measured on several benchmark test suites with various dynamic characteristics and different difficulties. Experimental results show that this algorithm is very competitive in dealing with dynamic multi-objective optimization problems when compared with four state-of-the-art approaches.