skip to main content
10.1145/2739480.2754687acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesgeccoConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

A Performance Comparison Indicator for Pareto Front Approximations in Many-Objective Optimization

Published: 11 July 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Increasing interest in simultaneously optimizing many objectives (typically more than three objectives) of problems leads to the emergence of various many-objective algorithms in the evolutionary multi-objective optimization field. However, in contrast to the development of algorithm design, how to assess many-objective algorithms has received scant concern. Many performance indicators are designed in principle for any number of objectives, but in practice are invalid or infeasible to be used in many-objective optimization. In this paper, we explain the difficulties that popular performance indicators face and propose a performance comparison indicator (PCI) to assess Pareto front approximations obtained by many-objective algorithms. PCI evaluates the quality of approximation sets with the aid of a reference set constructed by themselves. The points in the reference set are divided into many clusters, and the proposed indicator estimates the minimum moves of solutions in the approximation sets to weakly dominate these clusters. PCI has been verified both by an analytic comparison with several well-known indicators and by an empirical test on four groups of Pareto front approximations with different numbers of objectives and problem characteristics.

References

[1]
J. Bader and E. Zitzler. HypE: An algorithm for fast hypervolume-based many-objective optimization. Evol. Comput., 19(1):45--76, 2011.
[2]
P. A. N. Bosman and D. Thierens. The balance between proximity and diversity in multiobjective evolutionary algorithms. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 7(2):174--188, 2003.
[3]
K. Bringmann, T. Friedrich, C. Igel, and T. Voß. Speeding up many-objective optimization by Monte Carlo approximations. Artif. Intell., 204:22--29, 2013.
[4]
D. W. Corne and J. D. Knowles. Techniques for highly multiobjective optimisation: some nondominated points are better than others. In Proc. 9th Genetic Evol. Comput. Conf. (GECCO), pages 773--780, 2007.
[5]
K. Deb and H. Jain. An evolutionary many-objective optimization algorithm using reference-point-based nondominated sorting approach, part I: Solving problems with box constraints. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 18(4):577--601, 2014.
[6]
K. Deb and S. Jain. Running performance metrics for evolutionary multi-objective optimization. Technical Report 2002004, KanGAL, Indian Institute of Technology, 2002.
[7]
K. Deb, A. Pratap, S. Agarwal, and T. Meyarivan. A fast and elitist multiobjective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 6(2):182--197, 2002.
[8]
K. Deb, L. Thiele, M. Laumanns, and E. Zitzler. Scalable test problems for evolutionary multiobjective optimization. In A. Abraham, L. Jain, and R. Goldberg, editors, Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization. Theoretical Advances and Applications, pages 105--145. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2005.
[9]
P. Fleming, R. Purshouse, and R. Lygoe. Many-objective optimization: An engineering design perspective. In Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Evol. Multi-Criterion Optimiz. (EMO), pages 14--32. 2005.
[10]
D. Hadka and P. Reed. Diagnostic assessment of search controls and failure modes in many-objective evolutionary optimization. Evol. Comput., 20(3):423--452, 2012.
[11]
Z. He, G. G. Yen, and J. Zhang. Fuzzy-based Pareto optimality for many-objective evolutionary algorithms. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 18(2):269--285, 2014.
[12]
E. J. Hughes. MSOPS-II: A general-purpose many-objective optimiser. In Proc. 2007 IEEE Congr. Evol. Comput. (CEC), pages 3944--3951, 2007.
[13]
K. Ikeda, H. Kita, and S. Kobayashi. Failure of Pareto-based MOEAs: does non-dominated really mean near to optimal? In Proce. 2001 IEEE Congr. Evol. Comput. (CEC), volume 2, pages 957--962, 2001.
[14]
H. Ishibuchi, N. Akedo, and Y. Nojima. Behavior of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms on many-objective knapsack problems. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 19(2):264--283, 2015.
[15]
H. Ishibuchi, H. Masuda, Y. Tanigaki, and Y. Nojima. Difficulties in specifying reference points to calculate the inverted generational distance for many-objective optimization problems. In Proc. 2014 IEEE Symp. Comput. Intell. in Multi-Criteria Decision-Making, pages 170--177, 2014.
[16]
H. Ishibuchi, H. Masuda, Y. Tanigaki, and Y. Nojima. Modified distance calculation in generational distance and inverted generational distance. In Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Evol. Multi-Criterion Optimiz. (EMO), pages 110--125, 2015.
[17]
H. Ishibuchi, N. Tsukamoto, and Y. Nojima. Evolutionary many-objective optimization: A short review. In Proc. 2008 IEEE Congr. Evol. Comput. (CEC), pages 2419--2426, 2008.
[18]
A. L. Jaimes and C. A. Coello Coello. Study of preference relations in many-objective optimization. In Proc. 11th Genetic Evol. Comput. Conf. (GECCO), pages 611--618, 2009.
[19]
J. Knowles and D. Corne. Properties of an adaptive archiving algorithm for storing nondominated vectors. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 7(2):100--116, 2003.
[20]
M. Laumanns, L. Thiele, K. Deb, and E. Zitzler. Combining convergence and diversity in evolutionary multiobjective optimization. Evol. Comput., 10(3):263--282, 2002.
[21]
M. Li, S. Yang, and X. Liu. Diversity comparison of Pareto front approximations in many-objective optimization. IEEE Trans. Cybern., 44(12):2568--2584, 2014.
[22]
M. Li, S. Yang, and X. Liu. Shift-based density estimation for Pareto-based algorithms in many-objective optimization. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 18(3):348--365, 2014.
[23]
M. Li, S. Yang, and X. Liu. A test problem for visual investigation of high-dimensional multi-objective search. In Proc. 2014 IEEE Congr. Evol. Comput. (CEC), pages 2140--2147, 2014.
[24]
M. Li, S. Yang, X. Liu, and R. Shen. A comparative study on evolutionary algorithms for many-objective optimization. In Proc. 7th Int. Conf. Evol. Multi-Criterion Optimiz. (EMO), pages 261--275, 2013.
[25]
M. Li, J. Zheng, K. Li, Q. Yuan, and R. Shen. Enhancing diversity for average ranking method in evolutionarymany-objective optimization. In Proc. 11th Int. Conf. Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN), pages 647--656, 2010.
[26]
G. Lizárraga-Lizárraga, A. Hernández-Aguirre, and S. Botello-Rionda. G-Metric: an M-ary quality indicator for the evaluation of non-dominated sets. In Proc. 10th Genetic Evol. Comput. Conf., pages 665--672, 2008.
[27]
R. C. Purshouse and P. J. Fleming. On the evolutionary optimization of many conflicting objectives. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 11(6):770--784, 2007.
[28]
O. Schütze, X. Esquivel, A. Lara, and C. A. C. Coello. Using the averaged Hausdorff distance as a performance measure in evolutionary multi-objective optimization. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 16(4):504--522, 2012.
[29]
D. A. Van Veldhuizen. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms: Classifications, analyses, and new innovations. PhD thesis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 1999.
[30]
T. Wagner, N. Beume, and B. Naujoks. Pareto-, aggregation-, and indicator-based methods in many-objective optimization. In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Evol. Multi-Criterion Optimiz. (EMO), pages 742--756. 2007.
[31]
R. Wang, R. C. Purshouse, and P. J. Fleming. Preference-inspired co-evolutionary algorithms for many-objective optimisation. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 17(4):474--494, 2013.
[32]
S. Yang, M. Li, X. Liu, and J. Zheng. A grid-based evolutionary algorithm for many-objective optimization. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 17(5):721--736, 2013.
[33]
Q. Zhang and H. Li. MOEA/D: A multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 11(6):712--731, 2007.
[34]
X. Zhang, Y Tian, and Y. Jin. A knee point driven evolutionary algorithm for many-objective optimization. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 2014, in press.
[35]
E. Zitzler and S. Künzli. Indicator-based selection in multiobjective search. In Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), pages 832--842. 2004.
[36]
E. Zitzler and L. Thiele. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithms: A comparative case study and the strength Pareto approach. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 3(4):257--271, 1999.
[37]
E. Zitzler, L. Thiele, M. Laumanns, C. M. Fonseca, and V. G. da Fonseca. Performance assessment of multiobjective optimizers: An analysis and review. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., 7(2):117--132, 2003.

Cited By

View all

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
GECCO '15: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
July 2015
1496 pages
ISBN:9781450334723
DOI:10.1145/2739480
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 11 July 2015

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. many-objective optimization
  2. multi-objective optimization
  3. performance assessment indicator

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

GECCO '15
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

GECCO '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 182 of 505 submissions, 36%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 1,669 of 4,410 submissions, 38%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)21
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4
Reflects downloads up to 27 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Multi-Objective ArchivingIEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation10.1109/TEVC.2023.331415228:3(696-717)Online publication date: Jun-2024
  • (2023)Many-Objective Optimal Control for Quadcopters2023 American Control Conference (ACC)10.23919/ACC55779.2023.10156094(2105-2110)Online publication date: 31-May-2023
  • (2023)A Framework for Evaluating Inherent Biases within Ship Design ToolsSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4353611Online publication date: 2023
  • (2023)Local Fitness Landscape Exploration Based Genetic AlgorithmsIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2023.323477511(3324-3337)Online publication date: 2023
  • (2023)A framework for evaluating inherent biases within ship design toolsOcean Engineering10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.115019284(115019)Online publication date: Sep-2023
  • (2023)Influence of optimisation parameters on directly deliverable Pareto fronts explored for prostate cancerPhysica Medica10.1016/j.ejmp.2023.103139114(103139)Online publication date: Oct-2023
  • (2023)Theoretical Aspects of Subset Selection in Multi-Objective OptimisationMany-Criteria Optimization and Decision Analysis10.1007/978-3-031-25263-1_8(213-239)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Many-Objective Quality MeasuresMany-Criteria Optimization and Decision Analysis10.1007/978-3-031-25263-1_5(113-148)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2023
  • (2022)How to Evaluate Solutions in Pareto-Based Search-Based Software Engineering: A Critical Review and Methodological GuidanceIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2020.303610848:5(1771-1799)Online publication date: 1-May-2022
  • (2022)A Kernel-Based Indicator for Multi/Many-Objective OptimizationIEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation10.1109/TEVC.2021.310556526:4(602-615)Online publication date: Aug-2022
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media