Stochastic Population Update Can Provably Be Helpful in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bian, Chao, Zhou, Yawen, Li, Miqing, Qian, Chao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Bian, Chao
Zhou, Yawen
Li, Miqing
Qian, Chao
author_facet Bian, Chao
Zhou, Yawen
Li, Miqing
Qian, Chao
contents Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been widely and successfully applied to solve multi-objective optimization problems, due to their nature of population-based search. Population update, a key component in multi-objective EAs (MOEAs), is usually performed in a greedy, deterministic manner. That is, the next-generation population is formed by selecting the best solutions from the current population and newly-generated solutions (irrespective of the selection criteria used such as Pareto dominance, crowdedness and indicators). In this paper, we analytically present that stochastic population update can be beneficial for the search of MOEAs. Specifically, we prove that the expected running time of two well-established MOEAs, SMS-EMOA and NSGA-II, for solving two bi-objective problems, OneJumpZeroJump and bi-objective RealRoyalRoad, can be exponentially decreased if replacing its deterministic population update mechanism by a stochastic one. Empirical studies also verify the effectiveness of the proposed population update method. This work is an attempt to show the benefit of introducing randomness into the population update of MOEAs. Its positive results, which might hold more generally, should encourage the exploration of developing new MOEAs in the area.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_02611
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stochastic Population Update Can Provably Be Helpful in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms
Bian, Chao
Zhou, Yawen
Li, Miqing
Qian, Chao
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been widely and successfully applied to solve multi-objective optimization problems, due to their nature of population-based search. Population update, a key component in multi-objective EAs (MOEAs), is usually performed in a greedy, deterministic manner. That is, the next-generation population is formed by selecting the best solutions from the current population and newly-generated solutions (irrespective of the selection criteria used such as Pareto dominance, crowdedness and indicators). In this paper, we analytically present that stochastic population update can be beneficial for the search of MOEAs. Specifically, we prove that the expected running time of two well-established MOEAs, SMS-EMOA and NSGA-II, for solving two bi-objective problems, OneJumpZeroJump and bi-objective RealRoyalRoad, can be exponentially decreased if replacing its deterministic population update mechanism by a stochastic one. Empirical studies also verify the effectiveness of the proposed population update method. This work is an attempt to show the benefit of introducing randomness into the population update of MOEAs. Its positive results, which might hold more generally, should encourage the exploration of developing new MOEAs in the area.
title Stochastic Population Update Can Provably Be Helpful in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.02611