Conflict, harmony, and independence: relationships in evolutionary multi-criterion optimisation

  • Authors:

  • Robin C. Purshouse;Peter J. Fleming

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK;Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

  • Venue:
  • EMO'03 Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Evolutionary multi-criterion optimization
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

This paper contributes a platform for the treatment of large numbers of criteria in evolutionary multi-criterion optimisation theory through consideration of the relationships between pairs of criteria. In a conflicting relationship, as performance in one criterion is improved, performance in the other is seen to deteriorate. If the relationship is harmonious, improvement in one criterion is rewarded with simultaneous improvement in the other. The criteria may be independent of each other, where adjustment to one never affects adjustment to the other. Increasing numbers of conflicting criteria pose a great challenge to obtaining a good representation of the global trade-off hypersurface, which can be countered using decision-maker preferences. Increasing numbers of harmonious criteria have no effect on convergence to the surface but difficulties may arise in achieving a good distribution. The identification of independence presents the opportunity for a divide-and-conquer strategy that can improve the quality of trade-off surface representations.