Pareto optimization for the two-agent scheduling problems with linear non-increasing deterioration based on Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables these objects to collect and exchange data and it is an important character of smart city. Multi-agent scheduling is one necessary part of Internet of Things. In this paper, we investigate the Pareto optimization scheduling on a single machine with two competing agents and linear non-increasing deterioration, which is Multi-agent scheduling problems often occurred in the Internet of Things. In the scheduling setting, each of the two competing agents wants to optimize its own objective which depends on the completion times of its jobs only. The assumption of linear non-increasing deterioration means that the actual processing time of a job will decrease linearly with the starting time. The objective functions in consideration are the maximum earliness cost and the total earliness. Two Pareto optimization scheduling problems are studied in this paper. In the first problem, each agent has the maximum earliness cost as its objective function. In the second problem, one agent has the maximum earliness cost as its objective function and the other agent has the total earliness as its objective function. The goal of a Pareto optimization scheduling problem is to find all Pareto optimal points and, for each Pareto optimal point, a corresponding Pareto optimal schedule. In the literature, the two corresponding constrained optimization scheduling problems are solved in polynomial time under the assumption that the inverse cost function of each job is available. In this paper, we extend these results to the setting without the availability assumption. Furthermore, by estimating the number of Pareto optimal points, we show that the above two Pareto optimization scheduling problems are solved in polynomial time. Hence, our results have much more theoretically meaningful constructs. Experimentation results show that the algorithms presented in this paper are efficient.     

Decision-making based on approximate and smoothed Pareto curves

We consider bicriteria optimization problems and investigate the relationship between two standard approaches to solving them: (i) computing the Pareto curve and (ii) the so-called decision maker’s approach in which both criteria are combined into a single (usually nonlinear) objective function. Previous work by Papadimitriou and Yannakakis showed how to efficiently approximate the Pareto curve for problems like Shortest Path, Spanning Tree, and Perfect Matching. We wish to determine for which classes of combined objective functions the approximate Pareto curve also yields an approximate solution to the decision maker’s problem. We show that an FPTAS for the Pareto curve also gives an FPTAS for the decision-maker’s problem if the combined objective function is growth bounded like a quasi-polynomial function. If the objective function, however, shows exponential growth then the decision-maker’s problem is NP-hard to approximate within any polynomial factor. In order to bypass these limitations of approximate decision making, we turn our attention to Pareto curves in the probabilistic framework of smoothed analysis. We show that in a smoothed model, we can efficiently generate the (complete and exact) Pareto curve with a small failure probability if there exists an algorithm for generating the Pareto curve whose worst-case running time is pseudopolynomial. This way, we can solve the decision-maker’s problem w.r.t. any non-decreasing objective function for randomly perturbed instances of, e.g. Shortest Path, Spanning Tree, and Perfect Matching.     

A min-max method with adaptive weightings for uniformly spaced Pareto optimum points

This work aims at obtaining uniformly spaced Pareto optimum points in the objective space when multicriteria optimization problems are solved. An original adaptive scheme is proposed to update automatically weighting coefficients involved in the min-max method. By means of a novel bilevel approach, it is shown that with the calculation of the tangent and normal directions of the Pareto curve, Pareto optimum points can be obtained sequentially with a uniformly spaced distribution. Meanwhile, the distance between two adjacent Pareto optimum points is controllable depending upon the prescribed step length along the tangent direction. To validate the method, numerical bicriteria examples are solved to show its effectiveness.     

A new graphical visualization of n-dimensional Pareto front for decision-making in multiobjective optimization

New challenges in engineering design lead to multiobjective (multicriteria) problems. In this context, the Pareto front supplies a set of solutions where the designer (decision-maker) has to look for the best choice according to his preferences. Visualization techniques often play a key role in helping decision-makers, but they have important restrictions for more than two-dimensional Pareto fronts. In this work, a new graphical representation, called Level Diagrams, for n-dimensional Pareto front analysis is proposed. Level Diagrams consists of representing each objective and design parameter on separate diagrams. This new technique is based on two key points: classification of Pareto front points according to their proximity to ideal points measured with a specific norm of normalized objectives (several norms can be used); and synchronization of objective and parameter diagrams. Some of the new possibilities for analyzing Pareto fronts are shown. Additionally, in order to introduce designer preferences, Level Diagrams can be coloured, so establishing a visual representation of preferences that can help the decision-maker. Finally, an example of a robust control design is presented - a benchmark proposed at the American Control Conference. This design is set as a six-dimensional multiobjective problem.     

The normalized normal constraint method for generating the Pareto frontier

The authors recently proposed the normal constraint (NC) method for generating a set of evenly spaced solutions on a Pareto frontier – for multiobjective optimization problems. Since few methods offer this desirable characteristic, the new method can be of significant practical use in the choice of an optimal solution in a multiobjective setting. This papers specific contribution is two-fold. First, it presents a new formulation of the NC method that incorporates a critical linear mapping of the design objectives. This mapping has the desirable property that the resulting performance of the method is entirely independent of the design objectives scales. We address here the fact that scaling issues can pose formidable difficulties. Secondly, the notion of a Pareto filter is presented and an algorithm thereof is developed. As its name suggests, a Pareto filter is an algorithm that retains only the global Pareto points, given a set of points in objective space. As is explained in the paper, the Pareto filter is useful in the application of the NC and other methods. Numerical examples are provided.     

混合分解和强度帕累托多目标进化算法

在多目标进化优化中,使用分解策略的基于分解的多目标进化算法(MOEA/D)时间复杂度低,使用〖BP(〗强度帕累托策略的〖BP)〗强度帕累托进化算法-2(SPEA2)能得到分布均匀的解集。结合这两种策略,提出一种新的多目标进化算法用于求解具有复杂、不连续的帕累托前沿的多目标优化问题(MOP)。首先,利用分解策略快速逼近帕累托前沿;然后,利用强度帕累托策略使解集均匀分布在帕累托前沿,利用解集重置分解策略中的权重向量集,使其适配于特定的帕累托前沿;最后,利用分解策略进一步逼近帕累托前沿。使用的反向世代距离(IGD)作为度量标准,将新算法与MOEA/D、SPEA2和paλ-MOEA/D在12个基准问题上进行性能对比。实验结果表明该算法性能在7个基准问题上最优,在5个基准问题上接近于最优,且无论MOP的帕累托前沿是简单或复杂、连续或不连续的,该算法均能生成分布均匀的解集。     

基于帕累托改进的多机器人动态任务分配算法

针对多机器人系统动态任务分配中存在的优化问题,在使用合同网初始任务分配的基础上提出了一种使用帕累托改进的任务二次分配算法。多机器人系统并行执行救火任务时,首先通过初始化任务分配将多机器人划分为若干子群;然后,每个子群承包某一救火任务,子群在执行任务的同时与就近子群进行帕累托改进确定需要迁移的机器人,实现两子群之间帕累托最优;最后,使用后序二叉树遍历对所有子群进行帕累托改进实现全局帕累托最优。理论分析和仿真结果表明,相较于强化学习算法和蚁群算法,所提算法的救火任务时间分别减少26.18%和37.04%;相较于传统合同网方法,所提算法在时间方面能够高效完成救火任务,在系统收益方面也具有明显优势。     

Approximating Pareto frontier using a hybrid line search approach

The aggregation of objectives in multiple criteria programming is one of the simplest and widely used approach. But it is well known that this technique sometimes fail in different aspects for determining the Pareto frontier. This paper proposes a new approach for multicriteria optimization, which aggregates the objective functions and uses a line search method in order to locate an approximate efficient point. Once the first Pareto solution is obtained, a simplified version of the former one is used in the context of Pareto dominance to obtain a set of efficient points, which will assure a thorough distribution of solutions on the Pareto frontier. In the current form, the proposed technique is well suitable for problems having multiple objectives (it is not limited to bi-objective problems) and require the functions to be continuous twice differentiable. In order to assess the effectiveness of this approach, some experiments were performed and compared with two recent well known population-based metaheuristics namely ParEGO and NSGA II. When compared to ParEGO and NSGA II, the proposed approach not only assures a better convergence to the Pareto frontier but also illustrates a good distribution of solutions. From a computational point of view, both stages of the line search converge within a short time (average about 150 ms for the first stage and about 20 ms for the second stage). Apart from this, the proposed technique is very simple, easy to implement and use to solve multiobjective problems.     

求解多目标流水车间调度Pareto最优解的遗传强化算法

针对多目标流水车间调度Pareto最优问题, 本文建立了以最大完工时间和最大拖延时间为优化目标的多目标流水车间调度问题模型, 并设计了一种基于Q-learning的遗传强化学习算法求解该问题的Pareto最优解. 该算法引入状态变量和动作变量, 通过Q-learning算法获得初始种群, 以提高初始解质量. 在算法进化过程中, 利用Q表指导变异操作, 扩大局部搜索范围. 采用Pareto快速非支配排序以及拥挤度计算提高解的质量以及多样性, 逐步获得Pareto最优解. 通过与遗传算法、NSGA-II算法和Q-learning算法进行对比实验, 验证了改进后的遗传强化算法在求解多目标流水车间调度问题Pareto最优解的有效性.     

基于Pareto最优概念的多目标进化算法研究

基于Pareto最优概念的多目标进化算法已成为多目标优化问题研究的主流方向。详细介绍了该领域的经典算法,重点阐述了各种算法在种群快速收敛并均匀分布于问题的非劣最优域上所采取的策略,并归纳了算法性能评估中需要进一步研究的几个问题。     

融入差异性的帕累托集成剪枝方法

相比于集成学习,集成剪枝方法是在多个分类器中搜索最优子集从而改善分类器的泛化性能,简化集成过程。帕累托集成剪枝方法同时考虑了分类器的精准度及集成规模两个方面,并将二者均作为优化的目标。然而帕累托集成剪枝算法只考虑了基分类器的精准度与集成规模,忽视了分类器之间的差异性,从而导致了分类器之间的相似度比较大。本文提出了融入差异性的帕累托集成剪枝算法,该算法将分类器的差异性与精准度综合为第1个优化目标,将集成规模作为第2个优化目标,从而实现多目标优化。实验表明,当该改进的集成剪枝算法与帕累托集成剪枝算法在集成规模相当的前提下,由于差异性的融入该改进算法能够获得较好的性能。     

Metamodeling by symbolic regression and Pareto simulated annealing

The subject of this paper is a new approach to symbolic regression. Other publications on symbolic regression use genetic programming. This paper describes an alternative method based on Pareto simulated annealing. Our method is based on linear regression for the estimation of constants. Interval arithmetic is applied to ensure the consistency of a model. To prevent overfitting, we merit a model not only on predictions in the data points, but also on the complexity of a model. For the complexity, we introduce a new measure. We compare our new method with the Kriging metamodel and against a symbolic regression metamodel based on genetic programming. We conclude that Pareto-simulated-annealing-based symbolic regression is very competitive compared to the other metamodel approaches.     

Global and well-distributed Pareto frontier by modified normalized normal constraint methods for bicriterion problems

Important efforts have been made in the last years to develop methods for the construction of Pareto frontiers that guarantee uniform distribution and that exclude the non-Pareto and local Pareto points. Nevertheless, these methods are susceptible of improvement or modifications to reach the same level of results more efficiently. This paper presents some of these possibilities, based on two types of techniques: those based on nonlinear optimization and those based on genetic algorithms. The first provides appropriate solutions at reasonable computational cost though they are highly dependent on the initial points and on the presence or absence of local minima. The second technique does not present such dependence although computational cost is higher. Since the construction of the Pareto frontier is usually off-line, that computational cost is not a restrictive factor. Goodness of the improvements proposed in the paper are shown with two bicriterion examples.     

采用遗传算法求解多跳分组无线网服务质量路由优化模型

采用多目标遗传算法来确定多跳无线网服务质量路由优化问题的Pareto最优解集。通过计算表明，多目标遗传算法能够在一次运行中搜索到优化问题的近似Pareto最优解集，这为决策者进行目标折衷决策提供了充分的依据，此算法是有效可行的。     

Robust Design using Pareto type optimization: A genetic algorithm with arithmetic crossover

In dual response systems (DRSs) optimization restrictions on the secondary response may rule out better conditions, since an acceptable value for the secondary response is usually unknown. In fact, process conditions that result in a smaller standard deviation are often preferable. Recently, several authors stated that the standard deviation of any performance property could be treated as a new property in its own right as far as Pareto optimizer was concerned. By doing this, there will be many alternative solutions (i.e., the trade-offs between the mean and standard deviation responses) of the DRS problem and Pareto optimization can explore them all. Such analysis is useful, and that is required in order to achieve an improved understanding of the problem before searching for a final optimal solution. In this paper, we again follow this new philosophy and solve the DRS problem by using a genetic algorithm with arithmetic crossover. The genetic algorithm is applied to the printing process problem for improving the quality of a printing process. Genetic algorithms, in contrast to the one-solution-at-a-time approach of most optimization algorithms, maintain a population of hundreds, or thousands, of solutions in speedy manner.     

基于Pareto的多目标优化免疫算法

免疫算法具有搜索效率高、避免过早收敛、群体优化、保持个体多样性等优点。将其应用于多目标优化问题,建立了一种新型的基于Pareto的多目标优化免疫算法(MOIA)。算法中,将优化问题的可行解对应抗体,优化问题的目标函数对应抗原,Pareto最优解被保存在记忆细胞集中,并利用有别于聚类的邻近排挤算法对其进行不断更新,进而获得分布均匀的Pareto最优解。文章最后,对MOIA算法与文献[3]中SPEA算法进行仿真,通过比较两者的收敛性和分布性,得到了MOIA优于SPEA的结论。     

A Pareto archive particle swarm optimization for multi-objective job shop scheduling

In this paper, we present a particle swarm optimization for multi-objective job shop scheduling problem. The objective is to simultaneously minimize makespan and total tardiness of jobs. By constructing the corresponding relation between real vector and the chromosome obtained by using priority rule-based representation method, job shop scheduling is converted into a continuous optimization problem. We then design a Pareto archive particle swarm optimization, in which the global best position selection is combined with the crowding measure-based archive maintenance. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a set of benchmark problems and the computational results show that the proposed particle swarm optimization is capable of producing a number of high-quality Pareto optimal scheduling plans.     

Convergence of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to a uniformly distributed representation of the Pareto front

In evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO), the convergence to the Pareto set of a multi-objective optimization problem (MOP) and the diversity of the final approximation of the Pareto front are two important issues. In the existing definitions and analyses of convergence in multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), convergence with probability is easily obtained because diversity is not considered. However, diversity cannot be guaranteed. By combining the convergence with diversity, this paper presents a new definition for the finite representation of a Pareto set, the B-Pareto set, and a convergence metric for MOEAs. Based on a new archive-updating strategy, the convergence of one such MOEA to the B-Pareto sets of MOPs is proved. Numerical results show that the obtained B-Pareto front is uniformly distributed along the Pareto front when, according to the new definition of convergence, the algorithm is convergent.     

Adaptive weighted-sum method for bi-objective optimization: Pareto front generation

This paper presents a new method that effectively determines a Pareto front for bi-objective optimization with potential application to multiple objectives. A traditional method for multiobjective optimization is the weighted-sum method, which seeks Pareto optimal solutions one by one by systematically changing the weights among the objective functions. Previous research has shown that this method often produces poorly distributed solutions along a Pareto front, and that it does not find Pareto optimal solutions in non-convex regions. The proposed adaptive weighted sum method focuses on unexplored regions by changing the weights adaptively rather than by using a priori weight selections and by specifying additional inequality constraints. It is demonstrated that the adaptive weighted sum method produces well-distributed solutions, finds Pareto optimal solutions in non-convex regions, and neglects non-Pareto optimal solutions. This last point can be a potential liability of Normal Boundary Intersection, an otherwise successful multiobjective method, which is mainly caused by its reliance on equality constraints. The promise of this robust algorithm is demonstrated with two numerical examples and a simple structural optimization problem.