Dual-Population Cooperative Correlation Evolutionary Algorithm for Constrained Multi-Objective Optimization

Abstract

When addressing constrained multi-objective optimization problems (CMOPs), the key challenge lies in achieving a balance between the objective functions and the constraint conditions. However, existing evolutionary algorithms exhibit certain limitations when tackling CMOPs with complex feasible regions. To address this issue, this paper proposes a constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on a dual-population cooperative correlation (CMOEA-DCC). Under the CMOEA-DDC framework, the system maintains two independently evolving populations: the driving population and the conventional population. These two populations share information through a collaborative interaction mechanism, where the driving population focuses on objective optimization, while the conventional population balances both objectives and constraints. To further enhance the performance of the algorithm, a shift-based density estimation (SDE) method is introduced to maintain the diversity of solutions in the driving population, while a multi-criteria evaluation metric is adopted to improve the feasibility quality of solutions in the normal population. CMOEA-DDC was compared with seven representative constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (CMOEAs) across various test problems and real-world application scenarios. Through an in-depth analysis of a series of experimental results, it can be concluded that CMOEA-DDC significantly outperforms the other competing algorithms in terms of performance.