An Interactive Evolutionary Metaheuristic for Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization

Selcen (Pamuk) Phelps () and Murat Köksalan ()
Additional contact information
Selcen (Pamuk) Phelps: Industrial Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey
Murat Köksalan: Industrial Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey

Management Science, 2003, vol. 49, issue 12, 1726-1738

Abstract: We propose an evolutionary metaheuristic for multiobjective combinatorial optimization problems that interacts with the decision maker (DM) to guide the search effort toward his or her preferred solutions. Solutions are presented to the DM, whose pairwise comparisons are then used to estimate the desirability or fitness of newly generated solutions. The evolutionary algorithm comprising the skeleton of the metaheuristic makes use of selection strategies specifically designed to address the multiobjective nature of the problem. Interactions with the DM are triggered by a probabilistic evaluation of estimated fitnesses, while memory structures with indifference thresholds restrict the presentation of solutions resembling those that have already been rejected. The algorithm has been tested on a number of random instances of the Multiobjective Knapsack Problem (MOKP) and the Multiobjective Spanning Tree Problem (MOST). Simulation results indicate that the algorithm requires only a small number of comparisons to be made for satisfactory solutions to be found.

Keywords: Evolutionary Algorithm; Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization; Metaheuristic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.49.12.1726.25117 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:49:y:2003:i:12:p:1726-1738

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().