A multi-objective differential evolution algorithm based on domination and constraint-handling switching

Abstract Many domination-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are designed for constrained multi-objective optimization problems (CMOPs). However, they still face the challenge of balancing the feasibility, convergence and distribution. This paper tackles this issue by proposing a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm based on domination and a mechanism of constraint-handling switching (MODE-CHS). In constraint-handling switching, if there are no feasible solutions in the population, the population evolves by constraint-handling; otherwise, the population evolves without handling constraints. This mechanism enhances the rate of population convergence to the maximum while obtaining the feasible solutions. Furthermore, in MODE-CHS, the feasible solutions are saved to an external archive and evolve together with the population to explore the feasible region. Meanwhile, to enhance the distribution, the offspring of the external archive also participates in the individual-update procedure of the population. 27 bench-mark test problems and two real-world problems are used for the performance comparison of the proposed algorithm with other five state-of-the-art algorithms. In the experiment, the proposed algorithm, MODE-CHS, is shown to produce satisfactory solutions for most of the tested functions, where other five MOEAs perform relatively worse. The experiment results demonstrate MODE-CHS is very competitive for solving CMOPs.