Interactive Multicriteria Optimization in Design Process

In this chapter MO-procedures treated in Chapter 2 will be developed into interactive procedures which integrate the decision making process into optimization algorithms. The interactive procedures provide the Decision Maker (DM) with a selection of Pareto-optimal solutions which to some extent are representative for the whole set of available solutions. This procedure consists of a sequence of decision and computation phases. In the decision phase the DM decides whether or not a solution is optimal with respect to his implicit preferences. In the latter case he must give some information about the direction in which he expects to obtain a better solution. In the computation phase the new solution is generated for the next decision phase. The procedure is stopped when the optimal solution which reflects the DM’s preferences is found. Such a dialogue does not only improve the implicit preferences of the decision maker but also supports and simplifies the process of decision making.