Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on transfer learning and neural networks: Dual operator feature fusion and weight vector adaptation

Abstract

In multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, one of the focal points is finding a balance between diversity and convergence. In decomposition-based algorithms, the role of weight vectors is crucial. Despite numerous studies dedicated to these aspects, there is a scarcity of utilizing transfer learning algorithms for dual-operator feature fusion and employing neural networks for accurate partitioning of the objective space population. To address the aforementioned issues, this paper proposes the following improvements: (1) Implementing a Balanced Distribution Adaptation (BDA) transfer learning algorithm to achieve dual-operator feature fusion, resulting in a transfer population guiding the adaptive adjustment of weight vectors. (2) Integrating the BDA algorithm with multi-objective algorithms requires labeling the data, a challenge in the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. To tackle this issue, non-dominated sorting is introduced as a bridge connecting the BDA and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. This serves as a method to combine the advantages of decomposition-based and Pareto-dominance principle-based multi-objective algorithms. (3) To overcome the impact of traditional Euclidean distance on population sparsity, a neural network is employed to determine the population's distribution in the objective space accurately. This ensures the precise identification of individuals to be removed from the current population and the areas where additions are needed. In order to fully validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, four different sets of experiments are conducted in the experimental section, where three sets of benchmarking problems are compared to a variety of algorithms that have received much attention in recent years, as well as ablation experiments.