A modified distance method for multicriteria optimization, using genetic algorithms

The common application areas of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have been to single criterion difficult optimization problems. The GA selection mechanism is often dependent upon a single valued scalar objective funtion. In this paper, we present results of a modified distance method. The distance method was proposed earlier by us, for solving multiple criteria problems with GAs. The Pareto set estimation method, which is fundamental to multicriteria analysis, is used to perform the multicriteria optimization using GAs. First, the Pareto set is found out from the population of the initial generation of the GA. The fitness of a new solution, is calculated by a distance measure with reference to the Pareto set of the previous runs. We calculate the distances of a solution from all the Pareto solutions found since the previous run, but the minimum of these distances is taken under consideration while evaluating the fitness of the solution. Thus the GA tries to maximize the distance of future Pareto solutions from present Pareto solutions in the positive Pareto space of the given problem. Here we modify distance method, by using an improved algorithm to assign and make use of the latent potential of the Pareto solutions which are found during the runs. Two detailed numerical examples and computer generated results are also presented.