ALMO: Active Learning-Based Multi-Objective Optimization for Accelerating Constrained Evolutionary Algorithms

• Published in: Applied Sciences
• Main Authors: Karanpreet Singh, Rakesh K. Kapania
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2024-10-01
• Subjects: active learning; multi-objective optimization; multi-disciplinary optimization; machine learning; evolutionary algorithms; optimization
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/21/9975

In multi-objective optimization, standard evolutionary algorithms, such as NSGA-II, are computationally expensive, particularly when handling complex constraints. Constraint evaluations, often the bottleneck, require substantial resources. Pre-trained surrogate models have been used to improve computational efficiency, but they often rely heavily on the model’s accuracy and require large datasets. In this study, we use active learning to accelerate multi-objective optimization. Active learning is a machine learning approach that selects the most informative data points to reduce the computational cost of labeling data. It is employed in this study to reduce the number of constraint evaluations during optimization by dynamically querying new data points only when the model is uncertain. Incorporating machine learning into this framework allows the optimization process to focus on critical areas of the search space adaptively, leveraging predictive models to guide the algorithm. This reduces computational overhead and marks a significant advancement in using machine learning to enhance the efficiency and scalability of multi-objective optimization tasks. This method is applied to six challenging benchmark problems and demonstrates more than a 50% reduction in constraint evaluations, with varying savings across different problems. This adaptive approach significantly enhances the computational efficiency of multi-objective optimization without requiring pre-trained models.