Evolutionary algorithm

Algorithm

Engineering

Systems engineering

Estimation theory

Computer science

Mathematical optimization

Evolutionary computation

Estimation

Mathematics

Genetic algorithm

Artificial intelligence

Machine learning

IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation

Humans rarely tackle every problem from scratch. Given this observation, the motivation for this paper is to improve optimization performance through adaptive knowledge transfer across related problems. The scope for spontaneous transfers under the null simultaneous null occurrence of multiple problems unveils the benefits of multitasking. Multitask optimization has recently demonstrated competence in solving multiple (related) optimization tasks concurrently. Notably, in the presence of underlying relationships between problems, the transfer of high-quality solutions across them has shown to facilitate superior performance characteristics. However, in the absence of any prior knowledge about the intertask synergies (as is often the case with general black-box optimization), the threat of predominantly null negative transfer null prevails. Susceptibility to negative intertask interactions can impede the overall convergence behavior. To allay such fears, in this paper, we propose a novel evolutionary computation framework that enables null online learning null and exploitation of the similarities (and discrepancies) between distinct tasks in multitask settings, for an enhanced optimization process. Our proposal is based on the principled theoretical arguments that seek to minimize the tendency of harmful interactions between tasks, based on a purely null data-driven null learning of relationships among them. The efficacy of our proposed method is validated experimentally on a series of synthetic benchmarks, as well as a practical study that provides insights into the behavior of the method in the face of several tasks occurring at once.

Multifactorial Evolutionary Algorithm With Online Transfer Parameter Estimation: MFEA-II