1556-603X/06/$20.00©2006IEEE FEBRUARY 2006 | IEEE COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 43
Carlos Brizuela
CICESE Research Center, MEXICO
Book
Review
S
olving real-world problems involves
conflicting objectives; this implies
that an ideal point that is optimum
under all objectives at the same time
does not exist. The definition of what
the optimum is and how to find it,
under these conflicting objectives, has
led to the development of multiobjec-
tive (MO) optimization [1-2]. The edi-
tors, who are well-recognized
researchers in the design of MOEAs,
have done an excellent work in compil-
ing a representative set of applications
that is clearly state-of-the-art. The
authors of each chapter contribute their
point of view about how to apply
MOEAs to solve specific problems,
which enriches the technical content of
the book. The book is about applica-
tions that resist being solved by tradi-
tional methods.
The book is conveniently organized
in Chapter 1, and the remaining 29 chap-
ters are divided into four parts. Chapter 1
gives a brief introduction to the field of
MOEA and sets up the basic concepts
needed to understand the rest of the
book, along with a brief description of
each chapter. Applications in engineering
are dealt with in Chapters 2–13 (Part I).
Scientific applications are the concern in
Chapters 14–19 (Part II). Chapters 20–24
(Part III) deal with industrial applications.
Chapters 25–30 (Part IV) deal with mis-
cellaneous applications. Each chapter, in
these parts, is organized as follows.
Part I: Engineering Applications
Chapter 2 introduces applications in
engineering design such as welded beam,
bulk carrier and shape optimization
problems. The proposed MOEA handles
the constraint that considers nondomi-
nance, which reduces the computational
effort of nondominant sorting.
The design of industrial electromag-
netic devices is dealt with in Chapter 3.
Here, the main concern is the design of
an efficient MOEA since the objective
function evaluation is very expensive. A
nondominated-sorting evolutionary
strategy is proposed to achieve this goal.
Chapter 4 deals with the monitoring
design problem for groundwater. The
NSGA-II, along with a variant, are pro-
posed to tackle this
problem.
An introduction to
the design of combina-
torial-logic circuits is
presented in Chapter 5.
A particle swarm with
an MO selection strat-
egy is introduced to
solve the problem.
Autonomous vehi-
cles navigation is the
application presented
in Chapter 6. Specifi-
cally, the problem of
sensor and vehicle parameter estimation
is solved by means of a gradient-based
method and the multiobjective continu-
ous evolutionary algorithm.
Chapter 7 deals with the design of
control systems for linear time-invariant,
non-minimal phase plants. The
approach is based upon a toolbox of
previously designed MOEAs.
The theme for Chapter 8 has to do
with the resolution of polymer extru-
sion problems. The model for them is
the well-known Traveling Salesman
Problem. A reduced Pareto set GA with
elitism is proposed as the methodology
to solve the problem.
Chapter 9 presents the Inverted and
Shrinkable Pareto Archived Evolutionary
Strategy (S-PAES) for three truss opti-
mization problems. The algorithm is an
extension of PAES for single-objective
optimization.
City and region planning problem is
the application considered in Chapter 10.
A real-world case is presented as an
example of the application. The model-
ing of the planning as an MO problem is
described. Interesting aspects regarding
the applicability of the nondominated
solutions are also discussed.
Chapter 11 presents a bi-objective
covering tour problem. Specific opera-
tors are designed to improve the effi-
ciency of the MOEA;
the quality of solutions
generated by this
method is compared
with solutions generat-
ed by an exact method.
This is an interesting
problem since it is usu-
ally modeled as a sin-
gle-objective problem
with a restriction.
However, this restric-
tion is actually the sec-
ond objective function.
An interesting and
well-designed computer engineering
benchmark for multi-objective optimiz-
ers is proposed in Chapter 12. The
benchmark is related to the Packet
Processor Design, a processor that can
be found in network routers and
switches, and its main function is net-
work packing processing. Many
MOEAs are tested on the proposed
benchmark.
Chapter 13 deals with aerodynamic
wing optimization by means of the
Adaptive Range Multiobjective Genetic
Algorithm. This algorithm is an exten-
sion of the standard MOGA to deal
with adaptive ranges. The problem
involves four objectives and 72 design
variables, which makes it a very chal-
lenging problem to solve.
Applications of Multi-Objective
Evolutionary Algorithms, Vol. 1, by
Carlos A. Coello Coello and Gary B.
Lamont, World Scientific, 2004, 761
pp., Hardcover, ISBN: 981-256-
106-4.