A new perspective on multiobjective optimization by enhanced normalized normal constraint method

In industrial applications, several objectives are often managed simultaneously (e.g., minimizing the cost and the weight of a mechanical structure satisfying some constraints). Although lots of optimization studies deal with only one objective, this approach is often not realistic for engineering optimization. Therefore, improvements in multiobjective optimization methods are required. This paper presents the formulation of a new utopia hyperplane that improves the proposal of the original normalized normal constraint method using two approaches: a redefinition of the anchor points and an exact linear transformation between the design objectives space and the normalized space. Both approaches always produce a normalized space with equal scales that improves the even distribution of the solutions over the Pareto frontier. Examples of the method proposed are presented related with mechanical engineering and structure design including a challenging non-convex Pareto frontier. Partially supported by FEDER DPI2005-07835, FEDER DPI2004-8383-C03-02 projects (MEC—Spain) and GV06/26 (Generalitat Valenciana)