Constraint-Handling in Evolutionary Optimization

This book is the result of a successful special session on constraint-handling techniques used in evolutionary algorithms within the Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) in 2007, with the aim of putting together recent studies on constrained numerical optimization using evolutionary algorithms and other bio-inspired approaches. The book covers six main topics: The first two chapters refer to swarm- intelligence-based approaches. Differential evolution, a very competitive evolutionary algorithm for constrained optimization, is studied in the next three chapters. Two different constraint-handling techniques for evolutionary multiobjective optimization are presented in the two subsequent chapters. Two hybrid approaches, one with a combination of two nature-inspired heuristics and the other with the mix of a genetic algorithm and a local search operator, are detailed in the next two chapters. Finally, a constraint-handling technique designed for a real-world problem and a survey on artificial immune system in constrained optimization are the subjects of the final two chapters. The intended audience for this book comprises graduate students, practitioners and researchers interested on alternative techniques to solve numerical optimization problems in presence of constraints.