Augmenting Bi-objective Branch and Bound by Scalarization-Based Information

TL;DR

This paper enhances multi-objective Branch and Bound algorithms by integrating scalarization-based information, significantly reducing node exploration and computation time in solving multi-objective integer optimization problems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach that uses scalarization-based information and hypervolume indicator to improve the efficiency of multi-objective Branch and Bound methods.

Findings

Node exploration reduced by up to 83%

Computation time decreased by up to 80%

Improved bounds lead to more efficient optimization

Abstract

While Branch and Bound based algorithms are a standard approach to solve single-objective (mixed-)integer optimization problems, multi-objective Branch and Bound methods are only rarely applied compared to the predominant objective space methods. In this paper we propose modifications to increase the performance of multi-objective Branch and Bound algorithms by utilizing scalarization-based information. We use the hypervolume indicator as a measure for the gap between lower and upper bound set to implement a multi-objective best-first strategy. By adaptively solving scalarizations in the root node to integer optimality we improve both, upper and lower bound set. The obtained lower bound can then be integrated into the lower bounds of all active nodes, while the determined solution is added to the upper bound set. Numerical experiments show that the number of investigated nodes can be significantly reduced by up to 83% and the total computation time can be reduced by up to 80%.