MOEA Testing and Analysis

Regarding the scientific method of experimentation, it is desirable to construct an accurate, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary representation of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) architectures and performance over a variety of multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs). In particular, through the use of standard procedures and criteria, one should attempt to minimize the influence of bias or prejudice of the experimenter when testing a MOEA hypothesis. The design of each experiment must conform then to an accepted “standard” approach as reflected in any generic scientific method. When employing the scientific method, the detailed design of MOEA experiments can draw heavily from outlines presented by Barr et al. [93] and Jackson et al. [765]. These generic articles discuss computational experiment design for heuristic methods, providing guidelines for reporting results and ensuring their reproducibility. Specifically, they suggest that a well-designed experiment follows the following steps: 1. Define experimental goals; 2. Choose measures of performance - metrics; 3. Design and execute the experiment; 4. Analyze data and draw conclusions; 5. Report experimental results.