Multiple search operators selection by adaptive probability allocation for fast convergent multitask optimization

Evolutionary multitask optimization (EMTO) has developed fast recently, and many algorithms have emerged that solve several different problems simultaneously through knowledge transfer. Most algorithms use a single search operator in their processing. However, different tasks have distinct characteristics, and a single operator is often inadequate to adapt to different stages of the same task. In this paper, we propose a multiple search operator selection strategy by adaptive probability allocation, named adaptive multi-operator selection (AMOS) to address EMTO that features rapid convergence of populations. It can automatically select the best multiple search operators based on the characteristics of specific tasks and different stages of evolution. The primary contributions of the proposed algorithm are as follows: (1) It combines the basic concepts of multi-operator integration and adaptive search operator selection to select the best multiple search operators for each task at different evolutionary stages; (2) It facilitates the knowledge transfer through different solving operators between tasks; (3) It can be flexibly embedded into various frameworks of general EMTO algorithms with good results. In the experiments, we validate the performance of AMOS on CEC2017 benchmark suite, CMTOPs benchmark suite, and real-world EMTO problems, and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and generality of the proposed strategy.