Constraint-handling in genetic algorithms through the use of dominance-based tournament selection

Abstract In this paper, we propose a dominance-based selection scheme to incorporate constraints into the fitness function of a genetic algorithm used for global optimization. The approach does not require the use of a penalty function and, unlike traditional evolutionary multiobjective optimization techniques, it does not require niching (or any other similar approach) to maintain diversity in the population. We validated the algorithm using several test functions taken from the specialized literature on evolutionary optimization. The results obtained indicate that the approach is a viable alternative to the traditional penalty function, mainly in engineering optimization problems.