A Survey of Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition: Past and Future

Decomposition has been the mainstream approach in the classic mathematical programming for multi-objective optimization and multi-criterion decision-making. However, it was not properly studied in the context of evolutionary multi-objective optimization until the development of multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). In this article, we present a comprehensive survey of the development of MOEA/D from its origin to the current state-of-the-art. In order to be self-contained, we start with a step-by-step tutorial that aims to help a novice quickly get onto the working mechanism of MOEA/D. Then, selected major developments of MOEA/D are reviewed according to its core design components including subproblem formulations, selection mechanisms and reproduction operators. Besides, we also overviews some further developments for constraint handling, large-scale problems, computationally expensive objective functions, preference incorporation, and real-world applications. In the final part, we shed some lights on emerging directions for future developments.