A Random Forest Assisted Evolutionary Algorithm for Data-Driven Constrained Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization of Trauma Systems for publication

Many real-world optimization problems can be solved by using the data-driven approach only, simply because no analytic objective functions are available for evaluating candidate solutions. In this work, we address a class of expensive datadriven constrained multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems, where the objectives and constraints can be calculated only on the basis of large amount of data. To solve this class of problems, we propose to use random forests and radial basis function networks as surrogates to approximate both objective and constraint functions. In addition, logistic regression models are introduced to rectify the surrogate-assisted fitness evaluations and a stochastic ranking selection is adopted to further reduce the influences of the approximated constraint functions. Three variants of the proposed algorithm are empirically evaluated on multi-objective knapsack benchmark problems and two realworld trauma system design problems. Experimental results demonstrate that the variant using random forest models as the surrogates are effective and efficient in solving data-driven constrained multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems