Derivative-Free Multiobjective Trust Region Descent Method Using Radial Basis Function Surrogate Models

We present a local trust region descent algorithm for unconstrained and convexly constrained multiobjective optimization problems. It is targeted at heterogeneous and expensive problems, i.e., problems that have at least one objective function that is computationally expensive. Convergence to a Pareto critical point is proven. The method is derivative-free in the sense that derivative information need not be available for the expensive objectives. Instead, a multiobjective trust region approach is used that works similarly to its well-known scalar counterparts and complements multiobjective line-search algorithms. Local surrogate models constructed from evaluation data of the true objective functions are employed to compute possible descent directions. In contrast to existing multiobjective trust region algorithms, these surrogates are not polynomial but carefully constructed radial basis function networks. This has the important advantage that the number of data points needed per iteration scales linearly with the decision space dimension. The local models qualify as fully linear and the corresponding general scalar framework is adapted for problems with multiple objectives.