Nondominated-Solution-based Multi-objective Greedy Sensor Selection for Optimal Design of Experiments

Abstract: In this study, a nondominated-solution-based multi-objective greedy method is proposed and applied to a sensor selection problem based on the multiple indices of the optimal design of experiments. The proposed method simultaneously considers multiple set functions and applies the idea of Pareto ranking for the selection of sets. Specifically, a new index is iteratively added to the nondominated solutions of sets, and the multi-objective functions are evaluated for new sets. The nondominated solutions are selected from the examined solutions, and the next sets are then considered. With this procedure, the multi-objective optimization of multiple set functions can be conducted with reasonable computational costs. This paper defines a new class of greedy algorithms which includes the proposed nondominated-solution-based multi-objective greedy algorithm and the group greedy algorithm, and the characteristics of those algorithms are theoretically discussed. Then, the proposed method is applied to the sensor selection problem and its performance is evaluated. The results of the test case show that the proposed method not only gives the Pareto-optimal front of the multi-objective optimization problem but also produces sets of sensors in terms of D-, A-, and E-optimality, that are superior to the sets selected by pure greedy methods that consider only a single objective function.