Variable-length Optimization

Certain problems in practice are represented with a variable-length representation. For example, a composite laminate plate can have 10 plies with 1 mm thickness each, whereas another solution can have 20 plies with 0.5 mm thickness. This indicates that the search space of this optimization problem has a variable length structure, for which there does not exist any theory and all gradient-based optimization theory and algorithms are not applicable. Our current research focuses on addressing issues related to dealing such problems in both single and multi-objective optimization problems.