Test problem construction for single-objective bilevel optimization

In this paper, we propose a procedure for designing controlled test problems for single-objective bilevel optimization. The construction procedure is flexible and allows its user to control the different complexities that are to be included in the test problems independently of each other. In addition to properties that control the difficulty in convergence, the procedure also allows the user to introduce difficulties caused by interaction of the two levels. As a companion to the test problem construction framework, the paper presents a standard test suite of 12 problems, which includes eight unconstrained and four constrained problems. Most of the problems are scalable in terms of variables and constraints. To provide baseline results, we have solved the proposed test problems using a nested bilevel evolutionary algorithm. The results can be used for comparison, while evaluating the performance of any other bilevel optimization algorithm. The code related to the paper may be accessed from the website http://bilevel.org .