Computer Science – Artificial Intelligence
Scientific paper
2011-07-27
Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
28 pages, 9 figures
Scientific paper
Automating the design of heuristic search methods is an active research field within computer science, artificial intelligence and operational research. In order to make these methods more generally applicable, it is important to eliminate or reduce the role of the human expert in the process of designing an effective methodology to solve a given computational search problem. Researchers developing such methodologies are often constrained on the number of problem domains on which to test their adaptive, self-configuring algorithms; which can be explained by the inherent difficulty of implementing their corresponding domain specific software components. This paper presents HyFlex, a software framework for the development of cross-domain search methodologies. The framework features a common software interface for dealing with different combinatorial optimisation problems, and provides the algorithm components that are problem specific. In this way, the algorithm designer does not require a detailed knowledge the problem domains, and thus can concentrate his/her efforts in designing adaptive general-purpose heuristic search algorithms. Four hard combinatorial problems are fully implemented (maximum satisfiability, one dimensional bin packing, permutation flow shop and personnel scheduling), each containing a varied set of instance data (including real-world industrial applications) and an extensive set of problem specific heuristics and search operators. The framework forms the basis for the first International Cross-domain Heuristic Search Challenge (CHeSC), and it is currently in use by the international research community. In summary, HyFlex represents a valuable new benchmark of heuristic search generality, with which adaptive cross-domain algorithms are being easily developed, and reliably compared.
Burke Edmund
Curtois Tim
Hyde Matthew
Ochoa Gabriela
Vazquez-Rodriguez Jose A.
No associations
LandOfFree
HyFlex: A Benchmark Framework for Cross-domain Heuristic Search does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with HyFlex: A Benchmark Framework for Cross-domain Heuristic Search, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and HyFlex: A Benchmark Framework for Cross-domain Heuristic Search will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-113262